Another year and another budget rolled out in time to seduce the voters with the 14th general election (GE14) in mind. Both sides have offered a massive spread of scrumptious buffet to delight our taste buds.

Indeed, at first sight, anyone would yield to the alluring colours and juicy texture. We humans are weak with an unimaginable appetite for sweet caloric content. We can only look back at the bad choices we have made once we are diagnosed with diabetes, blood pressure, suffer a heart attack.

Or, we just drop dead.

For me, the tale of Hansel & Gretel comes to mind whenever the annual budget is announced. You got to make the right choice, as the lure might be greater than your rational cognition.

Be forewarned of the fate of Hansel & Gretel, who were nearly cannibalised by the witch who lured them into her house with sumptuous sweet treats. Folklores are there as a lesson for us all to heed.

As I compare the budget announcements, I was hopeful Pakatan Harapan would stick to a more logical and prudent spending plan, but instead, it has superseded the popularity that the BN government would usually throw out as a bait to innocent voters.

Please don’t think the voters are so naive to believe that with a magical wave of a wand, major issues such as corruption and poverty will disappear. We know the complexities involved in eradication corruption or poverty, and it should be said as it is and not with one-liner statements to please the masses, like in the typical Bollywood movies.

Such political expediency is usually expected of from BN. However, it is not surprising to see these elements emerging within Harapan in recent times, as their new leadership is headed by the man who gave birth to and nurtured the fundamentals of BN that we detest today.

After calling BR1M a bribe, Harapan now proudly wants to retain it. If this is not political rhetoric, then what is? After announcing education would be free, now even higher education fund PTPTN is retained.

Leaders like Rafizi Ramli and Nurul Izzah Anwar, who have constantly questioned the government and Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak - what have you got to say?

This clearly provides a glimpse of our future under the mayhem that is Harapan. Never one to honour their words, yet they twist and fan different ideologies and policies to differing voter segments. Divisive politics being practised to hoodwink the voters as per BN’s playbook of the past.

Harapan is merely gloating...

When it comes to Indian initiative, Harapan is merely gloating over what in reality is a mere carbon copy of the already progressing initiatives under the BN. RM200 million worth of grants for NGO’s to carry out programmes to uplift the socio-economy of Indians?

Eerily similar to what is being done by Sedic, under the Prime Minister’s Department. Najib, through Sedic, has given out close to RM250 million to NGOs since 2015. Is this is not just another photocopy of what is already being done under Najib?

Harapan talks about being pragmatic and making available affordable homes. As an Indian, you can barely even hold a conversation with a tenant in Penang or Selangor because of your colour, let alone rent a home with its inflated land prices controlled by the states.

During Anwar Ibrahim’s tenure as education minister, no vernacular school was supported or even allowed to be built on government reserve land. Now, under his order, Penang Deputy Chief Minister II P Ramasamy ironically talks about Tamil schools, when his party members are the ones who mooted the idea of closing vernacular schools. Now what gives?

In another a week or so, after digesting the intricacies of the BN budget for Indians, Indian in Harapan leaders will revise and add Indian nuggets in their so-called ‘2nd Version’ of the budget. Sadly, Indians have been reduced to merely an afterthought in the Harapan policies.

Do you need the pittance of an afterthought by these Pakatan leaders? Ramasamy, Ipoh Barat MP M Kulasegaran, Klang MP Charles Santiago and Persatuan Hindraf Malaysia’s P Waythamoorthy: what, have you got no shame? Harapan cannibalising the Indians with woeful policies of yesteryear!

The meaning of honour disappeared from the bloodline of Harapan once statesmen such as Karpal Singh left. Look at it now, a refuge for corrupt, past BN leaders and Indian office-bearers who will forever be the ‘mandor’ (servants) of Anwar and Dr Mahathir Mohamad.