Hamzah Assured Public Opposition Not Planning To Change Govt

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Hamzah: allowing PM to govern demonstrated Opposition cared for countryWed, 04 Jan 2023 Hamzah Zainudin assured public Opposition not planning to change govt will allow current administration to do its jobfor the sake of country, we are not going to disturb the govt bread-and-butter issues - Opposition and govt need to work togetherIf govt plays games, is one-sided, takes populist stand, that is no goodThey should work with Opposition very important for prime minister to understandon PM's performance, Hamzah said too early to make assessmentit isn’t fair to comment now as it’s only been about two months
He used to be deputy PM, minister of finance. But that was thenNow it’s a different world, world facing bigger problems economically Just allow him to work on economic matters, and he can last even longer“If he cannot do that, it will create political instability” he added. 
My Comments:  So said the crocodile as he surveyed the wildebeest. "Let him cross the river. If he gets across it is good. If he cannot then he is mine".


 
Fatal wounds have been inflicted on this country.  It is a question of how long more will it take before the country collapses. 10 years? 20 years? 30 years?

I have been highlighting Pakistan for ever. In my first book 'To Digress A Little' (2005)  I have mentioned the sorry state of Pakistan. Also in my second book 'Malaysia and the Club of Doom - The Collapse of the Islamic Countries" (2006).
Now 18 years later Pakistan is totally collapsing. Pakistan Railways have run very low on fuel for the trains. So they do not accept cargo anymore - no more freight trains between Lahore and Karachi. Pakistan Railway workers are getting paid in instalments.
Pakistan does not have the 9 to 10 million Chinese plus the three to four million Indians that we have in Malaysia who pull a lot of weight and contribute plenty to the government's tax revenues. Plus they keep the private sector economy going - without any tongkat.  Or multi-billion Ringgit "taxpayer funded" buta money projects.
That is why the government's tax revenue is still holding up. What does this mean? It means Malaysia will keep on going for a bit longer than Pakistan. But in the end the current economic system that we have in Malaysia will collapse. And the first people who will feel that collapse will be the Malays. It is already happening. 
Right now the Malaysian government's tax revenue is used up completely just to pay the salaries and pensions of the 1.6 Million Civil Servants. These are mostly Malays. There is no more left over for development. For Development Expenditure the government borrows money - and burdens future generations of Malaysians.
Then the government makes insane and really stupid policies which directly impacts the same tax revenue that is so critical not just to pay those 1.6 million mostly Malay civil servants but without which there cannot be any bumiputra assistance programs at all - no sekolah asrama penuh, no biasiswa kerajaan, no bumiputra scheme etc etc. I will give three quick examples.
1. Government licensed and government run electricity monopoly raises  electricity surcharge by 20 sen per kWh. Beginning January 2023 the medium and high voltage industrial users are going to choke and die. From paying 30 sen to 38 sen per kWh they are now going to pay 50 sen to 58 sen per kWh. A jump of between 52% to 66% in their power tariffs.   They are going to pass these cost increases to the consumer. Price inflation is going to shoot up. Kos sara hidup is going to go up again. 
And here is the catch - the electricity tariff for household consumers stays the same. There is no reduction. Your household power bill will remain the same. 

The electricity monopoly already makes net profits of over RM3 billion. It is a monopoly. What exactly is the rationale to further increase electricity tariffs for the consumer?
2. The Minimum Wage has been increased to RM1,500 beginning this year. The SMEs are already screaming. So now they have suggested a compromise. The Minimum Wage of RM1,500 has been postponed until July 2023 for those SMEs and small businesses that employ less than five people.
KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 4 — The Ministry of Human Resources' decision to allow small firms that payroll less than five staff until July 2023 to raise the minimum wage to RM1,500 was met with strong criticism from pro-labour activists and trade union leaders who said the deferment is unfair to low income workers.

Point No 1 - the government admits that the Minimum Wage of RM1,500 is NOT A GOOD THING. 
Well first of all the workforce will now migrate from less-than-five-worker SMEs to the more-than-five-worker SMEs to earn a higher Minimum Wage of RM1,500. This means small SMEs will have more trouble finding workers. In the end they will also end up paying RM1,500 minimum wage. Back to square one.
More importantly, for the past three years, all over the world wages went crashing because of the Covid  and because of the western sanctions against Russia and China.
We are perhaps the only country to buck this trend. In Malaysia despite a crashing economy the Minimum Wages have been steadily increasing. Ini policy making ikut style kepala hotak apa? 
The Minimum Wage of RM1,500 is going to cause another round of massive unemployment. Especially for Malays and bumiputras who seem to endlessly occupy the Minimum Wage rungs. More seriously it will cause businesses to cut down on their workforce, postpone or cancel expansion plans or opening of new branches and maybe just shut down. Wage costs DO NOT MATCH PRODUCTIVITY.  
 
3.  Banking Oligopoly stifles economic growth
I received this today:
 



This is the government controlled, government licensed banking oligopoly that has been choking the country's economy since 2000 and slightly before. 
Pandemic, banjir, Ukraine War, economic recession, no matter what the banking oligopoly still makes billions in profits every year. 
No matter what the economic condition without fail the banking oligopoly makes profits of RM1.5 billion, RM5.66 billion, RM3 billion, RM2.04 billion etc etc. They laugh all the way to their banks.
Some fool said that in order to control the Chinese the Malays must control the banking industry. The end result is the fools have killed the economy.  The fatal wound in Malaysia's economy is the banking system. Or rathr the tightly controlled, tightly licensed, oligopolistic, politically connected banking cartel in the country. 
It has become so difficult for SMEs to get a simple bank loan from the banking cartel.  
As a result there has been a massive growth in illegal money lending. The Ah Longs. The Ah Longs have become a multi-billion Ringgit industry. The illegal and criminal Ah Longs do not pay taxes. So the government loses maybe billions in tax revenues. Then the Ah Longs bleed the economy dry through their 18% or more per annum interest rates. Small industries and small people have little choice but to deal with the Ah Longs.
Shall we talk about the disastrous education policies? Maybe another day.
So Pakistan began going down the toilet since about 46 years ago (since Zia Ul Haque).
How long will it take for Malaysia to go down the toilet completely? If there is no getting rid of the Dasar Ekonomi Baru policies then I would say another 25 years. 
The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of MMKtT.

By Syed Akbar Ali 

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