Starry-eyed from a recent visit to Venezuela, a Parti Sosialis Malaysia (PSM) leader strongly recommended that Malaysia adopt that country's pro-people policies where a whole range of services are provided free.
PSM deputy president M Saraswathy (left) said unlike our government which imposes burdensome taxes like the proposed Goods and Services Tax (GST) on the public, the social democracy practising Venezuelan government provide free necessities such as health and education for all citizens.
Education from kindergarten to university level is free and the students enjoy three free meals a day as well free transportation from their homes to educational centres, she added.
Also, Venezuelans are charged monthly minimum rates of only 50 sen each for water and electricity supplies and they enjoy an efficient and cheap transport system.
Saraswathy was making a comparison between that oil producing country and Malaysia in her speech at a PSM's GST forum at Jelapang, Perak, last night.
Other VIP speakers present were ousted Pakatan menteri besar Mohammad Nizar Jamaluddin, PSM Sungai Siput MP Dr D Jeyakumar and PKR state vice-chairman Chang Lih Kang.
Spiralling tax burden
Saraswathy expressed unhappiness at the way the BN government instead of sharing the oil wealth with the people had kept on imposing new taxes like the GST to further burden the man in the street.
In a lighter vein, she said even the police are aware of the hardships that will come with the imposition of the GST as they did nothing to stop the party's the function for which police had refused a permit.
Meanwhile, Jeyakumar in his address said that former prime minister Abdul Razak had practised social economy in pumping the country's wealth from tin and rubber back to the people.
However, the scenario changed drastically when former premier Dr Mahathir Mohamad took over the country's oil wealth and extensively imposed the privatisation programme that started to financially tax the people.
"Tun Abdul Razak had started social democracy but his son (Premier Najib Abdul Razak) and Mahathir started neo-liberalism which led to corruption and wastage of the country's natural resources," he added.
Robin Hood robbing the poor
"Our oil reserves are now drying up and the government is going to impose the GST which will snowball from the quoted 4% to 7% or 10% in the years to come and people will financially suffer," Jeyakumar warned.
Chang on his part, said that GST is like a modern-day Robin Hood robbing the poor to give the rich, unlike the folk hero who did the reverse.
He called on the government to abandon GST which can only increase the treasury's coffers by another billion ringgit when compared to the present tax system and instead auction off the APs which can better boost the revenue to a higher level.
Nizar said that only the people's power can stop the GST which will be bulldozed through Parliament on March 15.
PSM is arranging 10 buses carry Perakians to protest the tabling of GST bill in Parliament.
