Guan Eng's stolen GST accusation will fall flat on his face

That is writer of the blog Third Force, Reggy Jessy ridiculing Lim Guan Eng for wanting to auction off the believed to be illegally seized superyatch Equinimity.

The new cabinet members have many versions of Ahmad Maslan, the former Deputy Minister who was the favourite target of then opposition and public for ridicule.

Since then, there is a Mat Maslan II emerging as in the education Minister, Dr Ahmad Maszlee. Young Syed Saddiq continued to utter senseless and inconsistent remarks everytime his mouth opens up in front of the press.

Now that they are in government, opposition leaders like Mat Sabu, Salahuddin Ayub, Saifuddin Nasution, Teresa Kok, Khalid Samad, Zuraidah Kamaruddin, Kulasegaran, and even Azmin recently with the "met Singapore official on HSR" boo boo turned out to be splitting images of Mat Maslan.

Unfortunately, the bigger Mat Maslan as in Lim Guan Eng went un-noticed.

One possible reason is the subject and technicalities of economics and finance is not within the general understanding of the majority of the public.

Secondly, Guan Eng is capable of avoiding ridicule by counter attacking in an arrogant, annoying and abrasive Bintang Tiga subversive propaganda manner.

In the recent Parliament session, his back was up against the wall with difficult questions from BN oppositions.

He repeatedly used counter attack line, "Kamu tahu atau tidak" and revealed something unheard off conveniently linked to 1MDB. [Read past postings for comment on China pipeline and Ayer Hitam land]

Using 1MDB as argument and Dato Najib or better still, Datin Seri Rosmah as target, one can side track any debate and even get away with murder. So the majority of the public may not realise or possibly still remain in-denial of the level of knowledge and incompetence of their elected leaders on governance and public policy matter.

The recent debate on GST vs SST saw another back-against-the wall situation for Guan Eng. His statement on "harga barang" turned out to be different from their GE14 campaign and turned out as  inconsistent with the one with his senior aid, Tony Pua.

"Harga barang" was the main thrust of their campaign against BN. It was something felt, understood and appreciated by all the voters. And, it was more effective than the complex 1MDB alleged scandal.

GST was the main blame due partly to initial stage teething problem of the implementation. And, as now admitted by Saifuddin Nasution and Salahuddin Ayub, it was the traders taking advantage of the confusion and chaos that conveniently raise prices. Royal Custom's inability to answer queries was partly to blame.

When he came to office, new Minister of Finance, Guan Eng insisted on the immediate cancellation of GST. The public was not made known that the reason was to appease the Chinese traders and businessmen unable to evade taxes. Private attempt to convince him to maintain GST albeit lower rate was stubbornly refused. 

Since "harga barang" did not "turun" in the 3 months GST was zerorised, public began to realised GST is a better system, SST will result in rise in prices and government revenue will be seriously limited.

An example is in the discussion below:

Even Mat Maslan in his debate in Parliament, was no reflection of the past perception made against him.

This time around Guan Eng's reaction was not to use 1MDB as scapegoat, but in the mode of Goebbels' tell a bigger lie propaganda methodology and Brazil's footback team strategy of attack is the best defense, he accused BN of stealing RM18 billion of GST collected.

Complain of refund being paid late, for 2 years as claimed Gerakan lawyer, Andy Leong, have been heard but stolen for RM18 billion is something else.

It is perplexing that RM18 billion stolen and Guan Eng has not made a police report. Since when do government had problems with GST refund payment? Why is it when PH takes over, suddenly the system failed and RM18 billion went missing as much as suddenly all train projects cost more to construct?

When asked, he said the internal audit had not been done. But how on earth could he made that conclusion and openly accuse under the protection of Parliament such blatant lies.

There is a code of conduct against Parliamentarian lying in the respected hall. However, it will likely not be taken up by the select committee and as happenned under BN rule, action against such misconduct tend to be used against wayward opposition Parliamentarian.

So it is clever of UMNO Youth Chief, Dr Asyraf Wajidi to ask for PAC to convene and investigate. The Chairman of PAC is Ronald Kiandee from UMNO.

Khairy Jamaluddin demanded Guan Eng to bring the perpatrators to justice as it is a serious allegation. Its more than the alleged RM2.6 billion donation and RM42 million SRC money Najib is being charged for. 

He pledged to report Najib and Minister of Finance to the police and MACC. That irked many of Najib supporters especially the manner Khairy is acting these days, there are those expecting him to jump ship after losing his bid for UMNO Presidency.

If the investigation turned out something, then the process of law should just continue accordingly. But if it turned out to be a lie, Guan Eng could be in hot soup with the law or in Parliament.

As it is, he is trying to wiggle out of the clear cut corruption case against him which insider claim he is sure to "kena", even the "terowong" case is clear cut guilty.

His propaganda mode already destroyed his credibility to the international media. It is heard China refuse to meet and deal with him.

Any proceeding against him could permanently damage his credibility. It is unlike the damage against Najib using propaganda and Mahathir abusing the law enforcement and recent development indicate the court too.

Nothing stolen

As for Guan Eng's allegation, no money is stolen.

All tax paid went into a consolidated trust account. The now silent MOF DG with the colourful shoes and fascination for Fazura had to come out to explain.

A facebooker, Syahir gave a lengthy and excellent explanation on the tax law and procedures. In brief, all money collected goes should go into a consolidated account in accordance to article 97 of the Federal Constitution:

Syahir explained the outstanding unrefunded money and unavailability of money for refund does not mean it was stolen but the money was not remitted from the consolidated account or claims by traders are false.

Below is an example of traders making fraudulent claims on the refund:

Under SST, restaurants can make a lot of money from profiteering:

The RM19.4 billion is in the consolidated account on May 31st 2018. After May 10th 2018, who was in charge to hold back any transfer?

A civil servant familiar with GST system also wrote to Malaysiakini here.

Guan Eng ... its the age of social media and citizen journalism. Only the uneducated and gullible to propaganda would fall for such cheapshot.

There will always be those with access to information that will reveal the truth. Its just a question of reach but if it is found and explained well, it could go viral. Syahir has 1,400 likes and 396 comments.

Maybe this bullshit from the new government should be stopped. Active political activist, Major Dato Huan Cheng Guan said in his Facebook:

I think BN should apply court injunction to stop all this nonsense. Tak guna kita dok justified sahaja. BN belum kalah pun dok justified dan defend tiap tiap hari , kini dah kalah pun dok defend dan justified lagi. BN kena more aggresive , traditional method wont works anymore. Madey dah kata penyokong PH itu uneducated. Kalau mereka dah uneducated , macam mana kami justified pun tak guna. Kena more aggresive and action oriented.

There is no rule of law but rule of Mahathir but as opposition, BN should not give up so easily.

Anyway, beginning to think it could probably be that it is not Guan Eng trying do a political propaganda against BN, but he does not understand all this and is unfit to do the job.

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Latest update 8:30 PM: 

Custom statement exposed Guan Eng did own boo boo but tried to blame others!

Royal Custom's issued a statement today:

From April 1st 2016 to May 31st 2018, total required to be refunded was RM82.9 billion and RM63.5 billion was paid back. Since taking over government from early May 2017, Pakatan Harapan new government did not transfer money the outstanding due of RM19.4 billion from the Consolidated Trust Account to the Trust Account for refund.

The haste to be politically popular by zerorising GST resulted in government facing cashflow deficit. It is allowable for government to use the money in the consolidated account but the tax holiday given resulted in no cash inflow to be used to transfer to the Trust Account for refund.

Aiyoo ... manyak malu la ...!