Looks like UMNO is feeling the heat from Deputy Finance Minister Ahmad Maslan’s consistent fumbling of the GST issue: a source reveals that several party leaders have asked the gaffe-prone UMNO Information Chief to not talk about the GST at all during the campaign season for the Rompin and Permatang Pauh by-elections.
A source from within UMNO told Astro Awani‘s Wan Syamsul Amly that Maslan had been warned not to bring up the Goods and Services Tax on the campaign trail, for fear he would confuse constituents, or provoke a backlash against the new tax similar to what he sparked off in recent weeks.
“Several top-notch UMNO leaders have warned Ahmad Maslan for coming out a tad too vocal on issues pertaining to GST. This may lead to us clinching reduced majority in Rompin which will result in the failure to win the Permatang Pauh by-election,” the source intimated.
“His intentions are good but his statements are often being manipulated by the Opposition until many issues had cropped up which would affect the party.”
According to another UMNO source who spoke to Astro Awani, Maslan might be put out to pasture for the time being, albeit only on matters relating to the GST.
Maslan has indeed left a mark on the Federal Government’s push for public acceptance of the GST. Last month, he advised students in UiTM students who complained of rising prices after the GST to cook their own meals to save money – but UiTM campuses don’t allow their undergrads to cook in their dorms.
He went on to then antagonise former Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad, who in his personal campaign to oust PM Najib Razak from office, criticised the GST and called for it to be abolished. Maslan claimed that Mahathir’s opposition to the tax stemmed from his lack of understanding of its merits.
This also led to many netizens deriding him for condescending to Mahatir, culminating in Perlis mufti Dr Mohad Asri Zainal Abidin posting a thinly-veiled condemnation of Maslan on Facebook, alluding that the minister was “an idiot”.
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