To restore public confidence in Pakatan Rakyat, PR component parties should make a 10 or 20-year commitment to abide by the PR common principles and impose discipline among their leaders to uphold and protect PR image and integrity

The Prime Minister-cum-Finance Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak could not have a more disastrous end for his two-hour long speech for his first budget for 2010 in Parliament on Friday, as he said: “Our recent success in Bagan Pinang has sparked our zeal to embark on this journey of transformation to lift our beloved nation to greater heights.”

Najib’s last two sentences in his speech were virtually drowned in the shouts by Pakatan Rakyat MPs with their spontaneous chant of “Rasuah” – which was a dubious parliamentary record in the past five decades, not only for a maiden budget speech but also for any budget presentation by former Finance Ministers.

Najib had earlier failed to make any impression on MPs when he devoted two cursory paragraphs of his budget speech to “Combatting Corruption”, but which did not evince any political will on his part to break the back of the problem of rampant corruption in Malaysia.
Continue reading “To restore public confidence in Pakatan Rakyat, PR component parties should make a 10 or 20-year commitment to abide by the PR common principles and impose discipline among their leaders to uphold and protect PR image and integrity”

End the 50-year New Economic Policy if Najib wants to lay claim to innovation or shift to a new economic model as the NEP had stunted Malaysia’s economic growth and prevented the nation from becoming a high-income country

In his first budget, the 2010 budget, presented to Parliament on Friday, the Prime Minister and Finance Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak claimed that he is laying the foundation for the development of a new economic model to become a high-income economy.

He stressed that the new economic model must be based on innovation, creativity and high-value added activities so that Malaysian can remain relevant in a competitive global economy.

Najib announced that his government “will transform Malaysia through a comprehensive innovation process, comprising innovation in public and private sector governance, societal innovation, urban innovation, rural innovation, corporate innovation, industrial innovation, education innovation, healthcare innovation, transport innovation, social safety net innovation and branding innovation.”

So far, Najib’s most successful innovation in his First Two Hundred Days is “branding innovation”, as never before has a Prime Minister’s slogan, “1Malaysia”, been promoted so blatantly, not only during by-elections but there is even a 1Malaysia Toilet in Terengganu, Continue reading “End the 50-year New Economic Policy if Najib wants to lay claim to innovation or shift to a new economic model as the NEP had stunted Malaysia’s economic growth and prevented the nation from becoming a high-income country”