Malaysians were promised by PH Government that when they removed GST and introduced SST etc life will be better for the man in the street. Prices will fall. Ringgit will increase in value. No! This didn’t happen. After PH had ruled for about a year, the cost of living increased, the man in the street and all Malaysians suffered from false promises and a reactionary government that make policy statements and U-turns like child’s play.

The first priority of the Pakatan Government should have been uplifting the poor, alleviating the burden of the low-income group and improving the quality of life of the middle-income group.  Instead of managing the nation’s need and narrowing the gap between the rich and poor, the first thing the PH government did was to organise a Bumiputra Economic Convention to play up the race card which was directly opposite to the very core promise by DAP and PKR of doing away with race-based policies and focusing on needs-based policies instead . Ironically, both these parties have the biggest number of MPs and support by Malaysians who desire a new Malaysia with a more level playing field.

Instead of harping on the Bumiputra economic agenda and now revisiting the Bumiputra 30% share quota, the Government should have addressed the hardship faced by the B40 group and implement initiatives to improve the quality of their lives.

According to the Salaries & Wages Survey Report 2017, half of the Malaysian workforce, or 8.6 million people, earned less than RM2,160 per month. Additional data collected by government agencies showed that most Malaysian Chinese earns below the RM2,350 threshold. These figures prove that low-income plagues across ethnicities, thus, the Government should focus its efforts in addressing the low level of earnings and improve the country’s income per capita altogether.

The 30% shareholding quota not only negatively impacts foreign confidence of our local economy, but also hinders the liberalisation process to broaden and deepen the local financial market.

It is an unfair policy that will discourage foreign investment in our local Bursa market, and instead divert them to go public in other financial markets such as Hong Kong and Singapore. It is unsurprising that many local upcoming start-ups and SMEs will also opt to be listed in the foreign market as well if this policy is implemented.

In 2017, Bursa Malaysia conducted 14 initial public-offerings and this grew to 22 in 2018. Despite a higher number of companies which underwent public listing in 2018, the funds raised were only but a fraction, or to be exact, only 9.45% of the total funds raised in 2017.  Yet, instead of addressing the weaknesses of the financial market, Pakatan Harapan opted to implement the shareholding quota which further depressed the local market.

This quota system benefits only the cronies and privileged few, further widening the inequality gap between the rich and the poor. It will most definitely not benefit the B40s as they already struggle with the cost of living and many are without savings, leaving them without means to purchase shares. This policy also betrayed the aspirations of “Malaysia Baru” which emphasise on equality. To this travesty, the courageous DAP choose to remain silent.

-MCA Online-