Stop subsidies to Umno-BN leaders, says SAPP
(FMT) KOTA KINABALU: The government has been advised to end the subsidies it grants Umno and BN leaders before considering changing its socio-economic policy.
Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP) president Yong Teck Lee said that subsidies such as the lucrative approved permits (APs) given to Umno leaders to import vehicles, cost the government much revenue.
He also pointed out that public funds were wasted when Umno and BN government leaders travelled around the country at government expense for their political activities.
“Shares in public listed companies issued to Umno leaders and public works contracts worth billions of ringgit are much talked-about ways that Umno divisional leaders are rewarded.
“As such, tax payers have been subsidising the high-flying, extravagant lives of some Umno and BN leaders all over Malaysia,” he said.
“For Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Idris Jala, a successful corporate leader, to warn of national bankruptcy in nine years is cause for great concern.
“But, before the government forces its so-called subsidy rationalisation plan on ordinary people, it must first remove all subsidies for Umno and its leaders at various levels,” he stressed in a statement issued today.
Yong also questioned the country’s careless manpower policy, its over-reliance on cheap foreign workers and what he said was a failed education system which has resulted in “a low-wage, low productivity local work force”.
He said this was highlighted by the fact that the salaries of general workers had remained stagnant the past 20 years.
Read more at: http://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/fmt-english/politics/sabah-and-sarawak/6366-stop-subsidies-to-umno-bn-leaders-says-sapp-
