When companies make whopping profits because of the Goods and Services Tax (GST), what do we Malaysians think about it? There is hardly any discussion at the warongs and corporate corridors. Instead, we continue to be dumb, blind and deaf consumers much to the happiness of the robber barons and their accomplices.

According to a report , ‘Telecommunication company operators made RM64 million in profit by charging an additional 60 sen as GST for RM10 prepaid top-ups’.

This is in addition to the revenue that three telcos in Malaysia (Maxis, Digi and Celcom) collected. In 2014 they made a total pre-tax profit of RM8.19 billion.

Now considering that Malaysians together with their millions of legal and illegal migrant workers here are inevitable consumers of ICT services, these telcos that have some very good working relationships with the government of the day are truly raping the consumers.

What use is it for these opportunists to raid and reap and at the same time proclaim that they are very much into doing corporate social responsibility (CSR) programmes?

Dr Mahathir Mohamad in his working paper (‘Malaysia: The Way Forward’), which he delivered at the Malaysian Business Council in Kuala Lumpur on Feb 28, 1991, claimed that “Privatisation will continue to be an important cornerstone of our national development and national efficiency strategy.” (para 43).

In para 44 he added, “In implementing our privatisation policy, the government is fully aware of the need to protect public interest, ... to guarantee that quality services are provided at minimum cost, to avoid unproductive monopolistic practices...”

But today, in the wake of the highly criticised and unpopular GST that has been implemented by the Najib Abdul Razak administration, we witness how businesses like the telcos are making unsightly and sinful profits at the expense of the consumers - citizens and migrant workers.

And all that the government can say is that they will be calling the CEOs of these telcos for a discussion - when the businesses have already literally stolen a cool RM64 million in profits over 30 days from the GST factored into the RM10 prepaid top-ups.

Why were the discussions not ironed out well before the GST implementation deadline, especially when the spokespersons within Putrajaya claimed that GST was well-thought-out quite long ago by the government?

If only Dr Mahathir had not privatised the telecommunications industry but instead hired the best brains and got our own Telekoms Berhad to manage the service, we would know for sure that at least the national coffers would be richer and not be merciless to the citizens.

Robbing our nation of a greater future?

This is a clear case of how we have allowed policymakers to allow businessmen to raid and rob our nation of a greater future. Patronising and enriching political party machineries may have been the calling card of the day.

While these privatised entities like telcos, healthcare and related providers, energy operators, etc. have been reaping huge profits over the years, our government under Najib is chalking up huge national debts to the tune of billions of ringgit.

Can we fast track and redeem all that has been lost? Can we cut the reaping and raping conduits of privatisation and put our country back on track?

Or is it all too late?

We just have to ask the foreign workers in the country what they think of the rates being charged by the telcos here as compared to their own country of origin, be it Indonesia, Thailand, Bangladesh or India. The answers you get may be almost unbelievable.

Perhaps, there needs to be a consumer war to bring back the ethics in business especially when governments seem to have failed. But then again, when you take into inventory how our Made-in-Malaysia consumer rights champions have been, what hope is there for the consumers.

Seriously, too, are not Malaysian consumers to also be blamed?