Mah: Stop bickering and ease burden of the people

PETALING JAYA: Pakatan Harapan should stop the political bickering and instead focus on the people’s daily struggles with the rising cost of living, said MCA deputy president Datuk Dr Mah Hang Soon.

He said the economy had faced extreme internal and external challenges since the change of government following the 14th General Election.

He said Malaysians now had to dig deeper into their pockets due to the price increase for items and services since the start of this year.

“Since Jan 1 this year, the menu prices at fast food restaurants have increased steadily and even childcare centre fees have risen.

“For businesses, increasing operating costs due to hikes in commercial electricity tariffs will be passed on to the consumers in the end.

“As an ordinary folk, when one suffers a headache due to mounting pressures from uncertain economic prospects, stagnant salaries and rising cost of living, and wishes to relieve that headache with painkiller, one realises that even the price of painkillers has increased,” he said in a statement yesterday.

Dr Mah said it seemed that the Pakatan government was only keen on political bickering, whether internally or in public.

“They disregard the people’s daily struggles with the rising cost of living.

“If such political bickering persists, the country’s economy will never improve, while the people’s lives will get even worse,” he said.

According to data released by the Statistics Department last November, loan applications fell by 24.3% in comparison to 2017, while banks were also stricter in approving loan applications, whereby the loan approval rate fell by 6.7% within the same period, he said.

“It shows that people and businesses are generally pessimistic towards the country’s economic prospects, while banks are getting stricter in approving loan applications,” he said.

Dr Mah added that Malaysia’s export performance in 2018 was affected by international factors, declining prices of commodities and manufacturing industries.

“This has also resulted in Malaysia’s export falling by 1.6% last year compared to 2017,” he said.