Subsidies make Malaysians a ‘spoilt’ lot

By Kong See Hoh, The Sun

MALAYSIANS have been spoiled by government subsidies and the government has missed the opportunity to take advantage of the edge it once held – the economic development potentials of the early days and its rich oil deposits — to turn Malaysia into an economic power, says a chartered accountant.

Koong Lin Loong, deputy chairman of the Associated Chinese Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ACCCIM) small and medium enterprises and human resource development committee, said Malaysia had achieved splendid economic growth by the 70s, but the government did not make good use of the edge to put all revenues into economic development activities.

Instead, it implemented various subsidies and spoiled the people.

“Several decades ago, our country attained high economic growth rate. In the 70s, we built our first expressway, followed by the Penang Bridge when other Asean countries and China had yet to see such development.

“Today, what we have are still the (Penang) bridge and several expressways, and are far behind other countries,” Koong was quoted by Nanyang Siang Pau in a report today.

Koong was giving his views on the country’s proposed five-year subsidy rationalisation roadmap for which the government is seeking public feedback.

He felt the government had gone off-track in its budgeting in earlier years as it should not have channelled the larger portion of the country’s revenues into subsidies.

“If subsidies were not introduced in the first place and the huge government revenues were injected into various infrastructure developments, including the public transport system, we will not have the kind of road congestion we are experiencing today,” she said.

He said the government had managed the country like a corporate entity in the beginning by increasing its income and cutting down on expenses, but in the last several decades, it moved into reverse gear, and the subsidy system is dragging down development.

“Let’s not talk about advanced countries, we only need to look at Cambodia for example. The average income of the Cambodians is not higher than that of Malaysians and the price of their petrol is double ours but they still have a decent life.”

He agreed that the government should gradually remove the subsidies.

It is like starting all over all again and a little too late but it is still a good beginning to jump on the bandwagon of the global economic development.