1. Governments need money. It cannot function without money. It has to pay the people who work for it. It has to provide services and infrastructures. And now it has to provide more and more social amenities such as education, medical care etc. And of course it must defend the country and maintain law and order.
2. The funds are mostly raised through taxes on the activities of the people, on incomes, on profits, on the services provided by the government such as transportations, sewerage, water and power, ports and airports, approval processes and oversights etc.
3. Although there are many countries where people avoid paying taxes and rates, the people of Malaysia generally pay their taxes and other charges for services rendered by the Government. But as the cost of Government increase over time, the taxes and rates will need to be increased. Naturally tax and rate-payers do not like to pay more taxes and other charges. But they admit to a need for higher tax rates if for nothing else the rise in the cost of living when the wages and salaries of government servants need to be raised as well as the higher cost of Government procurements.
4. But the tax payers cannot suddenly come up with the money to pay the new taxes and charges. Lately Malaysian individuals and businesses have to come up with more money because of the many increases in cost due to Government policy decisions. Firstly the increase in minimum wage to RM900/-. This increase cannot be limited to those earning less than RM900/-. Those already earning RM900/- and above will also need to be paid higher wages. With this the costs of doing business and producing goods and services have increased and in turn the cost of living for everyone has increased.
5. Over and above this the Government decided to reduce subsidies on petroleum products. Then the electricity charges are going to be raised. For the people of Kuala Lumpur new rates, some increasing by 2000 % are to be charged.
6. In 2015 the GST (Goods and Services Tax) will replace the sales tax. Obviously the Government wants to collect more than the revenue from sales tax, and this must add to the cost of goods and services.
7. We must accept that the Government needs more money with the passage of time. But should the increase be as big as the Government says. Should the taxes and rates come all at the same time?
8. In business there is a thing called “cost down”. When a business is faced with competition or its cost of production reduces its profits, it can either increase prices or reduce cost. To a certain extent the price can be increased. This might cause a reduction in sale and also profits. It is far better to reduce cost and maintain or minimise the increase in price.
9. When a business exercises cost down, what it does is to examine everything that it does which contributes to the cost of doing business. It examines the efficiency of the process, the material cost, the reduction of wastage, the speed and volume of production. Invariably some cost can be reduced.
10. The same can be done by Government. All its cost can be examined to determine which are truly necessary, which cost can be reduced, which service can be curtailed or modified etc. etc.
11. Government often waste money because it is not too concerned about the returns on its expenditure in whatever form. For example has a contract been given to the best offered price – though not necessarily the lowest. Every year the Auditor General reports on wastage through improper procedures and carelessness. Usually not much is changed so as to benefit from the Auditor General’s criticism. There is no doubt that much money can be saved if the AG’s criticisms are taken seriously. Even changing procedures can reduce costs.
12. If the Government is interested in reducing the cost of governance, it can do so and perhaps quite substantially. For example it can reduce the cost of electricity by switching to LED for street lights. The savings would be more than 50%. The subsequent reduction in the amount of electricity to be generated will reduce subsidy on fuel for power. But this has not been done by Government. The initial cost may be high but the savings will mitigate this.
13. With regard to taxes, the effect of the increase should be studied very carefully. Is it really true that the percentage fixed cannot be changed. It must always be remembered that increases in tax must contribute towards increases in the cost of living, the cost of doing business, the reduction in profitability and for the Government reduction in corporate tax on profits. Once a long time ago the Government was losing tax on goods brought in by travellers to Singapore simply because it was difficult to determine whether the costly watches, pens and jewellery items were bought in Singapore or worn by traveller when he went to that tax-free country. The Government decided to remove taxes on luxury goods. As a result tax-free shops sprouted in Malaysia and the Government collected more through corporate tax from these shops than it ever collected in import duty.
14. In another instance the government reduced corporate tax gradually from 45% of profits to 26%. More business was done and the collection in corporate taxes increased tremendously. Another case is the tax-free incentives for investments. With this investments increased. Indirectly the government could collect from income tax on executives. The nasi lemak eaten by workers increase the businesses of the rice wholesalers and the Government will collect corporate tax from them.
15. The public needs to find the money to pay the increased tax. Obviously it would be easier if the percentage is low, or spread over a longer period.
