Idris Jala: M’sia must cut subsidies, debt by 2019 or risk bankruptcy

By Sara Wak

My Dear Ministers,

I think both of you must know what are the reasons why Malaysian economy has been on the fall for the last decade. Malaysia has a lot of oil and gas and the income was supposed to enable Malaysia survive for many years to come.

However, What PETRONAS has made since it was incorporated has evaporated into thin air, where the profits have been WRONGLY used by the Federal BN Government to support many failed business deals, such as The Bumiputra Finance scandal, the buy back of MAS shares from Tajuddin at RM8 a share when the market price was only RM3 a share, and many others such as Port Klang Free Zone, Parwaja Steel, etc etc.

There are just too many to name.

Perhaps you should read what Malaysians have been circulating among themselves on the article below in comparing Malaysia to Greece, which Dato Seri Idris Jala also used !

Bureaucracy – you are only too aware, otherwise you won;t be talking about KPIs. Bloated civil service – so many civil servants Corruption – need we say more on this when contracts are awarded without tender ?

Tax evasion – when Inland revenue does not do anything on transfer pricing !

No transparency in governance – Govt and ministers are not held accountable.

These sounds very familiar in Malaysia.

I would like to comment on some of your proposals, although I wish I can do so for all of them :

Text book loan scheme and tuition subsidy aid to be abolished

If you look at many developed countries, the government provide FREE text books for primary and secondary school children, and now you are talking about Text book loan scheme and tuition subsidy aid to be abolished!

Just look at the poor natives from Sarawak and Sabah for example, including the Kelabits and Penans in Sarawak, some parents do not even have money to book their children’s text books and uniforms !

If we are serious about Human assets for the future of Malaysia, we should try to encourage all children to be educated, especially those who are poor. In Malaysia, those who are poor are mainly those in the villages like in Sarawak and Sabah, especially the natives like Dayaks, Kelabaits, Penans, Malays, Kadazans, Muruts, Kenyahs, etc etc.

If the BN Government can allow RM billions to be wasted through corruption and bail-outs, how is it that they cannot afford to buy the books for primary and secondary schools, at least up to Form 3?

Malaysia’s fuel prices are among the cheapest in the world.

I am sure both of you are very intelligent people, otherwise how could you both have such high education and went up so high in positions to MD, and ministers?

When you say furl prices are cheap in Malaysia, what are you comparing them with?

Are you comparing apples with apples or apples with oranges?

Just look at the regular petrol fuel prices below:

Malaysia – RM1.80 per litre

Singapore – S$1.757 per litre

Australia – A$1.35 per litre

You should not convert the prices in Singapore and Australia from S$ and A$ to RM in order to compare them.

What you should compare is the per capital income of the population in each country.

In Malaysia, a fresh graduate can only earn RM1,500 a month, this is very good already, some in Sarawak can only earn RM1,000 or less a month.

In Singapore, a fresh graduate earns at least S$2,000 a month and in Australia, a fresh graduate earns at least A$3,000 a month. I know it as 2 of my children were offered engineering jobs in Malaysia for RM1,500 a month, they were also offered S$2,000 a month in Singapore and A$4,500 in Australia a month!

Look when you compare fuel prices, you need to look at the earnings and you cannot just simply convert the various prices into a single currency.

Why don’t you compare prices of cars in Malaysia with those in USA, Australia and NZ and UK?

I hope both of you have done some studies in economics and finance before you start doing all the analysis and comparison and make yourselves look stupid in comparing apples with pears!!

Foreign students will pay full fees at public universities

I wonder why this is brought up. Has the Malaysian Government not charging full fees for foreign students? If it is the case, why are public universities not offering Malaysian students to study in local universities at reduced prices and allow foreign students to study there?

In most developed countries like Australia and Singapore, they only offer some places to foreign students but at full price! I wonder what the BN Government has been thinking all along. Why not offer those university places to pour own Malaysians at those reduced rates instead of them spending more overseas?

I would like to hear your comments on the above points which I raised with you and look forward to your response.

