By Lian Cheng
KUCHING, Oct 4: Deputy Chief Minister Tan Sri Dr James Jemut Masing holds that Pakatan Harapan (PH) has abolished Goods and Services Tax (GST) due to shallow political reasoning and now, the coalition is paying a price for it.
To him, the implication of the abolishment of GST was far more damaging as PH’s decision has caused the whole Malaysia to suffer.
“PH abolished GST during GE14 (the 14th General Election) because of shallow political reasoning and not due to deep economic reasoning.
“Now (Prime Minister) Tun (Dr) Mahathir (Mohamad) feels the pinch of the foolish decision but Malaysia has suffered,” he told DayakDaily today.
If truly Dr Mahathir were to make a U-turn on the decision and PH government reverted the current tax system of Sales and Service Tax (SST) to GST, Masing said this will then be the 21st century manifestation of Prince Michivialli’s observation – the end justifies the means.
“Before GST was implemented, Malaysians have no experience of GST. That allowed PH to twist it and demonised it and used it as a campaign tool to bring down the former government,” he added.
“They (PH), supposedly be better informed than the people, knew the truth but nonetheless twisted the facts with regards to GST. To them, the end justifies the means. As long as they win, they could not care less about the well being of the people,” he criticised.
Masing, who is also Parti Rakyat Sarawak (PRS) president, pointed out that there were many promises made by PH which the federal ruling coalition later made U-turn apart from GST.
“Prior to GE14, PH and Dr Mahathir made their political manifesto promising among others that after GE14, toll, PTPTN (National Higher Education Fund Corporation) and GST and many other programmes or policies will be abolished once PH government won and be the government of Malaysia,” he reminded.
“There are many U-turns since GE14. It seems to me that to PH, going back to one’s promise is nothing to be embarrassed about. After all, PH’s election manifesto is not the Bible,” he said.
“Therefore, one can dishonour all the promises, as long as one gets what one wants. It seems that for PH, as long as they can get into power,” he added.
Masing emphasised that this scenario reminded him of Prince Michivalli’s political observation where he stated in his political treatise in 15th century that – the end justifies the means.
Italian diplomat Niccolò Machiavelli was best known for writing ‘The Prince’, a handbook on unscrupulous politicians that inspires the term “Machiavellian” and established its author as the “Father of Modern Political Theory”.— DayakDaily
