GE14: A contest between two Umnos
Whichever side we vote for, we’ll still be ruled by Umno.
Tan Ming Ho, Free Malaysia Today
The choice voters have in next week’s polls, really, is between two Umnos.
Many of the most prominent figures in Pakatan Harapan – Dr Mahathir Mohamad, Anwar Ibrahim and Muhyiddin Yassin, for example – used to be strongmen in Umno and it’s hard to completely dissociate them from that party. We also think of recent vocal supporters of Pakatan like Daim Zainuddin and Rafidah Aziz as essentially Umno personalities.
To simplify matters, let’s just call these people members of Old Umno and refer to the party that’s currently in power as New Umno (not to be confused with Mahathir’s Umno Baru).
Which Umno should we vote for?
To help us decide, let’s look at two fundamental evils that Old Umno plans to “Save Malaysia” from: corruption and the goods and services tax (GST).
Barry Wain of the Wall Street Journal once estimated that the total loss incurred by the country under Old Umno amounted to RM100 billion. These losses were associated with a host of scandals associated with Bank Negara, Bank Bumiputera, Mamico, Perwaja Steel, MAS and several other institutions.
However, Old Umno’s reputation remained largely intact, principally because it reigned before the information explosion. Remember that there was no such thing as social media at the time.
In contrast, New Umno has had to endure a barrage of online allegations of corruption since Najib Razak came to power. But note that the only major corruption scandal linked to the current regime is the 1MDB affair.
Now let’s look at Old Umno’s promise to abolish the GST. It has said, though not very loudly, that it intends to bring back the Sales and Services Tax (SST).
What’s the difference between the two consumption taxes?
SST is not always disclosed on receipts because laws governing the system are not robust enough. Moreover, there is no standard method of calculation.
GST is a comprehensively governed tax system, has globally recognised standards and is fully transparent, making the system difficult to manipulate. This should explain why more than 170 countries have adopted it.
Old Umno knows that some kind of consumption tax is necessary to keep the economy running, especially now that the country has seen losses amounting to tens of billions of ringgit due to the volatility of oil prices. It has opted for SST because GST was not its idea.
So, if Old Umno wins GE14, we will be governed by a group of Umno leaders associated with plenty of scandals and we’ll still be paying a consumption tax.
After all is said and done, there’s no escaping Umno, regardless of which side we choose this Wednesday. Indeed, this could well be a grand Umno conspiracy to keep ruling the country one way or another.