16. If the percentage increase is really necessary, cannot it be introduced in stages. For example the increase in electricity charges is fixed at 15%. That is a big jump. It will upset the cost of production of goods which all use electricity, some at a high percentage. Contracts which had already been made will result in losses and this in turn will reduce corporate taxes on profits .
17. Cannot the increase be in stages eg. 6 % per year for 3 years or longer. The losses on current contracts would be minimised. Future contracts would take into consideration the increases. There would be time for “cost down” and increase in contract prices.
18. At 6% per year for 3 years the rate would increase by 18% eventually instead of 15% now. But a 6% increase in the second year would be on 106% of original price and in the 3rd year would be on approximately 113% of the original price, therefore more than 18%. If this is too high, the yearly rate of increase can be reduced to 5%.
19. Clearly the Government would be getting more than the 15% of the current price. It will not really lose anything despite the delays in the increases.
20. Yes, Government needs more money with the passage of time. But with due consideration for the cost to people and business, the Government would really examine the tax rates to be introduced. It will not hurt the Government too much but it will gain a lot of goodwill from people. They might even remember in the next election.
21. Recently Francois Hollande, President of France decided to raise tax on profits to 50%. People left France to do business elsewhere. Far from collecting more tax, the Government may lose much when other businesses and business people emigrate.
I am a PhD candidate at USM. My thesis is on respondents’ perception of GST. Please spend 10 minutes to fill up my questionnaire. Thanks (it is meant for Malaysian ONLY)
https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/GST_Perception
Saya seorang calon PHD dari Universiti Sains Malaysia. Kajian saya adalah mengenai pandangan orang ramai terhadap GST (Cukai Barangan dan Perkhidmatan). Sila luangkan masa 10 minit bagi melengkapkan borang kaji selidik saya ini. Terima kasih
https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/GST_Perception_Malay
Salam Tun,
Majority of the AG reports for all the states (both BN managed and PR managed) is publicly available and Tun can review them on your own and make your own observation. And, with Tun’s status, I am pretty sure Tun will have access to do some lunch talk / personal meeting to validate the accuracy of these reports.
I have the utmost respect for the people who is working in the Audit General Department who are capable of reporting the abnormalities without fear and bias. If we start to lose this integrity in this department, we have lost our last hope.
My humble opinion..
Salam Tun,
Wish you and your family a Happy New Year 2014 and most importantly may you and your family be blessed with good health.
Dear Tun Perak,
1. I think you got me wrong by saying that other government personnel is not prone to the temptation of corruption (read my earlier post again) but I think it’s a work in progress. But, you can’t increase every public service personnel’s salary at the same time but these needs to be done in stages but the first step is to concentrate on the top and start from the top, pay them well and get good people on the top and push them for results. A change in culture from the top might be the only chance that we have for the better. If we can embrace in true good governance instead of just merely a slogan. Hopefully, we can start to see some real “cost-down” that translates into saving that could be used to push for more salary reform for the first priority departments.
2. I totally agree with you that in this world, we need to work as a team. According to the Auditor General Report 2012 below,
http://www.intosaiitaudit.org/lkan2012_siri3/statement/AG's%20Report%202012%20%20Financial%20Statements%20Selangor.pdf
In this AG 2012 AG report, it states: (Quote)
“PART II – FINANCIAL ANALYSIS OF THE STATE GOVERNMENT
2. As a whole, the financial position of the Selangor State Government is sound. ”
How is it possible that the AG make such statement if it is as bad as what you claimed? Water problem is a totally different problem all together because state government are being limited as to what can. When your hands are tied, you can just try to be as creative as possible. Does it mean that they are not doing their work? Possibly not. Talking about illegal activities, I thought it would be the obligation of the police to make sure that these illegal activities are being stopped and not so much from the State Municipal side. Some might say that why approve the permit for massage parlour, but this is going to turn into a chicken and egg argument. How do you know if it is genuine business that want to start the business. If it is found that these shops are causing problem, a good leader will then revoked and start to limit the numbers and permits will be revoked if found to be used to do illegal activities. All these needs to be done after working together and getting input from the head of Police department. For the better society, there needs to be collaboration between different departments. Certainly there is a communication breakdown in this chain either purposely or non-purposely.
3. You should really visit Penang and talk to the local Penang people to understand what they feel. As a normal citizen, whenever any of my relatives or friends visit Penang over the past few years, the feedback from them is that they have changed a lot and for the better. The recent policy that Penang government introduced to slow down a property bubble is certainly most welcome! From a state governance perspective, I think they are doing a lot within their capacity! Even with their hands tied, they are still trying! Remember the initiatives trying to revive the Penang Port?
