Parti Sosialis Malaysia (PSM) has faulted the BN government for falling short of solutions for the real problems of the Malaysian economy in the government budget for 2014.

The budget, as presented by Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak last Friday, had no answers for income disparity, rising house prices, food imports or to reduce government leakages and wastages - all the issues making Malaysians sick, PSM said.

“Najib Abdul Razak believes that Malaysians have no thinking capacity beyond giveaways and they will not realise the mismatch between their version of the budget and the actual economic problems plaguing the society,” the party's honorary treasurer A Sivarajan said in a statement.

PSM urged the BN government to be responsible leaders now that the general election  was over.

“A responsible government introduces real solutions to solve socio-economic problems of the rakyat, not vote buying populist schemes,” it said, adding pessimistically that “BN will never be able to propose a solution as its policies for the last 56 years were a part of the problem itself”.

The PSM statement raised these questions:
  • On GST: Wouldn't the increase in the raw material for production of needy items also cause inflation, even as the items per se will be GST-free?
  • On minimum wages : How can the government enforce the minimum wage even with the tax relief as employers have refused even after Human Resources Ministry has given much leeway to them?
  • On corporate tax cuts: Why is the government favouring international capitalists who are already infamous for evading taxes?
  • On Highway projects:  If it is truly serious about public transport, shouldn't the government focus its resources on connecting the city with bus routes, trains and commuter services?
  • On housing prices: There is no meaning in letting market decide and claiming an affordable home to be priced at RM100,000. Is it really affordable for the bottom 20 percent?
  • On healthcare: Currently Malaysia is only spending 4.4 percent of GDP on the healthcare system. It should be well above 6 percent for a nation aspiring to be a middle income country.
  • On BR1M: How far can the one-off handout really help when costs of all items like food, education, transport, housing, health were on the rise?

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