This photo is to remind PMX who after the suffering and trauma you went through and suffered personally, fighting for the ordinary rakyat, please put into action, actionable plans to ensure the ordinary rakyat does not have to endure and suffer from the continued rise in the costs of living for them.
Legacies require courage, risk, and decisive action.
Safe choices maintain the status quo, while bold steps break new ground, shape history, and inspire others to follow.
Your legacy as the PM of this nation isn’t built on “one day” or waiting for permission.
It’s built on showing up fully, taking bold steps.
It’s about daring to be seen, daring to lead, daring to own your voice.
If you take this bold step today, ordinary Malaysians will define and cement your status as one of the greatest PM that sincerely and really care for the ordinary people the country ever have.
Getting the 4 key institutional reforms - Attorney-General and Public Prosecutor Separation, Prime Minister Term Limits, SOSMA Amendments, Peaceful Assembly Act Amendments - that your coalition partner in PH, DAP gave you to pass before Dec 2026?
Getting these passed will not improve the lives and the continued rise in living costs for the ordinary rakyat.
What concerned the ordinary rakyat and impact them directly are the continued rise in living costs.
Increasing the allocation for Rahmah Cash Aid (STR) and “Sumbangan Asas Rahmah” (SARA) already the largest amount in the country’s history, further?
Expanding the nationwide ‘Payung Rahmah’ programme which was launched to address the rising cost of living?
As you yourself admitted in Jan 2025, not all government decisions and policies are immediately popular or would yield instant results.
Dear PMX, if popular or would yield instant results are your immediate objective, how about a cut in the import duties, excise duties and sales tax on vehicles and their components?
I am sure that you are aware that Malaysians spend a large part of their household income on cars because public transport is limited in many areas and owning a car is seen as a necessity.
A car is often viewed as essential for family transport, grocery shopping, and traveling back to hometowns during holidays.
Owning a house and a car is the benchmark of middle-class success in Malaysia, but it is also a big reason why many are falling into debt.
According to data cited by the finance ministry, home loans – at 65% -accounted for the largest portion of household debt in 2023, followed by vehicle loans, at 13.2%.
Most people buy cars with long-term loans lasting between 5 to 9 years.
Monthly payments do not include fuel, toll fees, yearly motor insurance, road tax, and routine maintenance or repairs which are all additional costs for every household.
The data on household debt should spur the government to reassess its housing and vehicle affordability policies.
PMX should do this in view of the continued deterioration and voters dissatisfaction with him and the coalition he led, PH at the last 3 elections in Sabah, Johor and Negeri Sembilan.
Obviously a cut in the import duties, excise duties and sales tax on vehicles and their components will strain the country’s finances.
To fund the cut, it is the responsibility of the government to seek and tap non tax revenue and reform existing spending by the government.
You are aware that your reluctance or delay in cutting out all the cartels and `middle’ costs that were imposed by the previous governments on basically every facet of the daily lives of every ordinary Malaysians has made the country uncompetitve in many aspects.
The Malaysian government collects more than RM10 billion annually from import duties, excise duties, and sales tax on vehicles and their components.
According to data released by the Ministry of Finance (MoF), combined collections fluctuate based on annual vehicle sales volumes and tax policies. [1, 2]
Total tax revenues specifically from vehicle import duties, excise duties, and sales taxes track as follows:
- 2025 (Estimate): RM11.1 billion total automotive tax revenue.
- 2026 (Forecast): RM11.6 billion, showing a 4.5% projected increase. []
For context on past totals, the government collected a combined total of RM25.15 billion strictly in import and excise duties on motor vehicles between 2022 and 2024.
This averages roughly RM8.38 billion per year for those two duties alone, before adding the vehicle sales tax
Excise duty is by far the biggest moneymaker for the government in the car sector, pulling in over RM7.2 billion of the total tax revenue.
This is because excise taxes are heavily tiered based on engine size (ranging from 60% up to 105%), driving up the price of normal petrol and diesel passenger vehicles. [, 2]
Meanwhile, import duties pull in the least amount of money (RM630 million). This low figure is because most popular foreign brands are put together inside Malaysia as CKD units to bypass the 30% import tax altogether, or they use Free Trade Agreements (like the ASEAN ATIGA) to drop the import duty rate to 0%. [, 2, 3]
Rising transportation costs in Malaysia – largely due to changes and restructuring to national diesel and fuel subsidy frameworks - have left certain commercial and transport sectors exposed to higher market rates directly squeeze household budgets, drive up inflation, and increase the price of everyday goods
Spikes in transport and delivery expenses ripple through supply chains, making raw materials, food, and consumer goods more expensive.
Public transport users and consumers face selective pricing changes or higher fares on e-hailing.
Lower excise duties make new and imported cars much more affordable for everyday families.
Critics will argue that lowering import and excise duties exposes national car brands like Proton and Perodua, officially recognized as Malaysia's national car brands by the government, to sharper foreign competition.
Probably in the early days, the answer was Yes.
At present, which part of Proton and Perodua is national now?
To call an organization a national company carries with it certain responsibilities and defining characteristics.
The most obvious is a direct and significant ownership by the government, which also means that the government has a representative on the company’s board.
A national company also needs to fulfil certain social obligations.
MAS for example, is obliged to fly certain unprofitable routes to the interiors of Sabah and Sarawak – prior to the formation of Air Borneo - so does Telekom, in providing the most basic services in interior regions.
Neither Proton nor Perodua is shouldering any social burden of delivering affordable cars.
Both Proton and Perodua don’t, and will not produce a car that loses money just so the B40 income group can have a better, safer car, and that’s perfectly fine, so long as we don’t treat them like a national car company.
After all, money losing projects are never sustainable.
PMX, announced a gradual cut in the import duties, excise duties and sales tax on vehicles and their components.
Say start with a reduction of 15% cut in the import duties, excise duties and sales tax on vehicles and their components for all vehicles from 1 Jan 2027, followed by another 15% on 1 July 2027.
Then announce the date for the 16th GE thereafter.
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