Bersih 'D' rating: 'This is only UPSR', Anwar aims for A in SPM
PARLIAMENT | Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim believes the government can perform better in implementing reform over time, saying that his Madani administration is still new.
This came in response to Bersih giving the government a poor rating in its recent assessment, where the electoral reform group criticised Putrajaya for failing to fulfil many of its reform agendas.
"About Bersih's (rating), it's okay if they want to give us a 'D'...
PARLIAMENT | Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim believes the government can perform better in implementing reform over time, saying that his Madani administration is still new.
This came in response to Bersih giving the government a poor rating in its recent assessment, where the electoral reform group criticised Putrajaya for failing to fulfil many of its reform agendas.
“About Bersih's (rating), it's okay if they want to give us a 'D'. At least it's not an 'F'.
“(If UPSR) we get a 'D', later during SPM we should get an 'A'. (Because) we are still very new,” he quipped during the Prime Minister’s Question Time today.
UPSR is a reference to an examination system for public primary schools in Malaysia, which has been discontinued while SPM is the Malay acronym for Malaysia Certificate of Education (MCE) that secondary school students usually sit for at the end of their Form 5 studies.
Two days ago, Bersih unveiled its "mid-term report card" for the government, where it assessed how far the Anwar-led administration has made efforts towards implementing structural reforms.
Giving Putrajaya a D grade, Bersih chairperson Faisal Aziz had said their assessment of the government’s first two years found significant gaps between its reform promises and actual implementation.
Constitutional funding issue
The group also compared reform progress made by Anwar and four of his predecessors within their first two years in office, where it claimed Ismail Sabri Yaakob and Dr Mahathir Mohamad performed better than the “reformist” prime minister.
It cited, among others, the constituency development funds (CDF) that the Ismail administration had given to then-opposition MPs as a reason the ninth PM was better than Anwar.
The current government has been under heavy criticism for withholding constitutional funding to opposition MPs.
On this, Anwar claimed Bersih had overlooked the fact that back then, he was the one who negotiated with Ismail’s administration until they reached an agreement for CDF.
He added that the current opposition party has refused to continue their negotiation with Putrajaya.
“Our message to Deputy Prime Minister II (Fadillah Yusof) is clear, that we have to negotiate.
“But the opposition's reluctance to negotiate caused it (funding) to stall,” Anwar said.
