High Income Economy? More Like High Expenditure Economy

By batsman 

In times of perceived failure, confusion and heightened suspicions with the new ways, it is a natural tendency to fall back on the old ways. After all the old ways have got us this far and the new ways threaten to destroy everything we have built up and worked for. Fear, uncertainty and insecurity are natural targets for the practitioners of dirty tricks. The 1Malaysia advertising campaign and accompanying black ops seems to have reached the peak of its influence.

Looks like the hopes and aspirations placed on the high tide of the 2008 elections tsunami has gone out with the low tide of another elections shambles. Perceptions such as fear and uncertainty overpower those of hope and aspiration. It is now time for real pain instead of perceived pain to work into the nervous fabric of society before the next level of realization and understanding can be achieved. 

The Malaysian economy is dominated by inter-locking sets of monopolies, the biggest of which is the civil service. With Selangor expected to raise another corps of 300,000 RELA members, Malaysian society is now confirmed as a uniformed society. There is hardly a family in Malaysia which does not have 2 or 3 persons who possess some form of uniform or other whether company uniforms, NGO uniforms or government uniforms. Perhaps this applies to Selangor only since the other states are still stuck with their quota of RELA members and do not envisage any increase, but still, the uniforms are everywhere. 

Does this mean then that Malaysia is a homogeneous society? Hardly – any 2 year old Mongoloid can tell you that. 

So it is that while we are promised a high income economy, the outcome is most likely a high expenditure economy starting with the expenditures of the 2011 budget and 10MP, not to mention 100 storey buildings and dinner tickets to hear lousy singers. 

This conclusion derives from the monopolistic nature of the Malaysian economy, starting with the Malaysian government itself. Monopolies are high price economic animals. The only reason to organize a monopoly is to control and eventually drive up the prices of everything. Imagine a world without OPEC. Petrol would still be 50 cents a gallon in the US. 

And why did the world’s big airlines organize an air cargo cartel? Was it to keep prices down? And why air cargo and not paying passengers? Could it be that air cargo is far away from prying eyes and not immediately felt by paying passengers? 

So monopolies are not only disliked by people, but illegal under most regimes. That is why Singapore Airlines got fined a hefty sum for its part in the air cargo cartel. Fortunately the cartel did not bother to invite MAS to join. Could it be that MAS and Singapore Airlines are irreconcilable competitors? 

In Malaysia, unfortunately the government itself is a monopoly. Instead of being in the business of government, it actively involves itself in commercial and business dealings. This makes Malaysians inured to monopolies. It becomes a fact of life in Malaysia. The government is expected to take part in business. It is part and parcel of the patronage which again is part and parcel of our culture. 

Unfortunately, being in business, the government eventually treats some segments of society in Malaysia as competitors. This creates feelings of competitive ill will against some of the people it is supposed to protect and care for. And being government it has every right to call such people traitors or ungrateful or disloyal, especially if they are reluctant to join the police and armed forces. So disloyalty is one of the accepted reasons for their reluctance to join the armed forces. So one large segment of the population is cast into the black hole of outcasts and since they are also business competitors, very likely they lose all protection and rights of citizens and can be called immigrants as well. 

I guess this is the natural outcome of things if governments take part actively in commerce and business. 

The other outcome is that monopolies are created in the blink of an eye. Unfortunately, such monopolies have a life of their own and often become unruly and disobedient (even truly ungrateful). So the inter-locking is not perfect. This can be seen from the fact that licenses withdrawn with immediate effect from bas express companies have no immediate effect and the companies are reported to continue to open their counters and continue to sell tickets. 

So it is that seeing loved ones killed or maimed in accidents become one of the painful experiences that are most likely to increase the level of people’s understanding about bad government, bad policies and bad laws. 

The other painful experiences affect the pocket. Insurance for cars have shot through the roof. Apparently it is almost impossible to get 3rd party insurance these days and old cars are impossible to be insured. Is this the result of a monopoly or cartel working its magic? Drivers have no choice in the matter since insurance is mandatory. Isn’t this perfect soil for a monopoly to work its magic and empty the pockets of drivers as if by magic? 

Is the government aware of these issues faced by the rakyat? More curiously, is the opposition aware? If so, the government as usual, has taken decisions to avoid cultivating a skilled maintenance culture among the people such that they care for and keep their cars in good serviceable order instead of trashing it for a few years and then selling it as scrap because it is impossible or unaffordable to get insurance for old cars anyway. 

Is this the attitude of the bas express operators – save money on maintenance since it is not possible to get insurance for old vehicles anyway? So what if a few passengers get killed because of poor maintenance? Some VIP can always be relied upon come out to say that accident buses are in perfect working order anyway. So why eventually withdraw the licenses of the bas operators whose vehicles get into serious accidents? Shouldn’t TI look into some of these mundane and boring issues as well? 

The prices of basic foodstuff are on the rise for some time now. The government seems almost helpless in the face of the monopolies it has created, or is it only feigned helplessness? What do you think? 

Hopefully the real cumulative pain of all these real issues can wake people up from their drugged like slumber and challenge people to take risks to try out a new way for the sake of the future. Can they? Or is the comatose too deep and too serious? 

While the people are sovereign and their decisions on who they elect to power must be respected, there is also room for lobbies and NGOs to bring issues to the people for consideration. In this the MCLM can play a much hoped for role since political parties seem to be too absorbed in their own quarrels and problems to bring such issues to the fore or has the government monopoly on NFA chops completely demoralized everyone oledi or is it because some people are so disloyal to the country that they are reluctant to join the campaigns to make things better in Malaysia or is it because the traitors are sabotaging people’s thinking or is it because the incentives are too small or is it because people are fed up of the big mouths of government ministers as well as activists or is it because …….? heeheehee