PH should not have promised Malaysians the moon — PBDSB

Andrew Puro

KUCHING, August 17: Parti Bansa Dayak Sarawak Baru (PBDSB) cries foul over unfulfilled promises by the Pakatan Harapan (PH) federal government after its own 100-day deadline.

PBDSB vice-president Andrew Puro said no doubt the 10 items promised in the PH manifesto would be difficult to achieve in 100 days, but PH should not have made the promises that it did not mean to keep in the first place, which resulted in many unhappy people who voted for them on May 9.

“Among those 10 promises for the 100-day period, PH had pledged to abolish the Goods and Services Tax (GST), lower fuel prices, healthcare scheme, Employees Provident Fund (EPF) for housewives, increase minimum wages, eliminate Felda’s unnecessary debt, defer payment of PTPTN up to a salary of RM4,000, restoration of status for Sarawak and Sabah’s and their autonomous rights, and review of mega projects by setting up RCI to investigate corruption and scams.

“There are so many of the 10 manifestations in 100 days that have yet to be fulfilled, such as the restoration of Sarawak and Sabah’s autonomous rights. Even the oil royalty issues of Sarawak and Sabah is still left in dispute,” Andrew lamented.

He said the only few things PH had achieved so far were the healthcare scheme that was only confined to Selangor. Andrew said that did not count because it had not been implemented all over the country.

Apart from that, he said the fuel prices had not gone down like what was promised, and even the GST would be replaced by the Sales and Service Tax (SST).

“The initial proposed RM1,500 minimum wage has not been implemented yet. The proposed set up of RCI to investigate corruption has not yet been finalised. The EPF for housewives was recently implemented under the EPF scheme named i-Suri, but unfortunately, it is a disappointment as it was actually meant for housewives who were registered with eKasih only,” said Andrew.

He said the initial presentation of i-Suri was quite misleading as the result of the outcome after implementation differed completely from what was expected.

“Henceforth, based on the current household situation, I would like to suggest that housewives who are under 40 years old should each be entitled to an allowance of RM1,000 monthly to lessen their burden,” he said.

Andrew also suggested the PH government differentiate between the federal government, state government and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) or political parties as there would be confusion on who was giving funds to whom.

He said as a responsible government, the ruling PH government should not request for donations from the public and/or citizens as the government must take its own initiative and measures to settle and resolve the current country’s debt, even if it was due to the previous government.

“The ruling government does not have to collect donations from the citizens of Malaysia. All citizens are already finding any means necessary to comprehend the higher cost of living and paying taxes as well.

“It is the duty of the government to find alternative means to lessen the burden of the  people,” Andrew said. — DayakDaily