Following is an editorial adapted from NST Online complete with responses by TTF (in blue):
KUALA LUMPUR: The independent consultant recruited to analyse the proposals to reduce toll rates nationwide will present its findings to the Cabinet in June.
TTF: Reminder – Pakatan’s manifesto pledge was not to reduce toll rates, but to abolish tolls altogether.
The month of June makes it exactly one year one month since PH came to power.
And we’re still talking about consultants and studies and the tabling of toll reduction proposals in Parliament.
What a farce.
NST Online continued…
Deputy Works Minister Mohd Anuar Mohd Tahir told the Dewan Rakyat today that the Cabinet would also look into proposals to scrap the Gombak toll after it gets the consultant’s findings in June.
He also said that the government had appointed the independent consultant to prepare the audit report on Jan 28, 2019.
TTF: Note, that the manifesto pledge was never to scrap select tolls in the Klang Valley, but to scrap tolls altogether.
NST Online continued…
The consultant is tasked to assist in studying the data on reducing tolls to drive down the escalating cost of living.
“The outcome will be tabled to the Cabinet in June, upon which the government will consider the proposals to abolish toll (collection) at the Gombak toll plaza of the KL-Karak Highway.
“We will try to give into people’s wishes but (it will be) within our capacity,” he added.
TTF: If the intent is to drive down the escalated cost of living, the solution should be to abolish tolls altogether.
But Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad has revealed that this isn’t possible.
On the 25th of February 2019, he told newsmen that the government would end up paying concessionaires on behalf of highway users should there be toll reductions or abolishments.
According to him, the money used to pay the concessionaires would come from taxpayers.
That’s exactly the same as saying “the government can never abolish tolls because there is no such thing as a free lunch.”
Worse, even if you’re a Kelantanese staying in Kelantan who doesn’t use highways, you’re going to end up helping Tan Sri Ananda Krishnan subsidise his rides in the Klang Valley.
Tell me, does that not mean millions of folks who aren’t already paying toll will end up paying concessionaires a helluva lot of money?
It’s about time Malaysians realise, that the longer Mahathir pursues with these policies of his, the lesser would be our nation’s ability to expand production capacities.
Common sense dictates, that if a chunk of taxpayer money is going towards highway concessionaires, the government will have less money to spend on economic activity in ways that could boost those capacities.
It follows, that the lesser our production capacities, the more dependent we will be on countries like Thailand, Singapore and Japan to meet domestic demands.
Tell me, would that not further escalate the ridiculous pace with which our cost of living is rising?
As it is, farmers and fishermen are being told that the aid they receive needs slashing as the government does not have sufficient funds.
And here we have ministers talking about flying cars, international airports, flying pigs and what have you.
I wouldn’t be surprised if one day, we wake up to discover that all of our rice is being imported from neighbouring Thailand and that the fish sold in the market is flown in from Japan.
Is that not taking Malaysia on a crash course with a new form of economic colonialism, and would that not make us overly dependent on foreign countries?
Adapted from:
