Keep ceiling prices and subsidies.
Govt urged to:
- Reduce number of ministries
- Lower salaries of Cabinet members
- Reduce allowance of ministers and deputies, especially for holidays and travel abroad
- Terminate appointment of special envoys to the Middle East, India, China and the US
- Review salaries, allowances of top executives and directors of GLCs, statutory bodies
- Suspend mega projects to free up funds to address living-cost crisis
- Suspend massive infrastructure projects such as the MRT3, ECRL and Bandar Malaysia as these would not immediately benefit the country
Pakatan Harapan (PH) today announced a public conference to be held in the Dewan Tabung Haji in Kelana Jaya, Selangor on July 2 as a platform for discourse on the rising costs of living and the prices of goods.
The event called Sidang Nadi Rakyat (Malay for “Conference of the People’s Pulse”) will allow voters to speak up and influence policymakers on fundamental that also include education, public transport and discrimination against women and youths.
The conference will be attended by all leaders and Members of Parliament of Pakatan Harapan. The closing of the session will be made by Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim as the Chairman of Pakatan Harapan.
Yesterday, PH again urged the federal government to maintain the ceiling price of chicken and chicken eggs, as well as bottled cooking oil subsidies describing the removal of these measures as “half-baked and hasty”.
The federal government should institute immediate cost-cutting measures such as freezing all official trips abroad and suspending mega projects to free up funds to address Malaysia’s living cost crisis, said a Pakatan Harapan (PH) committee.
The coalition’s cost of living committee also suggested that Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob’s administration reduce the number of ministries and lower the salaries of Cabinet members as part of this austerity drive.
It said these measures should have been attempted first before revoking subsidies that would further expose Malaysians, especially the B40 income category, to rising prices they were already struggling to pay.
“We take very seriously the government’s move to revoke the food subsidies. We find the move half-baked, irresponsible and rushed, as it will only further burden the already struggling public.
“We want the government to rethink their strategies and return those subsidies before July 1 as by then the prices of essentials will rise,” the committee said in a statement.
Aside from the cuts it proposed, it also recommended reducing the allowances of ministers and their deputies, especially those for holidays and travel abroad.
The PM should also terminate the appointment of his special envoys to the Middle East, India, China and the US who were each the equivalent of federal ministers and entitled to similar salaries and allowances, the committee said.
It further recommended a review of the salaries and allowances paid to the top executives and directors of government-linked corporations and statutory bodies.
The government should additionally suspend massive infrastructure projects such as the MRT3, ECRL and Bandar Malaysia as these would not immediately benefit the country that was facing a cost-of-living crisis.
“Apart from that, this committee wants the ceiling prices on chickens and eggs to be maintained as well as the subsidies to breeders to continue so they won’t suffer from supply chain issues.
“The price of RON95 petrol should also be kept at RM2 per litre and the proposal to increase water and electricity tariffs should be abolished for everyone’s benefit.”