vox populi small thumbnail 'Ask the working class people what they think of our official inflation rate of 2%, and they will laugh at the figure.'

Pua: Soaring prices debunk Najib's claims

Swipenter: My usual breakfast of a bowl of noodles or a plate of ‘char kuey teow' is confirmed to increase by 50 sen to RM4.50 come Jan 1, 2011, and my hot glass of ‘tea susu' is expected to go up by 20 sen to RM1.80 - that's an increase of 12.5% altogether.

Ask the working class people what they think of our official inflation rate of 2%, or say even 4% as forecasted by analysts for 2011, and they will laugh painfully at the figure.

Longjaafar: Even haircuts have not been spared. It used to cost RM12. Now it's RM13. It looks like everyone is taking advantage of the situation and the government can do just so much. After all, these are not controlled items.

When the price of building materials go up, expect the RM65 million allocated to the renovation of the PM's residence to be increased. I wonder how he is going to explain that away.

Anonymous: Pakatan Rakyat should come out with a national budget of their own, stating the income and expenditure. They can then propose the cuts wherever they see it. This way the rakyat can see the benefits.

No one single government anywhere in the world can promise the rakyat no increases in prices as business moves on its own based on supply and demand. If the shops charge RM1.20 or RM1.40, it is the consumers' right to choose.

We cannot stop businesses from marking up their prices, but we can promote healthy competition.

Isa@1penyu: Tony Pua, you seem to have a lot to say about increasing prices and the projects by BN. How do you explain the rationale for the RM500 increment to teachers alone that will cost RM2 billion and why teachers are so special that other civil servants do not deserve anything - the police, for example?

Ksn: Life has become very difficult for the poor, especially those with low salaries and the retirees who are living on their pension and savings, with the daily increases of prices for essential items. Their quality of life, which is already bad, is becoming worse by the day.

For example, scraped coconut which was between RM1.20 and RM1.60 in the past one year is now RM2 per piece. Onions are now RM3, which were below RM2 a few months back. Similarly, the milk and kitchen items, and all those which are not controlled.

Even controlled items like sugar, petrol are going higher and higher. Where are we heading and what is the government doing about it? Whenever prices are increased, we are told that our prices are still lower than our neighbours without mentioning, very stupidly, comparative income levels.

Where do we, especially the poor, go from here?

VP Biden: In 1998, the BJP government of India went down because the price of onions, a staple food in India, went up. Here we are seeing prices of essential goods going up by 20 to 50 percent.

Let's see the MSM (mainstream media) controlled by the BN regime can turn this into a feel-good factor for the rakyat. Tony Pua should not provide any alternative approach to the BN government as this government will steal ideas from Pakatan and stamped them as their own without giving due credit to the actual contributors.

A 53-year-old thief who has not been caught is not going to give up his ways.

Malaysians Are Not Stupid: The impact from all these price increases and the withdrawal of subsidies are minimal according to the PM. Minimal to who? Of course, to him and all the Umnoputras and all their cronies together with those in the MCA, MIC and the likes.

Ask the man in the street. Ask the villagers. Ask the wage earners. I am sure they will tell you a different story.

Joker: Pua did provide an alternative although he didn't need to. He said BN should have done away with the subsidies to the IPPs (independent power producers).

I said Pua didn't have to provide an alternative because he is merely stating a claim that basically Najib and Idris Jala lied through their teeth when they say 'minimum impact' and trotted out figures like 1.2% - or one sen - increase.

Black Mamba: Storm the Bastille when you can't afford bread. And guess who will say, "Let them eat cake"?

Liu's aide freed on CBT charge, again

Albert: The number of Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) files opened this year alone, an incredible 700-odd, involve only some RM6 million in bribes .

If this is true, then I can only conclude that MACC is either not acting in the interest of the country or simply has incompetent officers who do not even know the simple concept of prioritisation.

Corruption is a curse to any country especially those involving huge sums of money which have already caused serious untold damages (i.e. monetary leakages, poor quality in workmanship, inefficiencies, etc).

Shouldn't MACC act without fear or favour and learn how to prioritise in order to focus all their attention against corruption cases involving obscene amount of ringgit?

Cala: Is it a plot to harass Pakatan? Wong Chuan How was charged in various courts in the past several months so many times that this type of news is already stale to readers.

But why is the regime so ferocious as to go after a small personality (Wong was one of the many aides of Ronnie Liu)? What else, if it is not for political reasons to keep the Pakatan team under control so that they have no energy left to do other activities?

Is it not utterly shameful of MACC and the DPP for failing to nail Wong?

Not Confused: Wow, the MACC is really going overboard on persecuting yet another opposition member - appeal on appeal and over what? A few thousand ringgit. What about the billions of ringgit involving Sarawak Chief Minister Abdul Taib Mahmud? As usual, a shameful silence.

Gigento: The investigation cost alone on Wong must be more than RM5,000.

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