Posted on by Kit

29-Day Countdown to 13GE – Najib doth claim too much, that Malaysia is world’s fastest country in GNI per capita growth which is as believable as his boast to make Malaysia “world’s best democracy”

I do not envy in Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s shoes at present as he must continue to put up an external front of supreme confidence that he will not be the last Umno/Barisan Nasional Prime Minister and would even survive a coup d’etat in Umno ala-Abdullah Badawi after the 13GE while internally he must be quaking with gnawing doubts whether he could survive the final countdown for the “life-and-death” test for his political life.

As a result, he doth protest and claim too much.

Yesterday, the TV3 programme “Conversation with the PM” provided another example that the sixth Prime Minister of Malaysia “doth claim too much” when he said:

“And when you talk in terms of benefit for the people, within three years, from 2009 to the end of 2011, our GNI (gross national income) per capita, it grew from US$6,670 to US$9,970. That’s roughly a 49 per cent (increase). There is no country in the world that has achieved that kind of result”.

Najib’s claim to be the fastest country in the world for GNI per capita growth in the three years from 2009 to 2011 is as believable as his other claim to transform Malaysia to be the world’s best democracy, when he could not even stand up to national and international scrutiny for the conduct of a free, fair and clean general elections despite his recent signature of the Transparency International-Malaysia’s Election Integrity Pledge. Instead, Najib is branded internationally as a “false democrat”.

Najib made two false claims in one short assertion last night – for Malaysia’s per capita GNI did not increase by 49 per cent in the three years from 2009 to 2011, and Malaysia is definitely not the world’s fastest country in per capita GNI growth in those three years.

The World Bank website shows the true numbers for Malaysia’s GNI per capita for the relevant period, viz:

2009—– US$7,550

2010—– US$8,090

2011——US$8,770

The link to the World Bank data is at : http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GNP.PCAP.CD/countries/MY-4E-XT?display=default

The numbers for per capita GNI cited by Najib are wholly inconsistent with the growth in GDP published and cited by the Government. The growth rates of the two (GNI and GDP) track each other closely. Thus the growth rate of 49% he cites is an impossibility and is not reflected in GDP growth.

From the World Bank data, per capita GNI from 2009 to 2011 increased by 16.15% and not 49% increase claimed by Najib with the empty boast of “No country in the world had achieved that kind of result”.

In fact, from quick look at the World Bank data, there are several countries, including at least three from ASEAN, which had chalked up a faster growth of their per capita GNI from 2009 to 2011, including:

Nation per capita GNI(US$) % of Increase
2009 2011
China 3,620 4,940 36.46%
Indonesia 2,160 2,940 36.1%
Singapore 36,030 42,930 19.15%
Botswana 6,270 7,470 19.14%
Thailand 3,730 4,440 19%
Philippines 1,870 2,210 18.18%

When Malaysia even lose out to Thailand, Philippines and Indonesia in terms of GNI per capita growth in the three years from 2009 to 2011, how can Najib go before a national television audience to thump his chest to claim to be the world’s fastest country in GNI per capita growth from 2009 to 2011?

As Finance Minister apart as Prime Minister (not to mention that he is also Woman Minister) and an economist by training, Najib should know better unless of course he is totally ignorant. Or perhaps he thinks the people can be fooled into believing the made up numbers.

Can Najib name countries which had achieved a phenomenal 49% increase over a two period in per capita GNI, which would indeed be a real world record.
Ironically, the only part of Najib’s statement that is true, is the last sentence!!

Najib said on television last night that before calling for the 13GE, he wants first to show to the people what had actually been achieved through various initiatives in his national transformation agenda.

How long more does Najib need to show to Malaysians that his plethora of antonyms and alphabet soup are not just empty soundbites but concrete policy transformations meaningful to the people?

If Najib cannot convince Malaysians after four years of premiership (he is three weeks short of four years as Malaysia’s longest unelected Prime Minister), what can the a few more weeks (45 days before automatic dissolution of Parliament on April 27) achieve to endear him to the Malaysian voters?

May be one single act which can do more than anything else to convince Malaysians about his political will and seriousness to effect major transformations in Malaysia is to ask the former Prime Minister, Tun Dr. Mahathir, not to spearhead the return of Mahathirism and to stop his doomsday scenarios but this is clearly asking for the impossible.

Najib has no confidence that his various transformation programmes will be his strongest selling point in the 13GE, which is why he is relying more and more on negative and divisive campaigning completely inimical to national interests including his own signature 1Malaysia Policy.

The next immediate test for Najib is whether he would dissolve Parliament before March 16, the date the Negri Sembilan State Assembly would stand automatically dissolved.

Will Najib rise up to the occasion or would he again flutter and fail?

16 Replies to “29-Day Countdown to 13GE – Najib doth claim too much, that Malaysia is world’s fastest country in GNI per capita growth which is as believable as his boast to make Malaysia “world’s best democracy””

  1. He is talking of our percentage he is adding the depreciation of the US$ which is 1/3 of it but when he makes the comparision, the other countries don’t get the same treatment. In other words, Najib is taking credit for Benanke’s QE which even the President of the US dare not do..

    But more importantly, yes its dishonest – even a child in primary school won’t get away with such nonsensical math. It goes to show the length of which Najib is willing to be dishonest – he dishonesty is wafer thin and the most ignorant would tolerate it.

