Public sentiment more positive than negative on Pakatan Harapan, says Dr M

PETALING JAYA (Sept 7): Public sentiment is "more positive than negative" after the 100-day rule under Pakatan Harapan, according to Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

Citing a sentiment analysis report done by the coalition, Dr Mahathir said the report was conducted through a survey of 487,000 respondents.

"There are some negative sentiments on transportation, but not because of the infrastructure; it is because they are not satisfied with the government spending too much on transportation," he said, but did not share the report with the press.

"Another aspect is corruption, there are some dissatisfaction that the government did not take action against those who committed this offence," he noted at a press conference subsequent to Pakatan Harapan's Presidential Council Meeting today.

However, Dr Mahathir said the government requires more time to convict those involved in corruption, if all investigations are carried out according to the rule of law.

"If we were to follow the law, we need more time to collect evidence. And we are not focusing on just big cases, we are also following up on other cases," he said.

"I must admit that because of certain reasons, we are not able to fulfill all our promises, because the situation is worse than we have expected, and there are people who do not want to execute according to instructions from the current government," the Prime Minister added.

Dr Mahathir revealed certain civil servants appointed by Pakatan Harapan government were not paid salary for the past four months, as some officials in charge of payroll are still loyal to the former regime, declining to cooperate toward ensuring smooth government operation.

Commenting on disconcerting voice regarding the new minimum wage rate, Dr Mahathir said the incremental increase was due to the need to allocate public funds for federal government debt repayment.

"Some people think that we need a minimum wage rate of RM1,800, and some think we need RM1,500, but we are not able to do it because we need to repay debt, and the high interest rate. Meanwhile we have to compete with other countries (in terms of labour cost)," he explained. — theedgemarkets.com

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