THE Pakatan Harapan Committee on Cost of Living mulls on holding protests at all 222 parliamentary constituencies if the Government fails to act on the soaring cost living affecting Malaysians.
“We will be submitting the proposal to the presidential council so that we can get together with the public to hold protests in all parliamentary constituencies in the country.
“The least we can do is hold flash mobs at the constituencies,” it said in a statement.
On June 21, the Government announced that it would abolish subsidies for bottled cooking oil and lift the ceiling price for chicken and eggs and raise utility rates.
Following criticism from many quarters, Putrajaya backtracked on the matter three days later.
“The Government decided the price of chicken in the market will not be floated. The new ceiling price will be announced in the near future by the minister.
“And we will retain electricity and water tariff in Peninsular Malaysia as it is,” Malaysiakini reported Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob as saying.
On that note, the committee urged the Government to retain subsidies and keep utility rates at the current rate given that inflationary pressures are now affecting every household in the country.
Spend prudently
Offering solutions on how to mitigate the problem, Pakatan leaders urged the Government to start the ball rolling by slashing allowances of the Cabinet team and their deputies.
The committee added that the Government should also cut back on unnecessary travels to foreign countries by ministers and cancel their leave allowance for the year.
“The Government should also shrink its Cabinet team and end the special envoy posts to India, China, the US and Middle East.
“We should also revise the perks enjoyed by CEOs and directors of government-linked companies (GLC) and government-linked investment companies (GLIC),” it mentioned.
With that said, the committee also urged the Government to cancel all mega projects which does not benefit Malaysians such as MRT3, ECRL and Bandar Malaysia (TR-Exchange).
“We should also use taxpayers’ money efficiently like the sum collected under the Prosperity Tax to help the target groups,” it concluded. – June 27, 2022
