7 sins of addiction

Najib has pin-pointed the cause of decades of budget deficits – Malaysia has a bunch of irresponsible addicts that consume petrol subsidy like as if there is no tomorrow and the solution is really market forces efficiency.




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http://wargamarhaen.blogspot.com/2011/05/fuel-susbsidies-are-like-opium-to.html

Fuel susbsidies are like "opium" to M'sians: Najib tells Oxford ...really..!!!

……

He said his government had budgeted for fuel subsidies to cost the economy RM11 billion this year but that the estimate had soared to around RM18 billion because of high international crude oil prices.

“Subsidies as a whole are like opium. Once you take opium it’s hard to kick the bad habit; once you provide subsidies it’s hard to take them away without some political cost,” he told an audience at Oxford University’s Centre for Islamic Studies.

In March, Najib said he was committed to cutting subsidies long term, adding that the savings should be targeted to help lower- and middle-income people.

“Good economic and macro-management entails you reduce subsidies on a gradual basis. Then you will allow market forces to allocate resources efficiently
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Yeah, like Proton “another 10 years please”, IPP “sign here or go, Ayob” and NEP which deviated from its original purpose beyond recognition*. All within the reaches of middle and low income groups.

(If Najib’s dad bothered to speak to me, I would just like to point out NEP’s corner stone should be 1) building up resilience and positive work ethic 2) have a deadline to avoid complacent mindset being cemented3) avoid the pitfall of making the target groups think it’s source of easy comfort (the poorer you are, the harder you should work)


Anyway, since we are on the subject of opium and addiction, this is my personal list of top 7 opium and addiction in Malaysia:

1. Addiction to no competition
Some Malaysians are too nice and don’t like competition. For example, Proton does not like competition from abroad.

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http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/business/article/proton-wants-investments-protected-in-liberalised-market/

Proton wants investments protected in liberalised market
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Some students are also willing to forgone academic competition to remain in a calm state, not even by a mere 10% .

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UiTM student protest spreads to Permatang Pauh campus

BUKIT MERTAJAM (Aug 15, 2008): About 5,000 students from the Permatang Pauh campus of Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM) held a peaceful protest against the suggestion by Selangor Mentri Besar Tan Sri Abdul Khalid Ibrahim that the university open its doors to non-bumiputeras

Source: sun2surf website
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As a result, it is ok to produce non-competitive, non-employable graduates who end up in the only silo/refuge they can seek.

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http://www.malaysia-today.net/mtcolumns/guest-columnists/35843-best-bloated-bureaucracy-to-bleed-bolehland-to-bankruptcy

With 1.3 million civil servants to a population of 26 million, Malaysia has one of the highest civil servants-to-population ratio in the world by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development standards.
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1.3 mil civil servants have to be remunerated by 15% of the population who pay taxes and 15% of 26 million is 3.9 million and gosh, the ratio of civil servants to tax paying Malaysians is a whopping 33%!

And if you think that 15% include persons who are both a civil servant and a tax payer then the ratio of civil servants to private sector tax payers is much higher than 33%! It turns my stomach to see the quality of public service in Malaysia, having sampled first hand the public services of Hong Kong and Singapore.

It gets worse because the daddy/mommy who grew up in a competition adverse environment, will pass on "tak apa" mentality to their offspring. There will be no end to this.

Hence I fully agree with the gentleman below:

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http://www.thesundaily.com/article.cfm?id=61180

Not so in the public sector. Come rain or shine, you are guaranteed month-end pay regardless of your performance. So the survival mentality is quite a remote concept for civil servants. There’s no need to work your heart out. In fact, it’s better to go with the flow than dare to be different. Politicians and top leaders can urge transformation in various areas, but if you let little napoleons rule, nothing much will be achieved. The sad part is, these little napoleons are getting younger and younger.

Maybe all positions in the civil service need to be on contractual basis. Do away with perma-nent jobs. That way, non-performers can lose their jobs if they continue to not perform in their tasks. Performers can be rewarded with continuation of contract of service and good increments and bonuses. But what wishful thinking.

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2. Addicted to Corruption

What is there to write about this? From the Bank Rakyat scandal in the 1970’s to the Bank Bumiputra scandal cum murder in Hong Kong in the 1980’s, the gargantuan Perwaja mess in the 1990’s which was dwarfed by PKFTZ in the 2000’s…in each decade, the top leadership have their finest moments and the best is probably yet to come.

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http://www.malaysiakini.com/news/113340

Bakun dam to be much worse than PKFZ scandal
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Despite the lack of big fish convictions, it is not to say that BPR or MACC did not do their job properly….after all, according to them, there is a corrupted political aid who, after subject to some degree of pressure from MACC, strangled himself then jumped out of MACC office window after realizing that he is suppose to get married the following day with the woman bearing his child.



3. Addicted to shiok sendiri

I have lost count of how much tax payers’ money been wasted on shiok sendiri campaigns. Do you remember those Malaysian tourism banners featuring a smiling Badawi and Azalina hanging all over KL a few years ago? Since when did the tortoise and Orang Utan were retrenched as the mascot of Malaysia tourism?

