Posted on

21-Day Countdown to 13GE – The empty drumbeats from Pemandu (Part 2)

The Pemandu Claims and a Reality Check

The Claim
We used a credible global yardstick – the World Bank’s approach to define our high income target. The World Bank’s current GNI per capita threshold for a high income economy is US$12,476. We factored in the World Bank’s published historical global inflation figure of two per cent until 2020 to arrive at a high-income threshold of US$15,000.

The Facts
Each year on July 1, The World Bank revises the classification of the world’s economies based on estimates of gross national income (GNI) per capita for the previous year…… As of 1 July 2012, the World Bank income classifications by GNI per capita are as follows:

  • Low income: $1,025 or less
  • Lower middle income: $1,026 to $4,035
  • Upper middle income: $4,036 to $12,475
  • High income: $12,476 or more

Source: http://search.worldbank.org/all?qterm=COUNTRY%20CLASSIFICATIONS

COMMENT: The calculations are done annually and are not comparable from year to year and cannot therefore be projected. Thus the figure of US$ 15,000 projected by PEMANDU is wholly meaningless.

The numbers cited by the Prime Minister earlier and now repeated in the Report are a fabrication and deviate widely from the GNI per capita numbers for Malaysia published by the World Bank on its web site : http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GNP.PCAP.CD/countries/MY-4E-XT?display=default Continue reading “21-Day Countdown to 13GE – The empty drumbeats from Pemandu (Part 2)”

Posted on

21-Day Countdown to 13GE – The empty drumbeats from Pemandu (Part 1)

The EPT Annual Report for 2012 prepared by PEMANDU and launched by the Prime Minister with great fanfare is nothing more than a public relations effort.

The report has been written and delivered as part of the electioneering effort mounted by a Government that is desperately attempting to convey to a disbelieving electorate a picture of progress and achievements together with promises of attaining the promised land of a High Income country by 2020.

Taken as a whole, the Report is a document that attempts to project illusions, highly massaged selective facts to lull the electorate. The primary objective is to gain a return to power at all costs.

The Report contains glossy charts and graphs and statements that cannot be substantiated.

It fails dismally by not providing a true and candid assessment of the challenges the nation faces because of squandered opportunities for mounting genuine economic reforms particularly needed in view of the uncertainties linked with weaknesses in the global economy that emerged in 2007. Continue reading “21-Day Countdown to 13GE – The empty drumbeats from Pemandu (Part 1)”

Posted on

22-Day Countdown to 13GE – Najib deserves an “F” in his National Transformation Program (NTP) report card for failing to acknowledge, much less tackle the issues of Corruption, Crime and Education

Najib released his National Transformation Program (NTP) Report Card yesterday evening in his ‘State of the Union’ address that was broadcast live on mainstream media and also online. To no one’s surprise, he gave himself top marks in both the Government Transformation Program (GTP) and the Economic Transformation Program (ETP).

Nearly all of the KPIs set were met, if not surpassed, in each of the National Key Results Areas (NKRAs) and the National Key Economic Areas (NKEAs).

But to borrow a phrase from a popular author, there are ‘lies, damned lies, and KPIs’.

If we compare the stellar achievements of Najib’s report card in just three areas – Corruption, Crime and Education – to reality and also other more credible evidence, we are left with no choice but to give Najib an “F” for his NTP Report Card. Continue reading “22-Day Countdown to 13GE – Najib deserves an “F” in his National Transformation Program (NTP) report card for failing to acknowledge, much less tackle the issues of Corruption, Crime and Education”