NEM? WIIFM?
By batsman
I am also not an economist by training, but I know that without exception, people analyze economic policies by starting and ending with “What’s in it for me?”
When the prime movers of the economy and all those little and large fingers that have a stake in the economy ask this question, there is bound to be pulling in all sorts of directions. Will the NEM succeed in making them all pull in the right direction?
OK , so the NEM is not a policy but just a model, but this is even worse news. Will this model make everyone pull in the same direction?
Take the police force for example. It is something that everyone is supposed to trust and look up to. In Britain the police force is being cut down to size and everyone is worried. In Malaysia, the PDRM is getting more money and more manpower to do its job “properly” and everyone is even more worried than before.
Can the SRIs (Social Reform Initiatives) remove all the obstacles and return public trust in the police force? Will the SRIs be able to turn the NEM into a super highway similar to the German autobahns or will the old wreckages that litter the highway at present continue to pose dangers to life and limb? What will the SRI do about the ISA, the sedition laws, the AUKU, the Printing and Publishing Acts, the NFAs of the MACC and the deafening silence of the AG among many other wreckages?
It looks to me that one single man can caused a traffic jam the length of half the super highway just by remaining quiet and silent and one government department can complete the traffic jam to the whole length of the highway by no further action. Imagine if these people wake up and start to be active. What dynamism and what energy we can expect!
But wait a minute, are the new cyber sedition laws part of the SRI? Looks to me like the traffic jam will last not just a few days but until at least after the 13th GE maybe even longer.
OK, so don’t let us talk about the old models. There is nothing we can do to change anything about these parts of the old model. We have to ignore them and lump it.
What about the new parts of the model? Apparently plenty of money will be poured into acceleration and fast driving – maybe even beyond the speed limit. Hopefully the Ketuanan Melayu predatory sharks do not get in the way. They will be cruising the whole highway on the look out to take first bite – at least 30% worth. Once they get into a feeding frenzy I suppose the traffic jam will get even worse. Patients will be lining up in non-existing hospitals. Blood and gore will spill all over the highway and make driving slippery and dangerous even at traffic jam speeds. Make sure you don’t put out your arm to make any signals or poke your head out the window – it may get bitten off – at least 30% of it.
What about our famous bureaucracy? Will they play a part in pushing the NEM forwards? But of course – they are the ones who designed it in the first place, so their “What’s in it for me?” gets first priority. Hopefully the population of the PM’s department will not balloon to 100,000 staff just to cater to effective implementation of the NEM and whatever babies the PM brings forth to life otherwise one may have to stock up on C4.
One silver lining will probably be all that hi-tech stuff that all our current money and future money (debt) is supposed to pay for and which will ensure we derive high income from all that investment. Of course the consultants from the advanced countries will get first bite. We Malaysians need the consultants to kick start things first. Already APCO has been engaged and PEMANDU is doing some engagement as well. So the foreign investors will have their “What’s in it for me?” reasonably well taken care of.
All that hot money flowing into the system must trigger some huge appetites. Apart from some lousy singing to spoil part of that appetite, I suppose, some of that hot money will eventually flow to the rakyat after some reserves are set aside to make sure repairs can be done to the Parliament in case it leaks again.
I suppose some money has to be kept in reserve to cater for any eventualities when our French Scorpenes do eventually dive and our US fighter aircraft finally have engines to fly and our Russian fighter aircraft have enough money for maintenance. Hopefully our armed forces will have sorted out the divisive “lack of patriotism” of non-Malay servicemen thingy by then. But all these are old stories. I wonder what the new stories will be? I am a sucker for good stories. I am so excited I can hardly wait. I guess that is all that’s in it for me. heeheehee
