YOURSAY ‘But the great majority of the rakyat owes Umno nothing.’
Minister: Don't protest over fuel hike, be grateful
Slumdog: Domestic Trade, Cooperative and Consumerism Minister Hasan Malek, you express such medieval thinking.
You impose price hikes on essential cost of living expenses and we are supposed to be grateful and not complain but just be submissive and gladly accept whatever the government throws in our direction.
The days of being grateful have long gone after all the injustices you and your government have inflicted on the rakyat including the daily and wholesale plundering of the nation by Umno members.
The great majority of the rakyat owes Umno nothing. This petrol hike will exacerbate our cost of living as it will permeate throughout the economy and further increase the price of other basic essentials.
Kingfisher: Hasan’s reference to the price hike "...to ensure the nation's coffers are not depleted" makes an amusing read if not a very disconcerting one considering a number of negative factors associated with the manner in which the administration demonstrate its fiscal discipline/governance.
Amongst the many concerns of ordinary people include abuses identified in the annual Auditor-General's Report, questionable personal/official overseas travel expenditures, huge losses in government revenue due to corruption in, for example, custom services, opaque practices in the award of tenders, indiscriminate, short-term cash awards of government assistance that should have been best dealt with in an integrated manner in the government's overall development plans including policies on social instruments of income support and wages policy.
Some would surmise that going by present practices and ethics, the coffers will always be under threat of depletion notwithstanding any price hikes to reduce subsidies.
Ksn: Sickening views from the minister. Respect is earned, which he conveniently forgets, by good, competent governance, which has been absent for the past 30 years.
Instead, we have abuses of public funds for the benefit of cronies and their families, and the people, especially the poor, have to pay dearly for this.
Chipmunk: What a joker Hasan has turned out to become. The nation's coffers are being depleted by none other than PM Najib Razak and his cabinet ministers who spend taxpayers money as if there’s no tomorrow.
What rational is there when the fuel hike will cause the spiral effect on the prices of essential goods? Time and again, the BN government has proved to the rakyat that BN means ‘Barang Naik’.
Umno and BN have together brought this nation to the brink of disaster. I pray that the wrath of God will consume this racist government and bring Umno down to its knees for its arrogance.
Old Timer: Hasan does not seem to know who is paying his salary. He should be respectful and grateful to us, his employers.
What does he mean by we should be grateful for “our success”. What is our budget deficit? What is our university ranking? What is our corruption rating? Where is our ringgit now compared to Singapore?
Why Sabah cannot even afford to build roads and bring proper sanitation to the villages? Who is the man who employed Hasan? They should all be sacked.
Anonymous_1391693662: I met a man by the name of Mohd Fuad at a restaurant. He is in the 40s and he works as a supervisor in a construction company.
He earns about RM2,800 per month and his wife is a homemaker (she stopped working due to health reasons). They have four school-going children.
Salary after EPF and other deductions: RM2,300
Housing loan installment: RM630
Household expenses: RM800
School bus fare (RM60 x 4): RM240
Tuition fees for two children (RM80 + RM120): RM200
Other expenses (petrol/lunch): RM400
Money left at the end of the month: RM30
It’s so pitiful. Most of the time, he can’t even buy medication for his ailing wife. He is considering stopping tuition for his daughter (RM120 monthly).
For those who support this irresponsible government, please go to the ground and take a look yourself - there are a lot of Malaysians who are like Mohd Fuad.
2Kali5: We should be grateful for what? For your financial mismanagement? Is Hasan trying to say that it is the leaders' money that they are dishing out to the people?
In private entities, they would have been held accountable for breach of fiduciary duties. Having been in power for too long has gotten into their heads, and now they know not to whom and how they should be accountable.
Mushiro: Hasan is wrong to say that the increase in petrol prices is to ensure the nation's coffers are not depleted. The question is who is depleting the nation's coffers?
Why is Malaysia's borrowings more than RM500 billion, the highest ever. Who is responsible for this? The best and only way to ensure the nation's coffers are not depleted is to throw out the BN government in the next GE.
Imanust Nais Yalam: I am so 'grateful' to the people of Kuala Pilah for voting such a wonderful leader into office. I am sure you are very happy to pay for such a minimal increase in the fuel prices.
Also, please don't forget to vote for him again in GE14 so that Umno BN will execute even more commendable moves in the future. Then our coffers will never be depleted.
‘We’ll be grateful only if leaders do honest job’
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