People will accept GST if benefits can be seen - Khairy

Youth and Sports Minister Khairy Jamaluddin believes Malaysians will accept the implementation of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) once they see the benefits and are confident that the government will use the tax revenue properly.

Speaking at the Kupi Table Dialogue event here today, Khairy said people's anger would mellow down if government demonstrates additional allocation, as a result from the GST implementation.

"What people want to know is that if government gets revenue from GST, are you (government) spending it right? This is what people want to know.

"So government has to demonstrate that revenue was used for building schools, hospitals and roads in rural areas in Sabah. We must show this.

"Only then will the people understand," he said when responding to a question from an audience regarding the relevance of the GST implementation since people have been raised many issues related to the matter on social media.

"We cannot expect people to clap once GST is implemented because nobody claps when you introduce new tax, but once used properly, people will accept later on," he added.

Meanwhile, speaking to the reporters later, Khairy said the Sedition Act must be implemented fairly to all aspects, so that, people especially the younger generation would be able to accept the act.

"If we want people to accept the law or the acceptance of the Sedition Act to be better, we have to ensure that there is no selective implementation of act," he added.

Khairy said Malaysia still need the Sedition Act as a prevention as well as to deter religious and racial conflict, including any attempt to promote the secession of Sabah and Sarawak from the federation.

The Kupi Table Dialogue, titled 'Selfie, Like and Tweet: The Rise of Social Media and the Birth of Neopolitics' was organized by Faculty of Administrative Science and Policy Studies, Univeristi Teknologi Mara (UiTM) Sabah, in collaboration with Society Empowerment and Democratic Studies (Seeds) and Persatuan Alumni Majlis Perwakilan Pelajar UiTM (Pimpin).