YOURSAY ‘Whether GST affects more Chinese or Malays is irrelevant.’
GST - Malays will pay more, Heng tells Chinese
Commentable: It is unbelievable how these people coming from the BN stable seem to horse around with us whenever the discussion is about parting with our hard-earned money.
MCA Wanita chief Heng Seai Kie, even if your statement is true and makes sense, does it matter whether the Malays pay more than the Chinese or the Indians or the ‘lain-lain’, and is that some consolation to the other races?
No, it's not because the goods and services tax (GST) cuts across the board, right through the racial divide.
Like everyone else, the Malays have their own commitments and financial problems but in the end, they still have to make ends meet and put food on the table. So too the Chinese or the Indians or the ‘lain-lain’.
However, what is troubling is the fact that MCA, like all other component parties in BN, voted in favour of GST. Hence you are part and parcel of the reason why we, Malaysians of all races, have to contend with GST. So spare us your platitudes and don't play the racial card.
Zappy-Zapzap: Heng is right if she's referring to consumption of food - the bigger the family, the higher the food bill.
But food constitutes only a small proportion of the expenditure for high-income families, i.e. Chinese families. These high-income families consume a lot of non-food items, e.g. appliances, motor vehicles, outside dining, etc. So, they also end up paying huge amounts of their income on GST.
Indeed, who is Heng trying to fool? The Chinese have much more reason to oppose GST.
There is little or no GST for food items, except the processed kind, which are "value-added". Hence, Malays pay less GST in absolute amount, but more in percentage terms, based on their lower-than-average income.
Oh Ya?: Does it ever occur to Heng that the minority race is paying more than one taxes? First, the income tax, of which she admits 90 percent of her own race is paying, compared may be with 10 percent of the majority race.
Second, the handouts in the name of New Economic Policy (NEP), which are virtually ‘robbing’ Baba to pay Ali.
Third, to pay for their children's education and illnesses. Fourth, the donations that the minority races made to support vernacular education, religious beliefs and other social causes which do not receive a single sen from the public coffers.
And now, GST, without much compensatory reduction in company or income tax.
And Heng expects her own race to shut up and just shallow it? She really thinks her race is as spineless as her own kind in MCA and Gerakan? What a bloody insult.
Anonymous #20513663: Umno-BN is clearly not following the winds of change in this country.
The remaining racists are these race-based parties still living in the Stone Age, by which I mean the colonial era, as all this race-based stuff was institutionalised by our dear former colonial masters.
If they are unable to change their ways, Umno-BN's days are numbered and they will find themselves in a sorry state, as well as on the wrong side of history.
Ferdtan: That this coming from MCA Wanita chief Heng is not surprising. What she said was not prima facie incorrect, but it was certainly politically incorrect.
GST affects all races and it was rather crude of her, as a government leader, to try to pit one race against another to get them to accept the new tax regime.
Now we call upon Umno leaders to clarify whether Malays are indeed worst hit by GST as claimed by Heng.
WSLAm: Heng, it doesn't matter which race pays more GST. The crux of the matter is why Malaysians should pay GST when the country is rich with resources.
If the country was properly governed in the last 50 years, we should not be paying any taxes at all. We should be enjoying better benefits than Brunei.
Pputeh: Indeed, the issue is, why is GST imposed? Has the government run out of funds? Where have all the billions of tax ringgit gone?
As long as the government is not frugal in its spending and continues to use our tax money irresponsibly by buying jets and spending wastefully on mega projects, our tax money will go down the drain.
Irrespective of who pays - be they Malays, Chinese Indians or others - we are Malaysians and if money is being misused, we must all stand up against this new tax.
Saphire: Whether GST affects more Chinese or Malays is irrelevant. The main concern of the people is whether GST is indeed necessary, and how it is used.
The people are fed up that even the poor are paying for the government’s wastage of funds through corruption.
Negarawan: So Umno says that the non-Malays are paying more GST, and MIC and MCA say the Malays are paying more.
Well, it really doesn't matter to Umno-BN who is paying more, as long as Umno-BN leaders get more in their pockets.
The rakyat is getting sick and tired of Umno-BN's racial and religious games to divide and rule the country.
GST is not about race, but low-income M'sians
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