4. I think that these needs to be done in stages to reduce the effect based on the role and importance and by doing this, you could reduce the impact that it brings to the overall inflation. When inflation increases more than the salary increase, the increase will be worthless. When you are PAID WELL and YET still receive money UNDER the table! That is what i called GREEDY!
Salam Tun and a Happy New Year 2014.
Dear Illioni,
I agree to disagree with you.
1. But you rightly hinted that Selangor MB are prone to corruption, that is why he needs triple digit percentage increase. In addition, you wrongly hinted that all other government officers and employees are not prone to corruption and that is why they do not deserve the triple digits salary hike.
2. In this world wide world, everyone work in a team. If the Selangor MB thinks that he alone deserve the triple digit salary rise, I think that is a serious over-statement. He neglects his employess. His performance ? Rubbish. In year 2008, before the election Selangor result is a surplus but in year 2009- , Selangor performance was in deficit. Water problem is unresolved. Here and then water issues afftected the population of the Klang Valley. Massage parlour , gambling dens , prostitutions and other socials ills venues widely spreaded in Selangor, exponential growth in term of size and revenue. And you called this a good performance, maybe if you mean he is good in creating massage parlour and illegal gambling dens businesses in Selangor, I would agree. Yeah, I know massage parlour also pay taxes , so you all have to create many of them in Selangor. But I dont agree with it and I dont know why other readers should agree with you.
3. The current developed status of Selangor is due to the effort of the previous government. So, his job is easy. Pakatan has never turned a badly managed state to become a good managed state. Look at Kelantan. Look at Penang, what happened ?
4. I think we all have to look down at them for daring enough to increase their salary by triple digit percentage and at the same time denying other state government servant from fairly getting the triple digit percentage increase. That is called greedy blunder.
My dear friend Tun Perak, I could just say that I agree to disagree.
1. If we look at just the performance in managing the state and country fund, I think the salary compensation looks about right (by looking the logic) judging from the performance of the financial numbers of the state and country. However, 10% decrease in the PM or minister’s salary is peanut. I don’t mean to discount all of the announced measure, some are good and certainly the right way of managing “cost down”. Is it enough? I think not. There is certainly more could or should have been done.
2. You mentioned RM 50,000. Is this comparable with what a CEO of a company being paid? Is that comparable to what a top economist, top financial manager, top actuaries, top surgeon, top lawyer salary? I think I am quite certain it is comparable to RM 50,000 per month. When we are asking these talents to sacrifice their time with their family, forgo their current career and spend their time to build the country, shouldn’t we compensate them accordingly? The salary increase by the Selangor MB is a bold move and politically, it might not sound so smart but the intention and direction is correct. I agree with you it could have been done differently by increasing it in phases but it needs to be something significant to show the different vision. If we think this is an important area and needs attention, money needs to be spent on it. If we get results from it, it’s a money well spent. As simple as that.
3. Everyone is vulnerable when it comes to corruption and what we need to have is a system that can reduce the risk. One can never deny that when the temptation is great when it comes power. In order to do that, you need to start from the top.
4. Giving more than what they can get? Sound a bit like a myth. Sounds a bit sarcastic. There might be a few who might have these in the past and at present. I might be wrong. I believe a number of the people are in it for the wrong reason.
5. I pray that regardless of which party it might be, we will get a competent leader to lead our country. Our hope is in the younger generation of leader that we are shaping. The old faces needs to let the young ones rise up regardless of which party we are talking about. It’s applicable in both party. We need a little less politics but more proper work to be implemented. Proper work can only be carried out if we have competent leaders.
Tun
With the latest measures, now everyone is unhappy !
