I wish to express my thanks to Seri Paduka Baginda Yang Dipertuan Agong for Royal address in this August House.
Today, Malaysia has reached its lowest ebb of confidence in the way the country is run. We have a Prime Minister who has earned the country the title of No.3 Worst Corruption Scandal in 2015. A Prime Minister who is embroiled in the RM42 billion 1MDB scandal. A Prime Minister who has had RM2.6 billion deposited into his private account.
Yet, when investigation into his scandals was underway, the Attorney-General was changed, the Public Accounts Committee chairman was changed, 2 MACC directors transferred to the Prime Minister’s Office, although subsequently the 2 directors were reinstated. Even his second in command, the Deputy Prime Minister was sacked for speaking on the 1MDB scandal.
Although the newly appointed AG almost immediately cleared the Prime Minister of any corruption or criminal offences, internationally the global investigation on the 1MDB fund has revealed that more than US$1 billion has actually been deposited into his account. Locally, no Malaysian is convinced that he is innocent.
The general perception of the Rakyat is that the Prime Minister has legitimised corruption. Along the way, he has single-handedly destroyed the integrity of Bank Negara, the MACC, the AG’s Chamber and the Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee.
In addition, with the clampdown of the freedom of speech, the blocking of the news portal The Malaysian Insider and the Sarawak Report, the blatant prosecution and persecution of Opposition leaders who spoke against him on the 1MDB and RM2.6 billion scandal, Najib is now undoubtedly the king of scandals and also a seemingly untouchable dictator.
He is now the cause of the loss of confidence and hope in Malaysia amongst many Malaysians. Many are of the view that unless Najib steps down, the country has no hope.
That was the main reason that led to the signing of the “Citizens’ Declaration” last week by a combination of Opposition leaders, NGOs, the ex-Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir and the ex-Deputy Prime Minister and MP for Pagoh Muhyiddin Yassin. People whom, before last Friday, no one in the wildest dreams would expect to see sitting together doing something in common. But this strange coalition of forces definitely gives a new hope for change and to save Malaysia from the destruction course led by Najib.
Many in the BN are trying to belittle the participation of Tun Dr Mahathir in the signing of this Citizens’ Declaration and calling him a spent force in politics. But at the back of their minds, we are all aware that this coming together and joining in force of the Opposition leaders and Tun Mahathir may spell the beginning of breakup of Barisan Nasional and UMNO, leading to a totally new alignment of the political landscape of Malaysia
Therefore, I call upon the 25 Members of Parliament from Sarawak BN, it is time to cut ties with UMNO. Your Chief Minister and leaders in Sarawak have all spoken against UMNO, acknowledging that it is a racist party and the cause for the racial tension in West Malaysia.
It does not make sense that on the one hand, Sarawak BN is speaking against the UMNO in Sarawak but on the other hand, you continue to support UMNO to run this country. It does not also make sense that while your Chief Minister in Sarawak wants to have clean and good governance but yet you continue to be led by a scandal-plagued Prime Minister. Unless all these talk against UMNO in Sarawak by your Chief Minister and BN leaders in Sarawak are only for show and an act of hypocrisy to woo the support of the voters in the coming state elections.
At present, BN has 134 (including 25 from Sarawak) MPs out of the total 222 MPs in this August House. If Sarawak BN MPs withdraw their support for Najib, the UMNO-led BN will immediately become a minority Government. Furthermore, we have now Pagoh and Semporna who have openly expressed their non-support to Najib and I believe many others in BN share the same feelings quietly.
This is the time to make the difference and more importantly, it is time to show all Malaysians that Sarawak can lead the change to save our country.
The main concern of the people wth regard to the country’s economy is our livelihood. The economic issues that I would like to bring up in this August House today is not about the flowery statistics presented by the Government year in year out.
I wish to talk about how the common people actually feels on the ground.
The strange phenomena about the Malaysian economy is that, when the international oil price was high, the Rakyat suffers as a result of increasing costs of living. Despite the windfall in revenue for the BN Government from high oil prices, the Government cuts the subsidy for oil and gas, causing inflation and hardship to the people.
However, when the international oil price drops, the BN Government tells us that its oil revenue has dropped, therefore it has to cut spending and subsidies on the people, and even cut down on the JPA scholarships and investment in education. At the end of the day, the people also suffer from escalating costs of living.