Thank you.

36 Replies to “Idris Jala: M’sia must cut subsidies, debt by 2019 or risk bankruptcy”

  1. cut down on BAKTI, National Youth Day, jamuans, Hari Kecemerlangan xxxx, Hari Terbuka and all those unnecessary speeching ceremonies …
    cut down on number of ministries…
    cut down on ministers’ “tourism” expenses (overseas trip must be from their own pocket)…
    stop building more white elephants…
    cut down on freebies and crores of RM spent only during GE or BE or whatever E…
    stop creating more useless gov depts and posts…
    cut down the salaries of all ministers…
    abolish AP…
    stop building more MARA and Matriculation Colleges…focus and improve on the current ones which include the existing gov universities as well,,,
    pull out of F1 (Petronas)…
    stop giving out contracts to errant contractors (nepotism or cronyism?)…small example, the traffic light in my area is out of service on a weekly basis…
    stop sending so-called qualified A-ful students to overseas…instead, “subsidise” them to study locally to improve the local U standard…
    cut down primary education from 6 to 4 years…6 years are too long and “subsidiy-consuming”…same goes to secondary education from 5 to 4 years…then, we can graduate earlier (like most of other countries) and work and contribute to the country earlier…

    burdening us for your own corruption sins will lead us to “Vision 2019?…

    how i wish that every malaysians can finally wake up and realise that “Vision 2019? is more realistic than Vision 2020 if they keep voting for the corrupted folks..

  2. If Idris want to use Greece as a warning he should tell the true and nothing but the whole true. Greece go burst not because of subsidies but of rampant corruptions that was exactly what is happening in Malaysia for the pass decade.

  3. Many European countries heavily subsidized their farmers and agribusinesses to the extent that Asian countries had to scream at the WTO. Despite such heavy subsidies, yet none of the European countries went bankrupt. Dear Idris Jala, how do you explain that?

  4. Let me respond to your comments Mr Sara Wak. And I do so on behalf of umno.

    No comments.

    Err in any event what you said is not true and is designed to mislead the people and therefore you are not patriotic. So please go home to wherever your ancestor are from. Or we may be driven to revoke your citizenship.

    And btw we are not bad at all because we umno allow chewing gums unlike singapore. And compared to taiwan and korea, we have angkasawan. And not forgetting that we have enough – more than enough – money to given away block L & M and to dispose the italian motorcycle company for a dollar. Hsien Loong would never do a thing like that. We have the means. They dont. And anyway, we are able to trace our missing jet engines wherever they may be in this world! Can the icac of hk do a thing like that? And many many more. We also have rambutan trees that other people want to destroy. And although umnoputras are totally stupid and perkasa are mere donkeys they get to run the country.

    In short, jib is great. Jib is good because he gibbers well. He gibbers well because ibrahim bin perkasa always display those nerves around his neck and because mamak smile wickedly. And and maybe mother gobi is crying. Something like that. Like those things that are goodly bad and not badly bad. When you are bad in a good sense then you can kick cow heads otherwise you will get isa protection.

    Jib jib boleh.

    Final word. Who wants to be a datuk or dato or dato’ or dato wira etc etc. Come and see me.

    Huh? The economy? Oh we somehow because of all that I have said, we would be ok. Yeah. OK. Vision 2020 boleh.

    No comments.

  5. Something is wrong with our ministers,senators’s intelectual.They simply can’t talk sense out of nothing.We can collect their talks and make them comedy series.Sure can sell like hot cakes.

  6. Malaysia will go bankrupt within 6 months if all the hard-working minorities were to leave the country.
    Majorities are lazy and unproductive. This is the actual problem. When the revenue is not enough to feed them, civil unrest will erupt, and this is what will happen to Malaysia. However, people in Sabah and Sarawak will not be affected because they are hard-working and knows how to mange life much better.

