KUALA LUMPUR – Perikatan Nasional (PN) lawmakers should assist the people by cooperating with the government to face fundamental present challenges such as low wages, low productivity, low skill, and low value-added activities, said Liew Chin Tong.
In a Facebook post, the DAP deputy secretary-general said PN’s walkout from the Dewan Rakyat today was planned and staged to dramatise an already dismissed motion on voluntary Employees Provident Fund (EPF) withdrawals.
“Most PN MPs walked back into the chamber in less than 15 minutes after the farce, after they had spoken to the press,” he said.
Liew opined that PN, having no clear policies, was trying hard to rile up people’s emotions.
“Using EPF withdrawals as its only economic agenda in Parliament when Malaysia is on the road of economic recovery is a sign of a total lack of serious ideas to transform the economy for the majority of Malaysians.”
To date, the Iskandar Puteri MP said there had been four rounds of voluntary EPF withdrawals.
“In 2020, they were i-Lestari and i-Sinar, in July 2021, it was i-Citra during the (prime ministership) of Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, and in April 2022 under the tenure of (then) prime minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob.
“During his time as prime minister, Muhyiddin was under a lot of economic and political pressure. He tried to resist the demand for the third EPF withdrawal but succumbed to the demand at the most tenuous period of his (prime ministership) in July 2021, before he was forced to resign in August 2021.
“The first two withdrawals in 2020 were understandable as Malaysia was facing the worst of situations during the long (Covid-19) lockdowns,” he said.
However, Liew pointed out that the median wage in 2021 was only RM2,250 per month, which meant that 50% of Malaysian employees were earning less than that amount.
“That is what we should address as a nation, across the aisle in Parliament. We need an opposition that has better ideas and a serious commitment to the people,” he added.
Earlier this morning, the Dewan Rakyat sitting kicked off with opposition members staging a walkout in protest against the speaker’s decision to reject a motion to debate the opposition’s proposal to allow another round of targeted EPF withdrawals. – The Vibes, April 3, 2023
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