    What is surprising is that someone like Idris Jala and his highly educated team went along with it. If you notice, Idris Jala has not repeated the same statistic. It goes to show the length of hypocrisy that has been agreed to between this team and himself. They don’t hold each other accountable for any form of integrity – all of them are completely untrustworthy.. Its the failure of elitism at its best – the stuff that leads to the downfall of empires and countries..

  2. ///When Malaysia even lose out to Thailand, Philippines and Indonesia in terms of GNI per capita growth in the three years from 2009 to 2011….///

    The country is surely heading towards an economic dark abyss under the BN administration!

  3. Hahaha… Satu lagi kantoi BN!.

    Knowing he ‘kantoi’, followed by his Najib signature style of mum, quiet, silence. Then, ask his men “did RTM/TV3 screen that red hot lip of mine? those are born for lip service, my only weapon.”

  4. Ah.. hemm. Look guys. Give jib a break. He overworked himself alright. I mean look, uncle lim put it aptly at the start of this write-up.

    Jib created a potfull of acronyms soup for the purpose of pushing the country forward. He is under such great pressure that he has forgotten that the soup is meant to be consumed.

    Hey cintanegara, pls put in a kind reminder to jib to drink the soup! And oh yes, one more thing. Rambutans.

  6. Snaky suckers often self-proclaim these and those without substances…

    They claimed:

    1) Bolehland Educational System is the BEST in the world.
    2) The Best democracy, in fact DEMOCRAZY, in the world
    3) Now, the HIGHTEST GNI, with 46%, in the world… Cows will die when it hears his sucky craps. Precisely, the world fastest and top growth in the world is CHINA never achieve 40%!!!!
    4) etc-etc… Endless listing.

    He MUST claim that they are the most racist and snaky politicians in the world… Plus the top womanize suckers!!!

  7. ///May be one single act which can do more than anything else to convince Malaysians about his political will and seriousness to effect major transformations in Malaysia is to ask the former Prime Minister, Tun Dr. Mahathir, not to spearhead the return of Mahathirism and to stop his doomsday scenarios but this is clearly asking for the impossible.///–Kit

    Najib can prove to us that he is not under the thumb of Mamakthir by simply dropping Mamak’s son from being a candidate wither for Kedah state DUN or MP. He wouldn’t dare obviously else the loser would not be made deputy minister will the winner is left out in the cold. The reason is Mamak is stronger than AAB; Mamak said that there is no nepotism in UMNO.

    Malaysia is the best democracy in the world because it has the best way which no other would do to increase the number of persons who are sure to vote for the ruling party. UMNO get poor immigrants to become citizens, and they were told to vote for BN. If a citizenship paper is worthwhile to an illegal immigrant, then they will do anything just to get it. After getting it, they want to keep it, and thus they will continue what they had done before. That is how UMNO remain the winner of the best democracy.

    In addition to getting poor immigrants to vote for UMNO, UMNO keeps the vast majority of Malays poor so that UMNO get the number to justify the continuation of NEP. Meanwhile UMNO dominises non-Malays and blaming non-Malays for causing Malays’ poverty. That get poor Malays to believe that UMNO is their saviour. That is how they continue to vote for UMNO despite obvious rampant corruption perpetrated by UMNO putras as well as the government service.

    As Mamakthir continues to fan racism, Malays feel compelled that the status of their community needs uplifing. The way to make Malays proud was to create Malays billionaires. That was why Mamakthir had no choice but to create some billionaires to make Malays proud. Curiously after mamakthir retired, his son suddenly owns Petron. {Was Mamakthir doing national service that during his term the son, who had better than Midas touch, turning paper to currency, was prevented from becoming billionaire; one wonders}.

    Indeed to make Malays extraordinarily rich so that the community can be really proud of the wealthy Malays, they accept that institutionalized corruption to enrich the powers-that-be in UMNO was the chosen path. That way Malays vote UMNO despite rampant corruption. Thus UMNO is chosen through the democratic process, albeit using dirty electoral rolls.

    UMNO’s secret weapon of making sure electoral victory was to have the election commission serving UMNO rather than serving the King. Najib should tell the United Nations that to have perfect democracy, the Election Commission must work for the ruling party.

  8. We laugh, but BN not so stupid. All these “fantastic news” is for the multitude of kampung folk who telan anything and everything they see and hear because all they have are Utusan and TV3.

    Najib not so stupid leh. In fact, for him to survive what must be countless booby-traps set up by the vultures around him, on a day-to-day basis, surely he is the most cunning and sly of the lot. We have seen that this septic tank called BN/UMNO has produced the vilest and evil of men – devoid of any semblance of conscience much less honor.

    Najib he knows the urban vote, where BN will lose by thousands of votes is a foregone conclusion. He’s targetting the small kampungs, where a difference of 20 votes will give BN a win. This is where news like this will sway the simple pakcik and makcik.

  11. Based on the World Bank data, our GNI grew by a total of US$1,330 during these three years which translates to a combined growth of 17.88%. In US$ terms, we expanded at an average rate of about 5.5% annually. However, our Ringgit also appreciated by around 10% over the same period, from 1US$ to 3.57 Ringgit in early 2009 to 1US$ to 3.12 Ringgit at end 2011. This means that we only achieved a total growth of about 8% in Ringgit terms over the three year period? To claim that out GNI increased by 49% from 2009 to 2011 is just rubbish. We did not experience such a brisk growth.

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