  7. One more point, in Malaysia, toll per km is as high, if not higher, than fuel cost per km. Of course if you ask our nincompoop minister, he would say (based on advice given by crony toll operators because he would not be able to understand what I am talking about) that fuel price in Malaysia is too cheap and that is why toll is higher.

  8. We are richer than Thailand, Vietnam because of oil & gas. Yet we squander these ‘easy’ money. What will happen to our economy if we are out of oil?

    Just look at the middle eastern countries & incl Brunei. Those with oil are rich & successful. But those without oil – like Somalia… Will Malaysia fall into the abyss of a failed state in the future?

  9. M’sia will b bankrupt by 2019 n most rakyat will struggle 2 survive
    But not d likes of d late AP king – money everywhere, properties everywhere
    Wifes n children (plenty of them) fighting over money n properties
    Please fight n let us know d astronomical wealth gathered by d bumi AP king
    So there r many super-rich bumi/Malays around – shy successful products of NEP
    MMK shld b proud of them n his successful NEP
    Y still blame non-Malays

  10. Why our gov. are so good in doing the opposite to their slogan?

    Mahathir’s era : bersih, cekap and amanah, they did exactly the opposite.

    ABB’s era : gemilang, cemerlang and terbilang, that’s when they lost 2/3..

    Najib : 1 malaysia, rakyat didahulukan, pencapaian diutamakan, but so far, 1 malaysia is race first, national-ship second, looks more still the Umno elites didahulukan and subsidies cut diutamakan now. Ironically we are heading toward pokai 1 yr before 2020 as developed nation.

  11. cseng….your message is enough proof to establish UMNO B PMs lied and cheated.
    Then why are they voted in over and over again to govern the country?
    The answer is simple…no alternative good opposition..until 12th GE.
    DAP knew they cannot govern alone…although Malaysians trust LKS and Karpal most..voters keep voting for peace and harmony…to live with the devils and go about taking care of their families.
    Malaysians became the selfish lot..out of no choice.
    Then DAP teamed up with PAS.
    PAS was stupid enough to be lured to talk Islamic religion…and that killed off DAP too.
    Yes…it was the released of Anwar Ibrahim that started it all…the 3 parties against UMNO B and BN..puppets.
    Puppets were defeated …one by one…in the 12th GE.
    Immediately….KeDAILan…DAP….PAS formed Pakantan Rakyat….People’s Party…to prepare themselves to fight Barisan Nasional…one on one..for the coming 13th GE.
    Najib tried to take Anwar off…on Sodomy2….and applying so many tactics….all exposed..nonsense and lies..right now..on going.
    Yes…cseng….all those 3 UMNO B PMs lied and fooled Malaysians with all sort of hollow promises and slogans.
    They must always apply race and religion politics..to divide and rule and appear to be champion of the Malay race..by encouraging corruptions.
    They have no other choice..to keep hoping money is the root of all evil and UMNO B is trully an evil party….using stolen money to buy loyalties…souls and the country.
    Now…vast majority Malaysians…with increasing Muslims…determine to vote for change of government with an excellent alternative….and that spells not only trouble to be defeated.but jail sentences for many corrupted big fishes..past and the present UMNO B crooks with their BN puppets along.
    Pakatan Rakyat is fully aware of intensified race and religion politics to create fear and upset Malaysians by Najib.
    Najib is trying all sorts of stunts….and Malaysians are staying calm and composed..not easily upset now…waiting for 13th GE.
    We have 2 more years to wait…and that’s not too long or difficult to wait patiently…when we can tolerate more that 30 years of gangster rule.
    These gangster are depending majority of support from police and judges…which cannot and will not materialized.
    These vast majority well educated Malaysians cannot easily be bought or fooled.
    What we see are chosen few corrupted selfish puppets to appear that police and judges are on Najib side…no matter how bad he is. Not true.
    Your message should remind young readers how many slogans made….all empty promises.
    That has established UMNO B presidents are all racists liars.
    My message is to paint the road to FREEDOM soon.
    Combine both….young readers and voters have a precise picture what’s going on.
    We must keep on telling these facts till 13th GE.

