ALOR STAR: Kedah Barisan Nasional ‘s (BN) 14th General Election (GE14) Manifesto, unveiled on Friday night, focuses on seven clusters to uphold the people’s wellbeing and continue the state’s development agenda.
The element’s in the manifesto revolves around the youth, Islam, as well as the importance of caring for the non-Muslims to ensure that the interests of all groups in the state are preserved.
Kedah BN, which completed 97.64 per cent of its pledges in the last election, has allocated RM65.334 billion for its latest manifesto, which will be carried out over the next five years if it obtains the mandate from the 1.2 million registered voters in Kedah.
The first thrust involves projects which affect the people’s wellbeing (RM2.740b), followed by high-impact projects (RM55.174b), infrastructure and utilities (RM6.527b), tourism (RM60m), education and human capital (RM14m), and religion (RM581m).
Kedah Menteri Besar, Datuk Seri Ahmad Bashah, in presenting the manifesto, said the pledges by BN Kedah are not mere rhetoric.
He said one third of them had already been carried out, while another one third contained in the manifesto had already obtained the necessary allocation and approval.
The remainder, he said, had aleady been launched in the early stages.
“In this context, like the 13 elections before, Kedah BN remains committed to fulfilling our pledges to continue development and realise the people’s dreams.
“These are not empty promises,” he said at the manifesto’s launch at the Stadium Sultan Abdul Halim in Jalan Suka Menanti, Friday night.
Ahmad Bashah said Kedah BN had spent RM25 million through the Bantuan Rakyat Kedah (BARAKAH) scheme which was initiated two years ago.
He said the five components in BARAKAH ensure’s that everyone benefits, from newborns to those who have lost their loved ones, via the ‘khairat kematian’ scheme.
Ahmad Bashah said, if Kedah BN is given a new mandate, there will be more job expos, 1Malaysia Training Scheme (SLI1M) and more cooperation with companies to ensure that the people of Kedah can enter the working world with ease.
Touching on the BN manifesto as a whole, he said the manifesto is more realistic compared to the opposition’s ‘100 days pledge’, which he deemed illogical and could bankrupt the country.
“They are out to give everything supposedly for free, but what they are selling are dreams which cannot become reality.
“And as the days go by, they have gone on to admit that a manifesto isn’t a promise. What we can deduce from this is that they cannot do it, and will not do it because the opposition know that in the end, they will not receive the mandate from the people,” he said.