Malaysia not far away from the MOTHER OF ALL FINANCIAL CRISIS

While tabling the revised budget for this year, the prime minister reiterated that the country was neither in a recession nor a crisis as experienced in 1997/98.

He was quite right. But, if we continue to lose our direction, do you think crisis is still far from us?

The revised budget was made on the basis of crude prices at US$55 per barrel, but given the fact that international crude prices are currently struggling around the $40 level, the ringgit has been heading south continuously. This shows the market remains skeptical of the margin and aspects of the revised budget.

The government was not really serious in revising the budget as it failed to come up with a feasible economic revitalization package nor details of spending cuts and incentives to boost exports. Most importantly, the market has not seen some proactive attitude from the government in this matter.

Confidence is built often upon capability. 1MDB has on two occasions missed the loan repayment terms for RM2 billion it borrowed from three local banks, and this sparks concerns that the company has problem serving its loans.

Unfortunately the government has stayed mum over this and this further dampens investors' faith.

If the ringgit remains weak over the next months, inflationary pressure will not be relieved even if petrol and diesel prices are brought down further on Feb 1.This, coupled with the upcoming implementation of GST, is poised to aggravate the financial dilemma of lower- and middle-income groups, and could potentially burst the domestic debt bubble.

The lackluster economy indeed needs a lift from the highly efficient public sector. However, we have never seen improved efficiency on the part of our public servants. In its stead, they have only added more trouble to the business sector.

Take the instance of the government ruling to compulsorily use the MyEG online service to renew the work permits for foreign workers, this will not only monopolize the market, but will also add up to the operating cost of local businesses.

PM Najib

By right the government should prioritize the rakyat at a time when the national economy is in trouble. However, we have not seen any responsible government department calling for a dialog with businesses over the MyEG issue. Meanwhile, the Cabinet's decision is equally ambiguous.

The public sector is supposed to be more business-friendly under the government's transformation program but unfortunately we still see discrepancies and irregularities popping up on a regular basis, an example being the mismatch of qualified teachers for Chinese primary schools.

Despite the continuous expansion of the government's administrative team, we have seen more and more government obligations being outsourced to the private sector, from consultancy services, foreign workers management, AES to Puspakom, resulting in escalating cost on the part of the people.

The government's transformation program should have a set of solutions that are people-friendly and answering to their needs. Nevertheless, the program lacks the much needed interactions and communication with the public.

In the meantime, the country's politics is in the state of an unmanned aircraft at the risk of a crash anytime.

There are obvious problems with the two opposing camps, giving extremism some space to expand its influences.

Mahathir has openly retracted his support for PM Najib, who, succumbing to the tremendous pressure from the Umno rightists, has decided to rescind his own reform pledges, a classical instance being the retention of the Sedition Act.

At this juncture Umno is helpless in bring on national reforms while other BN component parties lack the aspiration to do so. For example, MIC is in a chaos thanks to its power-hungry leaders.

The opposition Pakatan Rakyat is not any better. Malaysians have looked to Pakatan to check the BN and spearhead national reforms. Unfortunately PAS has taken the lead to forsake the people-first philosophy by reverting to conservatism.

Anwar Ibrahim

How will the opposition pact move on from here if Anwar is put behind bars for sodomy, on Feb 10.

Umno has been highly tolerant to racist and religious extremism of late while Pakatan appears all the more helpless in blocking its advances. This have allowed religious fundamentalism to pick up strength and infringe our lives. The state of Terengganu has ruled that all businesses must take a break during Friday prayers while 7-Eleven stores in Melaka are banned to sell liquors in predominantly Malay areas. More religious measures are expected to follow.

The sad thing is, Chinese-dominated parties in both BN and Pakatan continue to be embroiled in political scuffle among one another. It seems to take DAP and MCA eternity to realize that the country's secular status is in serious danger. And the extremists are glad to see a divided Chinese community.

The country's international ratings on freedom and democracy have suffered a major setback because of this, and this hurts the confidence of international investors. - Mysinchew