Malaysian Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad showed inconsistencies in his statements and the published manifesto of the Pakatan Harapan coalition.
On the question of abolishing of toll gates, Dr Mahathir made a statement on Sunday after the Pakatan Harapan high council meeting, saying the coalition did not make such promises.
But a check of the Pakatan’s manifesto says otherwise.
In the section ‘Poster Janji Utama 5 Tahun’ or the Five Years Promises Poster on the Pakatan Harapan portal (http://pakatanharapan.com.my/diymanifesto.php), it is clearly written “Hapuskan Toll”.
Clicking a link under the graphic saying “Hapuskan Toll” or “Eliminate Toll” sends the reader to a page with the following statement: “Hapuskan Toll Secara Berperingkat”.
In English, it means the elimination of tolls in stages.
Dr Mahathir was flanked by PH leaders, deputy Prime Minister Wan Azizah Wan Ismail and Anwar Ibrahim at the media conference, with other high-ranking leaders sitting in the back row.
The Prime Minister, in a video published by The Star, is heard saying, “It was pointed out that many of us (Haparan) did not read thoroughly our own manifesto. We never made a promise to abolish toll for example. But this is generally taken as part of our manifesto.
“And there are many other things which are not read carefully and sometimes we get carried away with the views of the opposition.”
He meant that many MPs did not thoroughly study Pakatan Harapan’s GE14 manifesto, thus leading to a lot of confusion on the pledges.
The Pakatan coalition was also sent into disarray last week when Dr Mahathir revived the idea of the implementation of the goods and services tax or GST.
In the coalition manifesto, the elimination of the GST is listed as one of the top priorities when it comes to power.
It is among the top 10 things the PH was to accomplish in the first 100 days in power and it did remove the GST to replace it with the less-unpopular Sales and Services Tax. The new tax does not target many products taxed under the GST.
Dr Mahathir also created an upheaval within the PH when he said during the weekend that the then opposition coalition did not know it was going to win the general elections last year thus it included many promises that it cannot carry in the manifesto. -/TISG