7 sins of addiction

ARCHIVES 2011

By admin-s On Jun 2, 2011

The poorer you are, the harder you should work

By Lee Wee Tak

Najib has pin-pointed the cause of decades of budget deficits – Malaysia has a bunch of irresponsible addicts that consume petrol subsidy like as if there is no tomorrow and the solution is really market forces efficiency.

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http://wargamarhaen.blogspot.com/2011/05/fuel-susbsidies-are-like-opium-to.html

Fuel susbsidies are like “opium” to M’sians: Najib tells Oxford …really..!!!
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He said his government had budgeted for fuel subsidies to cost the economy RM11 billion this year but that the estimate had soared to around RM18 billion because of high international crude oil prices.

“Subsidies as a whole are like opium. Once you take opium it’s hard to kick the bad habit; once you provide subsidies it’s hard to take them away without some political cost,” he told an audience at Oxford University’s Centre for Islamic Studies.

In March, Najib said he was committed to cutting subsidies long term, adding that the savings should be targeted to help lower- and middle-income people.

“Good economic and macro-management entails you reduce subsidies on a gradual basis. Then you will allow market forces to allocate resources efficiently
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Yeah, like Proton “another 10 years please”, IPP “sign here or go, Ayob” and NEP which deviated from its original purpose beyond recognition*. All within the reaches of middle and low income groups.

(If Najib’s dad bothered to speak to me, I would just like to point out NEP’s corner stone should be 1) building up resilience and positive work ethic 2) have a deadline to avoid complacent mindset being cemented3) avoid the pitfall of making the target groups think it’s source of easy comfort (the poorer you are, the harder you should work).

Anyway, since we are on the subject of opium and addiction, this is my personal list of top 7 opium and addiction in Malaysia:

1. Addiction to no competition
Some Malaysians are too nice and don’t like competition. For example, Proton does not like competition from abroad.

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http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/business/article/proton-wants-investments-protected-in-liberalised-market/

Proton wants investments protected in liberalised market
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Some students are also willing to forgone academic competition to remain in a calm state, not even by a mere 10% .

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UiTM student protest spreads to Permatang Pauh campus

BUKIT MERTAJAM (Aug 15, 2008): About 5,000 students from the Permatang Pauh campus of Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM) held a peaceful protest against the suggestion by Selangor Mentri Besar Tan Sri Abdul Khalid Ibrahim that the university open its doors to non-bumiputeras

Source: sun2surf website
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As a result, it is ok to produce non-competitive, non-employable graduates who end up in the only silo/refuge they can seek.

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http://www.malaysia-today.net/mtcolumns/guest-columnists/35843-best-bloated-bureaucracy-to-bleed-bolehland-to-bankruptcy

With 1.3 million civil servants to a population of 26 million, Malaysia has one of the highest civil servants-to-population ratio in the world by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development standards.
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1.3 mil civil servants have to be remunerated by 15% of the population who pay taxes and 15% of 26 million is 3.9 million and gosh, the ratio of civil servants to tax paying Malaysians is a whopping 33%!

And if you think that 15% include persons who are both a civil servant and a tax payer then the ratio of civil servants to private sector tax payers is much higher than 33%! It turns my stomach to see the quality of public service in Malaysia, having sampled first hand the public services of Hong Kong and Singapore.

It gets worse because the daddy/mommy who grew up in a competition adverse environment, will pass on “tak apa” mentality to their offspring. There will be no end to this.