The nation’s top leaders spent almost half-a-million ringgit for each trip they took using the government's private planes last year, a DAP lawmaker revealed today.
Seremban MP Anthony Loke told reporters that in 2012, a whopping RM182 million was spent on 372 flights to 339 destinations, using the six private planes belonging to the government,
Loke was referring to a written reply he received from Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Datuk Seri Shahidan Kassim on the expenditure incurred by the government in the usage and maintenance of the planes.
Of the RM82 million, fuel cost RM14,951,448.04 while maintenance cost RM167,079,541.80.
"This is another form of wastage by the government who does not want to reduce its expenditure despite telling the people to do so. Did the Prime Minister and his deputy fly everyday? The records seems to indicate so," said Loke at the Parliament lobby today.
He questioned the need for both leaders to continually use the private planes even for domestic travel, pointing out that it was cheaper to take a commercial flight. "Even if they took business or first class, it would have still been cheaper,” he added.
Loke however said it was proper if the jets reserved for VVIPs were used by the Yang Di-Pertuan Agong.
He added the "colossal wastage" showed that the Barisan Nasional government was not walking the talk by prioritising the people's needs. "They ask people to save and take away all kinds of subsidies and they spend the nation's resources lavishly like this. BN has always thought of the nation's funds as party funds. The subsidies of both the PM and DPM should be reduced first, then only talk about the people's," said Loke.
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The rich can well afford to thumb their noses at the good and service tax (GST). All they have to do is hop on plane and go to London to buy handbags or to the United States to buy expensive rings. Ipoh Timur MP Su Keong Siong told the Dewan Rakyat today that this means that they will not have to pay GST here.
Su said the poor will have to cough up the GST while the rich will be flaunting their expensive tax-free handbags. The DAP man said that it was incorrect when certain quarters claim that those who spend more will be most affected by the GST. He then said that the GST will thus not be beneficial for the country.
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Shahnaz Abdul Majid, the ex-wife of the son of Sarawak Chief Minister Tan Sri Taib Mahmud, provided a peek into their marital life and home in Kuching from 1992 to 1999 in her RM400 million divorce suit at the Syariah High Court.
In her verbal and pictorial portrait, Wisma Mahmud, the home she shared with ex-husband Mahmud Abu Bekir, was a 3-storey residence with 12 rooms inlaid with Italian furnishing. It was next to the Chief Minister's house, by the river with a private jetty.
"We lived in a three-storey bungalow with 12 rooms, where one room had been transformed into a kitchen. Another room was made into a study,” she said, as reported by Malaysiakini.
"Our house was next to Taib's residence in Petra Jaya. This was not the chief minister's official residence, but his private residence.” she added.
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