Is it really better off under BN than Pakatan?


It is customary for us to be lectured to be grateful to BN as they are the only one who can safeguard Malaysians’ well being.
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SEREMBAN, Oct 15 — Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin told Malaysians today to be grateful to the Barisan Nasional (BN) government for its many efforts which have improved their lives.
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He urged the Ampangan folk against following in the footsteps of people from Selangor and opposition-held states who voted for the opposition during Election 2008.
“It’s not easy to be the government; the opposition is only good at making promises which they never have to fulfil,” he was quoted as saying in Bernama Online.

Budget is also a form of a promise, i.e. a promise to deliver at a predetermined planned price. BN’s ability to fulfill promises is also open to scrutiny as we can see so many mega cost overruns whether it is for Bakun Dam, KLIA 2, PKFTZ or the new palace.
 Let's not talk about all those surpluses in Pakatan administered states for now.
I went to Jabatan Statistik Negara to evaluate the DPM cum Education Minister’s claim and come up with some interesting statistics.....
Data compiled from: 


The above shows the BN and Pakatan’s top 6 states ranked by the number of parliament seats they hold and we can see some interesting trends.
Selangor, KL and Penang are the 1st, 2nd and 5th largest state in terms of GDP, i.e. the more affluent, capable, dynamic , educated and exposes one is, more likely that one would be voting against BN.
Although BN can claim that their territory includes Johor (3rd largest GDP) and Sarawak (4th largest GDP), it could be due to the Singapore factor for Johor and abundance of oil & gas as well as timber in Sarawak. By comparison, land area in Selangor, Kuala Lumpur and Penang are miniscule compared to these 2 giant states so in terms of GDP per square KM, it could be a very different ranking. Also in Sarawak’s case, despite being the state with the 4th biggest GDP, it has remarkably high instances of poverty, only Sabah has a worse ratio.
And to add salt to injury, prices of goods and services are higher in Sabah and Sarawak, and one of the reasons is cabotage system, which deprive the citizens of Sarawak and Sabah from enjoying competitive freight rates which would have an impact on cost of goods and services
For more information on cabotage system, here is a good lead:
It is glaring to note that incidence of poverty of Terengganu dipped from 15.4 in 2004 to 4.0 in 2009. The incidence of poverty was high during the PAS tenure as state government, but recovered after BN took over. Hmmm...does this point to an economical retaliation over a political choice made under democracy? Read on the link below:
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But the politician, popularly known as Ku Li, is slated to question why Putrajaya withheld oil royalty payments to Terengganu during the PAS reign in the state, and raise question on how the federal government used funds owed to the state government.
The then PAS Terengganu government had sued Putrajaya when it stopped the five per cent oil royalty payments in 1999 when the Islamist party captured the state.
The federal government converted the oil royalty to a goodwill payment that was managed by federal agencies and Umno warlords with some of the money going to host the Monsoon Cup regatta and an Islamic Civilisational Park in Pulau Duyong complete with a number of mosques, including a crystal one.
Critics have complained the projects were a waste of money and the goodwill payments are a method for Umno to dole out largesse to their supporters.
Putrajaya agreed to pay oil royalty back to Terengganu in 2009 after the state dropped the suit, five years after BN recaptured the state in the 2004 general election
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If you look at the overall top 6 states, in areas where Pakatan is the preferred choice, total GDP is double of that of BN favoured states (e.g. for 2010 RM318,929 million vs RM160,375 million); mean household income are also higher while poverty incidence are lower in Pakatan favoured states.
BN favoured states may claim that they have the edge over total investment over 2008 to 2011, it can also be argued that Pakatan flavoured states have lesser land mass (KL & Penang especially), while Sarawak tend to boast of capital intensive projects (oil and gas exploration) and Singapore’s need for land poured into Iskandar Development Region in Johor. However do note that GDP to FDI ratio is 4.72 times in Pakatan flavored states; double that of BN flavoured states at 2.24.
With higher GDP, BN federal administration would collect more taxes from Pakatan flavored states. However, total parliament seats allocated in BN flavoured states is 30% more than Pakatan flavoured states. The greater number of BN seats actually means the poorer the population!


Below: total registered voters for GE12 of selected states:-



This runs contrary to DPM’s claim. In fact, this further adds further insight into the lopsided allocation of voters’ rights. Enlightened population who actively question the effectiveness of federal administration and who voted for change in state leadership are given less seats; while traditional BN fixed deposit states are granted more seats.
According to the Section 46 of our Constitution (amended over 700 times in about 50 years),  Sarawak, Sabah and Johor are granted 31, 25 and 26 parliamentary seats respectively while Penang, Kuala Lumpur and Selangor are granted 13, 11 and 22 seats respectively. 
Notice the grand design? You may form your own conclusions.

4 comments:

  1. Since my grandfather migrated from china,all my families members have been grateful to BN by voting them in every 5 years eventho we toiled from day to night as farmers,rubber tappers,poultry rearers,hawkers and still the 3rd generation is as poor as late grandpa.Worse still, we got scolded/threatened countless times by many so-called race-religion defenders great warriors for strangest smallest reasons and the bn govt just senyum sje.We had been fools, but we cannot allow our 4th generation to be idiots.

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  2. Looking at the last table figures,I analysed that the parliamen constituancies are divided based on land area.Since Johore,Sabah,Sarawak are large states,so understandably their parliamen seats are more.
    However,these states are less populated than Selangor,KL and Penang,so the population ratio will be much lesser.I guess this is quite common in other countries also,unless every area of the country is equally developed.Then we will have more equal distribution of population.
    The BN party has took cognizance of these facts and they played their strategies well in the rural areas(which are less developed).
    So,for for the new coalition(PR) to wrest control of the federal govt,they have to be realistic of these facts and have more convincing strategies to gardner support from the rural populace.

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  3. as a simple man- may i asked?? the driver of this car is consistently crashing the car- 5 times per week n making false false claims on petrol consumption?? dont you think this drievr is toatlly hopeless< any DRIVER can do a BETTER JOB??So Bn is the reckless driver driving our nation to disaster n a big mess?? voted 4 th most corrupt nation is BN work??? dont you think PR can do batter>>> even a donkey can? of course not cows > see pensng n selangor under PR- they are doing well in 4 years only??

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  4. anom #1, i hope ur family and friends will now make the right choice!

    anom #2, you will also notice that rural areas are excessively represented in parliament. urbanites who pay > taxes ad suffer more stress will over stretch their MPs while slow moving quiet backwaters will have under employed MPs - notice the work load of urban MPs and back water MPs?

    anom #3, I once said, with so much petrol money, don't say the good Dr, even my granny could run the country as well. :-)

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