Only 4 Support Dr M And Tan Sri Muhyiddin 5 Support Zahid

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 Here is a simple Internet Poll. Do not ignore or take these polls lightly because on the Internet the numbers are huge. For example this simple Poll 'Siapakah Yang Anda Akan Undi?" has 12,000 votes. 
Someone once said that for a population of 32 million people, you only need 5,000 people to reply any poll or survey to reflect the views of the wider population. This Poll has 12,000 votes. 
You can see that Dr M, Muhyiddin and Zahid Hamidi are scraping the bottom with 4% to 5% of support. Soiled underwear.

The most popular candidate is Anwar Ibrahim with a whopping 87% support.





This time around Anwar Ibrahim has avoided the "konspirasi", Dr Mahathir is out to get me, Islam as his favourite scratching posts.
That seems to be working better for him. He has produced a 180 page Manifesto which no one will read or even understand. Manifestos should be no longer than 10 itemised points on one page.

In the Intro he has thrown in too many verses from the Quran (religion still sells) and thankfully left out Shakespeare, Confucius, Ben Nabi, Yusuf Qardawi and the like. But I must confess I could not go beyond the Intro.   
There is a quote from Plato  "There should exist among the citizens neither extreme poverty nor, again, excessive wealth, for both are productive (sic) of great evil” [Plato, The Republic]

Shouldnt it be 'products'? I am afraid Plato was not fully on the dot on this one.  Trying to determine economic outcome through policy is what has destroyed the productive competitiveness of a huge chunk of the populace. Yes I am referring to the Malays and bumiputras. Guaranteeing equal economic opportunity for all basic economic units (aka individual human beings) is what drives a society to greater heights. This has been carefully cemented over behind Quran verses and Plato.

Hence also my unanswered question : Will Anwar Ibrahim get rid of the racial quota system for government university entry? This question remains unanswered.


There are "fried taugeh with vanilla ice cream sundae" concoctions like : "summons all Malaysians to dig deep into their undervalued yet rich indigenous local wisdom for inspiration. To get the ball rolling, he illustrates how the enhanced precepts could unleash their transformative power by virtue of being more attuned to Malaysian reality and faithful to people’s aspirations . . "

An old friend, a historian would say, 'dia sendiri tak faham apa dia cakap'.

We need economic talk. We need business talk. We need finance talk.

We need six to 10 major hospitals around the country. Do you really need RM1.0 Billion (minimum) to build say a 500 bed hospital? If you cut out the cronies and the padding, cant you get TWO hospitals for the price of one?

We need expanded diagnosis and early detection facilities at the life saving, first responder, frontliner Klinik Kesihatan dotted around the country.  We do not need surgical facilities and inpatient treatment at Klinik Kesihatan but they can and should conduct expanded health screening for the population.   Put one on every corner.
We need duplicates of the IJN (heart institute) at a few more locations in the country. With 32 million people just the one IJN is certainly far from enough. 
The economy has been delivered a mortal blow when the banking and financial system was destroyed through the   bank consolidation exercise of the late 1990s and early 2000. The mainly Chinese owned "around every corner" type finance companies, leasing companies, credit companies, domestic commercial banks and merchant banks were all made to disappear. From 52 commercial banks and hundreds of finance companies we were left with SIX local owned "anchor banks" and the few foreign banks operating in the country. Brader Anwar was Finance Minister until 1998.

Now a  friend who is an SME businessman pledged his property worth RM2.0 million to get an RM1.0 million Bank Guarantee facility. 50% of property value and a Bank Guarantee which is a non-cash facility. Yet it has been TWO years and the bank is still processing the application. Can you see why there are 2.5 million "underemployed" in the country? Most are Malays.

This is exactly why since the early 2000s the Ah Long industry has ballooned and some say the Ah Longs now rival the banking industry in volume. The Ah Longs are simply filling a huge vacuum.  Ah Longs do not pay corporate taxes - which should run into tens of billions very year. Still the Ah Longs are here to stay, because the banking industry has been destroyed - by the same ketuanan, anti Chinese mob that was in power in the 1990s and early 2000s. 
We do not need Plato or Shakespeare. 
We need "new" economic policies, free market policies free of government granted monopolies, free of government "controlled" oligopolies, free of government over regulation.
Regulations lead to corruption. The more rules the more corruption opportunities. 
If you slap a standard 15% import tax on all imported goods, there is no more room for corruption at the ports and airports. Imagine a Mercedes Benz pays only 15% import taxes - period. Or a Toyota or a Renault. The standard of living shoots up, the cost of living goes down and you have not even given anyone a pay rise. 
Dr M, Muhyiddin, Zahid have earned their low single digit popularity. Anwar Ibrahim is at 87%. 
Dr M is unpopular because of his failed policies and the Bersatu / Pejuang identity. Muhyiddin is unpopular because of the Bersatu identity. Zahid is a trashy fellow in a trashy party. Where does Brader Anwar fit? A victim of conspiracies? Or a conspiracy playing victim?  

What is the cost of a bag of cement? Is there a cement monopoly in Malaysia? Granted by the government? 
So Plato? Or just another version of the Tuanku Abdul Rahman Club?
 


 The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of MMKtT.
By Syed Akbar Ali 

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