YOURSAY 'The Malays are suffering and the BN government is not listening.'
Over 50k throng anti-GST May Day rally
Chitra-ngada: The rakyat have every right to peacefully protest the implementation of GST (Goods and Services Tax).
Especially since the government has failed to account for all the leakages (just look at each year's Auditor-General's Report), corruption (RM250 million to National Feedlot Corporation, 'fees' for Scorpene submarines and too numerous to list here) and wastage.
Which business can survive if spending invariably exceeds earnings because of poor money management, poor governance, extensive corruption, leakages and sinful wastage? The current government has a dismal record of governance.
Through all of the above, they have sucked the rakyat dry in spite of all the price hikes and income taxes. Are we going to allow them to tax us further through GST only for them to squander the extra money as frivolously as they are doing now?
If they don't manage the country's money well, no amount of money collected would be enough to finance their numerous and expensive follies. Let us unite and protest GST and all the other unfair laws for the sake of all Malaysians.
Mushiro: My estimate of the crowd (at yesterday's anti-GST rally):
Ethnicity: 70% Malays, 20% Chinese, 6% Indians, 4% others.
Age group: 20% between 20 to 30 years, 19% between 30 to 40 years, 17% between 40 to 50 years, 14% between 50 to 60 years, and 10% above 60 years.
Gender: Men 70%, women, 30%.
It was well organised, well synchronised and well coordinated. The police were there just to show their presence. PAS' Unit Amal was without question superb and enforced the peace.
Thanks to the police for their benign gesture. The main focus was clearly anti-GST with minor battle cries for other causes. I salute the people for braving the fear, the misinformation and the heat to stand up for their cause.
Fairnessforall: To answer the idiotic Gerakan Youth chief Tan Keng Liang why the protestors were mostly Malays, this should tell you that the Malays are most affected by the GST and if BN still proceeds to implement it, that will tell the Malays that BN does not give a damn about them.
Anonymous_1398315636: Yes, the majority at the rally were Malays, but I feel at least 15 to 20 percent of the protestors were Chinese, which is not a bad turnout for the protest-shy community Chinese.
Anonymous_1380012186: If there are really more Malays in this anti-GST rally, the more reason for BN to be fearful, especially Umno. What it means is the majority of the races are suffering and the BN government is not listening and does not care.
Swipenter: Corruption, wastage and leakages are the biggest contributors to our cost of living. These three rob our wealth. They make everything expensive for us but contribute nothing productive to the economy.
On the other hand, huge illicit capital outflows are a direct result of corruption. This small class of corrupt Malaysians is super rich comprising the elite Umnoputras, their cronies, the politically well-connected and their friends and family members. They stash and protect their ill-gotten gains overseas.
For the past two years, I find myself struggling to stretch my ringgit as a result of inflation. Our country is endowed with so much natural resources and we are sheltered from natural disasters, but where has all our money gone to?
Kick out the corrupt Umno Baru government and half our problems would go away in a short time.
Casey: The callous privatisation and systematic plundering of national resources and taxpayers' money initiated or condoned by former PM Dr Mahathir Mohamad - which unfortunately is being followed through by the powers-that-be today - had created widespread rent-seeking that has permeated every level of the national economy, whether it involves the provision of utilities like electricity and water, or transportation, or the requirement for approved permits (APs) from cars to rice and sugar.
Excessive profits have been channeled to the hands of a few while the costs are distributed and borne by the nation. The negative effects from cost-pushed inflation and the reduction in disposable incomes have inhibited domestic consumption and quality of life for the people.
As things stand now, life is already hard; with the introduction of GST, can the 'man on the street' be burdened further?
PM Najib Razak has not only failed to address the gross abuse and mismanagement of the government - that had started with Mahathir - he has further compounded the decay by allowing or tolerating or partaking in its rotting process.
Despite Mahathir’s claim to the contrary, it is the people who are the masters. As I can’t put it in better perspective, I shall reproduce, verbatim, the excerpt from the Declaration of Rights that says it all:
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
"That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed - that whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute a new government..."
Waktamnoko: I bet those 20 hooligans in black were sent by certain parties out to disrupt the rally. But I think that they were no match for the PAS Amal Unit group.
Well, we really should sympathise with these guys. Their parents did try to teach them manners but it's just not possible as stupidity was in their blood.
Awakened: Why other countries saw no protests when GST was implemented? It is because these governments have minimal taxes on cars which is a necessity for Malaysians because of poor public transport.
Why the Malaysian government did not invest in public transport? It is to protect Proton, a failed venture by the Mahathir government.
Today, Malaysians are already paying taxes through the nose. Many Malaysians were sued for bankruptcy because they are unable to continue their monthly instalment on cars.
Basically: The government has been using technical arguments in favour of the GST, which are not wrong in theory.
However, it is still horribly obscene to implement this new tax when the government itself has shown absolutely no remorse in spending like there is no tomorrow. That's why the people are angry.
Ferdtan: The BN government under Najib thought wrongly that the GST issue will not cause people to rise up to protest as it can be said to be complicated (and not exciting at the same time).
The new tax has not been implemented yet and as such many ordinary Malaysians still find it hard to grasp its taxing system, and most importantly, its implication to their pockets.
Bearing that in mind, it is extraordinary that PAS under the able leadership of Mohamad Sabu with the support of NGOs and Pakatan coalition partners was able to make this anti-GST a big success.
Many discounted the impact of the rally saying that the majority of the crowd were Malays. It looks like it; and for that reason alone - with so many Malays coming out to protest against something as mundane as GST - Umno has real reason to fear the opposition.
The communication regarding the negative impact of GST to the people has been effective. Umno only fear when people from their core support group rise up against them - the Malays. And there were many at the rally.
There was a silent message (a warning) incidentally from the rally to Umno that if Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim were to be sent to jail in the coming months, after his appeal to the Federal Court, there is no stopping such huge crowd will not appear again in the streets.
Quigonbond: Congratulations to the participants and the police. GST may be an economic cure for fiscal aberration, but those aberrations aren't going away until the structural issues are resolved.
We need to plug the loop holes in wastage, directly negotiated concessions, abuse of power, civil service incompetence and corruption.
The GST discussion cannot take place without also talking about how they are going to improve (by leaps and bounds) on those other pressing issues.
The above is a selection of comments posted by Malaysiakini subscribers. Only paying subscribers can post comments. Over the past one year, Malaysiakinians have posted over 100,000 comments. Join the Malaysiakini community and help set the news agenda. Subscribe now .
