I am very disappointed that my proposal yesterday for the establishment of an opposition-headed Parliamentary Select Committee on 1Malaysia Government Transformation Programme was given the immediate short shrift by the second KPI Minister, Datuk Idris Jala who rejected the proposal out of hand.(Sin Chew)

I find this very revealing but ominous as the instant rejection of the proposal for a Parliamentary Select Committee on 1Malaysia GTP shows that the two KPI Ministers Tan Sri Dr. Koh Tsu Koon and Idris have no confidence that the GTP Roadmap can go very far out of the laboratory stage to withstand public and parliamentary scrutiny.

They are probably right and it will be most tragic if all the interests of GTP is focused at the laboratory stage more as “academic exercises” than in translating them into actual policies and programmes subject to public and parliamentary scrutiny.

The virtually total absence of public interest in the 1Malaysia GTP Roadmap Launch exhibition at the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre yesterday, to the extent that I felt very embarrassed both for myself and for the KPI Ministers when I paid it a visit with DAP MPs Fong Kui Lun (Bukit Bintang) and Tony Pua (PJ Utara), is proof that despite 10 months and tens of millions of ringgit of publicity about the “1Malaysia. People First. Performance Now” concept, Najib’s Government Transformation Programme has failed to catch fire and is in danger of failing like a damp squib.

I would have thought that the two KPI Ministers would have welcomed the proposal for a Parliamentary Select Committee on GTP Roadmap with open arms if they are serious about the GTP Roadmap and have confidence that there is the political will to ensure that the various GTP proposals would get out of the laboratory level to be translated into meaningful programmes transforming the government and public policies.

In fact, the two KPI Ministers should on their own be canvassing the support of the other Ministers and MPs for the establishment of a Parliamentary Select Committee on the GTP to ensure that the GTP Road is taken seriously by the Cabinet, Parliament, Government and the civil society.

Why then are the two KPI Ministers in the forefront rejecting the proposal for Parliamentary Select Committee on GTP Roadmap unless they themselves have no confidence that the GTP Roadmap would go beyond the academic stage at the laboratory levels to become real-life government policies, programs and benchmarks?

In opposing the proposal for the establishment of a Parliamentary Select Committee on GTP Roadmap, Idris is trampling on the National Integrity Plan 2004-2008 which in the chapter on “Political Institutions” set down the strategy to “uphold the sovereignty and enhance the integrity and effectiveness of Parliament”.

If a KPI Minister can be so contemptuous of the strategies and targets of the National Integrity Plan 2004-2008, how can the Malaysian public have confidence in the GTP Roadmap?

It is a real shame that KPI Ministers should be so negative about a parliamentary select committee on GTP Roadmap.

I will raise the subject of a Parliamentary Select Committee on GTP Roadmap at the forthcoming meeting of Parliament March 15 – April 15, 2010 but before it, will there be any Minister who is committed enough about GTP to raise the subject say at the Cabinet meeting on Wednesday?