  12. When you have a bloated civil service, you have to keep it occupied by having the staff holding meeting after meeting. And this also a good mean to slow down progress so that more demands can be fed into the system. This is especially effective when you have more than one Ministry trackling the same issue knowing very well that they would be contradictions from the different committees; thereby prolonging the issue even further. Unless there is political will to improve, the road the nation gonna take is CLEAR. In fact, I was wondering as to why, Najib has to spend so more time to create 1 Malaysia. Of course this should come out from thsoe who advised him on advertisement and sloganeering! NEP. NEM or What else ? what is the difference? If he had just taken the more practical approach, he doesn’t need to waste all the time and sloganeering to change. If he is really sincere, he should just start off with say the EPU, have open tenders or at least compare the costs against what is available in the open market and cut them down accordingly. Dare he do this? Of course, that would be a $64 question? He forgot that he is leading the country into the 21st Century where what he father had done cannot be applied today. Now , he had tied himself into a knot.

  13. johnnypok :
    Malaysia will go bankrupt within 6 months if all the hard-working minorities were to leave the country.
    Majorities are lazy and unproductive. This is the actual problem. When the revenue is not enough to feed them, civil unrest will erupt, and this is what will happen to Malaysia. However, people in Sabah and Sarawak will not be affected because they are hard-working and knows how to mange life much better.

    it is very rare for a country to protect the majority’s rights rather than the minority’s…or is Malaysia the only one in this world?

  14. Actually, i quite respected Idris when he was getting “Mana Ada System” around. However, since he joined B..eNd, i have my second thoughts. Before he become a tool of BN/UMNO, we hope Idris should at least help exposed all the wrong doings of BN/UMNO and all the component parties(esp one big white ex-shark in MCA and another equally big black one in MIC, just to name a few). Why talk about cutting subsidies for poor rakyat when you have so so many big greedy corrupted sharks and their cronies hanging around milking the poor rakyat money. Billions and billions of dollars are wasted or ended up into these big sharks and cronies pockets.Yet nothing has been done to recover or at least stop the bleeding of our poor rakyat money till todate. Just take a look at that biggest and greatest “Slime Derby” GLC. Its is totally UNBELIEVABLE that none of the thousands of staff, some with incredible credentials, are totally unaware of the billions$$$$$$ siphoned and wasted during the project implementation all these years.
    Come on, Idris, are u with the BN/UMNO trying to scare the poor rakyat firstly on cutting subsidies and then went further to say that Bolehland will get bankrupt in 2019?? Sure some naive and innocent rakyat may believe u and those BN/UMNO politicians. But there are also a lot who knows that what u and the government motives are. All in all, I still hope you have some dignity and courage left to do what you should do. Resign from BN and work for PKR before you end up like OTK. See, how a guy trying to expose a big scandal ended up. To the eyes of the rakyat you can at least stand and walk with your head high wherever you go when you are with PKR. ACT NOW!!!!!!!!

  15. Dear Uncle Lim Kit Siang,

    As a supporter of Pakatan Rakyat, DAP in particular, I am more interested to know about subsidies given by the Pakatan Rakyat government to foreign students as reported in the media today.

    MB: Kelantan gives monthly aid for Palestinian education

    June 04, 2010

    KOTA BAHARU, June 4 — The Kelantan government spends RM25,000 a month under the Palestine People’s Education Aid Fund programme to sponsor the education of Palestinian children at several institutions of higher learning in the country, Mentri Besar Datuk Nik Abdul Aziz Nik Mat said today.

    As of now, the state government was sponsoring 27 Palestinian students pursuing their studies in the state, 10 of them doing their doctorate, 12 masters’ and five bachelor’s degrees, he said.

    “We want to encourage the people to donate to the fund and make it a practice, especially in helping Muslims suppressed by the Israeli regime in their own land,” he said.

    Nik Abdul Aziz was approached by reporters after he had led a “solat hajat” special prayers attended by about 5,000 Muslims at the Sultan Mohammed IV square, here.

