Elected since November 2022, the Malaysian Prime Minister, Anwar Ibrahim, announced a state budget following a simple process: tax the richest to finance aid to the most precarious.
“As income and wealth are concentrated in the upper classes and wealthy elite, it is appropriate for redistribution to focus on the poor and middle class”, summarized Anwar Ibrahim, Malaysian Prime Minister. The newly elected politician announced a new state budget promising to redistribute wealth: “super riches” will thus have to contribute more to funding that is supposed to prioritize aid for the most precarious classes.
Double cap. Both Minister of Finance and Prime Minister of the country, Anwar Ibrahim inspired controversy by announcing this measure, the idea of a redistribution of wealth quickly taxed with “Communist” by his political opponents. Politician Wan Saiful (a member of the nationalist Perikatan Nasional party) notably asked, bluntly, whether the measure was “inspired by the Communist Manifesto”reports the independent media Malaysiakini.
More populist than decisive measures?
The regional media The Strait Times who compares the minister with Robin Hood, robber of the rich to give to the poor. Anwar Ibrahim’s proposals amount to taxing luxury goods more and increasing the level of taxation of people earning more than 21,000 euros. However, he deplores measures that are more populist than decisive, affecting the taxes of only 1% of taxpayers in the current tax system.
Anwar Ibrahim has made the defense of the most precarious an important line of his policy, refusing to collect the salary of head of government and imposing a 20% reduction in remuneration for his ministerial cabinet. Among these statements, he also showed his desire to fight against tax evasion by wealthy Malaysians, citing the Pandora Papers, a track “perhaps more promising”, according Courrier Internationalto finance aid to the most precarious.