Big problems, small solutions

ARCHIVES 2013

By admin-s On Jan 9, 2013

Compared with Anwar’s ideas to solve the nation’s woes, Najib’s 1Malaysia This and 1Malaysia That are but small painkillers providing short-term relief

Selena Tay, FMT

Soon 10 million Malaysian citizens will be able to enjoy the 1Malaysia Privilege Card and do online shopping at the 1Malaysia Privilege Portal. This may be a way of enabling the rakyat to obtain a bit of discount benefits but this is not solving the problem in the long run.

A friend of this columnist mentioned that 5% discount is given for purchases at a fast-food outlet but the discount is only limited to purchases of less than RM20. Do your math and see how little the discount comes up to!

Frankly, all these 1Malaysia ideas are not solving the problems at all. They are just little ideas yielding tiny gains for the rakyat. One of the biggest problems faced by the nation is corruption.

Is there any major effort by the relevant authorities to curb this crime? Forget the NKRAs (National Key Result Areas) and the KPIs (Key Performance Index) but has there been any real reduction in corruption? Zilch, nil, tiada.

Another major problem is the ever-rising crime rate. Any reduction? Not really. Snatch thefts and house break-ins are rampant and rife. Instead, the Najib administration comes up with 1Malaysia This and 1Malaysia That. These are not problem-solvers but small painkillers that provide short- term relief.

Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak is not doing the big things to solve the big problems. Is there any idea or plan on how to curb the massive illicit fund outflow? Again zilch, nil, tiada. In fact, in the first place there is no effort being made to acknowledge that there exists big problems such as corruption, rising crime and illegal fund outflow.

Instead, attention and action have been diverted to giving small discounts and small cash aid here and there. Clearly, Najib is not a man of big ideas when it comes to benefiting the rakyat.

Just compare with Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim who has ideas such as abolishing road tolls, reducing petrol prices and giving out taxi permits. Now these are big ideas.

In regard to taxi permits, so far the Najib administration has only handed out four new tyres. This gift amounts to only RM520 whereas the taxi permit costs nearly three times that amount at RM50 per day, which comes up to RM1,500 per month. That is the reason why the prime minister does not really understand the situation on the ground.

Making up for lost time

As for the RM500 cash aid handed out under the BR1M programme, curbing inflation is the better move in the long term. And curbing inflation can only be done with good management of the economy. By handing out cash aid, Najib is only applying the painkiller solution of instant but temporary relief unlike Anwar’s ideas which solve the problem once and for all.

In respect of this, Pakatan Rakyat’s promises are the better deal and we should put Pakatan in power to see if the better deal becomes the real deal. Let us see how Pakatan performs as the federal government and how BN performs as the opposition. Then and then only can real comparison be made between the BN era and the Pakatan era.