KUCHING: Santubong MP Datuk Seri Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar said he was amazed at the audacity of Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng in stating that Pakatan Harapan (PH) has fulfilled 60 per cent of their promises contained in their election manifesto.
This is because of all the 60 items under the five core thrusts in their manifesto there has not been one meaningful and significant success that the country could be proud of.
He said in the first core thrust, number one to ten concerned the ‘people’s burden’ for which PH promised to abolish the Goods and Services Tax (GST) and road tolls; guarantee food sources and welfare of farmers; and share the country’s wealth. But then PH abolished or deducted assistance to fishermen, farmers and rubber tappers. Welfare aid and assistance for students were also reduced.
“So, tell me what actually has been achieved?” Wan Junaidi asked.
He said the only thing they did successfully was dismantling the GST tax regime but then they introduced the Sales and Services Tax (SST).
“The introduction of the SST increased the cost of living and caused the government to lose RM22 billion in revenue collected from GST,” he said.
Wan Junaidi said the Finance Ministry could not even address the economic backlash resulting from their leaders’ ill-considered remarks on national debt and national financial burden.
Instead of shoring investor confidence, their obsession for revenge and arrogance caused huge capital outflow and made investors reluctant to come to Malaysia.
“The KLSE dropped 345 points from 1905 to 1560 since May, 2018 and caused huge losses of nearly RM400 billion in the share markets. I pity the small investors or those who survive on shares trading.
“This did not account for the losses incurred by sovereign funds like Tabung Haji, KWSP, Khazanah, ASB, ASN and others. Ask Bank Negara how many hundred billons of ringgit we have lost,” he said.
On the second core thrust, from number 11 to 29, nothing much has been fulfilled too.
“They sold Tabung Haji assets collected for 30 years and paid the depositors the lowest dividend in its history, perhaps also causing ‘the bank runs’ to benefit commercial banks and perhaps destroy Tabung Haji eventually,” he said.
Regarding Felda, he said the federal government had impoverished the settlers. The quarrel with India and China has reduced the palm oil market and caused the price of oil palm to plummet. Not only the settlers suffer, the whole nation suffers.
“Imagine the suffering of 36,000 smallholders and their families throughout the nation. The only steps suggested were to drink palm oil and use palm oil as gifts. What a joke,” he said.
Then there’s the Transport Ministry which has not fully explained how it managed to plunge down to the second tier of the safety rating by the Federal Aviation Administration of the USA.
“This is quite a history and we have not seen the full implication of this downgrading of air safety rating on MAS, AirAsia and even Malindo. If it does, not only these airlines would suffer but also the government and our tourism industry. Don’t keep blaming the previous government for this,” he said.
Over at the Education Ministry, they were more concerned about the children’s school shoes than their education.
“We should be talking about artificial intelligence (AI), machine intelligence (MI), cloud technology and computer technology, to prepare for the fourth industrial revolution,” he said.
“The credibility of the PH administration is nose-diving because everyone in the government are playing politics rather than administrating the country.
“They blame the officers for not being cooperative just like they blame the Barisan Nasional (BN) administration for their failures,” he said.
