The Awta-cracies of the Awta-crats

 "autocracy :  a system of government by one person / group with absolute power"

 

 1. The Pandora Papers have popped up again. I Googled the Pandora Papers and found this very strange report in The Edge:

 

• Umno president denied involvement in tax evasion 
• Pandora Papers link offshore financial transactions in Virgin Islands
• during his time as CEO of public-listed company 
• to facilitate dividend payouts from profits in investee country
• company invested in IPP in [a foreign] country
• returns could not be brought out of the country
• request for returns to be reinvested into that country
• public-listed company wanted dividends paid to shareholders, he said
• adding that the firm is not around anymore
• was responding to question from RSN Rayer [DAP]

My Comments :

I dont know about the rest of you but do you seriously expect me to believe that a Malaysian public listed company invested in an IPP in a foreign country without first checking that dividends could not be brought out of the country  ?  Are you joking? 

And which country was that? Republic of Ngoro-goro again?

And that Malaysian public listed company is not around anymore ? How convenient.

2. Then here is a former 2nd Minister of Finance letting fly some righteous policy prescriptions - after he got kicked out of office:

We must learn from what happened in Sri Lanka, says Jo
Former 2nd finance minister concern over country’s increasing debt
minister said govt’s revenue shrunk while debts increased
during economic crisis people affected regardless of race or religion

(OSTB : Wow so profound. I see, I see..but when you made those economic policies was that with or without regard to race and religion?)

Jo said M'sia overcame financial crises because of political stability, competent govt

(OSTB : if they were so competent why did they get kicked out in the elections?)

economic challenges facing country 
govt’s revenue shrunk while debts increased 
2012 - 2018 revenues nearly 15% of GDP 
Today revenue only 11.1% of GDP
revenues of countries in the region 14% - 22.7% of GDP

• 2017 revenue RM220 billion
• 2021 revenue RM221 billion
• deficit RM40.3b (2017) to RM100b (2022)
• led to govt's increased borrowings 
• debt now pass RM1.5 trillion 

past 4 years alone, govt’s debt increased RM350 billion
economic challenges we face
avoid continuation of this trend for five - 10 years

My Comments :

The government ran short of funds because of the corruption, the constant stealing and all the leakages in handling taxpayers funds.  That former PM had over RM1.0 billion in gold bars, jewellery, watches and cash stashed in his house. Do you seriously expect any sane human being to believe that all that loot was all from his own, hard earned money? If you do you need a brain transplant.

Billions were spent but no ships were delivered for the Navy, hundreds of millions were spent no helicopters were delivered to the Air Force, tens of billions of taxpayers money (1MDB) were siphoned out to invest in non-existent projects in strange countries. Hundreds of millions of taxpayers money were given to create a cow monopoly. No cows were heard mooing but the hundreds of millions of taxpayers money disappeared.  

1. Hundreds of millions of public money were almost siphoned out to invest in some strange urban renewal project in Detroit but a last minute exposure by this Blog OutSyed The Box torpedoed that fiasco. 

2. Billions of public money were almost siphoned out (kononnya) to provide free WIFI services in KL but a last minute exposure by this Blog OutSyed The Box torpedoed that fiasco. 

3. Billions of public money were almost siphoned out to purchase overpriced marine patrol aircraft (after that Lahad Datu "incursion" kononnya) but a last minute exposure by this Blog OutSyed The Box torpedoed that fiasco.

Easily 25% to 30% of our annual Budgets are burned, siphoned, wasted, leaked or just simply stolen.

The government collects more than enough revenue to meet all our development needs. But if the stealing does not stop, if the corruption does not stop then no amount of government revenue will be sufficient to fuel the hungry devils who steal public funds. It will never be enough.

A clever government is a government that can grow the economy with proportionately smaller or lesser collection of revenue. This means using the same percentage of revenues vs GDP the government can cause the country's GDP to increase more and more. 

This means as the government becomes more efficient at doing its job, the percentage of revenue versus GDP will become smaller. 

Say government revenue is RM200 billion and the GDP is RM1.6 trillion. That is revenue vs GDP of 12.5%.

Say the economy grows 10% and becomes RM1.760 trillion but government revenue remains RM200 billion. The revenue versus GDP percentage now becomes smaller at 11.3%.

So it does not necessarily mean that just because the economy grows therefore government spending (and government borrowing) should also grow. 

But in poorly managed countries like ours this is indeed the case because other than stealing and corruption the government also gets involved in things that it should not get involved in especially in the GLCs and in running businesses. 

It is NOT the job of government to get into business. When the government starts getting involved in business then it needs more and more money. 

So in Malaysia we have all three - the government steals the people's money, there is major corruption and the government wastes tens of billions getting involved in business. 

Thats it for now.

The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of MMKtT.