Sugar is sweet, but not as sweet as gov't subsidies

VOXPOP 'We the rakyat need to know if what PJ Utara MP Tony Pua says is true or whether he is making it up. Give us facts and figures.'


DAP: Minister 'fooling public' on sugar subsidies

Swipenter: So they are now not so subtly stealing from the rakyat through subsidies of essential goods.

On one hand, the government trumpets how caring Umno-BN is about the welfare of the poor by giving or increasing subsidies, but on closer examination they are in fact stealing the wealth and taxes of the rakyat through such means.

How cunning and devilish these Umnoputras and their cronies are in the art of stealing. The robbed is thanking the robbers for the robbery. Malaysians wake up before we find ourselves bankrupt before 2019.

Pemerhati: This looks like a new way of stealing the people's money.

We all are familiar with BN's usual method of stealing money by giving a highly overpriced contract to a crony and then getting a kickback from the crony; or by purchasing items at exorbitant prices and then getting huge kickbacks or commissions from the seller; or by negotiating the Mahathir-style IPP deals with cronies for which he is reported to have got about 30 percent in kickbacks; or by just giving away hundreds of millions of NFC type of loans to cronies who then use the money freely and purchase assets for themselves.

Now some smart Umnoputra has come up with the idea of increasing the subsidy even when the price of the raw material has come down.

This money obviously is going to go to some crony, who will then channel most of it back to the top Umnoputras, who will then laugh all the way to the bank.

Unspin: I have a hypothesis that the extra subsidy of RM198 million is to repay loans that was taken by Felda to buy over ‘sugar king' Robert Kuok's stake in MSM.

Considering that the price of sugar has risen about a ringgit per kilogram since the sale of MSM in 2009 - despite steady raw material cost - one should not be surprised if Felda acquired MSM ‘free of charge' by ‘taxing' the rakyat.

Appum: Hey minister, the onus is on you to reply. We the rakyat need to know if what Petaling Jaya Utara MP Tony Pua says is true or whether he is making it up. Give us facts and figures. You owe it to us.

Samuel Ng: Another minister caught with his pants down - an illicit outflow of ringgit through an unnecessary subsidy. So now, where is the subsidy actually going?

Joe Lee: Well done, Tony. Please keep it up. Syed Mokhtar Al-Bukhary is one crony whose cash register 'tings' every time a Malaysian eats or drinks something with sugar.

Just like the toll concessionaires whenever a car enters a tolled road. Or when any Malaysian switches on a light/appliance - that's when the independent power providers who sells power to Tenaga sucks a little more blood from him or her.

Of course, sometimes many Malaysian citizens don't even realise that they are being screwed - such as the Sabahans/Sarawakians or the Kelantanese who have been treated abysmally because their oil/timber royalties are being robbed by all the Umno cronies.

The government claims they are giving goodies to the people, but we all know that they are doing that by 'taxing' future citizens by increasing government borrowings - soon it shall be RM500 billion - which will have to be borne by the next generation of Malaysians.

V-Change: How a can minister make a public claim without checking the facts. Pua has given him a good shake-up.

Malaysia's deficit will continue to grow worse year after year with so many ministers of such similar calibre. We want see a real change in government if ever the country is to survive well in a time of such global competitiveness.

Changeagent: Roses are red, violets are blue; sugar is sweet, but not as sweet as Umno's over-inflated subsidies.

- Malaysiakini