PKR chides Ahmad Maslan for his ‘two jobs’ advice in tackling rising cost of living
Voon Shiak Ni
Voon, who is PKR Stampin branch vice chairperson, said given the slow economy that the country is currently facing, it is not easy even to get a monthly paid job, let alone get two jobs.
She said Malaysians would be most grateful if Ahmad could be more constructive by bringing the people’s problems to the federal government and work out better approaches and solutions to help the people cope with the rise in cost of living.
“No, I personally do not agree that one should do two jobs to cope with the rise in cost of living and we are not robots. It is also insensitive and uncalled for, for a minister to call on his
people to hold two jobs,” she told The Borneo Post when contacted yesterday.
Voon, who is PKR’s potential candidate for Batu Kitang, said Ahmad’s suggestion had invited outcry from the public, who had been made to tighten their purse strings due to the implementation of Goods and Services Tax (GST), which had led to the escalation in the prices of goods .
“GST is ‘multi-stage’ tax that is collected at every stage of the production and distribution chain and across the board and adversely affected the lower income groups.
“As a result of this, prices of daily commodity such as eggs have now cost two times more than it was five years ago.”
She said PKR had suggested for GST to be implemented at a lower rate such as three per cent, as what was done in neighbouring Singapore and only increased to four per cent after nine years after implementation.
Additionally, Voon said Singapore’s government had taken measures to cushion the impact of GST for the lower income group to cope with the rising cost of living, including increasing grants for lower-income households and increased subsidies for some public services such as health and education.
She said another important point that the federal government could consider for Sarawak to cushion the rising cost of living was to axe the cabotage policy that had resulted in addition of costs of the goods imported to Sarawak from the peninsula.
Meanwhile, Ahmad took to the Twitter yesterday in defence of his statement that Malaysians should hold two jobs if they wish to tackle the rising cost of living by saying that he has three jobs himself.
He even said other Malaysians had also long held more than one job for an honest living and used the hastag ‘#2Kerja’ to denote two jobs.
Ahmad tweeted in Bahasa Malaysia which translated into: “I have three jobs: Member of Parliament, deputy minister, Umno information chief. Many in Malaysia are already holding two jobs #2Kerja. Work hard for halal income,” he posted using his Twitter handle @ahmadmaslan.
In the following tweet, he gave examples of people doing two jobs, such as farmers or village heads by day, who are grocery shop managers by night, rubber tappers doubling as farm workers in the evening and a mosque imam, who is also working in the oil palm plantation business.
Ahmad went on to say there were rules to be followed for holding two jobs that should be adhered to. However, there was no problem for those working on their own.
In another tweet, Ahmad said even opposition leaders Lim Guan Eng and Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail wore three hats. He asked why his suggestion to hold a job with an added online business ended up inciting anger and much criticism.
Lim is Penang Chief Minister, Air Puteh assemblyman and Bagan MP, while PKR president Dr Wan Azizah is the opposition chief, state assemblywoman for Kajang in Selangor, as well as Permatang Pauh MP.
Read more: http://www.theborneopost.com/2015/12/29/pkr-chides-ahmad-maslan-for-his-two-jobs-advice-in-tackling-rising-cost-of-living/#ixzz3vnH0OCmu
My comments:
Holding three posts like what Ahmad Maslan bluffed requires little physical effort. Besides, these are highly-paid posts to enjoy. This kind of posts like what Ahmad Maslan is holding now, I believe 90% can hold 10 posts without much problem. If I am not mistaken, some political thugs hold many, many, many posts as all these posts not only need little physical or mental effort but also enjoy good pay.
It is very lucky of Ahmad Maslan for holding these coveted posts and boasts about his ability. I wonder how much time and physical as well as mental energy he devotes to each post a day to boast about. However, if you have to work eight hours for a job during the day, how much energy and time left for you to do another job.
Saying that a person can do 2-3 jobs to deal with the rising cost of living is mindless or without any mental effort to think ways and possibilities to alleviate the heavy burden of people.
Many UMNO political thugs just have all the luck to hold 3 - 10 or more posts with little time and physical effort to put forth but with the return in many folds. Are these thugs not paid well and even paid in their sleep?
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