'Why stop at driver, let's change the car as well'

Serdang member of parliament Teo Nie Ching (pic) has responded to prime minister Najib Razak's recent plea to Malaysians to not change the driver mid-journey, or in other words, re-elect his present government.

Giving a breakdown of how the government had been steadily running away from its responsibility to subsidise essential goods for the people, Teo suggested that Malaysians should consider ditching away the “faulty, petrol-consuming 54-year-old junk of a car so that we don’t end up in a fatal car accident!”

“Only by changing the driver and the battered car will Malaysians get a shot at a brighter future and a better country!” she added, referring to Barisan Nasional's 54 years in power.

Teo repeated calls for Najib to accept a debate challenge from opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim so that he could prove his claims that the highly-publicised Government Transformation Programme (GTP) and Economic Transformation Programme were 'successful'.

Last Monday, Najib in a televised speech said that his GTP and ETP were a success, with all the National Key Economic Areas (NKEAs) meeting their targets.

Dismissing the claim, Teo pointed out that the country's per capita income which Najib claimed has increased from US$6,700 to US$9,700 two years into the ETP did not tally with the figure provided by Human Resources minister S Subramaniam.

Subramaniam had stated that 33 percent of the Malaysian workforce had a monthly wage of less than RM700.

	Type of subsidies	Expenditure 2011 (RM million)	Expenditure 2012 (RM million)
1.	(LPG), Diesel dan Petrol	20,375.02	17,000.00
2.	Paddy fertilizer	756.31	409.00
3.	Rice	655.69	488.00
4.	Food Security Policy	400.00	0
5.	Cooking Oil stabilization	1564.21	1523.36
6.	Sugar	262.4	200.00
7.	Flour	129.12	113.00
8.	Rural air transport	251.71	164.68

“Najib claimed that the government disbursed nearly RM3 billion directly to the people this year but the fact is, subsidies for many basic necessities have been reduced,” said Teo.

Through a table , Teo went on to show that almost all basic necessities, such as petrol, food, cooking oil, sugar and flour, had their subsidies substantially slashed.

“At the same time too, compensation for highway concessionaires has increased from RM300 million in 2011 to RM343 million for the year 2012. That figure doesn’t even include the compensation of RM120.55 million that the Federal Government has to pay to Grand Saga Sdn Bhd for abolishing two toll plazas along the Cheras-Kajang Highway,” she added.

-Harakahdaily