DanielYKL

KUALA TERENGGANU : The millions in aid and projects announced by the Barisan Nasional government during the by-election here are not attempts to buy votes.Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Abdul Razak said they were part of the government’s fiscal stimulus package that he announced last November to deal with the global economic recession.Najib, who is also finance minister, was denying claims by the opposition that the Federal Government and BN state governments had been on a spending spree in Terengganu since the by-election was declared last month.“The package was announced in Parliament on Nov 4 before Razali’s death and the aid is supposed to be disbursed nationwide.

Of course the millions in aid and projects are not to buy votes. This I have to totally agree. It’s to buy off  the voters of KT, not buying votes lah! In other words, it is to bribe the voters, hoping in return they will vote for BN!

Every time I read statements like this, I wonder whether they think we, the public are so dumb or is it the other way round. Why give out the millions now when they are campaigning for the KT by-election if it is not to buy them over?Why not give the millions now to the other states too? Why now in Terengganu?

“What we are doing now is just distributing it early,” said Najib after announcing that the Education Ministry was giving RM50 million to government-aided religious schools, here. The RM50 million for the schools, he said, was a component under the stimulus package.

“This is not vote-buying, its part of the package,” he said, adding that the local Chinese community was unique amongst Malaysia’s other Chinese communities.

“They have received many benefits from the wang ehsan that is derived from the state’s oil royalty.” (The New Straits Time)

In other words he is saying:  “Oh yes we are distributing the millions early. Why early? Because it’s election time here in KT! Just like we tarred the roads, gave laptops to the kids, gave RM16mil worth of projects to Class-F contractors, and the other goodies. So why the fussed? This is normally what we do when there is a by-election! Look at Permatang Pauh! We also gave out millions during the campaign, but sad to say we lost. You can’t say we didn’t try. So we don’t call this “buying votes,” we are just giving it out early lah!”

Let me say this Mr DPM. The people in KT are not dumb! Yes, they will be glad to accept the millions that has poured into KT, but when it comes to casting their votes - you will be sure they have a mind of their own! And like what the KT voters will say, “Money we’ll take from BN, votes we’ll give to PR. And after all it’s own money anyway!”