YOURSAY 'I don't feel your sincerity. Indeed, it is more painful to hear hypocritical statements from the head of the government who does not walk his talk.’

I feel your pain, Najib tells rakyat

KB Menon: How can someone who has never known hardship in his entire life and living in privilege understand the plight of the ordinary man on the street.

You are the epitome of hypocrisy. Why not you and your cabinet resign and disappear from the scene; that will surely make 2014 the best year of all for Malaysian citizens.

Quigonbond: All PM Najib Razak’s statements contradict one another. He is a populist to the maximum before elections. After elections, he tries to look like someone who just wants to do things right.

The truth is, if he wants to do things right by the public and not Umno cronies, he'd implement open tender for all government procurement projects, make MACC (Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission) independent, implement IPCMC (Independent Police Complaints and Misconduct Commission) and unshackle the judiciary.

Corruption and cronyism is the single most devastating scourge confronting the nation. Wean ourselves of them and it will disincentivise power hoarding in the name of race and religion. Then we can go on to fix our education system and make ourselves competitive again.

Indeed, shouldn't the government look for a comprehensive solution first before starting to implement subsidy reduction? It just goes to prove how isolated and disconnected Umno has become from the public.

Watchtower: Najib, I don't feel your sincerity. Indeed, it is more painful to hear hypocritical statements from the head of the government who does not walk his talk.

Your government did not bring those officials to task regarding the wastage highlighted in the Auditor-General’s Report. Your government did not do enough to tackle corruption that is draining away billions of rakyat's money.

You say you feel our pain. How can we believe you?

Maharaja: You encourage ill-gotten gains and enrich concessionaire by agreeing to allow them to charge exorbitant prices... and part of the exorbitant prices, you agree to pay them in the form of "subsidy" as though that your government was doing the rakyat a favour in so doing.

Now you tell the rakyat that we must pay ourselves and you no longer can afford to pay for us anymore. Why don't you just admit that you have made a big mistake and you wish to "bertaubat" and stop all corruption and help to ease the burden of the rakyat by reducing the cost of doing business and thus reducing the prices of essential items.

Najib, I don't think we are talking about the same type of pain. Your pain is a very rich man's pain but we are talking about a poor man's pain and the pain of the man on the street.

There is no wonder why you cannot see eye to eye with us on a simple solution to 'Turun Harga' to ease our type of pain.

CucuMalaysia: You feel the pain? Who caused our pain, Mr PM? It's none other than you! So don't pretend to sympathise with the rakyat.

Anonymous_4196: The pain? You know, Najib, the pain is really that while the rakyat is tightening their belt in the midst of rising cost, you did nothing to reduce wastage in the government, tackle corruption and curb illicit capital outflow.

For goodness sake, did you ever take heed of the Auditor-General’s Report? Are you proud to be the PM of the world’s most corrupted country and second in illicit capital outflow? Have you done anything to make our pain more bearable, Najib?

Pemerhati: After reading the illegitimate premier Najib’s usual propaganda and garbage, it would be instructive to read the reality and truth about Malaysia written by academic Bridget Welsh titled, ‘Dark clouds hovering over SEA democracy’ , in Malaysiakini .

Kairos: Najib’s New Year speech is clearly designed to try to appease the rakyat. It is shrouded in insincerity and hypocrisy and is at best a lame attempt to win over the gullible.

The reason why I say this is because while the PM is giving this speech written by his speechwriter, the common folks are bracing themselves for tough times ahead, all due to mismanagement by the government.

In recent days, the Chinese are bashed, Christians’ liberty is restricted, the press is bullied and the rakyat are asked to bail out the government by tightening their belts.

In the meantime, the crooks up there continue to siphon off huge chunks of money out of the country and the corrupt in the corridors of power get away scot-free.

I really feel embarrassed for the PM for giving such a hollow speech that lacks integrity and is totally out of sync with the sentiments on the ground. Will somebody please tell him what is happening out there?

Kingfisher: Unfortunately for the PM and the nation, a number of Malaysians will "welcome" 2014 with a sense of despair as they do not trust the PM who has lost much credibility.

His ad-hoc and short-term grants of assistance like BRIM extra is viewed as a superficial compassionate act akin to treating Malaysians like disaster victims/refugees following earthquakes and tsunamis.

Dont Just Talk: Are you serious, Najib, that you feel our pain when your wife, the self-proclaimed FLOM (First Lady of Malaysia) is flying around the globe using the government executive jet and your stepson can afford to purchase a seven-room condo costing US$33 million (RM110 million) in New York?

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