Wee: Highway tolls should be abolished as promised

PETALING JAYA: The government should understand the people’s struggles in facing a sluggish economy, the rising cost of living and falling commodity prices, says Datuk Seri Dr Wee Ka Siong.

The MCA president said the party also rejected the Prime Minister’s plea for the rakyat to understand why the government could not abolish highway toll charges as promised.

Dr Wee suggested that Damansara MP Tony Pua should present his previous pitch on how the government could abolish tolls and save taxpayer money.

In a GE14 campaign video in April last year, Pua spoke on how the government could abolish tolls because it was cheaper to buy back than to pay billions of ringgit to highway concessionaires.

The video promoted one of the many Pakatan Harapan pledges, which was to abolish highway tolls.

“The Pakatan government should be aware that the people today know that the national debt has increased from RM686bil during Barisan Nasional’s time to over RM800bil,” Dr Wee said in a post on Facebook.

He also highlighted Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia political science lecturer Abdul Muein Abadi’s previous claims that the government sold over RM20bil in national assets.

“Why and where did the money go? There have not been any new development projects. Pakatan leaders have only been officiating projects left by Barisan,” he said.

On Thursday, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad asked for the public’s understanding over problems faced by the government in fulfilling Pakatan’s promise to abolish highway toll charges.

Admitting that the Pakatan manifesto promised toll-free roads, Dr Mahathir said if tolls were abolished, the government would have to buy over the highways.

“This costs billions, and we don’t have the money,” he said, adding that whoever took over the highway concession would have to bill the users for the acquisition and maintenance of the highways.