Pakatan copied BN manifesto, says Muhyiddin

It was Pakatan Rakyat that copied BN's ideas when drafting its manifesto, Muhyiddin Yassin has countered in a tit-for-tat response on similarities between the two documents.

Rejecting Pakatan allegations of plagiarism, the deputy BN head pointed to elements allegedly copied from BN's policies and ideas, such as pledges to reduce toll charges and car prices.

The reduction of car prices will be fully implemented under an Asean Free Trade Area agreement, he said, and this would have been achieved “even without any proposal from anyone” once import duties are abolished.

At a press conference in Gombak today, Muhyiddin said a large part of Pakatan’s manifesto has already been implemented by BN.

But even as he insisted that Pakatan copied BN’s manifesto, Muhyiddin maintained that the former’s manifesto is not a do-able one and that it could bankrupt the nation’s coffers.

Pakatan’s pledges, he said, could increase the budget deficit from 4.5 percent to 11 percent, for which PKR director of strategy Rafizi Ramli (right) will not be able to provide an answer.

"He may not know (how to answer) as he's not an expert. They want to do like what we have done, but (it turned out negatively)," he said.

Muhyiddin further said the Pakatan manifesto disregards the impact of its promises on certain business sectors such as the used-car industry.

In contrast, he claimed, BN had drafted its manifesto by taking a holistic approach.

Although the BN has been criticised as being “populist” for having handed out pre-election sweeteners, Muhyiddin defended this, saying that the financial aspects have been duly considered.

He also said that implementing the BN manifesto will not increase government debt.