Is there anybody at the wheel in Putrajaya?

One day we will be bankrupt in 2019. The next day we won’t be.

One day we have to remove subsidies to stay afloat. The next day we are thinking about building a new Parliament house at the cost of RM800 million.

One day the core proposals of the New Economic Model (NEM) are outlined to great fanfare. The next day these proposals are labelled as a mere trial balloon.

One day sport betting is allowed. The next day nobody is sure anymore.

One day the prime minister pledges to assist youths who are willing to work hard to succeed. The next day it seems that the government does not have the money to do so.

Hello, is there anybody at the wheel in Putrajaya?

Last week, the prime minister announced that the government will give aid to youths who are willing to work hard to succeed until they become global champions.

“Have no fear, the Barisan Nasional is here,’’ he said adding that if our youths “are determined, the government will assist them.”

The prime minister apparently had not cleared this with Nazri Aziz, a minister in his department.

On Monday, Nazri was reported to have said that the government did not have the capacity to finance the studies of the growing pool of bright students in the country.

“We have to tell the truth. We just cannot afford it. Just like how a parent cannot afford to send their children abroad to further their studies, the government cannot afford it,” Nazri said, adding that the goal was to keep the good students at local universities so that they remain here permanently.

All this comes from the same man who, last week, announced that the government was considering building a new Parliament house in Putrajaya.

“We would need RM150 million for upgrading works like fixing the roof improving electricity supply. For the construction of a new Parliament house, we would need RM800 million. So, we will consider the best option,” Nazri said.

We will consider the best option?

Is there a committee sitting around somewhere pondering this great predicament of whether to spend RM150 million only to upgrade the current Parliament house or to go for the more fun RM800 million option?

The best option Mr Minister is to take whichever route that costs less and in this case that would clearly be to upgrade the current Parliament house at a cost of just RM150 million.

After that, you take the RM650 million saved and pour it into the brightest of our youths so that they can pursue studies at the best universities in the world.

We would have to keep sending our best minds abroad until the day comes when Malaysia has universities ranked at least in the top 50 of the world university rankings.

As it stands, we can’t even break into the top 30 in Asia. In the 2010 QS Asian university rankings, Universiti Malaya dropped two places to 41 this year from 39 last year, while Universiti Sains Malaysia only managed to maintain its ranking at 69.

So Mr Minister, keeping our best minds here is not the best option.

And how about a little more of that “Have no fear, the Barisan Nasional is here,’’ spirit instead of the defeatist and wavering we can no longer afford it attitude.

Speaking of wavering, why does it take so long to clarify the whole sports betting issue?

This is a country where all kinds of betting are allowed. From horse racing to the big casino up the hill, Malaysians gamble. Every other office right about now has one or more World Cup office pools running.

The national joke is that the only place where one can truly observe 1Malaysia is at Sport Toto, the national lotto operator. Everyday Malaysians of all races flock to Sports Toto for a punt on something with the odds of winning at about one in twenty million.

In the circumstances, the whole flip-flop controversy concerning Vincent Tan’s sports betting license is rather puzzling.

Some states have come out to say that they are banning sports betting. Other types of betting such as Sports Toto and horse racing will, however, be allowed to remain.

It is really one or the other. Either you allow betting or not. There should be a consistent and uniform policy and no discrimination against a particular type of betting.

Some might say that RM10 on South Korea to win a game at the World Cup is way better than RM10 on four random numbers from one to nine.

The country clearly cannot afford to fiddle around when it comes to business, scholarships and spending silly money on new buildings no one needs.

So could somebody take charge at the wheel at Putrajaya and stop vacillating over every single thing?

This is important. We need to get our act together because according to Idris Jala, the person appointed by the prime minister himself to be chief executive officer of the Performance Management and Delivery Unit (Pemandu), Malaysia may be bankrupt by 2019.

Oh yes. I forget. The Finance Ministry has already come out to say that Idris had overstated his case for subsidy cuts with flawed statistics and that Malaysia will not be bankrupt in 2019.

Does anybody check with each other in government anymore before speaking to the people?

I guess not.