Ahead of a protest to mark his one year in power, Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob has called on BN to counter allegations that the government had failed.
He said claims such as the government did not succeed in tackling inflation were untrue and that the "opposition" was ignoring facts.
The Turun protest on Aug 20 will be held outside the Sogo shopping complex in downtown Kuala Lumpur.
The organisers - who also rallied last month - said their five demands had not been met.
They include:
Pay cuts for ministers
Continuation of government subsidies
Decent assistance for the people
Controlling prices of goods
Addressing the food security issue
Speaking at the Wanita BN national convention today, Ismail Sabri said he acknowledged that the price of goods did go up previously but that inflation had hit many countries due to the Russia-Ukraine war and aftershocks from the Covid-19 pandemic, among other reasons.
However, he said the government's efforts have worked - citing the price of chicken as an example.
The premier said while the ceiling price of chicken was RM9.40 per kg, actual market prices now were as low as RM7 per kg.
"There is even an oversupply of chicken," he added.
It should be noted that Putrajaya had planned to end the subsidised ceiling price for chickens on July 1 before U-turning and setting a new ceiling price due to public backlash.
Among other moves to shore up the supply of chicken was to ban exports - which is still in place and one of the reasons for the oversupply.
Ignoring govt’s success
Meanwhile, Ismail Sabri said the often-ridiculed anti-inflation jihad committee has also had an impact, claiming that the price of unsubsidised cooking oil is now lower.
"The opposition will continue to attack us. They will not talk about the current price of goods even though it has gone down.
"They will not praise the government. They will continue to say the government has failed," he added.
As such, the prime minister said it is up to BN's members to educate the public on the government's successes.
Earlier, he said other achievements by the government include securing RM74.1 billion in foreign direct investments (FDI) from the fourth quarter of 2021 to the end of the second quarter of this year.
This, Ismail Sabri said, outpaced the total FDI each year from 2018 to 2021.
He also highlighted that the government got 400,000 more people in the workforce while the unemployment rate fell from 4.3 percent to 3.8 percent.
Wholesale and retail sales as of June this year were also at RM132.8 billion, which he said is the best performance since 2013 - while the manufacturing sector has experienced a 23.4 percent growth to RM153.5 billion in the first half of this year. - Mkini
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