FREE-FALLING RINGGIT: A sign of Najib's misgovernance & mismanagement

After Singapore separated from Malaysia about 50 years ago, the value of the ringgit dropped from year to year and has never been the same since.

Prior to the separation, the ringgit was at par and started to lose its value/power during the first year when Malaysians had to pay, say, 5-20 sen more to change one Singapore dollar. However, it went up in the next year and slowly but surely until today, Malaysians are paying RM1.70 more to buy one Singapore dollar. That means we are paying RM2.70 to buy one Singapore dollar as of January 21, 2015. This is a lot, especially for nations whose currency was 1:1 at time of separation.

We, the rakyat, do not understand why the government keeps on saying that Malaysians should not compare the value or strength of the ringgit with stronger currencies of other nations. We are also lead to believe that the ringgit is doing fairly well in comparison with the currencies of Myanmar, Cambodia, Vietnam and Laos. Of course when the ringgit is looked at in comparison with these poorer nations, it is still ahead.

In fact, the best and proper thing to do is to use the Singapore

dollar as the measuring stick to monitor how the ringgit is performing daily because that will put pressure on the government that if they do not face the facts, accept the severity, and to do the right thing quickly, then the value/power of the ringgit will continue to slide further until it is beyond recovery.

You see, Singapore took about 50 years to enjoy the existing stronger currency, so hypothetically speaking, it would take Malaysia at the least 50 years or maybe longer to catch up if the government keeps on saying that the ringgit is still strong when it is compared only with poorer nations.

For your information, Singapore started planning the best for her 50th national day celebrations since 2014. Everybody there is happy and proud of their achievements over those 50 years, particularly when the Singapore dollar reached RM2.70 to a dollar on January 21. Singaporeans are optimistic that it will reach RM3 to one Singapore dollar this year.

That's good for Singapore but bad for Malaysia.

In short, Malaysians should not brag that Malaysia can do everything under the sun when the nation had surpassed 50 years of independence as the fact is we are not able to buy the same goods, services and things as we used to with RM1. Cash is king mah!

Why Singapore? You seem this neighbouring nation was at one time much smaller than Malacca and had nothing much when they separated from Malaysia nearly 50 years ago.

The bottom line is, Malaysia must face reality and be brave to compare its standing performances in all fields with nations whose currencies are strong and appreciating instead depreciating.

When the government says that the ringgit will recover, do they mean its value/power will return to 1:1 against the Singapore dollar? Is that misleading?

We can understand if Singapore’s currency also fell when the ringgit depreciated with a weakening US dollar – on the contrary, though, the Singapore dollar remains strong and surprisingly, Malaysians still need to pay more to buy the dollar. - MAILBAG