Anwar: PM akin to a communist leader

PKR de facto leader Anwar Ibrahim has accused Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi of controlling the press in ways similar to those applied in communist states.

“You cannot speak in (at the World Economic Forum in) Davos (claiming) that you are a tolerant, moderate leader and come here and control the media (as is done in) a communist state,” he said today.

Anwar’s attack on Abdullah was over the failure to adhere to principles of Islam Hadhari, which was part of the Barisan Nasional election manifesto in 2004 and may be reiterated during the upcoming general election.

“What’s so Islamic about the Hadhari model when corruption is more endemic now? You detain people without trial. The media is also not free,” he said at a press conference he had called in relation to the ongoing inquiry into the VK Lingam tape.

Asked to comment on the Merdeka Centre for Opinion Research poll which suggested that Abdullah’s approval rating as premier is at an all-time low, Anwar offered a cryptic response.

“When the Merdeka Centre report suggested in 2004 that the PM’s popularity was 90 percent, he got 60 percent of the votes. Now that it has gone down to an all-time low of 60 percent, it means he will get 40 percent of the votes. That’s my take”.

In the survey conducted last December among 1,026 registered voters, the negative sentiments among Indian Malaysian respondents dragged down Abdullah’s overall approval rating to 61 percent, compared to 91 percent in November 2004..

While the reasons for the drop were not stated, the government’s crackdown against the street protest organised by the Hindu Rights Action Force last November could have been a factor.

Anwar also took Abdullah to task for misleading the public on Malaysia’s position in the IMD World Competitiveness Year Book.

Newspapers reported today that Malaysia is ranked 6^th worldwide in terms of government efficiency, ahead of the United Kingdom, Germany, Japan and France.

“It’s not that we want to bluff the rakyat because if we do, the government would fold very soon. So don’t think about failure… we have no choice but to succeed, succeed, succeed!” Abdullah was quoted as saying.

It was also reported that Malaysia is ranked 4^th in terms of business efficiency, 6^th for economic performance and 8^th for economic competitiveness.

Anwar said that closer examination of the data reveals that the rankings refer to the category of countries with a population of 20 million or more.

On a true global scale, Anwar said the study reveals that Malaysia is ranked 23^rd in the World Competitiveness Scoreboard 2007. Copies of a summary were distributed to the press (see Chart).

Anwar said IMD – a renowned Swiss business school – had placed Malaysia 22^nd in 2006 and 17 in 1997, showing that Malaysia has in fact been dropping in the ranking.

“Abdullah’s decision to resort to such misdirection (yesterday) is a weak attempt to hide the fact that Malaysia’s economic fundamentals have weakened progressively under his government,” he added.

Comparatively, Anwar said the ranking showed that Malaysia is lagging behind regional neighbours Singapore and Hong Kong as the two countries are ranked 2^nd and 3^rd respectively.

Source: malaysiakini