Datuk Seri Najib Razak is nearing his first two-and-a-half months as the new Prime Minister in Malaysia, but he does not seem to be able to do anything right, as he is still dogged by a deepening crisis of credibility, integrity and legitimacy of his premiership.
This is why Najib should be brave enough to cut the Gordian Knot of this crisis of confidence and ask for a vote of confidence as the first item of parliamentary agenda when Parliament reconvenes on Monday.
Whether on the political, economic, educational or nation-building front, Najib has still to deliver his first accomplishment.
Politically, Najib inflicted on himself a deep and grievous wound in orchestrating the unethical, undemocratic, illegal and unconstitutional power grab in Perak.
Economically, Najib’s two RM67 billion economic stimulus packages are both failures as evident by the downward revision of 3.5% GDP growth in 2009 in the first RM7 billion package last November to the current estimate that Malaysian economy will shrink by 4-5 per cent.
In a period of nine months, the Malaysian economy has plunged from a government forecast of 2009 GDP growth of 5.4% (2009 Budget presented in Parliament on 29th August 2008) to 3.5% (Najib’s first RM7 billion economic stimulus package in Parliament on 4th November 2008), then down to the range of minus 1.0 per cent to 1.0 per cent (Najib’s second RM60 billion economic stimulus package in Parliament on March 10, 2009) to a contraction by four or five per cent for the whole of this year (announced by Najib on 28th May 2009).
On the law-and-order front, Malaysians, visitors and investors have never felt so unsafe in the streets, public places or even the privacy of their homes because of galloping crime – yet we have a Inspector-General of Police who is so cut off from the people’s basic needs that he could misallocate scarce police resources to harass peaceful demonstrators lighting candles, wearing black or even singing birthday song instead of going after the real criminals!
In education and development of human resources to build a knowledge-based economy, meritocracy is still a bad word – with the annual “begging” session when SPM students with 11As, 12As, 13As, 14As are denied Public Service Department scholarships as compared with applicants with 6As.
If reminders are needed that far from transforming into a developed nation, Malaysia risks becoming a failed state, there are examples galore from the recent collapse of the roof of the RM300 million 50,000-capacity Sultan Mizan Zainal Abidin Stadium in Gong Badak within a year of completion to the RM12.5 billion Port Klang Free Zone (PKFZ) scandal!
Najib has also failed to send out the right signals that his motto of “1Malaysia. People First. Performance Now” is not just an empty slogan but driving and living principles of his administration.
What 1Malaysia is Najib talking about when he is the architect as to why there is no 1Perak, when he cannot debunk the equation of his 1Malaysia with 1Black Malaysia, and when there is no 1Barisan Nasional, with 78.1 per cent or 2,409 out of 3,084 persons polled in the blog of the MCA President, Datuk Seri Ong Tee Keat, want MCA to get out of the Barisan Nasional?
(Speech at the Serdang DAP Branch’s 42nd anniversary dinner in Seri Kembangan, Selangor on Saturday,13th June 2009)
“……… the Malaysian economy has plunged from a government forecast of 2009 GDP growth of 5.4% (2009 Budget presented in Parliament on 29th August 2008) to…. a contraction by four or five per cent for the whole of this year (announced by Najib on 28th May 2009)”
so despite pumping in all our tax money in epic proportion, Najib, the top civil servant with all the powers available to him, fall short his promise by 5.4% + – 5% i.e. 10.4%….
there is a saying that when Bursa is good because our fundamentals are strong but when Bursa is showing a downward trend it is because of global trend.
so how much of that can be due to “external” and “internal” factors? I don’t see much changes in the economy.
Opening up the 27 Mickey Mouse sector while dumping money to contractors …
the trickle down effect goes from awarding contracts-work done-certified by architect-payments made to main contractor-payments to subcontractors-payments to hardware shops, foreign labour, cement sellers etc….Have you seen the Malaysians in the street yet?
Malaysia needs to revamp it work culture and create high value jobs. Leakages due to corruption and over reliant on foreign labour is necessary
sometime ago, I rant / wrote about the need to create high value jobs … I apologize for putting the link here as it seems like I am promoting my own writing but the text contains what I really hope Malaysia can achieve for the betterment of ourselves and our children
http://wangsamajuformalaysia.blogspot.com/2009/03/livelihood-of-yours-and-mind-2-earning.html
In Sun Star today (front page), it reports 3 Umno men quizzed by MACC for MRR2 cracks fiasco in which investigations started in AUGUST 2004!!
Why has it taken almost 5 years for MACC to reach this stage when they are lightning fast when investigating opposition politicians?
Have these 3 Umno men fallen out of favour with their party in the intervening years as the reason for the noose tightening around them?
