KUCHING: Two PBB leaders Datuk Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah and Abdullah Saidol shot down attempts by the state DAP to make the coming state election a referendum against the Goods and Services Tax (GST) and described it as ‘desperate’.
Abdul Karim, who is also PBB supreme council member and Asajaya assemblyman, said such attempt showed DAP was running out of issues against Barisan Nasional (BN) for the state election.
“The GST is a tax imposed by the federal government, whereas an election is a venue for the ‘rakyat’ (people) to choose who should be their elected representative or YB and, which party should be the government for the next five years.
“By proposing GST as the ‘referendum’ to gauge acceptance and popularity shows how desperate DAP is in trying to win votes. Next, probably they would say the recent heavy rain and flooding are because of BN government’s inability to stop the rain,” said the Assistant Minister of Housing and Assistant Minister of Youth Development.
“I am sure the ‘rakyat’ are not easily influenced by this cheap tactic,” he added.
He explained GST, introduced in April 1 last year, had helped the government tremendously especially when the price of oil and gas had gone down so low and affected the country’s development plans.
“We are lucky that Malaysia has good leaders that could foresee this coming and introduced GST as an alternative. Even Brunei and other oil producing countries are feeling the pinch from this low oil price and Malaysia is not spared.
“But our quick introduction of GST has helped the Malaysian economy; though a slight pinch is felt by the people,” he said.
Meanwhile, Abdullah who is also PBB supreme council member said the recent allegation made by DAP Sarawak chairman Chong Chieng Jen that voting BN would be like supporting GST, was another desperate campaign by the opposition party.
“If I am not mistaken, DAP did include revenue from GST in their alternative version of Budget 2016. This means DAP actually never said they were against GST.
“Do you think DAP dare to absolutely abolish GST if they are in power? This shows that DAP political campaign is becoming increasingly non-sensical and ridiculous,” said Abdullah, who is Sarawak BN Backbenchers Club chairman and Semop assemblyman.
He pointed out that DAP until now could not even fulfil their own promises to abolish tolls and reduce water and electricity tariffs in Penang, which is governed by DAP-led government.
“Instead, they increased everything that they promised to reduce, including mass disposal of state land in Penang,” he said.
He explained that whilst revenue from oil and gas was decreasing due to global forces, revenue from GST remained amongst the sources of income utilised by the government to dispense various assistance and subsidies to the needy people, who were mostly from the rural areas including payment of 1Malaysia People’s Aid (BR1M).
“DAP’s statement about GST is basically an attempt to sabotage national economy and to deprive government’s effort to assist the poor and rural development. (You can) ask YB Chong if GST doesn’t benefit Penang or Selangor,” he said.
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