FEB 3 — How is the progress of the Economic Transformation Programme (ETP)? CIMB Group Holdings Bhd group chief executive Datuk Seri Nazir Razak pointed out that since many people have forecast that the next general election would fall in this year or early next year, members of the public have turned their attention to politics and this can slow down the ETP progress.
Nazir, who is Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s young brother, said: “Things slow down because authorities have something better to do.”
Political leaders have indeed allocated too much resources and time on politics recently. They talked about politics in various Chinese New Year occasions while ignoring other important issues. The atmosphere was dull and even the report on the ETP has been absent for two months.
After Budget 2012 was tabled by the prime minister in October last year, the government has spent huge resources on the RM100 allowance for students, the RM200 book vouchers and the RM500 BR1M aid.
The RM100 allowance has benefited 5,532,650 students nationwide. It was distributed by teachers before the school holidays. A total of 1.3 million students were eligible to receive the RM200 book vouchers. A large number of manpower was required to handle work including recording, printing, distribution and collaboration with the book industry.
The RM500 BR1M aid is even more labour-intensive. About four million households were expected to apply for the aid and thousands of civil servants would have to involve in the process of form distribution and collection, approval, notification of results and aid distribution.
When civil servants and politicians are engaged in this people-friendly work, would they still have time for the government and the ETP?
BN leaders have apparently forgotten about the need to create a good feeling through the implementation of the ETP, efficiency improvement and economic growth. Instead, it seems to have gone astray and expected to win the election through giving out money.
Money distribution might temporary please the people but it cannot solve the problems of low-income earners.
If the government holds on to the ETP, it might be able to overwhelm Pakatan Rakyat with its policies. Unfortunately, it has failed to hold on tight and as a result, the country has fallen into the craziest “money distribution competition” since the independence.
Since they have not focused on the transformation, the economic growth might slow to about 3.8 per cent this year. It is not a good omen amidst the weaker demand in Europe and the US.
Because of political distractions, many principles that should be upheld have been relaxed. For example, it lacks transparency stressed in the ETP when the cost of the West Coast Expressway (WCE) increases by 134 per cent from RM3.015 billion to RM7.07 billion, while its concession period also nearly doubles from 33 to 60 years.
The National Feedlot Centre (NFC) scandal remains unsolved even after three months due to political considerations. Procrastination can actually harm the government.
If the above mentioned factors are not enough to explain the economic slowdown, let’s also look at the UN Conference on Trade and Development data. Even though Malaysia was able to attract US$11.6 billion of foreign direct investment (FDI) in 2011, or 27.6 per cent more than the US$9.1 billion FDI in the year before, its capital absorption capacity in the region was ranked the second bottom of the list, only better than Thailand, which attracted US$7.7 billion.
Even Myanmar is adhering to democratic reforms. Slowing down the ETP would put the country’s future at risk. — mysinchew.com
* This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication. The Malaysian Insider does not endorse the view unless specified.
