So what exactly is Annuar Musa, the Barisan Nasional secretary-general lamenting about Pakatan Harapan (PH) being “pro-liberal” and “pro-socialist”?
Is he working toward a bigoted nation with unfettered greed and capitalism holding sway?
As far as I am concerned, PH mustn’t be ashamed of its liberal and socialist tendencies.
Happier nations on earth, for example Finland and Norway, are liberal and more socialist-inclined nations. Their income disparity is not extreme and they provide adequate public goods, such as universal education and healthcare for everyone.
These countries are not like ours where students are saddled with mountains of debt upon graduation.
We still have public hospitals but is this ever adequate? Just look around us, private hospitals with exorbitant fees are now easily contributing to half of the healthcare service in the country.
Socialism is not communism where the people were made to line up for a loaf of bread.
Socialism is to make capitalism more benign by curtailing greed and by tampering corporate domination of public policies.
Malaysia has certainly become more capitalist over the years. Unions, fair wages and labour rights have lost their shine.
Everything is privatised from roads, utilities, ports, airports, to education and healthcare where people are made to pay the “market” price.
When everything is privatised, why are we still paying the same amount of taxes? Is there any wonder as to why the government is ever expanding with no shortage of funds for pomp and grandeur?
The opposite of liberalism is racism, bigotry, discrimination and supremacist tendency. Liberalism, on the other hand, is inclusiveness, transparency and tolerance.
So please tell me why liberalism is bad for this country as alluded to by Annuar.
TK Chua is an FMT reader.
The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of FMT.