Three hits on rakyat’s pockets

It is high time for the government to confront us with the actual facts and figures however unpalatable it may be.

COMMENT

The festive holidays and school holidays are over but the crime spree is still continuing. Now that there is no more festivals until Deepavali in early November, there will be a slump in shopping sales till at least the first week of October after which the Indians will start their shopping spree.

The government is still asleep at the wheel and in a state of denial if it claims that everything is fine and rosy in Malaysia. It is not!

Businesses such as cheap open-air food courts, convenience stores, 24-hour clinics and petrol stations have seen a drop in customers after 10 pm.

Of course in a very busy and crowded thoroughfare, business is still good but business premises located in residential neighbourhoods will see a slowdown.

The government is portraying a beautiful picture of Malaysia for all the world to see. But beneath all that glitz and glamour, something sinister is being planned to strike at the rakyat’s pockets and this is none other than these three increases listed below:

1. increase in the price of RON95 petrol;

2. increase in electricity tariffs; and

3. implementation of GST (Goods & Services Tax).

All these three hits will dig deep into the pockets of the ordinary citizens and of course the hardest hit will be the unemployed and the low-income group.

Has the government prepared a bit of a cushion for the urban poor to weather the storm?

Said Nizar Jamaluddin, the state assemblyman for Changkat Jering in Perak: “BN’s victory in the 13th general election will in the end burden the poor in the long run.”

So far there is no clear announcement yet when these three shockers will be implemented but rest assured it is coming. It is as definite as death.

Therefore all we can do is to brace oneself for the impact and start saving now as the attack on us will be sudden and unexpected.

The BN government must be more pro-citizens and people-friendly. They should put the interests of the rakyat first and foremost and this triple attack when it happens will show that all along the finance and economy of the nation has not been well managed.

This columnist’s businessmen friends are of the view that the above mentioned three price increases will be implemented after mid-November.

It definitely has to be after the Umno party polls in October and after the Deepavali festival in early November so as not to work up the rakyat.

Spin experts

The main thing however is this: has the government lined up any measures to soften the impact? It is a given that when the price of RON95 goes up, the Consumer Price Index will shoot up immediately and the inflation rate will follow suit.

Again no one knows the actual inflation rate in Malaysia. The figure of below 3% is nonsense. It should be above 3% by now.

Listening to the views of the pro-government financial experts/economists will not give you any information of substance.

You can only obtain the actual, unvarnished figures from neutral financial experts/economists in the privacy of your own home if one of them is your friend. Otherwise all you get is a rosy picture from the spin experts and you will be none the wiser. As they say: ‘Ignorance is bliss’.

Staying insulated from truthful information is what the government wants the citizens to be. Even during the early days of year 2008 (long before the repeal of the Emergency Ordinance in year 2011) when the rakyat are already sounding out the alarm bells that the crime rate has gone up, the powers-that-be will answer by using the phrase ‘it is an isolated case’ to assure the citizens that everything is well.

Only now they are waking up to the fact and saying that the crime rate is due to the repeal of the Emergency Ordinance.

Now we must tell the government to come clean with us on the true facts concerning crime and the economy and all other important facts as well, facts which should have been due to us since the dawn of time.

We are tired of being fed the wrong statistics in order for us to feel comfortable and secure.

Another thing that irks this columnist is the habit of the government to be evasive.

Recently the government has announced that the BR1M cash aid will be increased from the start-off of RM500 beginning next year but the new figure was not furnished. It was announced that the increase will reach RM1,200 five years from now as promised during the recent 13th general election campaign.

Is that information of any substance? If they cannot give the new figure then it is pointless to make such an announcement.

At the end of the day, the poor citizens are just being made to wait for bread crumbs because when the three increases hit, it will hit hard on the low-income group and the effects of BR1M will be nullified or negated.

“The government need not boast about giving a higher BR1M amount to more people as this only shows that more people are in need of financial aid due to mismanagement of the nation’s economy and many citizens’ monthly wages not being enough for them to make ends meet,” said state assemblyman for Chempaka in Kelantan, Nik Aziz Nik Mat.

Therefore it is high time for the government to confront us with the actual facts and figures however unpalatable it may be. We want a government that is clean, honest and truthful.

Selena Tay is a DAP member and a FMT columnist.