The over-inflated Tony Pua

Star Online:

Please don't embarrass Pua, Najib trolls DAP MP over food price hikes

PETALING JAYA: Datuk Seri Najib Razak has trolled DAP lawmaker Tony Pua (pic) on social media over the ridiculous price hikes of staple food.

Pua, who is the political secretary to Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng, had previously claimed that the Pakatan Harapan government had scrapped the Goods and Services Tax (GST) and replaced it with the Sales and Service Tax (SST) to lower the prices of goods.

"Please, can you please don't embarrass Pua? Didn't Pua promised that the SST will lower the prices of goods?" said Najib in a posting attached with a front-page report by The Star on social media on Thursday (Aug 8).

The Star's report on Wednesday (Aug 7) had pointed out that the Indian mackerel (ikan kembung) is now being sold at RM18 per kg, compared with merely RM8 per kg in 2013.

The report also highlighted that other food items, such as round cabbage, had risen from RM3 per kg to RM5 per kg, while beef also increased from RM23 per kg to RM32 per kg between 2013 to 2019.

Last August, Pua told the Dewan Rakyat that goods would be cheaper after the implementation of the SST, as he explained the reasons why the government decided to scrap the GST instead of lowering it to 3%.

With a 6% GST collection, the government will collect RM40bil, and if it was lowered to 3%, it would mean that RM20bil is collected, said Pua.

He said that lowering the GST to 3% wasn't efficient because the cost of collecting GST would be higher for the government and businesses.

Scrapping the GST was among Pakatan's main pledges in its manifesto during the 14th General Election.

I have to admit even as an former DAP supporter I have come to dislike certain DAP politicians (during the time when I was still a supporter). Mind you, today, notwithstanding my current dislike for Lim KS, I still like blokes like Ramkarpal Singh, Sangeet Kaur, Ronnie Liu, Zaid Ibrahim, Ong Kian Ming, Dr Ramasamy and even Teresa Kok, etc.

Ong Kian Ming

I am sure you know I now dislike Lim Kit Siang and to a lesser extent his son. As for sweeties like Teo Nie Ching, I am more disappointed with rather than dislike her.

But the DAP pollie I dislike MOST, as I said even when I was still a DAP supporter, was/is Tony Pua, wakakaka. I provided sufficient reasons for my dislike of him in my post un-Chinese Tony Pua. And obviously the title of that post tells you what sort of Chinese I think he was/(maybe still is), assuming in the first place he even considers himself as a Chinese Malaysian.

Tony Pua was educated at Oxford like KJ, and it seems, both graduated with the same degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics (PPE) though at different Oxford colleges. KJ went a bit further and in 1998, completed his master's degree in Legal and Political Theory.

When Tony Pua came on the political scene there were oo's and aah's at the DAP fantastic 'catch', but many still did not know him well except he was a brilliant student and a graduate of Oxford.

And every time he passed a verdict on a financial or economic matter, many DAP supporters would go into rapture, believing pearls dropped down from the heavens, wakakaka.

But in my post on him, we learnt that his company in Sing (I think it was called Cyber Village Sdn Bhd) suffered straight six years of continued losses from 2002 to 2007, even as the economic whiz kid he was reputed to be, wakakaka.

In that post we also read how arrogant he had been and his personal character devoid of two important Chinese words-value, cheng2 (pronounced in 2nd tone), which is almost though not quite the same as 'gratitude' (perasaan terhutang budi), and li3 mao4 (courtesy, politeness).

Tony Pua then left the company and joined DAP to bless us with his economic nous, wakakaka. 

Previously I refrained from criticising him because of (a) my support for DAP (by-now-very-much-diminished) and, (b) my friendship with a DAP sweetie who was close to TP's family, and who I respected very much and did not want to hurt. But I have never taken to him as I have with, eg. Ong Kian Ming or Teresa Kok.

Thus what I've read in the news article above haven't shocked me in the least, wakakaka.

Just because it's Najib trolling him, it does NOT mean TP doesn't deserve those jibes for his kerbau's, wakakaka again.

I recall that last year in October he was nearly bashed by some angry taxi drivers because of his Oxford-trained 'economics'. It had to take Anthony Loke's chiding of him to appease the mob.

New Malaysian Times reported:

It has now been confirmed that Damansara MP Tony Pua has no authority in speaking on behalf of the Pakatan Harapan government.

This follows the admonishment from Transport Minister Anthony Loke over Pua’s recent comment that the government was seeking to work with ride-hailing service Grab, to be a provider of last mile services for MRT commuters, in place of feeder buses.

Loke said the statement by Pua, who is the special officer to Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng, was not reflective of the government’s decision.

A coalition of taxi drivers has demanded a meeting with Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng within 24 hours to have a discussion in relation to Tony Pua's revelation that the government was in talks with Grab for last-mile connectivity from train stations

But how did Lim GE allow TP to issue policy?
Shamsubahrin Ismail, the spokesman for the Taxi Drivers Association, also questioned why such a policy statement was issued by Pua and not the minister himself

Shamsubahrin said it was baffling that a policy decision involving the livelihood of taxi drivers was being handled by Tony Pua instead of the minister.

“We give the finance minister 24 hours to meet us. We want to resolve this issue”  

Wakakaka, only Lim GE would have believed in him. Yes, I am still amazed by his appointment as political secretary to Finance Minister, but then both are DAP blokes. Wakakaka.