KUALA LUMPUR, 10 Jan: The statement made by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak that the Barisan Nasional (BN) Government will ensure that the increase in toll rates, which has yet to be finalised, will not burden the people, has once again scarred the people’s hearts.
The Malaysia PAS Youth Chief, Suhaizan Kaiat, said that BN should understand the language of the people that ‘every increase is a burden’.
He said that to the people there is no term that says ‘an increase that is not burdensome’ and that the statement has been issued by the mouths of BN ministers for a long time, but the people are the ones shouldering the burden.
“We still remember, before the election they promised to reduce the toll rates in stages.
“But today, they did not fulfil that promise when they want to further increase the toll rate,” he said, quoted from Harakah Daily today.
Yesterday, the Prime Minister stressed that the government has not yet decided on the toll hike and consideration regarding the matter will only be decided after in-depth laboratory research is carried out.
Najib said that laboratory studies are important because the government wants the best approach to ensure that ‘users are not burdened’ if the announcement that the new toll rate needs to be done because delays, as demanded from concessionaires, have been carried out since 2008.
In relation to that, Suhaizan said that the steps that should be taken if BN is a government that is responsible for safeguarding the people’s welfare is to research reducing prices, thus eliminating tolls in the future rather than researching to increase.
“This is the significant weaknesses of the BN government today. All research done by laboratories is for the purpose of increasing prices. Price has increased for petrol, toll, sugar, electricity, cooking gas, ice, and we expect for more goods to increase in price.
“This does not include the chain effect from the increases that have caused the cost of services, groceries as well as food to increase dramatically,” he said.
He also stressed that of BN leaders have difficulty in understanding the language of the people’s complaints, then the people are ready to use the language of ‘the street’ to protest.