    The mentri besar said the state government would continue to accept donations from the people in the state for the fund run by a non-governmental organisation.

    He said many Palestinian people still required assistance under the programme, which involved costs exceeding RM700,000, and added that for this year alone, the fund targeted RM800,000 to sponsor another 30 students.

    Source: http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/malaysia/article/MB-Kelantan-gives-monthly-aid-for-Palestinian-education/

    Coming from a very poor non-bumiputera (a.k.a. second class citizen) family, non of my family members entered university even though our SPM results were better than our bumiputera classmates.

    After STPM, I had to migrate to Singapore to work as a waiter. While in Singapore, I met many (non-bumiputera) Kelantanese who were either working in a factory or hotel. Many of them did quite well in their SPM/STPM but could not further their studies at tertiary level as their parents could not afford to send them to private colleges. They applied to the public universities but their applications were rejected.

    So, as a supporter of Pakatan Rakyat government, I would like to know why the Pakatan Rakyat government is sponsoring Palestinian kids but neglecting poor Malaysian students who are not bumiputera?

    What is so special about these Palestinians that the poor Kelantanese government had to spend so much money to educate them?

    What is so special about the Palestinians that the Pakatan Rakyat leaders had to rally on the streets and submit memo to the US embassy?

    Why “nobody” (i.e. in general) in Malaysia is outrage or angry when Pakistani gunmen massacred 93 people of Ahmadi sect while they were praying in the mosque?

    Why the double standard?

    I have nothing against helping people from other countries. But as a victim of Malaysia’s discriminatory economic policy, I believe I have the right to be envious and jealous of the Palestinian kids receiving help from the Pakatan Rakyat government while I am still struggling to make ends meet in a foreign country.

    Isn’t it better to use that money to sponsor non-bumiputera Kelantanese students?

    What benefit can Malaysia get by subsidising Palestinian kids who when they grow up are more likely to join terrorist groups like Hamas than helping Malaysia’s economy?

    No wonder this country is going bankrupt.

    I hope that the Pakatan Rakyat is different from BN. But from the way I see it, this country is hopeless for poor people like me.

  16. What you all should be doing would be to go all out to get voters to vote for the PR.
    Let them take over the reigns of the Federal government and clean out all the parasites.

  17. How…Winston…teach us.
    Easier said than done.
    I say we pen without fear and let them check their conscience.
    Let politicians do the wooing. We are not politicians.
    What we need is to make sure Malaysian understands their power of votes and vote responsibly…not like blockheads and corrupted racist..few ringgit can but their votes.
    These are the dogs going out voting..not humans.
    Buddha said…If you behave like a snake….you will be reborn a snake”
    That’s why Buddha chose the 12 animals horoscope.

  18. Corruption is a Viral Disease and it’s infectious!!! If the Country’s Top Leaders are rampantly corrupted,
    the junior govt servants will follow suit w/o question!!! This is the Cause & Effect of Domino theory!!
    Cut subsidies is liken to a small remedy to a 3rd stage cancel patient!!! Instead we need to cut lavish spendings n steps to create economical opportunities to bring in more wealth to Msia!!!

  19. what about people who are suppressed in your own backyard…and why you need a higher education section at all, to select preferred students

    people say it is rational to help your kind first so does it mean we are different kind and those faraway are same kind.

  20. the golden goose which laid her egg has been misused by bn for +50years !!! it was all going to personal accounts as commissions, stupid projects like national training which eats away $$$ to finance the bandits, buy weapons like going to war which in turn are out-dated or stolen, etc.

    the governement is now blaming that the rakyat is kiling the goose and tell us to supply the egg ( subsidy ). PURE NONSENSE!!!

    the only logical way is to hold a malaysian street demi to demand bn to retire from government since they cannot maintain the golden goose !!!

    by the way, i heard GST has been implemented …. is it true ???? when was it approved ???

  21. are you not fed up, east malaysia got no toll roads, let share some of ours with them , it is call 1 malaysia.

