Proposed rate hike a punishment for voting Pakatan, say KL lawmakers

The 'People's Uprising' rally organised by Pakatan Rakyat at Stadium Merdeka in January 2013, a prelude to the coalition's major wins in Kuala Lumpur in the May 5 polls. - November 20, 2013.Is the proposed exorbitant hike in assessment rates in Kuala Lumpur aimed at punishing city folk who voted in droves for Pakatan Rakyat (PR) in the May general election?

Opposition politicians are convinced that is the case.

Lembah Pantai MP Nurul Izzah Anwar and Segambut MP Lim Lip Eng said that punishing KL voters was definitely one of the reasons behind the new assessment rates.

"When you talk about punishment, I think that there are so many policies that have been introduced.

“Everyone should step up and say, 'look we have elections and any government which does not respect the democratic process should not even be there'"  Nurul Izzah told The Malaysian Insider.

In the 2013 general election, PR won nine out of the 11 seats contested in Kuala Lumpur.

Lim (pic, right) said that teaching KL residents a lesson was City Hall's secondary intention, adding that the first was "finding a source of income as Barisan Nasional (BN) has run out of money".

"Yes they want to punish KL people but this is only the second reason. They (the government) need more money to spend," he said.

Batu MP Chua Tian Chang had recently suggested that city dwellers would see the hike as a form of punishment.

"It does look like the moves and policies seem to be penalising urban residents," said the Parti Keadilan Rakyat politician popularly known as Tian Chua. He added that whether or not the government wanted to punish the people was immaterial as the people were already suffering.

"This is a big burden for the rakyat. While I agree with the argument that the rate has not been increased in the past 21 years, this is untimely.

"A proper study and evaluation should have been done beforehand and the minister should have gotten the feedback from the rakyat before announcing this."

Nurul Izzah (pic, left) concurred, pointing out that the Government should have taken into account how the average Malaysian will deal with the proposed hike in rates.

"I don't think the government is seriously looking into concerns raised by Bank of America Merril Lynch that Malaysia will be a young and poor country by 2030. And this shows that they're making that prophecy a reality".

City Hall has sent out notices to all property owners in Kuala Lumpur informing them of the proposed hike in rates, which is between 100% and 1,000%. The notices, however, stated that if there are objections to the proposed hike, property owners must register their objections with City Hall before December 17.

Yesterday, Nurul Izzah and other KL Pakatan MPs urged city dwellers to protest against the proposed hike in assessment rates by sending objection letters to City Hall before the date.

The PKR vice-president revealed that the nine PR and two BN MPs will be meeting Federal Territories Minister Datuk Seri Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor on Thursday to try and reduce the proposed rate hike.

"We (PR) are optimistic about the meeting as we have the backing of the people," Lim said.