Salam Tun,
Dear Illioni,
1. PM Najib’s decision on reducing spending is far much better than the Selangor’s MB choice of increasing his own salary and allowance. 🙂
2. Actual Selangor’s MB pocket money starting January 2013 will be more than RM 50,000 a month. Unfortunately the triple digit percentage rise does not include the state government officer’s and non-officer salary rise. Of course, office boys will only get a mineal ammount of salary hike. The pay rise is a psychological and political suicide by Selangor state government especially at the time of austerity. Where is the rakyat in this equation ? Only some stupid Selangor rakyat can be fooled. They earn nothing more while their political master earn RM 30,000 more per month. The quantum of Selangor MB and ADUN rise is too big within a small period of time. Why not stager the hike to a period of 5 years ? I always look down on self-fulfilling people who are supposed to serve the public but at the end of the day, chosen to serve their own pocket as well, even by any mean. If the rise is too high because one is afraid of corruption, then by logics you are claiming that the Selangor MB are his ADUNs are all very prone to corruption such that they need a very hugh increment in order not to dwell themselves in corruption. Basically this meteoric rise of salary does not take into account the pulse and the breath of the rakyat. Are they blinded with their successs, as what the popular words are – “Power Corrupts” they have the power to increase their salary and they corrupt their power by increasing their salary with a triple digit percentage of increase. Public figure should be an altruist. Giving more than what they can get. Not the other way around. Nobody wants to elect those bastards who give themselves high sky salary when the others are suffering. I really hope and pray and doa, next GE, the PR government will lose Selangor so that they learn not to be greedy.
With all the facts which seem to keep bubbling up from the boiling pot, and with your permission, I present the following as food for thought to keep our minds active over the New Year. http://www.tremeritus.com/2013/12/31/st-bashes-thailand-to-make-sg-look-good/ and http://www.tremeritus.com/2013/12/31/3rd-world-in-1st-world-or-1st-world-in-3rd-world/. The comments are even more illuminating than the original !
For those die-hards who want something to chew during these festive days, I had the opportunity to seat next to a history Fellow of Jesus College, Cambridge at a commemoration dinner in 1982. And through our discussion on current World events, he candidly pointed out to me that a City State or Country declined and fell by an unmitigated influx of foreigners into its sanctum and not by the Barbarians at the Gate because they were already inside the Gates. Then, he quoted the examples of Genoa, Venice, Athens, Sparta, Palembang with the UK in mind. Maybe we can add Gibraltar in time and the one street town of the Republic of Singapore shortly thereafter !
Tun
For Tujuh Puteri. Of course we are of one mind concerning the good TDM – one of the very few Prime Ministers of the World who were normal and kept a normal routine with the public and his cherished family, not only for 22 years but for a life-time. I was given a small task by one of his fellows for 3 months and had to turn up at 8 a.m. sharp. I was completely fagged out at the end. This sort of thing needs a proper mind-set and discipline.
Thank you Mubarakchan. I agree with that there is no such thing of Mahathirsm. What I meant was all the good policies, approaches, way of solving problems, wills to move the country forwards etc which all can be learned, adopted and prolonged.
For me, Tun administered and behaved normally those times. Same as other leaders in those great countries. To construct the infrastructures, reduced everybody’s costs, ensured high employment rates, ensured all the best etc. When Malaysian was in the midst of good progresses, some enemies didn’t like these. Something must be done to distort. That was when those words such as dictator, making tonnage and tonnage of money, corruptions, mahathirsm etc came out. The price of tin, rubber, palm oil etc must be kept as low as possible. Those will be high only after you step down. Peoples suffered. But through logic and common senses and will to fight, nation still progressed and rich.
Now the attacks are different and not from abroad. But from the within.
Salam Tun
And last but not least for 2013, my favourite Singaporean journalist Seah Chiang Nee’s article http://www.tremeritus.com/2013/12/80/concerns-about-singapore-dwindlling-sense-of-identity/
As the hullabaloo shuts down or the hot air cools down during the last hours of 2013, and with a beautiful hindsight, we can now contemplate the difference between our beloved Malaysia and the one-street town of the Republic of Singapore.
Since Merdeka, our Prime Ministers had followed the Constitution deligently which firmly spells out the the official religion is Islam and the other religions are permitted. This normal form of humankind activity gave us resilience and the wherewithal to succeed.
In the case of the Republic of Singapore, the focus has been on the enrichment by or enhancement of money which has now proven to be more barbaric than gold. The trillions of dollars, or whatever being tossed around do not differentiate the good from the bad, the beautiful from the ugly, the clever from the stupid etc, all are cut down at the wrong click of the mouse.
With a clearer mind in the face of the facts concerning the brilliant Lee Kuan Yew with his 13 failed Policies for Singapore after all the brainwashing and trumpeting using public money, at a time when we Malaysians all behaved NORMALLY, we now SEE the true facts which we may date from 1947, 1959 or 1965 !
For the cognoscenti, they certainly now know which is a better country ! It is the ONE WITH THE RELIGION and not the worship of MONEY !
