ONLY ONE SOLUTION - NAJIB HAS TO GO: TRUST DEFICIT IN MALAYSIA

Let's face it - there is a trust deficit in this country. Many Malaysians simply have little confidence in what the leaders tell us.It doesn't help when certain media are seen as trying too hard to pander to the political leaders, resulting in greater distrust of the Government.

Malaysians want to be convinced. It would not be wrong to suggest that they perceive that there are attempts by our politicians not to disclose the whole truth.The country's economy is surely not in the pink of health, what with the continuing downward pressure on the oil prices and the Govern­­ment having to depend on the collection of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) to pay, among others, the salaries of the 1.6 million government ser­vants.

Yes, the fundamentals are strong - as some of our politicians keep telling us - but the overall economy is still in choppy waters, and we need able hands to navigate us through.

There is a picture of doom and gloom when you do a quick scan of the headlines and online commentaries.We are not well and fine but at the same time, we are not exactly in dire straits.The 1MDB controversy won't turn our grandchildren into maids and labourers, nor will it bankrupt the nation.

Our Employees Provident Fund (EPF) money will still be there for us. In fact, EPF is flushed with cash now that the Government has sta­ted it does not encourage the fund to pursue overseas investments.But Malaysians have every right to be worried and concerned. It is obvious that many of them want to know where the country is heading and how much lower we can go, buffeted as we are by global and domestic issues.

As journalists, we talk to many groups of people. From ordinary Malaysians trying to eke out a living to key officials in government sha­ping our current scenarios and experts who spend their days analysing the country's state of the economy.The rakyat have been expressing concern and while there are valid reasons for these concerns, their fears are sometimes misplaced and have come about because they are not aware of the facts and statistics.

At the same time, the Government and some experts have been consistently sharing data on the state of the economy. But no one is listening. Why is this so?It doesn't help when some politicians are seen to be shutting down intelligent discussion on contentious issues, including 1MDB, thinking a black-out of the issue, will see it blown away. But the reali­ty is that like the haze, it will just go away temporarily before returning.

To add to the mix, some households feel burdened by rising costs, which they see as being linked to the imposition of GST and the fall of the ringgit.To these households, it is a daily struggle to make ends meet. Of course, no one wants to believe in or listen to "facts" when their disposable income has shrunk. Thus, the Government appears ever more remote and out-of-touch with ordinary life.

We empathise with the seriousness and gravity of these concerns. It is important for the public to un­­derstand where the Government stands on the many key issues assail­­ing our economy at this juncture.Hence, The Star has taken on the challenge of gathering views and insights of key government officials, including our Prime Minister, the ministers in charge of the economy and the Central Bank Governor and other external experts.

To focus on things we want to see improvement or change, sometimes it is best to get back to the drawing board and understand where the shapers of the economy stand on key challenges compared to how the person-on-the-street sees them.We sent out e-mails to these key policy makers whose decisions affect our daily lives. We by-passed their aides and convinced them that we want "clear answers".

So what we have in today's issue of The Star are their e-mail replies. The readers should find time to read them fairly and decide if their answers are substantive and convincing.If we are to move ahead in these difficult times, let us be fully aware of the facts and not be swayed by emotion and rhetoric.-AsiaOne