Eggs reveal BN’s economic deception?

With soaring food prices, the poor and the unemployed will definitely get angry as they are pushed to the edge of the cliff.

COMMENT

The Barisan Nasional federal government is going all out to woo voters now as the smartphone rebate had its cap for smartphones priced at RM500 removed recently.

This also shows that BN leaders are not in touch with reality and do not know the price of goods. It also means that they do not know how the rising cost of living is causing the poor and the unemployed to suffer.

All they know is to dole out cash aid which is only a temporary relief for only one month. After that it is back to square one as BN’s RM500 one-off aid is not a problem-solver in the long run.

In this case, Pakatan Rakyat’s Orange Book is a much better deal as Pakatan has plans to provide skills training so that everyone can be upgraded in order to obtain a better salary.

Therefore a higher income nation is more achievable under Pakatan compared to BN as Pakatan will also curb the intake of low-skilled foreign labour.

Thus it comes as no surprise then that the price of 10 eggs in a tray has certainly skyrocketted. It was RM3.40 on Dec 31 last year but on the first day of the new year it became RM3.75.

And these are just ordinary eggs, not the Omega 3 type. The price of eggs is the barometer of a nation’s economy and this shows that the economy is plainly mismanaged contrary to what the BN leaders are saying. It will not be long before RM100 buys very little groceries.

This is a clear indication that the RM500 cash aid for households earning below RM3,000 is only of minimal help.

For those who are renting a house, RM500 is not even enough to pay for the monthly rental if one is staying in Kuala Lumpur. Even the rent for a single-storey terrace house in Kepong Baru is currently RM800.

Yes, indeed the BN leaders live in an ivory tower and their claims of listening to the woes of the rakyat is all hype and propaganda to endear themselves to the voters.

In Malaysia many things are relatively expensive. Comparing dollar to dollar, things in Australia are much cheaper. For example, a large bottle of shampoo in Australia cost only A$5 but in Malaysia it is nearly RM10.

This columnist’s aunt who has migrated to Australia and is currently on holiday in Malaysia has commented that “prices in Malaysia are all big-numbered”.

In Britain a person who earns £1,000 can go a long way and still buy a lot of things like clothes, shoes and groceries. But in Malaysia no one can survive with a salary of RM1,000. In Britain one can get a nice collared T-shirt for less than £10 but you cannot get that for RM10 in Malaysia.

For £4 you can get the full British breakfast with eight types of foodstuffs!

This simply means that the power of £1,000 is much greater than RM1,000 in a dollar for dollar comparison.

Illicit funds

With rampant corruption, the illicit money outflow and foreign workers sending money home, the Malaysian economy surely cannot be said to be healthy or robust.

Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim has announced that if Pakatan wins the 13th general election, it will do its utmost to get back the illicit funds from aboard.

If BN wins, then worst is yet to come. It will not do anything about the state of the nation’s economy and it will not be long before we end up like the situation in Greece.

With soaring food prices, the poor and the unemployed will definitely get angry as they are pushed to the edge of the cliff. There will be more arguments among family members and even suicides as people cannot afford to pay their debts.

Meanwhile, the mainstream media continue to portray that all is fine and running smoothly in the nation.

If the rakyat is under false impression that everything is going well, they will vote for BN and that is the reason why Internet facilities are lacking in the rural areas (which form the bulk of the parliamentary and state seats) – to keep the citizens in dumb ignorance.

The situation is dire. If we do not vote wisely this time, we are finished as our neighbouring countries surge ahead. As it is, we are now very much lagging behind Singapore and South Korea although at one time we could match up to them.

You can be sure that the first thing the BN federal government will do if it wins is to increase the price of fuel. This happened after the March 8, 2008 general election when on June 5 of the same year the petrol price shot up by 78 sen from RM1.92 to RM2.70.

Next it will impose GST (goods and services tax) although it can also stand for “Go Strangulate Them” wherein “Them” refers to us, the rakyat especially the poor and the unemployed who will be strangled by the price increase.

Therefore the 13th general election is the final chance for us to get back on the right track. There are some who have said that Pakatan does not have the skill to govern a nation as it only have experience at state level.

But this is the time to give Pakatan a chance then, for what other choice do we have? One must note that Pakatan has done well at state level. Also, one has to realise that sticking to BN is definitely not an option – it is doom for the ordinary citizens.

Selena Tay is a DAP member and a FMT columnist.