Tun
For Tujuh Puteri. There is no such thing as Mahathirism.
This is sheer nonsense cooked up by people who DID NOT GET ENOUGH FROM HIM. You know he cannot give proportionately because it was a works-in-process with the wealth of a country not belonging to him. And he was caring for a Nation not a corporation ! Some took big big bucks and want power and power too. How if you are the Prime Minister ? You have millions of supporters. See how he repaid by the creation of the MALAY MIDDLE INCOME GROUP WHICH WITH THEIR PURCHASING POWER BROUGHT UP THE OTHER MIDDLE INCOME GROUPS AS WELL – and hopefullly, my compatriots here will belly-ache less. Plus all those world class highways and infra-structures thrown in through his ideas and will them to a complete conclusion. It was alleged he had tete-a-tete in Langkawi with Malaysia’s best corporates to encourage them to do their best. It was alleged that one Saturday, he suddenly wanted to visit this hotel in Labuan etc. From these observations, his actions did not show that of a man who was not dedicated to the enhancement of our beloved Malaysia, its Rakyat and its leaders. He was driving them onwards. He CARED. He had the power and the money but he DID NOT TAKE ADVANTAGE. His intellect was above all these ‘bread and butter’ issues of having a fine time PERSONALLY at the Rakyat’s expense unlike the ex-Minister of Tourism. Yes ! Like all doctors, the Tun only talk facts and no cunning motives behind all those facts. Yes ! People called him a ‘DICTATOR’ for no reason but for the reason that he WAS THE BOSS. Yes ! Bosses always talked monologue to all of us ! And we all ‘salaamed’ !
It is very unfair now to even say the word ” MAHATHIRISM ” without meaning. The Tun just behaved and worked normally AND PRODUCED THE RESULTS FOR ALL (some benefitted in money beyond imagination, then and thereafter) and still he did not say much about his detractors. He could have said all ! A PERSON LIKE THE TUN SHOULD NOT BE DRAGGED INTO THE CESSPOOL OF NEGATIVITY WHEN ALL HE DID WAS TO BEHAVE AND WORK NORMALLY FOR HIS FAMILY WHOM HE CHERISHED ! He took normal holidays too ! And as my favourite American President once said, ‘ The Buck stops at my desk !’ He is my favourite because he was NORMAL AND HOMELY like the Tun !
I state again that I received no favours, medals or money from the Tun.
Dear Tun Perak, it’s me again. Once again, there are some points which I agree with you and some points which I disagree with you.
1. I agree with you that the recent announcement about reducing government spending is most welcome. However, the political damage is already done. Psychologically, this move looks more like a damage control rather than a sincere move towards a more effective administration. This should have been done in the first place. That said, it’s better late then never. And, I totally agree with you that it’s still far from what is needed.
2. I disagree with you that the pay raise by the Selangor MB is a bad move. Personally, I think it’s a brilliant sincere move and one step forward towards a better Malaysia. But, it made huge headlines from some quarters trying to gain political mileage. Let’s look at it objectively. There are arguments that when our fellow citizens are only getting very small increase their pay while why are the state administration getting huge increment? The answer is very simple. It is to attract talents to work in the government. And, by increasing their salary to something comparable with what the corporate is offering, you can then decrease the possibility of corruption from the top. When you are earning a decent living, there is really no point to be corrupt (unless he/she is greedy). And, your focus will then to perform and to serve the people. [Provided our corruption agency are fair/unbiased and can act independently] – Being grateful/happy with what they are earning and being scared of being corrupt/ being caught corrupt & being proud to see the society prosper from what they have done.
3. Some people will argue that these people are chosen to serve the people and why they getting such huge increase from our public fund? The answer to that is that if you pay peanut, you get monkeys. We already have enough of these bad apples in our parliament, we don’t need more of these. What we need is quality young leaders. Have we ever asked why the CEO of the company is being paid much more than a normal office boy? Don’t get me wrong, I don’t mean to look down on an office boy. But, the responsibility that a CEO hold is so great that we need to get the best of the cream to take this on! I’d rather see the money being paid over the table officially than under the table.
4. We want a good efficient government but we are not willing to pay for it. We want good governance but we are not willing to bear the cost. This is as if we buy a £50 tablet and hope that it will perform like an iPAD. Let’s be realistic.
