Free Rides A Populist Move From A Pm Under Pressure Say Analysts

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Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob has announced free public transport services in the Klang Valley for a month.PETALING JAYA: Analysts believe that the government’s decision to offer free public transport services in the Klang Valley for a month is a populist move by a prime minister under pressure.
Universiti Sains Malaysia lecturer Ahmad Fauzi Abdul Hamid and the Singapore Institute of International Affairs researcher Oh Ei Sun said the move, which will cost Putrajaya some RM155 million in subsidies, was an election goodie.
Fauzi also told FMT that it was a populist move by Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob because Putrajaya’s coffers were not doing exceptionally well post-pandemic.
“But what do you expect from a prime minister whose parliamentary majority remains fragile amid looming uncertainty due to his party’s ongoing tiff with Bersatu?” he said.
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Oh said freebies like these were populist by definition. Ismail needed the boost as Malaysians would be hard-pressed to recall what he had done so far, except for revoking food import permits.
He did not think the move would do much to increase Ismail’s chances of retaining the post after the next general election.
“Neither Umno nor the general population looks keen to keep him as prime minister. He is simply uninspiring in both charisma and policy,” he told FMT.
On the other hand, Fauzi believed that moves like this could boost Ismail’s reputation as his individual popularity paled in comparison to the likes of opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim and former prime ministers Najib Razak and Dr Mahathir Mohamad.
“It’s a good move by Ismail to shed his image as the ‘MCO minister’,” he said, referring to when Ismail announced the various movement control orders as the government’s chief spokesman on Covid-19 during the early days of the pandemic.
Putrajaya will spend RM155 million to subsidise the cost of free bus and rail services in the Klang Valley for a month, including the MRT, LRT, Bus Rapid Transit, monorail, RapidKL buses and KTM trains in the region.
Fauzi and Oh were split on whether this was an indicator that GE15 was on the horizon, with the former believing that the general election would most likely be held by the end of this year. - FMT

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