GE13: BN manifesto a Pakatan ‘copy’
(The Star) – “When Barisan criticises us that the Opposition will bankrupt the country with our manifesto, they should be looking at themselves”
The Opposition has called Barisan Nasional’s manifesto a carbon copy of Pakatan Rakyat’s policies.
DAP national organising secretary Anthony Loke said that the Barisan’s promise to gradually increase the BR1M handouts to RM1,200 for each household and RM600 for single people was clearly aimed at giving out goodies to win the general election.
He added that increasing the BR1M handouts by more than 100% would increase the financial allocation for BR1M to about RM6bil a year.
“In the Pakatan manifesto we only promise cash handouts for senior citizens as a form of appreciation to them.
“When Barisan criticises us that the Opposition will bankrupt the country with our manifesto, they should be looking at themselves,” he said.
PKR strategy director Rafizi Ramli, who is head of the party’s Lower Car Prices campaign, said that Barisan’s promise to revamp the National Automotive Policy and lowering car prices by 20% to 30% would be meaningless unless the excise duties were abolished.
“Barisan’s revamp on car prices is mostly cosmetic and won’t appease the public. Anything short of a complete revamp will backfire on them,” he added.
PAS vice-president Datuk Mahfuz Omar said that increasing the 1Malaysia People’s Aid would not address the issue of rising living costs.
He said it was more important to expand the people’s disposable incomes by reducing oil tariffs, removing toll charges for the North-South Expressway and abolishing excise duties for vehicles.
“Such measures will have more far-reaching effects in reducing the prices of consumer goods,” he added.
PSM central committee member Dr Michael Jeyakumar Devaraj said the Barisan had allowed commercialism to get out of control, causing the prices of food, housing, healthcare and education to go up.
“The Barisan had offered to build homes at RM200,000 each. Such houses will not be affordable to those earning RM3,000 and less,” he added.
PKR Wanita chief Zuraida Kamaruddin said that no target had been set in the Barisan manifesto on the participation of women in national decision- making policies.
“There is no yardstick on how this will be achieved and as it is, we only have one woman minister (Tourism Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ng Yen Yen),” she said.
