DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng jeered at BN’s “twin ang pows”, saying it will not help overcome Malaysia’s economic and political crisis.

The crisis, he added, was caused by financial scandals of 1MDB's RM42 billion issue and RM2.6 billion donation.

Lim described the 100 percent increase in workers levy and proposed amendments to the Official Secrets Act (OSA) to impose life imprisonment and 10 strokes of rotan for whistleblowers as BN’s “twin ang pows”.

“Such twin ang pows have not helped to restore the declining value of the ringgit to its former level of RM3.20-3.50 to 1 US$. How does it help Malaysians economically?” asked the Penang chief minister in a statement.

Both issues came into focus as Malaysian Chinese community celebrated the Chinese New Year celebrations on Monday and Tuesday.

Lim said Malaysians had hoped for an abolition of the GST during the recalibration of the 2016 Budget on Jan 28 by the prime minister.

“Unfortunately, the GST was not abolished and only minor adjustments made for cosmetic purposes that did not make any difference in the income of ordinary Malaysians or assist the suffering small businesspersons,” he added.

“Instead, businesses were mercilessly hit with a 100 percent increase in the foreign workers’ levy that, while it increases the federal government’s coffers with an additional RM2.5 billion, would definitely cause many small and medium businesses to close shop,” he said.

Meanwhile, Lim said the proposed OSA amendments by attorney-general Mohamed Apandi Ali were clearly intended to “intimidate and frighten” whistleblowers, including journalists who report on leaked documents.

Apandi’s office was looking into punishments such a life jail terms and 10 strokes of rotan to prevent documents being leaked.

Lim said the OSA amendments were “draconian” and would only make a mockery of democracy, human rights and freedom of the press.

“Apandi even justified such harsh punishments by comparing the leaking of official secrets to a serious offence in China which carries the death sentence.

“Perhaps Apandi needs to be reminded that corruption in China is also punished with a death sentence. Does he intend to make similar amendments against the corrupt?” he added.