5. If our aim is to increase our efficiency and reduce corruption, this is a very good first step within a MB capacity. Please bear in mind that he might not the MB forever and the other succeeding MB will benefit from his policy.
6. To prosper, we need to be able to retain and attract the talents to the top post (which is the first step) and only by doing this, we can survive in this global competitive race. If we refuse to change, it is just the matter of time when we are phased out and become irrelevant.
My 2 cents again.. 😀
Finally, I would say that the government had made the correct move to reduce public spending, albeit not that much.
http://www.thestar.com.my/News/Nation/2013/12/30/PM-reduce-public-spending/
In the contrary to what others think, I believe this is a “populist” approach to the people, to lead by example. Luckily, cool head is there; not following the Selangor MB’s gimic, simply because the tricks are full up in his sleeve.
I am sad that staunched and diehard supporters of BN are now attacking and bad mouthing the government and Najib’s administration.
This is due to the recalcitrant attitude of the government to want to insist in increasing toll rates and patrol price. The government wrongly interpret it as their birth right to reduce subsidy. The people have no rights to the wealth of the nation. All the natural resources of the country belong to BN government and the rakyat have to pay full market price for the natural resources. Even though pump price of patrol in Saudi Arabia is only 35 sen per litre, we must compare the pump price of patrol with Singapore in oder to highlight the quantum of subsidy and the generosity of the BN government. So the government tells subsidy stories to divert and mislead or misrepresent the truth to the rakyat.
In this blog where the government and BN bastion is, BN and Najib bashing has taken on different dimension and scale, not by the opposition but by staunched BN supporters who have been disillusioned, disenchanted and largely ignored. The rakyat has spoken but the government is not listening because they say they cannot continue to ‘subsidise’ the rakyat. They say they cannot undo the agreement with the concessionaires and the contractors. All this while we do not know that the government has been using their fathers’ money to subsidise the rakyat. The greedy and ungrateful rakyat. The government never learn from foolish mistakes of Pak Lah administration and insist to dwell in the ‘LUBUK KALAH’ .
amin tan
I would like to reach out to the BN government through your esteemed blog and be as blunt as possible as the consequences will be fully realized in PRU 14 if no remedial steps are taken.
THE PREVALENT MINDSET AMONGST THE YOUNGER GENERATION NOWADAYS IS THAT THE BN GOVERNMENT ARE NOT LISTENING TO THEIR WOES AND CONCERNS ABOUT PRICE INCREASE AND HIGHER COST OF LIVING. THIS IS AGGRAVATED BY THE OPPOSITION WHO ARE SMART IN MAKING THE GOVERNMENT LOOK LIKE UTTER FOOLS AND NINCAMPOOPS.
THE YOUNGER GENERATION WHO WILL DEFINITELY HAVE THEIR SAY IN THE NEXT PRU ARE THINKING THAT THE MINISTERS ARE LIVING IN THEIR OWN LUXURIOUS WORLD AND OUT OF TOUCH WITH THE COMMON PEOPLE.
So for these people in power, you have been warned. You must reach out to the people and win the internet perceptions war or risk losing power the next time PRU comes around.
DAPshit
Ini merupakan sambungan penulisan saya selepas cerita Nabi Musa a.s dan Nabi Khidir a.s
Setelah bercerita mengenai kisah dalam Al-Quran maka di sini kita perlu melihat kaitan mengenai kembara tasawuf dengan kaedah bertarekat. Di mana ia sebagai pembuktian bahawa apa yang diperturunkan oleh ulama tulen pada zaman terdahulu adalah mengikut Al-Quran.Pembuktian sebegini adalah amat penting untuk kita melalui zaman yang serba mencabar sekarang dan bagi mengembalikan kesegaran pada ilmu yang kita sangkakan adalah tidak benar dan sama sekali tidak logik seperti tajuk di bawah. Adab kita kepada syeikh.
TEROKAI SUFI, HAKIKAT DAN MAKRIFAT
Selasa, 12 November 2013
ADAB-ADAB SALIK TERHADAP SYEIKH.
