BN paints town red, PSM tells it to declare designer watches, handbags first

GE15 | PSM is surprised that BN is painting the nation red for this general election with a manifesto containing promises right out of a socialist handbook.

In the past, PSM noted, the “capitalist coalition” was the stumbling block when the socialist party pushed for demands such as a universal basic income and free education for the lower-income group.

“Voters should be careful with parties which are only populist during campaign periods,” warned PSM deputy chairperson S Arutchelvan.

On the promise to eradicate absolute poverty, he said BN should start by instructing its candidates to declare their assets.

“They should reveal every designer watch and handbag they own.

“We all know some politicians and their spouses own such items, costing more than what a B40 person would be able to earn in his or her lifetime,” he told Malaysiakini.

Arutchelvan (above) pointed out that no nation in the world has eradicated poverty using a capitalist system.

Citing the New Economic Policy (NEP), he said the government managed to reduce the rate of destitution during the 20-year period but was unable to abolish it.

The NEP, introduced during second prime minister Abdul Razak Hussein’s tenure, was adopted in 1971 and was succeeded by the National Development Policy (NDP) in 1991 under Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s first stint as premier.

Widening income gap

Meanwhile, Arutchelvan said the income gap between the rich and poor in the country has been widening over the years.

“BN can only reduce abject poverty if they are able to give workers a decent living wage and try to flatten the curve. For a start, they should first declare their assets,” he added.

Arutchelvan also claimed that when some B40 workers from Perak and Sabak Bernam had gone to the BN office on Nov 3, nobody had come to receive their memorandum.

The workers wanted BN to support the eradication of the contract system and to absorb contract workers into the government which would resolve the poverty issue of over 400,000 workers.

Another notable promise in the BN manifesto was for employees to get a paid holiday on their birthdays to recognise the workers’ contribution to the nation.

Other policies targeting young workers include the promise to enact the Dependent Contractor Act, which BN chairperson Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said would protect the welfare and income of gig workers such as e-hailing drivers, food delivery drivers and so on.

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Incidentally, Zahid’s collection of expensive watches had also been under the microscope.

In 2015, three years before BN was booted out from Putrajaya, the then deputy premier defended his purchase of three luxury watches worth more than RM1 million in total.

Zahid had argued that he was a corporate figure before becoming a politician, so there was no reason to scrutinise the issue.

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