Pakatan Mulls Street Protest Against Subsidy Cuts

Pakatan mulls street protest against subsidy cuts

Media: Malaysian insider

Byline: Syed Jaymal Zahiid

Date: 28 May 2010

Kuala Lumpur, May 28 – Pakatan Rakyat (PR) leaders will meet on June 1 to study the subsidies cut proposed by the government and will not discount the idea of holding a street protest against the move.

DAP chief economist Tony Pua said the pact’s top leaders will meet on Tuesday to discuss among others, the move by the government to dismantle its subsidy regime, a move PR leaders claim have caused uneasiness among the low income voters which make up the nation’s majority.

“But we will need to study the proposals made by Pemandu (Performance Management and Delivery unit) thoroughly before anything. There will be a committee set up to look into this matter,” the Petaling Jaya Utara MP told The Malaysian Insider.

Minister in The Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Seri Idris Jala said yesterday Malayisa could go bankrupt by 2019 unless it saved RM 103 billion in the next five years.

The former corporate captain, who rose to prominence after he steered the national airline company out of its financial turbulence, proposes that the government slash spending in outlined areas to increase the country’s per capita income.

The CEO of Pemandu made a presentation yesterday on the country’s proposed five-year subsidy rationalization roadmap. He suggested slashing subsidies for 12 items, which would see prices hiking for petrol, diesel, gas, electricity, sugar and flour, among other staples over the next five years.

Because of the multi-pronged nature of the proposals, PAS central committee, Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad, stressed that the pact will first have to go to the drawing board and study the subsidies cut proposals before planning their next move.

“There must be a holistic approach to this issue as it involves not only slashing fuel subsidy but how it will affect the people’s welfare as well,” The Kuala Selangor MP told the Malaysian Insider.

They have already played out the alarming tactic by saying we would go bankrupt if the subsidies are not cut so we really need to be careful and look at the proposals,” added the PAS leader

Dzulkefli was among the lineup of PR leaders that led the anti-fuel price hike group “Protes” that took the streets when the Abdullah administration raised fuel price in 2008, the fourth time in Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi’s short spell as prime minister.

The fuel price hike was one of the factors that led to Barisan Nasional worst ever electoral performance in four decades.

Fear of voters backlash have forced current Prime Minister Datuk Seri najib razak to stall plans to cut subsidy spending to RM20.9 billion this year, backtracking on his plan to implement planned petrol price hikes in May.

But Idris said his think tank had polled nearly 200,000 Malaysians via a text messaging system and found over 60 per cent were in favour of subsidy cuts and for government to do it within the next three to five years.

Subsidies cost RM24.5 billion in 2009, pushing Malaysia’s budget deficit to 7 per cent of gross domestic product, its highest in more than 20 years.