More woes if BN wins, says PPBM man

Rais Hussin pours scorn on Ismail Sabri for promising continued public wellbeing.

Rais: Let’s not forget monumental scandals involving billions of dollars like Felda and 1MDB.”

PETALING JAYA: PPBM supreme council member Rais Hussin has warned voters that the hard times will get worse if Barisan Nasional remains in power after the coming general election.

Speaking to FMT, he scoffed at Rural and Regional Development Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob for saying, according to a recent Bernama report, that BN would continue to ensure the people’s wellbeing.

Rais alleged that BN was so used to misgoverning that the only way it could reduce the fiscal deficit resulting from its abuse of power would be to “increase and diversify taxes” and remove subsidies. These measures would in turn cause prices to increase uncontrollably, he added.

He said: “The annual Auditor-General’s Report clearly shows that 15% to 20% in expenditure is essentially leakages resulting from poor or no governance. That’s several billion ringgit right there.

“And let’s not forget monumental scandals involving billions of dollars like Felda and 1MDB.”

Rais said the funds leaked through “malfeasance, corruption and abuses of power” could have been used for infrastructure projects, schools and scholarships.

“Prime Minister Najib Razak has evolved into being a king of taxes,” he said. “He introduced many forms of taxes that could have been avoided if the country’s economy was better and more prudently managed.

“So keeping BN in power only means greater suffering for the people.”

We will develop the country differently, with better efficiency. We will reduce corruption and wastage, says Amanah’s Dzulkefly.

Amanah strategy director Dzulkefly Ahmad also poured scorn on Ismail, saying one had only to look at Penang and Selangor to see how efficiently Pakatan Harapan could govern.

“Give us a chance and we will show you what we can do,” he said. “We will develop the country differently, with better efficiency. We will reduce corruption and wastage.”

Dzulkefly disparaged Ismail for apparently trying to give credit to the current administration when he said Umno had proven it could develop the country. He said the statement was silly because no other party had been in power in Malaysia’s history.

The real question, he said, was whether Malaysia could sustain its economic growth.

In the 1970s, he pointed out, Malaysia’s national income was twice that of South Korea’s. However, South Korea has since overtaken Malaysia by 2.5 times.

“How did we lose this competitive edge? How is it that others can develop further and we got stuck?”

He said the answers to such questions boiled down to inefficiency and wastage. - FMT