COMMENT | On March 18, 2018, Kulai MP Teo Nie Ching belted out a parody of the alphabet song in Parliament to mock the goods and services tax (GST).

The lyrics were: “A-B-C-D-GST, Harga semua naik tinggi, Gaji pun tak naik lagi, kena makan Maggi mee.”

(GST came into force on April 1, 2015, and collection stopped when the BN government fell in March 2018.)

Two days later in Penang, then-chief minister Lim Guan Eng joined residents of flats in for a sing-along of the song, drawing condemnation from BN and also drawing the ire of the...