PETALING JAYA, July 5 — With the opposition pact bickering over a village, pig abattoir and unity talks, Datuk Seri Najib Razak spent the weekend before his 100 days with his Cabinet to work on his administration.
The two-day retreat, which began two days ago, was said to have discussed various matters on development and the country’s administration including the key performance index (KPI).
Apart from the KPI, The prime minister and his economic team have worked to free economic sectors and capital markets from limits that favoured Bumiputras in order to boost the economy in face of another recession.
The liberalisation has been welcomed by many despite a sluggish world economy although the opposition and ironically former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad accuse Najib of trying to be popular.
But as Najib heads to his 100 days of being in office next weekend by fleshing out his 1 Malaysia slogan, the Pakatan Rakyat seemed to be floundering in a political mess as low-level officials snipe at each other in the states they control apart from controversial Umno-PAS Malay unity talks that have morphed into ‘intellectual discussions’ that refuse to go away.
Despite unity talks, both Najib’s Barisan Nasional and Pakatan Rakyat face each other in the Manek Urai by-election on July 14 in the seventh such contest since Election 2008. Pakatan has won all five encounters in the peninsular, losing only the Batang Ai in the Barisan Nasional stronghold of Sarawak.
Meanwhile, the two-day retreat also focussed on the KPI, announced by Najib in April to monitor the ministers’ performance and achievement and reflect the innovation introduced by the government as well as its more responsible and focused approach which gave priority to the people.
In the announcement, the Prime Minister had said he would be personally and directly involved in studying the performance of all ministers every six months with the assistance of Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Tan Sri Dr Koh Tsu Koon.
Last month, Dr Koh confirmed that the retreat would be held early this month and that it was compulsory for all cabinet members to attend.
Meanwhile, attempts by the media who had been waiting since morning to interview the ministers were unsuccessful as they were prevented to enter the hotel by police personnel and the hotel’s security guards.
Najib, who is also the Finance Minister, was seen leaving the hotel at about 5.45 pm, accompanied by Dr Koh and Khazanah Nasional Bhd managing director Tan Sri Azman Mokhtar.
Dr Koh later re-entered the hotel but turned down requests for an interview by the journalists who had followed him to the lift, state news agency Bernama reported.
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