Another round of fun and games?

ARCHIVES 2012

By admin-s On Sep 26, 2012

(Free Malaysia Today) – In view of the impending 13th general election, the budget to be presented this Friday will certainly have many goodies to woo the voters but, according to Dzulkefly, whatever is doled out now will be regained a hundredfold and more by the incumbent government via the GST (goods and services tax) if it continues to win at the polls.

Last week, Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak has asked the rakyat to give him a fresh full-term mandate in the coming 13th general election. He must have thought that we, the ordinary rakyat, have failed in our maths.

The reason why this columnist makes this statement can be explained as follows: Najib took the oath of office on April 3, 2009. By Oct 3 this year, he will have been prime minister for three and a half years. And if the polls are held in March next year, it will be nearly four years that he has been prime minister.

If we were to give him a fresh full-term mandate, he will have been prime minister between eight and a half to nine years overall. Do we want another round of fun and games pertaining to the polls date? Certainly not this columnist! Another round of this silly game will truly drive a lot of businessmen and investors up the wall.

For the sake of good governance, it is time to end this tiresome game although the prime minister himself seems to be enjoying all the speculation going around. Many business owners certainly do not find it amusing nor entertaining.

The Federation of Malaysian Manufacturers (FMM) has earlier this year issued a statement that they preferred the polls to be held fast.

“Of course, the polls date is the prime minister’s prerogative but he seems to enjoy taunting the rakyat with it,” said Dzulkefly Ahmad, the PAS Kuala Selangor MP.

In the meantime, three businessmen from an Asian country are having a good laugh at our expense. Their conversation was overheard by this columnist at the food court in a popular tourist spot in Kuala Lumpur.

The first businessman was heard saying, “Look at Malaysia’s massive national debt. Who would have thought that they would incur so much debt when they have so much natural resources?”

The second businessman commented that Malaysia, however, did quite well in the recent Olympics.

The third businessman remarked that while that may be so, the transport system in Malaysia has seen very little improvement. “If the current incumbent government continues to win at the polls, then Malaysia will continue to lag behind in Asia,” added the third businessman.

Slipping further

No one in the 1960s and 1970s would have thought that Malaysia would be lagging behind some of its Asian neighbours years later. It is definitely a sorry state of affairs for Malaysians.

And the only way forward for Malaysia to mount a serious challenge in the international stage in terms of economy and finance is to vote in a better government. Otherwise, we will continue to fall behind and slip further down the rankings.

In the World Economic Forum (WEF) rankings, we have slipped from 21 to 25. We have also seen a deterioration in the Government Budget Balancing Ranking by slipping from 96 to 110 whereas in terms of inequality of wealth, even Indonesia at 36.8 fares better than Malaysia which stands at 46.2.

Our heyday seems to be slipping away. We must have a slogan like: “Stop Corruption, Save Malaysia.”