KOON, EASIER TO TALK THAN TO DO

Telling us things are bad does no good. We hear Lim Kit Siang, Lim Guan Eng, Tony Pua, Rafizi Ramli, etc., saying the same thing every day. What we need, which so far no one is telling us, is to hear what Pakatan Harapan is going to do if they come into power.

NO HOLDS BARRED

Raja Petra Kamarudin

“Here’s why an opposition grand coalition can defeat the BN,” said Koon Yew Yin, which Free Malaysia Today published today (READ HERE).

“In Perak, most voters have not forgotten that power was ‘stolen’ from the then Pakatan Rakyat by the BN. In the next election, many voters will want to correct the injustice and vote for the opposition,” said Koon.

But Pakatan Rakyat lost power in Perak in 2009, less than a year after the 2008 general election. Why did the Perak voters not ‘correct the injustice and vote for the opposition’ in 2013? Why skip the 2013 general election and wait until the next general election to ‘correct the injustice and vote for the opposition’?

There must be a reason why the Perak voters did not want to ‘correct the injustice and vote for the opposition’ in 2013. What was that reason? Koon did not explain.

Was it because Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad was still in Umno in 2013 while now he is no longer in Umno and is instead with Pakatan Harapan (which Koon thinks will cause the Perak voters to vote Pakatan Harapan)?

Does this mean Pakatan Harapan on its own cannot win any general election unless Mahathir helps them win it — just like Mahathir triggered the Chinese Tsunami in 2008 (or else it would not have happened)?

Koon with Pakatan Rakyat Perak leaders

Koon needs to clarify why he thinks the Perak voters are going to ‘correct the (2009) injustice and vote for the opposition’ in the next general election when they did not do so in the 2013 general election.

Anyway, two points need to be considered. First is that it was Pakatan Rakyat and not Pakatan Harapan that lost power in Perak in 2009 and Pakatan Rakyat no longer exists. So is Koon talking about the new DAP-led Pakatan Harapan or the old Pakatan Rakyat?

Secondly, power was not ‘stolen’ from Pakatan Rakyat in 2009. What happened was Anwar Ibrahim tried to steal power from DAP by removing the PAS Menteri Besar in favour of a PKR Menteri Besar. However, since PKR did not have a suitable candidate, Anwar enticed an Umno man to cross over and join PKR on the promise he would be made the new Perak Menteri Besar to replace Nizar Jamaluddin.

After the Umno man crossed over, DAP did not agree to the removal of Nizar so he crossed back to Umno together with two PKR state assemblymen and the DAP Deputy Speaker. That was why Perak fell, because of what Anwar did. Umno did not ‘steal’ Perak. Anwar lost it due to his shenanigans and stupidity.

Anwar tried to oust Nizar and ended up ousting Pakatan Rakyat from Perak instead

Koon said, “Today, everyone, except for the elite, are suffering from a socio-economic crisis arising from the mismanagement of the economy and pervasive corruption. Food is more expensive, transport prices have soared, education costs have escalated.”

Okay, let us not dispute what Koon said because then this argument is going to go on forever. For the purpose of this discussion let us agree that Koon is right. That then brings us to the next point. And that point is what is Pakatan Harapan going to do about it?

Koon plus many Pakatan Harapan leaders talk about the bad state of the country’s finances. Some even say Malaysia is going bankrupt although the statistics seem to show otherwise. Nevertheless, not a single Pakatan Harapan leader, Koon included, has explained how Pakatan Harapan is going to address this.

The cost of living is high while incomes are low. In fact, that is happening all over the world, not just in Malaysia. Koon should come to Europe and see how the people here are suffering where thousands are sleeping on the streets all over Europe.

So, what is Koon proposing? Increase the minimum wage to RM2,500 a month? Koon will need to get the Chinese trade/manufacturing associations to first agree to that because they refuse to even agree to a minimum wage of RM1,200 a month.

Build one million new houses under the welfare program over three years (where the houses will be given to eligible families for a token rent of RM150 a month)? Can Koon explain where the money to build these houses is going to come from?

Remove all forms of duties and taxes, personal income tax and GST included, and make Malaysia a free port so that goods and services become cheaper?

Remove taxes on oil and gas so that petrol and gas becomes very cheap like in some Middle East countries?

Abolish cukai tanah and cukai pintu?

Make bus and train travel free-of-charge plus remove all car parking charges in the towns and cities?

Remove road tax and toll charges?

Offer interest-free loans to those who need to buy cars and houses or if they need to get married or go for their tertiary education overseas — repayable at only 3% of their monthly salary?

We are yet to hear how Kit Siang and Mahathir are going to address those concerns that Koon raised

Telling us things are bad does no good. We hear Lim Kit Siang, Lim Guan Eng, Tony Pua, Rafizi Ramli, etc., saying the same thing every day. What we need, which so far no one is telling us, is to hear what Pakatan Harapan is going to do if they come into power.

Do they have a plan? If so what is it? Telling us they cannot reveal that plan because then Barisan Nasional will steal Pakatan Harapan’s ideas and that they will reveal it only after they come into power is treating us as fools.