Before Irwan Abdullah from the Ministry of Finance could go on to justify the need to impose GST, tolls on roads, PTPTN and other duties on goods and services, I would like to know why is the government of the day in such a bad or horrible financial situation.
Surely the rakyat would like to know the reasons for the imposition of these financial burdens let alone justify the reasons for them. For heaven’s sake do not say that since other countries have similar taxes it is alright for the government to impose them. This convoluted and insane logic has to stop.
Just because Irwan spent many years in the Ministry of Finance it does not qualify him to justify the imposition of these burdens. He might be a civil servant good in explaining what he had been directed to do so by politicians, but surely he should pretend that he has the answers to rectify the situation.
I am sure that he knows that without the financial mismanagement resulting in hundreds of shady deals, the country financial position would not be in such a bad state of affairs. In others words, the BN cannot mess up the economic situation and yet expect the rakyat to shoulder the burden.
We don’t need the likes of Irwan to tell us what why we need these financial impositions and without them the country financial position would be compromised. What gives him the confidence to say that the country’s financial position is still intact but taxes have to be paid.
Over the years, made much more worse by the present regime, the country has been basically looted of its resources through a combination of mismanagement, massive scandals, corruption, illegal payoffs.
The looting of Malaysia’s sovereign fund the 1MDB was the highlight of the colossal nature of corruption that involved leading politicians, their relatives and friends not just at the domestic but at the international level. Even foreign countries are investigating the transfer of funds and illicit purchase of luxury items costing the Malaysian taxpayers billions of ringgit.
The BN regime under the leadership of Najib is basically responsible for the current financial mess. How the country is going to ride this mess is a question in the minds of concerned Malaysians, opposition parties and some foreign governments.
This is the reason why the BN regime’s hold on power is not more tenable and this is the reason why the opposition front is at pains to inform Malaysians that they have no choice but to get rid of this corruption infested government in the coming general election.
I think Irwan given his opportunistic short sightedness thinks that taxes such as the GST or tolls on highways will help to heal the country of his deep economic malaise. He is terribly wrong. There are already writings on the walls that these financial impositions might not save the government in power. Sorry to say, Irwan by trying to save the government might be merely prolonging to its stay for a major catastrophe to unfold.
YB Prof. Dr. P. Ramasamy