‘1Malaysia, People First, Performance Now’. How nice, but wait. What does the ‘1Malaysia’ government mean by ‘people first’?

If ‘1Malaysia’ is truly ‘People First’, why is it that the 2010 Budget is looking to introduce new taxes (some with fancy names) to tax more people and to tax people more? GST, RPGT, and credit card tax are prime examples of a ‘1Malaysia’ government ‘taking care’ of the people by taxing more people with more taxes. To ‘widen the government tax base’, said the ‘1Malaysia’ government. What does that mean?

Let see, before this GST, short for ‘Goods and Services Tax’, only 1.4 million of the 26 million of Malaysians had to pay tax. With GST, a baby just out of the womb of its mother will have to pay tax. The moment the mother buy diapers for the baby, the baby is taxed. So, is this ‘people first’?

Before credit card tax, small business owners and many income earners relied on their credit cards to pay bills, settle outstanding payments etc. It's one of the most convenient micro-credit services available from Malaysian financial institutions for the people.

Now this service has become taxable. Out of nowhere, suddenly there are extra taxes ordinary people on the street have to pay. So, this is how the people are becoming ‘first’ according to ‘1Malaysia’ budget.

RPGT is short for ‘Real Property Gains Tax’. It is not enough that the people have to service a lifelong loan just to own a roof over their heads. Now this has become taxable, adding more burden to the people. On average, we pay installments for 20 years for a house. After 20 years top finish paying the mortgage, when we want to sell the house, we now have to pay tax.

The cost of the house might be RM200K when we bought it, but after taking into account the interest for the loan, it might have gone up to RM400K. And when we sell it for RM400K, the government is going to tax us on the so-called RM200K profit, conveniently forgetting that the RM200K is not profit at all - it is the cost incurred by the interest paid for that long 20-year loan. So, this is what the ‘1Malaysia’ people mean: tax them for their houses.

NAP, short for National Automotive Policy, is a policy that allows for the continuation of the Approved Permit scheme until 2015. What guarantee is there that the ‘1Malaysia’ government will not extend the life of the scheme after 2015? From the track record of the ‘1Malaysia’ government, the APs of NAP will most likely be continued way beyond 2015 while the people have to pay more for their cars.

With the NAP, the people have to pay double of what our neighbor up north (Thailand) pay to own the same type of cars. The people here have to take up to a nine-year loan to own a car now. So, this is how the ‘1Malaysia’ government is taking care of the people? By making the people pay double for a car and to having to pay lifelong loan to own a car? Great.

So we are too poor or too old to own a new car. That is still not enough, ‘1Malaysia’ wants to stop importing second-hand car parts to prevent us from repairing our old cars with used parts. It's safer that way, the ‘1Malaysia’ government says. But wait, how about old cars that can't find new parts? Sorry, we didn't think of that, the ‘1Malaysia’ government says. So, that's what ‘people first’ means to the ‘1Malaysia’ government.

When the Selangor menteri besar wanted to declassify documents to tell the people what really caused the landslide at Bukit Antarabangsa that costing people their homes, the ‘1Malaysia’ government threatened to sue the menteri besar to stop him from telling the people the truth.

So, this is what ‘people first’ means - don't let them know the truth. We will stop the mentri besar in the interests of ‘national security’ that's what ‘1Malaysia’ tells the people. But why are documents detailing a landslide a matter of national security? No one in the ‘1Malaysia’ government bothers to tell the people this. So that's how people become ‘first’.

The ‘1Malaysia’ government is going to privatise more public services in the future. To cut costs, they say. But wait, 40 over years of privatisation has shown only one trend. Services have become worse and more expensive to the people.

So, this is what ‘people first’ means - by making us pay more for our trash to be collected, making us pay more for our water, making us pay more for our electricity, making us pay more for using tolled roads and making us pay more for sewage services (which should have been covered in our water bill in the first place like in most other countries).

Well, what can we do? But ‘1Malaysia’ is ‘people first’. So, I wonder, if ‘1Malaysia’ really mean ‘people first’ or does it really mean people pay first?