The Malaysian Youth and Student Democratic Movement (Dema) together with 18 other student organisations hereby state that we oppose the implementation of Goods and Services Tax (GST) and we would instead urge the government to focus on improving the country’s economy rather than dipping into the people’s pockets.

The coming Parliament sitting will see the second reading of the GST bill. The student organisations strongly oppose the implementation of the GST because it will further burden the people. At present, 85% of the people are not paying income tax. If GST is implemented, the lower and middle-income groups will be affected the most.

Besides that, we also doubt that the government will be able to have an effective refund system. If the system does not function well, the business companies will face cash flow problems.

Compared to the growth at 4.6% recorded in the year 2008, last year our economy contracted by 1.7%. Meanwhile, according to UBS’ Securities Report, Malaysia suffered the biggest foreign exchange reserve loss among Asian countries last year.

To add to our economic woes, our FDI (foreign direct investment) has dropped from RM46 billion ringgit in 2008 to RM12.2 billion ringgit in 2009. Even local investment has been driven out from our country. A total of RM117 billion ringgit has been withdrawn from Malaysia in 2008 and withdrawals reached RM54 billion ringgit in the first half of 2009.

Therefore, the government should do whatever it can to create a convincing investment environment. To convince the investors, we must start with a series of reforms in the public service sector, the judiciary, the police and in the higher education institutions to counter the problem of the lack of a skilled workforce;

Fundamental problems caused by the government’s cronysim are not solved and dipping into the people’s pockets should never happen. The worst thing that a government can do is to implement GST when the people cannot afford it while the last thing that a good government should do is to implement a policy without proper planning and understanding the people’s will.

Dema and all the 18 student organisations would like to call on the people to join the Anti-GST Protest organised by Protes on Monday at Parliament. The impact of the GST will be felt across a wide spectrum of society .

Thus everyone should walk hand-in-hand to express our thoughts over this bill so that the leaders of the country would be able to understand the worry and burden felt by the people. We hope that the government will put the people’s will ahead of everything else and not implement the GST.

Knowing that there is a huge public outcry, the government should be proactive in solving fundamental problems like corruption, crime and racial and religious disputes in order to help the people to wake up from their nightmare of poverty and hardship.

The writer is secretary, Dema adminstration. The letters is also endorsed by 18 other student organisations.