Projek Pantau is inspired by this spirit of openness in the New Malaysia. The intention is to provide a transparent assessment of the government’s performance in delivering its manifesto promises relating to the economy. The project will include a series of “report cards” assessing the government’s performance to date – of which this is the first. The purpose of this report card is to provide a benchmark in which the Rakyat can evaluate the government’s performance in fulfilling their manifesto promises. In addition, this report card is also intended to be a document that the PH government can use as a reference in their ongoing efforts to realise their reform agenda.

For this first report, we have chosen to analyse a total of 192 sub-promises, broken down from 23 main promises. We are focusing on promises which relate to the economy, and are therefore considering all promises under Pillar 1 (Reduce the People’s Burden) and Pillar 3 (Spur Sustainable and Equitable Economic Growth), alongside three promises from Pillar 2 (Institutional and Political Reforms), that we consider to be critical to the government’s economic agenda, specifically the promises relating to Government Linked Companies (GLCs), public procurement and the budget. In future report cards we will consider expanding the number of promises.

For each sub-promise we have scored the government’s i) political commitment, ii) policy direction and iii) implementation. Based on these scores we have then given each promise an overall “verdict”. To reach these conclusions we have analysed publicly available information such as news reports and government policy documents. We have taken account of any publicly available information up until 31 March 2019. Inevitably, reaching judgements in the government’s performance is subjective, so we have engaged other civil society organisations and experts on our scores and provided explanatory notes for our assessments. We welcome feedback on the analysis provided here – our aim is to support and stimulate discussion.