It seems that no matter which way the price of oil goes, ultimately the Rakyat are the ones who suffer. “Head the people lose, tail the people also lose.” The only people who gains all the time are UMNO cronies who benefit from the lucrative contracts from the Government.
It is the policy of the BN Government that instead of stopping the wasteful spending and corruption in the system, it is actually systematically ripping the people off to offset its financial predicament.
First, the Government cut subsidies on the basic necessities for the people, subsidy on petrol, diesel, sugar, rice, cooking oil.
Second, when these cuts on subsidy for the people is not enough, the government imposes direct taxation on the people through GST, taxing everyone including the poor.
Thirdly, when these extra taxes on the people is still not enough to save the government’s coffer, the government reduces the investment on our future generation by cutting down the expenditure on higher education and scholarship for the students.
Fourthly, when all these are still not enough, the government legislates to use our retirement fund by reducing the EPF contribution by the employees and encourage the people to spend on their retirement fund.
The first 2 items, ie. cuts in subsidy and the imposition of GST, have increased the costs of living of the people.
Though the Ministers have ridiculously assured the Rakyat that prices of goods will come down with the introduction of GST, but in reality, the contrary happens. Those most badly-hit by GST are the working class and rural folks.
But not only the consumers suffer, the business sector are also badly affected. In general, after months of introduction of the GST, business dropped by more than 30% across the board.
It is a shame that when the whole country is suffering under GST, our Prime Minister seems very happy with the implementation of GST, thanking the GST for saving the Government’s coffers.
My next question is: Given the reliance on GST as one of the main sources of revenue for the government, when and by how much is the Government going to increase the rate of GST?
In an answer I received from the Finance Minister in May 2015, due to the fall in international oil prices from the estimated US$100 per barrel at the time of presentation of Budget 2015 to the revised estimate of US$55 per barrel in May 2015, the estimated revenue for the Government from petroleum-related production decreases from RM62.4 billion to RM47.9 billion, a decrease of RM14.5 billion. Given that the international oil prices have dropped way below US$55 per barrel in 2015, the decrease in the estimated revenue of the government is surely greater that RM14.5 billion.
The GST rate of 6% was fixed with the expectation of oil prices staying at US$100 per barrel. Now that the oil revenue has dropped by more RM14.5 billion, how is the Government going to make up for the loss of revenue due to the drop in the oil price?
Is the Government going to increase the GST rates next year or after the Sarawak elections? And by how much is the Government going to increase the GST rate?
Many Sarawak youths are working in the oil and gas sector, especially the Dayaks. Due to the fall in oil prices, we will be expecting a lot of retrenchment in the oil and gas sector. In fact, many of them have already been laid off. The same goes to the financial sectors where we are expecting large number of retrenchment due to the economic downturn. Most of them have financial obligations to repay their housing loans and car loans.
What plan does the government have to help these retrenched oil and gas employees or the retrenched workers in Sarawak? Is the Government going to just sit back and leave them to fend for themselves and have their cars repossessed and houses auctioned off?
I propose that the Government to direct the banking sectors to take a haircut, stop charging interest on the loans given to these retrenched workers and reduce their instalment repayment amount.
I further propose that a special fund be set aside for retraining purpose and assistance to help these retrenched workers to look for other employment.
3. Tuan Chong Chieng Jen minta Menteri Kewangan menyatakan setakat 30-4-2015, apakah perbezaan hasil sebenar yang dikutip oleh Kerajaan dari pengeluaran minyak berbanding dengan hasil anggaran itu yang dibuat dalam Bajet 2015, khususnya akibat daripada penurunan harga minyak antarabangsa.
(28-05-2015)
Setakat 30 April 2015, jumlah hasil berkaitan petroleum Kerajaan Persekutuan adalah RM14.7 bilion atau 30.7% daripada jumlah anggaran disemak hasil berkaitan petroleum bagi tahun 2015, iaitu RM47.9 bilion, berdasarkan asas harga purata minyak mentah Brent USD55 setong. Untuk makluman Yang Berhormat, anggaran asal hasil berkaitan petroleum Kerajaan Persekutuan yang dibuat semasa pembentangan Bajet 2015 pada Oktober 2014 adalah sebanyak RM62.4 bilion, iaitu dengan harga purata minyak mentah sebanyak USD100 setong.
