People first slogan not reflected in budge

K Pragalath | October 8, 2011

Parti Sosialis Malaysia says the budget is targeted more at investors and corporations rather than the people

PETALING JAYA: Prime Minister Najib Razak’s people first slogan is not reflected in his budget as the people’s interest is not taken care of.

This is the reading of Parti Sosialis Malaysia treasurer A Sivarajan who says perks and key reductions are aimed at investors and corporation.

“Najib has played safe by not making key structural changes to the economy and development concept, but has concentrated on short term gains by giving out hand outs in an attempt to woo support for the BN,” said Sivarajan in a press statement today.

He also highlighted the Felda Global Ventures Holdings Sdn Bhd measure as a rural vote buying measure.

Yesterday Najib proposed the listing of Felda Global Ventures Holdings Sdn Bhd in Bursa Malaysia by mid-2012 to raise funds for the company to become a global conglomerate.

At the same time Sivarajan pointed that the budget failed to put the people’s interest first.
“The budget fails to address the spiraling cost of daily consumable goods for the rakyat.

“Although at the moment, subsidies for rice, sugar, oil and petrol remain, but the rakyat are still struggling to manage the price hike that took place in the last two years due to the withdrawal of government subsidies then.

He also criticised the abolishment of school fees due to the burden of additional payments that parents have to fork out such as co curricular fees, workbook fees, lab fees and other related fees.

“For the last two years the Education Ministry has cut back on food and text book assistance schemes for the poor students. The number of students that were eligible for this schemes were reduced to cut cost, and many were affected.

Sivarajan also commented on the house prices for first time buyers as a measure that will put the buyers into a lifetime debt that has to be passed down to their chidren.

Yesterday Najib increased the ceiling price for first time house buyers from RM 200,000 to RM 400,000.

Sivarajan added that the budget failed to address the implementation of minimum wage.

“The budget speech 2012 completely avoids this topic, presumably leaving it to the newly appointed Wage Consultative Council to study the issue further even though the Human Resources Ministry did the same thing through a series of consultative meetings a couple of months ago.”