YB. R.S.N RAYER - A.D.U.N. SERI DELIMA, PENANG

Three overwhelming general election victories for the Barisan Nasional - in 1995, 1999 and 2004 - and Penang has nothing substantial to show. Even Gerakan admits its failure by asking for reinvention. A better alternative is to revamp the State Assembly by strengthening the Opposition.

In the past 4 years, the Barisan Nasional government has made arbitrary decisions that trampled on the rights of all Malaysians. We will make sure that your voice is heard.

With UMNO's growing political dominance in the Penang State Government, Penang has lagged behind as a leading state in Malaysia. Penang only enjoyed the highest level of governance when the DAP was an effective opposition in 1986 and 1990.

The problems of lack of equal opportunities, lack of respect of human rights and people's voices are due' to UMNO political dominance. Reducing UMNO's political dominance simply requires us to have the courage to CHANGE by denying BN its two thirds majority in the coming general elections.

Give our voted to the DAP! 8 key reasons why we need to send in more ROCKETS into both the Parliament and the Penang State Legislative Assembly.

1. Say NO to UMNO's Political Dominance

• Save democracy by having more people's voices to prevent a one-party state.
• The nest re-drawing of constituencies will be carried out in 2010, which can only be done by amending the State constitution with a 2/3 majority.
• UMNO will demand additional state seats to facilitate its designs of captureing the Penang Chief Minister's post by 2013.
• Deny BN 2/3 majority to prevent UMNO from increasing its state seat allocation.
• Penang has lost state power over public transport and water supply to federal control.

• Advocate and promote a stakeholder's economy for all where companies undertaking government contracts above RM 10 million in Penang have to contribute part of their profits.
• Attract investments that create more high-paying jobs (not low paying jobs that require importation of cheap foreign labour).
• Run the government administration free from the NEP that breeds cronyism, corruption, inefficiency and it benefits only a small group of UMNO Putras.
• Upgrade hi-tech industries, manufacturing and SMIs/SMEs on the global value chain.
• Rejuvenate tourism and service industries such as building more green lungs, a new Penang Zoo, hotels and tourism heritage areas.
• Revamp and restructure Penang Development Corporation, Invest Penang, Penang Skill Development Center and Penang Port Authority to stimulate greater foreign direct investments.
• Comprehensive plan to promote Knowledge-based economy to secure Penang's place in the rapidly changing globalised world.
• Tapping into 'Penang Diaspora' to complement "Brain Gain" Programme.

• Affordable housing for all.
• Enhance social justice and eradicate discrimination of all kinds,, including discrimination against gender, race, religion, and the disabled.
• Reduce crime and enhance public safety by putting more cops on the streets.
• Enlarge green spaces and stop rampant development projects - e.g. the Penang Global CIty Centre (PGCC) that does not comply with the rules and is not even included in the Penang Draff Structure Plan 2005-2010.
• Overcome environmental pollution in Sg. Juru and Sungai Pinang.

• The state of our education system is pathetic. It is unfathomable how the BN government can afford to allocate more than RM1 trillion for the corridor projects instead of focusing on building a good education system which is clearly a key pillar of economic success.
• We want to pressure the BN government to keep politics and religious politicking out of national schools, accept and provide financially for all vernacular schools and respect the right to mother tongue education for all students.
• We support both Mathematics and Science being taught in student's own mother tongue while focus on improving the proficiency of English through additional classes.
• We want to ensure our tertiary institutions achieve the highest level of accreditation and recognition from international bodies to build a skilled and world-class workforce in order to complete effectively with other economies. The days of low cost production
  

• Unelected inefficient local government breeds mediocrity, incompetence and corruption forcing a generation of elected representatives to perform local councilors' job that makes a mockery of democracy.
• Restoring local government elections as provided under Article 113(4) of the Constitution.
• Full accountability for funding, expenditure and enforcement of the law to ensure transparency and justice and not injustices such as cases where only some hawkers are punished or the illegal building put up by UMNO Tanjung not torn down.

• No illegal demolition of houses of workship for all religions such as the Tow Boo Keong temple in Bukit Mertajam.
• Freedown to enjoy freedom of religion, speech and enacting a Freedom of Information Act.
• Installing road signs in other languages.
• Open tender for all state government projects, with priority given to Penang-incorporated contractors, with all details published for public scrutiny.
• Implementing an integrity law that required public declaration of assets for all public officers.

• The state should maintain total control over the licensing and operations of public transport systems, and to ensure the quality of service.
• Holistic approach - Multi-modal transport system integrating bus services, ferries, mass rapid transit (MRT) with comprehensive transit networks.

• With the breakdown of institutional check-and-balance system i.e judiciary, Ant Corruption Agency and the Police, there is a need of a stronger opposition voices in the State Assembly and Parliament.
• It is important to ensure enough opposition candidates made it to both the state assemly and parliament because there are not meany seats winnable due to uneven playing field.
• DAP's role in both the state assembly and parliament is to ensure no community is being displaced from the process of development. We will champion the rights of all Malaysians regardless of race, creed, religion and gender.