    …feel piss off with such statements…dont get excited , you ll be more piss off when you pay tolls and still got jammed.
    welcome to Bee end wisdom and economic theory

  22. if you join the civil servis with degree ,,,preferred kampong degrees, your future is assured…that is your career path is all planned, no need to worry , just come 8 to 5 , buy car and house and quickly attend khusus kahwin.
    if you got just spm…then your ass pee and aim forever.,,buy emapt ekor, toto, damahcai and get some hope.
    sewa teksi , jalan malam , or gerai hot dog or ikan bakar…maybe you can leave the servis one day.

  23. if you are KP and above maybe you can have several low cost units, travel overseas for talks and seminars, chaffeur driven , used project vehicles about , many people like to know you and you can select who to see and work with.

  24. Koay Teow soup (small) is 4.00 in USJ (near Subang Jaya, Selangor). Inflation is on the rise! The government is expected to spend more to stimulate the economy; I hope the expenditure is genuine investment, not just plain bail-out of inefficient companies, and mere handouts.

  25. Idris just shot TDM’s baby (WAWASAN 2020) down. If he claims that Malaysia is going to be BANKRUPT by 2019, then how can TDM’s vision come true in 2020? But then again, this Wawasan thing was supposed to be only a MIRAGE!

  26. start by having street lamps post that lights up at right time.
    have gomen buildings that meets the functional needs first and ass-thetics last.
    When buildings needs ass thetic stay neutral and nothing tribal.
    …most important keep ploitical and religious clowns out from such decisions making.

    Build and do things people “need” and not what certain clowns “want”.
    simple but cannot even do,,,and wants to get involved in gaza.

  27. ‘State-owned energy giant Petronas will scale back on foreign drilling and focus its development and extraction efforts closer to home’ –
    Why is that our energy giant is pulling out of major oil fields around the world given that our reserves only stand at about 4 billion barrels as of January 2009 AND we are going to be net importer of oil in maybe 5 year’s time?

    Possible explanations:
    1. We have discovered a major oil field recently
    2. Petronas is not as good as other oil giants in the world and have been effectively excluded from major projects around the world.

    Any more possible explanations?

    The reason why I have brought this up is that Petronas contributes 44% of the 2008 federal government revenue (2008 budget – RM 161 billion). Our federal government operating expenditure is RM 150 billion (2008). However, not wanting to sound like an alarmist, the operating expenditure was merely RM 68 billion back in 2002. Our expenditure have been increasing at 14.02% per annum since 2002 and yet our revenue has lagged at 11.63% per annum over the same period.

    Idris Jala has raised the red flag but with so much vested interest in our economy pie, which gunslinger is going to walk away from his/her piece of the action?

  28. bankrupt ? nevermind , West Malaysia got eleven states , we can sell some of the states to our neighbouring countries…..eg: Singapore , Indonesia , Thailand……..we will have money to cover the deficit shortfall……

  29. a cup of coffee in S’pore coffee shop – s$90cents
    a Cup of coffee in JB coffee shop – RM1.30

    1st difference = (RM1.30 – 0.90)=0.40 ( JB is 40 cents more expensive than S’pore )

    2nd type of difference (exchange rate)
    (RM1.30 / RM2.33)=s$0.56 Vs s$0.90
    (s$0.90 x RM2.33 )=RM2.10 vs RM1.30
    Percentage terms JB is 38% cheaper than S’pore

    another eg: In Singapore supermarket say we buy mie goreng instant noodles (5 in a pack) costs only s$2 but in JB when we buy the same product , same size & packaging & Manufactured from same country it will costs us almost RM3.80

    again the difference is (RM3.80-s$2)=1.80 more expensive than Sg .

    now comparing our pay to our singaporean counterpart say office work.

    Our singaporean counterpart could easily command a pay of s$1000 – $1400 depending on one’s experience.

    Wherelse in Malaysia some office workers are still commanding less than a thousand ringgit.

    our salary is so low yet we are paying a more expensive cost of living than our singaporean counterparts.

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