Rafidah: Give Harapan full term... if unhappy, change

Voters have the right to change the government, but they must first give Pakatan Harapan the full five-year term to prove its mettle, former Umno veteran Rafidah Aziz said.

"Give them five years and if there is no visible change, then you have the right to replace them," she added at a dinner talk organised by law firm Lee Hishammuddin Allen & Gledhill yesterday.

Rafidah was responding to critics who accused the government of policy U-turns and breaking pledges in its election manifesto, as reported by the media portal FMT.

The former international trade industry minister stressed that the Harapan government's performance cannot be gauged during a short period.

"Please give them time… some of us are merely armchair critics, listening and watching, but try and do the work."

She added that the current government has to contend with so many problems.

"We are in a state of flux where we haven't finished a term yet and have to contend with so many problems, external and internal.

"In this country, so many people want to be in charge. But we want people who can take charge and put the country's interests first."

Rafidah reiterated that the Harapan election manifesto was 200 pages thick because they did not expect to win.

Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad had also repeated the same sentiment on the uphill task to fulfil promises made in the manifesto.

“We thought we were going to lose. We put in tough things in the manifesto so that if we lose, the (BN) government would be in a quandary (after winning the polls).

“But now, we are the government. We are victims of our own manifesto,” Mahathir had said.

He cited an example of the process of repealing draconian laws.

“The new government wants to adhere to the rule of law. Of course, we realise that some of the laws in this country are bad laws, draconian laws. We want to repeal them and install new laws.

“This is not as easy as we thought when we were in the opposition. We thought, when we become the government, we would just throw out these laws. Unfortunately, we have procedures to go through.

“Since we do not have a two-thirds majority, we are stuck with old laws... Of course, people are impatient. They want to see these laws cease immediately. This is just not possible...

“And now we are being criticised for not keeping our promises. While it is easy to make promises during elections, it is not so easy to implement them if you win,” Mahathir added.