‘Lower cost not in sight with SST’

There’s no guarantee prices will go down under new tax, says Wee

BALAKONG: There was no drop in prices of at least 70% of goods and services in the country when Pakatan Harapan zerorated the Goods and Services Tax (GST) from June to August, says Datuk Seri Dr Wee Ka Siong.

With the Sales and Service Tax (SST) having taken effect on Sept 1, the MCA deputy president said relief from the high cost of living “is not in sight”.

“Even some in Pakatan admit that there is no guarantee that prices will come down (under SST),” Dr Wee said during a ceramah yesterday in support of his party’s candidate for the Balakong state byelection.

He said while the MCA respected and accepted the GE14 results, Dr Wee said there was a serious need for check and balance from the opposition on Pakatan, which he said had been good in finding excuses to justify their “flipflop” actions.

Reading out what he said was a list of Pakatan’s actions that were contrary to its pledges in its GE14 manifesto, Dr Wee said there was a need for the people to send a strong message to the government.

“The message is to never take our support for granted and belittle us,” he added.

The former minister also high lighted what he described as the “deafening silence” from the DAP when Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad announced his plan to have a third national car project recently.

The project was obviously not beneficial to the people, especially when the Pakatan government claimed that the country’ debt was more than RM1 trillion, he said.

“In fact, the DAP was the biggest critic of Tun Mahathir’s first national car, the Proton Saga, which the party nicknamed ‘ ben dan, sha gua’ meaning fool or idiot in Mandarin,” Dr Wee said.

He also reminded Lim Guan Eng not to underestimate the people’s intelligence when the Finance Minister said government funds would not be used for the third national car project.

MCA president Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai, who also spoke at the ceramah, chided Lim for referring to himself as a Malaysian and not a Chinese.

“We are Chinese and we are Malaysians and this is a fact,” said Liow.

Liow said that since its formation in 1949, the MCA had led and helped the Chinese community settle down in the country and never sold the dignity of the race.

He urged the DAP not to hurl baseless accusations like branding MCA as racist when the party fought to defend the rights of the Chinese.

Liow said it was the DAP that had betrayed the trust of the Chinese community, citing Pakatan’s promise to recognise the Unified Examination in 30 days from the day it formed the government.

“More than 100 days have passed and the Education Minister has given all sorts of excuses for an in depth study in the coming five years before considering the recognition,” he said.

We are Chinese and we are Malaysians and this is a fact. Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai