PAS has given its blessings for Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail to become the parliamentary opposition leader.

PAS information chief Datuk Mahfuz Omar said that PAS came to an agreement at a meeting that was chaired by its president Datuk Seri Hadi Awang on Saturday.

"We agreed unanimously with the decision," he told the Star Online.

He said that by convention, DAP had the right to choose the opposition leader as they had the most number of seats in parliament.

DAP has 38 seats, PKR has 28 seats while PAS has 21 seats.

"We are just a minority in parliament. Since DAP agreed to have Wan Azizah as the opposition leader, we agree with their decision," he said.      

Wan Azizah, 62, became Permatang Pauh MP after winning a by-election that was called after her husband Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim was sentenced to five years jail for sodomy.

Wan Azizah, who is PKR president, polled 30,316 votes to beat Barisan Nasional's Suhaimi Sabudin by 8,841, fewer than the 11,721-majority garnered by Anwar in the 2013 general election.

Wan Azizah is also the assemblyman for the Kajang seat in Selangor.

A government must not be afraid to make unpopular decisions if it benefits the country in the long run, said Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak .

The Prime Minister gave his assurance that while policies like the Goods and Services Tax (GST) may not be popular, the decision to implement the tax system will benefit Malaysia.

"We must be confident that the policies we introduce will bear fruit. Do not be afraid to make decisions that are unpopular. It may not show its results in the short term, but it will in the long run," Najib told staff at his department's monthly assembly here on Monday.

"We all know we must find ways to increase the country's income, that's why we introduced the GST, even though it is not popular.

"We must improve on the implementation, take action against those who irresponsibly increase prices and also constantly give explanations.

"To be a competitive country, we must reduce corporate and individual tax. Thailand has reduced theirs to 20%. Singapore reduced theirs to 17%. So far, we have reduced our individual tax.

"When our income has increased, we will be able to use it to reduce the people's burdens," he added.

Najib also urged his staffe to work together "as a family".

"I assure you that when our economy improves and the market becomes more confident of us, we will move forward.
"We will be able to achieve our aspirations, but only with the condition that we work as a family. We are all in one team," he said.

For a man who held in complete contempt anyone who dared to question his policies
and decisions, it comes as a complete surprise that in retirement, Dr Mahathir
Mohamad has suddenly taken the high moral ground and is now unrelenting in his
pursuit for answers for decisions taken by the present government of Abdullah Ahmad
Badawi.

Since Dr Mahathir demands answers, it is only right and justified that the same
ordinary public which he now claims to be part of also requires him to answers the
following questions:

1.What was the basis of inviting Libyan-American Sadeq Mustaffa to Malaysia to set up
InventQjaya Sdn Bhd and to also give him a grant of RM440 million? What was the
benefit for Malaysia and how has Malaysia benefitted?

2.What was the justification for privatising profitable state-owned enterpriseslike
Telekom Malaysia, Tenaga Nasional and Pos Malaysia?

3.What was the basis of granting Indah Water Konsortium a concession to manage the
national sewerage system? Could you explain the RM1.4 billion soft loan to IWK which
is clearly has irrecoverable losses?

4.You insinuate Khairy Jamaluddin. Did you not assist your son Mirzan by rescuing
Konsortium Perkapalan Berhad (then owned by Mirzan) and which had debts of RM1.7
billion using funds from Petronas? Was it not your administration which forced
Malaysian International Shipping Company (MISC) to acquire the assets of Konsortium
Perkapalan Nasional?

5.Did your government not sell Malaysian Airlines Systemwithout an open tender to
Tajuddin Ramli who had no knowledge whatsoever about running an airline? Why did
your government then later bail out Tajuddin by paying RM8 per share when the shares
were trading at only RM3.60 in the open market.

6.Did your administration not bail out Time Dotcom Bhdwhich was saddled with a RM5
billion debt? Why did your government bail out Time DotCom Bhd using RM904 million
from Kumpulan Wang Amanah Pencen to buy up 273.9 million unwanted Time Dotcom shares
incurring an instant loss of RM280 million?

7. Did you not force the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) to buy 81.6 million
unsubscribed public portion of the initial public offering (IPO) of Time Dotcom Bhd
at RM3.30 per share when the shares were trading at only between RM1.95 and RM2.10
and in the process incurring an instant loss of RM100 million?

8. Did you not bail out the light rail transit operators Projek Usahasama Transit
Ringan Automatik Sdn Bhd (Putra) which belonged to Renongand Sistem Transit Aliran
Ringan Sdn Bhd (Star) using almost RM600 million from EPF which still resulted in
EPF having to write off RM135 million with a share loss of RM96 million?

9. Did your administration not award North South Expressway concession to UEM (who then
formed Plus) and then provide them with a loan of RM1.6 billion which was half of
the tender price of RM3.2 billion. What was the justification for your
administration to grant Plus such overgenerous terms which included annual increment
of toll rates and guaranteed traffic volumes?

10. What was the justification of your administration in 1998 in awarding a RM24.3
billion contract to PSC IndustriesBerhad, together with an advance of more than
RM2.5 billion to build naval patrol boats? Why were they also given exclusive rights
to service the Malaysian navy's entire fleet? Could you confirm that the first two
ships built by PSCI could not even pass pre-delivery trials? How would you answer to
the Public Accounts Committee's revelation that it will cost the government another
RM120 million just to salvage the first two vessels nearing completion after seven
years?

11.What was the basis of awarding Ekran Bhd the contract to build the Bakun
Hydroelectric Dam in Sarawak? Why did your administration take over the construction
of the dam by bailing out Ekran by almost RM200 million for 'work done'?

12.What was the justification for your administration in Maminco to corner the London
tin market which instead resulted in Maminco losing RM150 million?

13.Was your administration not vitriolic about George Soros and other currency traders
and hedge fund managers but yet presided over speculation in the foreign exchange
markets which ultimately cost Bank Negara almost RM9.3 billion in losses?

14.What are the total losses of Perwaja Steel and how much of public funds have been
used to cover these losses of Perwaja Steel?

15.What was the basis for your administration, at the expense of Malaysian taxpayers,
to force Tenaga Nasional Berhad to accept such grossly unfair and unjustified terms
in purchasing energy from independent power producers?

16.What was the justification of privatising the government medical stores to Southern
Task Sdn Bhd which then hiked up the prices of medicines?

17Perhaps you could also reveal how much of Petronas monies have been used by your
administration in bailouts and projects of folly.


Naturally there are many more questions the Malaysian public would want answers to
but answering these questions first would be a good start.