Self praise is no praise, read this extract from 2010’s Government Transformation Programme report prepared by the Prime Minister’s department:-

"In pushing the envelope and challenging ourselves to do better, the
GTP yielded quick and big wins like never before, making a positive impact on
the lives of millions."

Yet in the entire 250++ pages of a well presented self-praise, I do not see a single honest feedback from one of the millions to verify the impact which is described as “positive”.The application of “big win” in numerous paragraphs, on instances such as building roads and supplying utilities to rural areas suggests a desperate sales pitch or self delusion….there is no glory in catching up with past inefficiency and backlog.



4. Addicted to Race Base Politics
Perhaps this is not fair to label the present administration as addicted to racism because the constitution of the dominant 3 parties, the fibre and nature of their members are race orientated. Perhaps, for a lack of better terms with apologies, a creature manifestering itself in the truest form.

Onn Jaafar pre-dated DAP by more than 10 years by ditching mono-racial representation of UMNO in favour of a non-race base approach. The reaction of UMNO members rejecting his principles then is inherited and thriving brilliantly until today.


Yet if a creator of his own invention realised that it was inappropriate and prepare to undo what he had sacrificed so much to built it up, surely this point to something hugely wrong ..hence why the need for addiction?

Post GE12, instead of seriously looking at the real cause of voters’ dissatisfaction, one of the BN’s prominent party increased the tempo of race base politics.

I do not think the above 2 scenarios will solve our national debt, leakages, low purchase power parity, poor public service delivery, declining international competitiveness, inflation, safety and crime prevention and other livelihood issues.



5. Addicted to the bogeyman

When I was a little boy, my parents would say, “ if you are naughty, police will catch you.” Not unlike a big voice who repeat the saying, “DAP is a communist/Chinese chauvinist party/initiator of May 13 riot….vote them and you are finished”.

If DAP is indeed the mastermind of May 13, why would they want to start a riot when they were suppose to celebrate the biggest electoral gain in their history up to then? And the communists took up arms and fought from the shadows of the jungle while DAP fought in open general elections with speeches, writings and banners.

The voice has graduated in its stupidity to believe that a mere 10% of the population can change a provision in the Constitution which requires 2/3 majority in Parliament that enable changing the official religion of the country from Islam to Christian.


Yeah thriving on the fear of the unknown by the unenlightened while trying to tell the nation that we are suppose to be heading towards a high income nation with a population who subscribes to such kiddie’s “naughty and police will catch you” lecture.


6. Addicted to unfair election practices.

From Bersih Rally prior to GE12, with gerrymandering, vote buying, disruption and violence during campaigning, wasted indelible ink and doctored electoral roles to Najib’s legendary “I help you, you help me” recorded speech in Sibu 2010, and structural distortions like this

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http://mt.m2day.org/2008/content/view/19609/84/

THE NEW ROLE OF THE SPR

Tuesday, 24 March 2009 10:43
By Khalid Samad (The Malaysian Insider)

MARCH 24 - Heard about the new role being played by the SPR in Selangor?

They have now become part of a committee formed under the PM's Department responsible for the implementation of a program called 'people centric'.
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Get yourself educated here:

http://bersih.org/


No wonder, one is driven to do this:

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http://www.google.com.my/search?q=former+election+commission+chairman+house+paint&rls=com.microsoft:en-us&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&startIndex=&startPage=1&rlz=1I7SKPB_en&redir_esc=&ei=iwzdTeeTH8bjrAeu0NHYDg


Red Paint Splashed Onto EC Chairman's House


KUALA LUMPUR, March 6 (Bernama) -- Election Commission (EC) chairman Tan Sri Abdul Rashid Abdul Rahman today found red paint splashed onto his house, suspected to have been the work of three men who had come there in a car at about 12.30am.
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7. Addicted to keeping a lid on things that matter

In addition to a long list of silencers such as OSA, ISA, Printing Press Act etc, it is already older than time in memorial that the newspapers and TVs are controlled; from just plainly denying dissenting voices a platform to be heard, the controlled media have graduated to doing the barking and slandering on behalf of its political masters.

Winning a proper debate with facts and arguments is too much work, or is it beyond the intellect abilities of the twisted minds of Bocor Mokhthar and Bloody Racist Nazri ?http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rwM1WXXCaRI


The Speakers of the Parliament usually deny the oppositions’ motion for debate, hindering the voice of the people in such instances and this contrast sharply with the Freedom of Information Act passed recently in the Selangor state assembly.

While Malaysians are being accused of being opium addicts, the administration responsible for the environment and well being of the nation should be subject to scrutiny as well. If fuel subsidy is deemed to be a problem, fine, remove it with genuine solution.

Freeing Malaysians from other market distortions should be holistic and not selective (like a certain well known doctor's amnesia such as compensation to the already profitable toll concessionaires, competitive open tenders to reduce tax money wasted on unqualified and inefficient contractors, doing away with unnecessary projects, excess fats in supply chain such as IPPs, AP permits and rent seekers thriving in shadows etc.

The all powerful administration should be enlightened enough to remove such addictions as well.