When will they ever learn? Can they ever Learn?

PM Najib has been an MP since 1976. He has held offices since then culminating as PM in 2009. He has served many many years as minister and DPM and finally PM. One would have acquired wisdom over the years unless one is a dud.

So why doesn’t Najib apply the wisdom acquired when making decisions instead of relying heavily on the on-paper conclusions done by consultants? The problems facing Malaysia are no solvable by complicated modelling exercises. It requires leadership.

Najib has not shown leadership. He has showmanship, no substance. When floods ravaged Kuantan recently, many were made houseless and suffered total loses in property. Fuziah Salleh proposes an emergency motion so that parliament can debate the matter. The purpose was to heighten awareness and perhaps encouraged parliament to do some extraordinary measures to counter unusually bad flooding in Kuantan.

On the first day, because it was during the Konvensyen Kumpulan Klu Klux( read UMNO) was going on, he together with the DPM and other tongue-lapping minions flow over Kuantan. The next day, UMNOs Ketua Wanita made a big boast telling everyone that the wanita UMNO were at the flood scene willing to tie their sarongs to the waist. That must have scared the living daylights out of many young children who must have suffered nightmares that night. What more without electricity, insufficient supplies like food and blankets, the images of wanita UMNO with sarongs tied up the waist must have appeared as frightening apparitions.

Najib should have given Kuantan an emergency status even if he doesn’t want to declare a state of emergency. That would allow more money to be given to flood victims to lighten the catastrophe. Is he waiting for the townships of Sungai Isap, Bukit Rangin, Kampong Belukar, Batu 3, Cenderawasih to be completely decimated?

Why not now use the Kedai 1Malaysia to sell furniture and consumer electronic items to flood victims on extended credit terms with no down payments? And when assessing losses, please refrain from using untrained village heads to do it. Use professional adjusters instead.

What has Najib acquired over his many years as a political careerist? Other PMs and leaders have had advisers and consultants, but in the end, they make the judgment call. Najib it seems has acquired no wisdom at all if every decision he makes is that of the consultant’s.

Today he spoke about not subscribing to populist policies. So what do we call BR1M, and all those other acronym initiatives? Najib must now be known as the most populist of all PMs we have had.

But why are we not converted after reading about what Najib said about spending rationally. We have to increase revenue before appointing the money collected. The government revenue is derived mainly from all sorts of taxes, the latest being GST to be implemented soon. That will increase revenue collection by the government and that is troubling us. With more money in their hands, the government has more money to skim off from our treasury. The treasury is where all the money collected is deposited in one consolidated fund. Each year, before the end of the year, the government goes before parliament and asks for a specified sum to be appropriated so that it can finance its business plan for the ensuing year.

Najib sounds so farcical when lecturing civil servants on spending prudence. The country loses on average RM150 billion in illicit capital transfers as a result of corruption, criminal activities, tax evasion and others. We lose on average RM28 billion a year through leakages as reported by the Auditor General. Najib has flouted the first cardinal rule of sound budgeting- spending within your means. The 2014 Budget is a deficit budget- the government tops up RM40 billion more than it collected as revenue.

So it should not surpise us if our cost of living is going up. The government needs to recover the money that UMNO has misspent in BR1M, on its own elections, in the payoffs it gave voters in GE13. All the GLCs ae government owned and they have monopolies in their respective business fields. Why should we for example be surprised that the government wants to increase toll rates- its paying to themselves.

Posted by sakmongkol AK47