SHAH ALAM, OCT 27: The Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s statement that his government’s effort to reduce the peoples’ burden in facing the current economic woes is beginning to show result was described as ridiculous.
Terengganu KEADILAN Chairman, Azan Ismail said the reality is that citizens are increasingly burdened and many are still poor.
“Although the monthly household income median which was RM4,585 in 2014 had increased nominally at 6.6% yearly to RM5,228 in 2016, it is yet a measurement that the government can crow showing the people are now comfortable and free from misery.
“What about price increase of goods that is burdening the people and not consistent with their income?
“Fuel cost increase for example has caused transportation to become expensive, forming a chain-reaction to the cost increase of other living expenditure,” he said in a statement today.
Last Oct 20, Najib said the government’s efforts had begun to show results when the income of people in B40 lower-income and M40 middle-income groups have increased significantly.
Citing Consumer Price Index (CPI) as an example, the Bandar Assemblyman said, for March 2017, CPI had rose to 5.1% from 4.5% in February 2017 due to the sharp increase in price of goods and services in transportation.
“This has clearly impacted the people badly. Does the government think about this?
“Not just that, the rising inflation rate has also affected cost of living and has been record high since the world financial crisis a decade ago.
“In fact, Malaysia recorded 4.3% inflation rate in September, the highest since March due to increase in transportation cost and non-alcoholic food and beverages,” he said.
He said, the Goods and Service Tax (GST) has also not been a help at all to reduce the burden on the people, but on the contrary, it has added more pressure to the people and increased urban poverty.
“The Bantuan Rakyat 1Malaysia (BR1M) has also not been mush help as it is more of a temporary one-off offering.
“Najib please stop fooling the people, they have opened their eyes and can evaluate wisely,” he said.