In 1963, when we Sarawak agreed to form Malaysia, it is the vision of our founding fathers that Malaysia will be a country where all are equal. Sarawak is to be regarded as equal partners and as one of the 3 territories that formed Malaysia.
After 53 years, Sarawak is reduced to one of the 13 states in Malaysia. The Federal Constitution was also amended to provide for the reduction of the Sarawak’s status from one of the 3 territories in Malaysia to 1 of the 13 states in Malaysia. The level of infrastructural development in Sarawak is at least 20 years behind Semenanjung Malaysia.
Instead of becoming an equal partner with Semenanjung Malaysia, Sarawak has now become a colony of Putrajaya.
With such unfair treatment of Sarawak, and given the dismal state of affairs in West Malaysia, with the Prime Minister involves in scandal after scandal, the depreciating Ringgit, the imposition of GST, the rising racial tension, the flip-flop in education policies and the lack of direction of the whole country, there is now a increasing demands from Sarawakians that autonomy be returned to Sarawak in certain matters. We want to manage our own affairs.
In January, this year, the Chief Minister of Sarawak met with the Prime Minister and claimed that he has successfully fought for the devolution of power to the State in 13 matters.
However, upon closer study, these so-called devolution of power in 13 areas are merely on “administrative power”, not the true autonomy that Sarawakians want.
What the Member for Sibuti mentioned just now is “autonomi pentadbiran” and Sibuti seems to be happy with merely these administrative autonomy.
There is a vast difference between autonomy and administrative autonomy.
For true autonomy, the State government should have the money and the power to make its own policies and planning. Whereas for administrative autonomy, the policy is still determined by the Federal Government who controls the money, the State Government only has the power to determine how to execute the policies that are made by the Federal Government.
I wish to reiterate, we Sarawakians want true autonomy, not mere administrative autonomy. For true autonomy, the State Government must first have the power to collect tax revenue.
Therefore, DAP had previously proposed the following:
- To return to the Sarawak State Government
- To review the Ninth Schedule of the Federal Constitution to devolve powers of education, health care and internal security to Sarawak.
(a) 20% Oil and Gas Royalty as compensation in lieu of oil and gas rights; and
(b) 50% of all tax revenue (including income tax and GST) generated and collected in Sarawak.
In particular, with regard to the matter of education, we want to have the rights to write our own school syllabus and we want to revive the English-medium mission schools so that parents will have a choice of sending their kids to either Bahasa Malaysia-medium, English-medium or Chinese-medium schools.
It must be noted that without the rights to tax revenue, there can never be any autonomy for Sarawak. At most, it is only the “pretence of autonomy” and that was exactly what Adenan got from Najib in January, 2016
In May, 2014, the Sarawak assembly passed a motion to give the mandate to the State Government to demand for the increase in Sarawak’s Oil and Gas Royalty as compensation in lieu of oil and gas rights from 5% to 20%. This motion had the unanimous support from both sides of the asembly.
Sad to say, 22 months have passed and still nothing has come out of that. Instead of advancing in the demand, the State Government has retreated. What was once the top priority in Adenan’s agenda is now relegated to the last matter on his list of demands.
This only shows that the BN government is not willing to give in to the demand for 20% oil and gas royalty for Sarawak.
The Sarawak CM is now using the drop in international oil prices as an excuse to cover up his failure to get the 20% oil and gas royalty for Sarawak. Anyone will know that this is the best time for Sarawak to get the 20% oil royalty because:
- given the low oil prices, the amount involved in the increase from the 5% to 20% will not be as much had the oil price is at US$100;
- The Federal Government just received an extra windfall revenue from the implementation of GST in 2015;
- The number of Sarawak BN MPs (25 of them) hold the key the Federal Government. This is what we call the “kingmaker” position. Sarawakians’ wishes ought to be given priority; and
- Sarawak Elections is just around the corner and Najib needs a bigger BN win in Sarawak to secure his position as the Prime Minister.
Even with such favourable conditions, the Federal Government is still not willing to return to Sarawak State Government the 20% Oil and Gas Royalty. Therefore, there is no hope of getting the said 20% from within BN.
For the sake of Sarawak, once again, I call upon the 25 Sarawak BN MPs to withdraw from the UMNO-led BN. Capitalise on your kingmaker position to get the 20% oil and gas royalty for Sarawak.