PAS flogs welfare state ahead of GE13

By Shannon Teoh and Asrul Hadi Abdullah Sani

June 03, 2011

KUALA LUMPUR, June 3 — With an eye on impending general elections, PAS pledged itself today to a welfare state that will take a razor to government-linked companies’ (GLC) profits and redistribute wealth to the public by easing taxes and bringing down inflation.

Party president Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang declared the second largest party in the country would correct economic distortions and increase competitiveness and productivity if it came into power.

In his opening address, party president Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang said BN is “making profits while burdening the public.” — Picture by Choo Choy May

The Marang MP charged the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) of “making profits while burdening the public.”

“The government does business through GLCs, distributing profits to its cronies while their losses are absorbed by the public through taxes. The public is squeezed out of sources of income while GLCs lose their competitiveness as they continue to receive government aid,” he said when opening his party’s 57th muktamar or annual congress today.

Abdul Hadi added that Malaysia was once acknowledged by the World Bank to be “among the richest in terms of per capita resources but we are now losing our competitiveness and are saddled with a large public debt.”

“The gap in wealth is growing, development is imbalanced and the cost of living is ballooning while we are stuck in a ‘middle income trap’,” he said in his policy speech.

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak is expected to call a general election within the year after Malaysia’s economy rebounded from a 1.7 per cent contraction in 2009 to expand by 7.2 per cent last year.

But surging inflation, which hit a two-year high of 3.2 per cent in April, and looming subsidy cuts — a seven per cent electricity tariff hike was announced on Monday — are potential sources of public anger against BN.

Abdul Hadi said today that economic social justice must be implemented to ensure that the public are not “coerced” into pay high taxes and that the prices of essential goods are not hiked, adding that PAS has implemented the welfare state concept in Kedah and Kelantan.

He said if the Pakatan Rakyat (PR) pact is given the mandate to govern the country, it will safeguard democracy and restore the integrity of the country’s institutions, creating accountability and good governance.

“This will create healthy competition and promote competitiveness through increased productivity and innovation. Productivity will be driven through increasing levels of education and freedom of expression.

“We will never allow the government to enslave the people for the sake of development,” he said.

Abdul Hadi was re-elected unopposed as president in this year’s party polls.