Najib's Basket of Goodies For The People

A basket of goodies was unveiled by Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak last Saturday to mark his 100th day in office as prime minister.

Call it a mini budget, Najib certainly won the hearts and minds of the people, judging from the thunderous applause from the thousands of people who gathered to listen to his speech at three halls at the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre.

Criticisms are aplenty too, with some saying that his 11 goodies are not new. What's important is he has delivered his message of reaching out to the people.

Before unveiling the good news, he shared with the audience, his walkabout or 'Tinjauan Mesra' with the people, including flat residents and petty traders at Petaling Street.

It is based on the feedback from the people that he decided to announce these good news on his 100th day in office.

"If I was populist, I would have announced it all on my first day . But I took time to gather the input from the people," he said in an interview over RTM.

Najib, who is also Finance Minister, focused on the economy and his leadership style when he first took over office as the country's leader.

With the economy set to contract by between -4.0 percent and -5.0 percent this year, Najib unveiled a slew of economic and financial measures and two stimulus packages worth RM67 billion.

These are the 11 goodies for the people:

1. A 20 per cent discount for users of the pre-paid Smart Tag and Touch n Go cards who pay toll 80 times or more in a month.
2. The government offer for sale of 44,000 units of public housing to people renting these premises in the Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur.
3. A 50 per cent discount on the licence renewal fee for hawkers and petty traders in the Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur with immediate effect.
4. The government's raising by 3,000 the number of taxi permits, the applications for which will be approved over the next three months.
5. The introduction of drastic measures to reduce crime and fight corruption.
6. Facilitating applications for registration of births in Sabah and Sarawak.
7. Construction of additional roads in Sabah and Sarawak.
8. Upgrading of water and electricity supply in Sabah and Sarawak.
9. Reduction to RM211 the fee for learning to ride Class B2 motorcycles of 250cc and below, beginning Sept 1.
10. Increasing by RM150 million the allocation for Tekun Nasional, with RM15 million to be made available for young entrepreneurs from the Indian community.
11. Introduction of the new Amanah Saham 1Malaysia (1Malaysia Unit Trust) with a size of 10 billion units.