Dangers lurk in Malaysia’s economy, can Najib save Malaysia?
Ng Kee Seng, The Ant Daily
The Public Service Commission (PSC) has revealed that some two million Malaysians sought to take up the 60,000 vacancies in the civil service last year.
PSC chairman Tan Sri Mahmood Adam said 219,137 people were shortlisted for interviews but only 143,177 turned up.
“From the total number who turned up for the interviews, 52,383 were offered jobs.
“All of them took up their job offers. While 34,112 of them were offered permanent employment, the remaining 18,271 have been appointed as contract staff,” he told the media.
If this is to be used to judge the country’s employment opportunities, there is only a three per cent chance for Malaysians to gain employment in the public sector. What about the private sector?
Mahmood was quoting by the media as saying: “It’s unprecedented but it shows that government jobs are attractive.”
Is that true or accurate? Could it also mean jobs are hard to come by these days? Is Malaysia’s unemployment rate rising?
With the unabated price hikes in almost everything, the domino effects of inflation are set to haunt Malaysians, driving down profits.
The immediate effect is a big shrink in domestic consumption as affordability becomes unsettling and employers resort to cost-cutting measures, beginning with retrenchments.
A significant number of those who lose their jobs will end up piling bad debts in lending or financial institutions. Get the big picture?
With the gloomy global economic outlook, dragged by the protracted Greece and Europe’s financial crisis, export-reliant Malaysia will be hard hit.
Already, the Ringgit Malaysia is under tremendous pressure to keep afloat in the international forex market. Can it sustain its current value or wilt to a free fall?
The Umno-led Barisan Nasional (BN) federal government has been operating Budget deficits for 14 consecutive years since 1999.
It only knows how to borrow, borrow and borrow to keep its administration and country afloat. However, after the 13th General Election (GE13) it has become clear that it cannot continue with such an “economic suicide”.
In simplistic terms, Malaysia cannot go the Greece way.
Although Malaysia is blessed with vast rich natural resources, including oil and gas, it has accumulated a federal debt of more than RM620 billion, as revealed by Prime Minister cum Finance Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak in Budget 2013.
However, unofficially, as reported and quoting then Deputy International Trade and Industry Minister Datuk Mukhriz Mahathir (now Kedah Menteri Besar), Malaysia’s actual debt is at more than RM800 billion. That’s more than 70% of the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
Najib, after securing his own mandate to govern Malaysia in GE13, is facing reality and has little choice but to tackle the country’s mounting debts.
The federal government has finally started to try and check the financial rot by cutting down on subsidies. That is why prices have started to hike, driving up inflation. The might of the domino-effect on inflation is only just starting to haunt both urban and rural Malaysians.
Najib’s 2014 budget included bold measures to instil fiscal prudence and to achieve longer-term fiscal sustainability, expecting to record a deficit of 4 per cent of nominal GDP for the 2013 fiscal year.