The way MACC works certainly does not inspire confidence.
Ken,
MACC as much faster in dealing with cows and also pre-judging Tan Seri Khalid Ibrahim, one wonders why?
Just tell me how many Malaysians benefitted from this so called ECONOMIC STIMULUS PACKAGE?
“Almost everybody I know voted for Mousavi but Ahmadinejad is being declared the winner. The government announcement is nothing but widespread fraud. It is very, very disappointing. I’ll never again vote in Iran”…
Will BN follow Iran in cheating during elections?
Ken,
MACC only has a small brain to investigate cows and cars and a RM450 karaoke set.
For figures ranging in the millions and billions their brain cells begin to malfunction.
Politically, Najib inflicted on himself a deep and grievous wound in orchestrating the unethical, undemocratic, illegal and unconstitutional power grab in Perak.
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It is really sad to see Najib diverted his resource and energy to orchestrating the illegitimate power grab in Perak at the height of the global economic downturn.
Had he focused his resource and energy in rescuing the national economy from falling victim to the global downturn, Malaysia could have escaped a painful recession which has yet to reach its full strength in the coming days.
Surely Najib is not a good strategist.
“Surely Najib is not a good strategist.”
– sure Najib may be a poor strategist but the BN vote banks are even poorer voters!
– if those numb brains have more access to information and think better and proper, Malaysia might not be heading to a failed state
Talking bout good brainwaves with pro UMNO buggers is a joke.
“Money is Power” declared by Mahathir.
How many filthy UMNO ministers and their Supreme Council members driving brand new Merz and BMW….live in multi million RM detached houses..in expensive locations…. do you think have the brains to earn that much lawfully?
This country always talks about “benefits”.
…..: “What benefits will I have if I give you the license to trade? I’m sure you’ll know what to do.” (So you have to bribe them in order to get your license permitted or they will drag your applications for 2 years before. You’ll die of hunger before you can start any business. So remember if you wanted to start a business, prepare double the money cause the other one are for bribing usage. No bribe no go.)
…..: “What benefits will I have if I allow you to drive on the road? I’m sure you’ll know what to do.” (You have to bribe even the driving examiner in order to drive, or else it’ll take you 3 times to pass.)
…..: “What benefits will I have if I allocate this contract to you? I’m sure you’ll know what to do.” (10 people tenders for a single project but the highest bidder will get it. Bidder in terms of highest bribe awarded for the officer.)
This plan only stimulates the vulgars in UMNO… to work harder for a bigger share in the stimulus plan. The 10% left over, probably be used, for the next GE as crumbs for the real desperates to gain their votes.
Don’t worry folks, we just have to drill more oil to keep the economy floating….
Since when Ketuanan UMNO Melayu are great financial planners?
Good bye WAWASAN 2020!
Majority of the RM67 billion economic stimulus packages were first likely to be used to help prop up cronies, rentseekers and the likes of UMNO’s BN whose hands got caught in the proverbial cookie jar when the global economic financial meltdown happened last year.
What was left barely constitutes a trickle for the average man-in-the-street rakyat…
What stimulus package? Najib predicted a first 09 quarter performance of +-1%. And that was based on the stimulus being put in place. Yet we contracted by 6.2%. In other words he was not slightly off target. He was actually way off – way way wrong with his prediction. Such margin of error I fear is an accurate reflection of his grasp on economic fundamentals. I am no economist but something makes me suspect his ability to handle the situation. Now he revised the whole year performance to (what?) -4%. If his record is anything to go by we really ought to brace ourselves for a -10% performance for the entire year.
LKS mentioned crime rates. How very true. And didnt Lee Kuan Yew say so some years back that JB is a cowboy town that JB is full of kidnappers and carjackers? And remember how umno and umno youth responded? And how the mca and gerakan dogs responded? Now who has the last laugh? LKY of course.
About the 1malaysia thingy. For a start I have only the haziest of idea wtf dat thing is. Now even that little hazy idea is gone. The whole damn thing just appears like one opaque screen. Even najib himself stopped mentioning it.
Rakyat: “Yayy! Rm67billion stimulus package! No more worries!”
…..whispers…: “Sorry Rakyat, the Rm67billion is to restore the economy which is true but not your turn. Let me and my people each fill their pockets first for 13th GE because you people will vote us out, we better get something before it is to be released the left overs..Anyway the the money release is spread over 2 years who cares?…”
Rakyat: “Yayy! Rm67billion stimulus package! No more worries!” (Still dreaming)
They are desperate to get all the money to buy up votes.
Our country is very cheap…few RMbillions….UMNO will rule forever.