The first ‘D’ in DEEDS is for data. It is also the score PEMANDU gets for figures that “do not compute”. Behind the dazzling promises and public relations rhetoric surrounding the Economic Transformation Plan (ETP) is data that is dodgy. Some key numbers are not announced, and where numbers were revealed, they do not tally. [...]

Is PEMANDU taking Malaysians on a joyride, or can it really steer our country to high-income status by 2020? Its Economic Transformation Programme (ETP) is ambitious – promising to double gross national income (GNI) per capita to RM48,000 by 2020 from RM23,700 in 2009. Such an expansive plan has of course attracted detractors, but supporters [...]

Barisan Nasional bedmates UMNO and MCA both cried foul when the new Pakatan Rakyat government in Penang mandated that all state procurement would be via open tender. UMNO leaders lambasted the Penang state government for causing Malay contractors to lose their ‘rice bowl’ of government contracts. MCA, on the other hand, charges the DAP-led state [...]

The government isn’t Superman (though sometimes its words and deeds evoke as much amused sniggers as the superhero’s vibrant underpants). Recognising that there are limits to government capability, Pakatan Rakyat declined Barisan Nasional’s brand of rose-tinted lenses, opting instead to devise its Shadow Budget through clear glass. The Shadow Budget facilitates the prospering of the [...]

With goodies galore and rosy optimism about the prospects for GDP, Budget 2012 sounds too good to be true. It probably is. Between the somewhat contradictory lines touting subsidy increases while hailing Malaysia as a ‘modern industrial upper middle income country’, our national debt climbs with no concrete ceiling  in sight. Concrete itself, however, would [...]

The truth is, we are all just out to cari makan. But at what expense? The abundance of foreign labour, mostly unskilled, at very low wages snatches away  opportunities for Malaysians to improve productivity and upskill.  Employers hold the trump card – they need not worry about keeping employees happy, or even safe. There are [...]

The pie smells. Our country’s economy has soared by 82 percent in the last ten years, but  income disparity casts a large shadow. The bottom 40 percent of Malaysians struggle to earn a mere 15 percent of the national income pie and have to scrimp and borrow to get by. The bulk of the growth [...]

With RM25 billion of subsidies, no Malaysian should be poor. It is estimated the federal government alone will spend that sum on subsidies this year. This is equivalent to more than RM2,000 per month for the poorest 1 million Malaysian households.  This excludes the massive subsidies by other government agencies such as Petronas. And yet [...]

2011 is the 13th year that the government is over-spending. The formal term of this over-spending is the more innocent sounding “deficit”. 1998 was the last year the government had a surplus – or what ordinary citizens would call savings – when expenses were smaller than income.  By the end of this year, it is [...]