Malaysia’s future will be stolen by the corrupt, the cronies and those that supports GST, if BN succeeds in a victory without honour based on lies, bribes, fear, hate and threats. To win the coming general elections, UMNO leaders have continued to incite hatred based on religion and race with racist epithets such as “DAP Chinese”.
This is the first time that UMNO is attacking DAP by attaching the words Chinese, an ugly racialisation of politics that also indirectly attacks the Chinese community. DAP has never attacked UMNO as UMNO Malays or PAS as PAS Muslims. Why pin the blame on an entire community just to score political points?
The ferocity of these attacks hide the desperation of BN of a real possibility of losing the next general elections. What is worrying is that the Prime Minister is personally issuing such threats with this extremist war-cry filled with hate and fear,
“If the opposition wins…the special rights of Malays, as the original forebearers of this land, from a noble and free race, will have their pride stepped on and their (position) in the centre sold. Worse yet, they will be vagabonds, cursed and despised, until they ‘terbangsat’ (become bastards) in their own homeland,”
This is a blatant lie by the Prime Minister. No Malaysian, much less Malays, will be “terbangsat” or bastards if Pakatan Harapan wins. In fact Malaysians will have a brighter future free from corruption, cronyism and the GST. Pakatan’s position is that GST should be abolished because of the hardships imposed on the rakyat. The Federal government is expected to collect RM40 billion which is RM40 billion less for people to spend.
Penang had paid RM5,561.2 million since 2015.If the BN Federal government stubbornly refuses to abolish the GST, then the alternative is to change the government. But in the meantime, the Federal government should return some money collected from GST back to the respective states because of the huge financial burden imposed when so much money is sucked out from ordinary rakyat’s pockets.
Penang paying RM5,561.2 million means the ordinary rakyat had RM5,561.2 million less to spend. What is wrong in asking that the Federal government to return 50% of the amount paid by Penang back to Penangites to help lessen the people’s burden there, when in Australia fully 100% of GST paid by the states are fully refunded?
Similarly, it is untrue and baseless for the Prime Minister to claim that I had opposed the expansion of the Penang International Airport(PIA), from the present capacity of 6.5 million passengers to 12 million passengers, as announced by him in the 2018 Budget. I had thanked the Prime Minister for the much needed expansion as the PIA recorded 6.7 million passengers in 2016 and is expected to exceed 7.1 million passengers this year.
Can the Prime Minister prove that I had opposed or voted in Parliament against any proposal to expand Penang’s International Airport? In the last parliamentary session, I had voted against the Domestic Trade and Industry in opposition to the hike in fuel prices, but nothing against anything related to the expansion of the Penang International Airport.
Finally the Prime Minister and Defence Minister Datuk Seri Hishamudin Tun Hussein Onn mocked me for asking the Federal government for help during the worst rainstorm and floods in Penang’s history. I had gone live on Facebook at 3.30 am in the morning of 5 November, after calling Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, to let the flood victims know that help is on its way, not to despair and lose hope.
For Hishamuddin to claim otherwise is not true because the army only moved in full force, after my urgent call to the Deputy Prime Minister. The armed forces does not take instructions from the state government, only the Federal government. I thank the Deputy Prime Minister for taking my call at 3.30 in the morning and sending in the Army to assist.
The state government was doing everything we can and we are not ashamed to seek the assistance from the Federal government and the Deputy Prime Minister to send in the army to help with flood rescue and relief work. I hope that both the Prime Minister and Hishamudin would take my call at 3.30 am in the morning if the need arises. If by doing so is wrong and shameful, then I am willing to be punished and be humiliated, because I am willing to do the same again when the need arises to help and save the rakyat.
Whilst every political parties wants to win elections, victory with honour matters for our country’s future. Victory must not be achieved at any price, sacrificing not only principles and honour, but also the truth and the moral foundation of our nation. Otherwise, how different are we from US President Donald Trump, a master of the politics of division and untruth, and a leader that our Prime Minister once boasts of having a close personal relationship but now condemns.
LIM GUAN ENG