Malaysian socialists: 'subsidy cut = expoitation'

The following statement was released on July 18 by S. Arutchelvan (pictured), Secretary General of the Malaysian Socialist Party in response to government subsidy cuts. See here for information on planned protests.
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Parti Sosialis Malaysia (PSM) views the recent price hike of three types of fossil fuels, sugar and cooking gas as a continuation of the neoliberal agenda of [Malaysian PM Najib Tun Razak's National Front (BN)], which will effectively have a two-prone effect on the rakyat (people). It makes little sense when the government acknowledges that 75% of the Malaysian households are earning below RM3000 while 25% are earning less than RM1000, yet no alternative plan was implemented to ease the hardship of these populations prior to cutting the subsidy. Obviously, the subsidy cut is a recipe to exploit the rakyat for the well-being of a few, as it:

1. Raises the price of basic goods, which will create a chain reaction and create inflation.
2. Punishes the poor further by increasing the income gap between the rich and poor.

It must be noted that while the government does not want to commit to a minimum decent living wage act, its commitment to the neoliberal agenda seems uncompromising as the government wants to cut down on subsidies and introduce the GST soon. The majority of Malaysian workers would continuously face hardship with the current government’s plan to attract FDI by competing with Vietnam, China, Indonesia and India, which means the cheap labour policy will stay.

Najib’s view that the price hike will have minimum impact and money saved from this will be used to help the poor and infrastructure is yet another hollow promise, because the BN government has been consistent in the following:

1. Unable to enforce price controls
2. Has been spending leisurely the rakyat’s money without any sense of accountability
3. Unable to curb corruption
4. Unable to build a proper public transportation system as promised previously

PSM views these measures as sheer exploitation and will further burden the rakyat, especially the lower and middle income group.

The neoliberal capitalist system is a system designed to make the rakyat pay for everything with very little state intervention. That is why Najib has said that the private sector will be the main driver to make Malaysia a fully developed nation in his tenth Malaysian Plan. The neoliberal capitalist agenda is yet another venture to make the capitalist and transnational super rich at the expense of the well-being of the people.

It is these policies which are creating havoc to the livelihood of people in Europe – Greece, Spain, Portugal etc. The continued move by Najib in pursuing this neoliberal capitalist agenda is a recipe to bring down our economy in the long run. The rakyat must oppose this because their lives are at stake if we go on with these so-called reforms.

Our economy has been fundamentally strong without subsidy cuts. Today 53 years after independence we face a problem because there is a crisis in capitalism and this is added to a crisis of good governance in Malaysia – This must be stopped unless we prefer to go downhill. It is time to oppose the BN’s capitalist agenda as it endangers our well-being and livelihood.