The ‘ill-advised’ PM

by Gomen Man
The Malaysian Insider

I find it amusing that nothing that goes awry with policies or projects of this government is the fault of Prime Minister Najib Razak.

It is always someone else’s fault and the poor PM was “ill-advised”. The latest is that world-class sub-prime scheme called My First Home, where banks are supposed to provide 100 per cent financing for those earning RM3,000 and below.

Apparently, not one loan has been approved by the banks and the scheme is an abject failure. According to the National Homeowners Association, this was a ridiculous scheme and that the PM was ill-advised!

Really? He was ill-advised. Given the number of flip-flops, he does seem to be “ill-advised” more frequently than other leaders.

Najib’s supporters say that he was wrongly advised by Home Minister Hishammuddin Hussein and the police on the “security threat” posed by Malaysians who marched for clean elections. Of course, this “ill-advised” defence was put forward only after the Bersih rally became an unmitigated disaster.

More recently, Najib scrapped civil service salary increases after approving them. Along the corridors of Putrajaya, the Public Service Department is being blamed for this blooper where senior civil servants were given huge pay increases while the lower rung received small increases.

Najib was worried that he would face an election backlash and that is why he scrapped the scheme, replacing it with another salary scheme.

If you follow his time as PM, there have been countless “ill-advised” schemes and ideas and every time somebody else was the culprit. Now according to The Malaysian Insider, the MAS-AirAsia share swap deal is being reconsidered by the same government which told us that this was the only option.

If the PM is constantly being “ill-advised”, I can only conclude that the Cabinet, civil service and Najib’s advisors are a pretty mediocre bunch. Or that our prime minister is not a diligent man and is prone to making too many