PKR promised Johor today that it will bring policies from its Selangor administration to the southern state if it seizes power in the next election.
“The welfare policies that have succeeded in Selangor, if we take power in Johor, we will implement it here,” Selangor Mentri Besar Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim (picture) said at the party’s national congress here.
The PKR-led Selangor government has subsidised the first 20 cubic metres of water for all households in the state, Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya since taking power in 2008 at the cost of RM11.40 per premise.
It will also be the first state to introduce a minimum wage of RM1,100 per month next year.
The Bandar Tun Razak MP said he had studied the water industry in Johor and “if Pakatan takes power, we can solve the water issue in two years.”
Johor currently charges RM12 for the first 20 cubic metres, far higher than Penang, another Pakatan Rakyat (PR) state which charges RM4.40 for the same amount.
PKR had staged what is likely to be its last national congress before a general election expected early next year in Umno’s bastion and birthplace to signal that it is ready to seize the state from Barisan Nasional (BN).
Secretary general Saifuddin Nasution had said yesterday “the signal we get from Johor now is the same as in Perak and Selangor before” the 2008 election where it took the two states and three others while also denying BN its customary two-thirds majority in Parliament.
Johor was mostly unaffected from the March 2008 “tsunami” that swept 82 PR lawmakers into Parliament. PR won just one federal and six state seats out of 26 and 56 respectively on offer in Johor in 2008 and none of the winners were from PKR.