Adab-adab al-sālik terhadap syeikh.Menurut keterangan yang diberikan oleh Syeikh Muhammad Amin al-Kurdi dalam kitabnya yang berjudul Tanwir al-Qulub Fi Mu‘āmalat ‘Allām al-Ghuyub menyebutkan bahawa adab-adab yang perlu diperhatikan dan dijaga oleh seorang yang sālik terhadap syeikhnya adalah banyak , namun yang terpenting ialah seorang yang al-sālik tidak boleh sesekali menentang syeikhnya, sebaliknya ia membesarkan kedudukan syeikhnya itu lahir dan batin. Seterusnya ia tidak boleh memperkecilkan kedudukan syeikh, apalagi mencemuhnya di hadapan atau di belakangnya. Salah satu yang mesti diyakini oleh seorang yang al-sālik ialah segala maksud dalam suluknya hanya akan tercapai kerana didikan dan asuhan daripada syeikhnya. Oleh sebab itu, jika ia terpengaruh dengan pandangan guru-guru yang lain selain daripada syeikhnya menyebabkan ia akan jauh daripada syeikhnya dan akan gagal menerima limpahan cahaya daripada syeikhnya. Maka sebagai seorang yang bertaraf al-sālik sewajarnya ia memerhatikan dengan bersungguh-sungguh tentang beberapa adab terhadap syeikhnya.
Keadaan ini telah dikemukakan oleh Syeikh Muhammad Amin al-Kurdi seperti di bawah ini:
a) Seorang yang al-sālik hendaklah menghormati dan menyanjung tinggi syeikhnya pada yang zahir dan yang batin, dengan satu keyakinan bahawa dirinya tidak akan berjaya untuk mencapai cita-cita kerohaniannya kecuali berada di bawah asuhan dan didikan serta pimpinan daripada syeikhnya. Apabila seorang yang al-sālik itu tertarik hati kepada seorang syeikh yang lain maka terhalanglah dirinya itu daripada syeikhnya dan terhentilah limpahan nur ilāhi daripada syeikh tersebut ke atas dirinya.
b) Seorang yang al-sālik hendaklah sentisa menyerahkan diri sepenuhnya zahir dan batin kepada syeikhnya. Sentiasa bersifat taat dan menurut perintah di samping reda terhadap segala apa yang dibuat oleh syeikhnya. Seorang yang al-sālik hendaklah bersedia untuk berkhidmat kepada syeikhnya baik dengan harta mahupun dengan jiwa raga. Semua hal tersebut adalah disebabkan oleh kemahuan yang murni dan perasaan kasih sayang sebenar yang tidak dapat dinyatakan dengan jelas kecuali dengan cara yang tersebut. Malahan niat yang benar dan ikhlas itu tidak akan dapat dicapai kecuali dengan jalan yang demikian itu. Seorang al-sālik mestilah mempunyai keikhlasan hati di samping kerelaan jiwa demi pengorbanan kepada syeikhnya. Selepas itu barulah ia akan mendapat barakah irādah yang murni dan muhibbah. Semua ini akan dianggap sebagai penggerak dalam kehidupan seorang yang al-sālik.
c) Seorang yang al-sālik tidak boleh sama sekali menentang, menolak atau menghalang apa saja yang dibuat oleh syeikhnya, sekalipun perbuatan tersebut pada zahirnya bertentangan dengan hukum syarak yang membawa hukum haram. Sebagai contoh, seorang al-sālik tidak boleh berkata terhadap syeikhnya: Mengapakah tuan guru berbuat demikian? Jika seorang al-sālik berkata demikian terhadap syeikhnya maka ia tidak akan mencapai maksudnya (wusul kepada Allah S.W.T.) untuk selama-lamanya. Penentangan merupakan sikap dan akhlak yang tercela, lebih-lebih lagi apabila diperintahkan oleh syeikhnya. Dalam dispilin ilmu dan amalan tasawwuf ketaatan itu sudah dibaiahkan ketika seorang al-sālik mengambil amalan tersebut daripada syeikhnya. Dengan peraturan dan baiah yang demikian barangkali ramai orang termasuk pemerintah menaruh prasangka dan curiga di samping mengawasi ajaran tasawwuf dan tariqat di negara ini. Kadang-kadang berlaku pada seseorang syeikh itu perkara yang tercela nampak pada zahirnya, tetapi pada batinnya adalah baik, seperti yang berlaku kepada Nabi Khidir a.s ketika bersama-sama dengan Nabi Musa a.s . Kerana itulah setengah ahli tasawwuf bersya’ir seperti berikut:
Maksudnya:Engkau di hadapan syeikh seperti mayat di depan orang yang memandikannya.Sentiasa taat dibalik-balikkan mengikut sekehendak hatinya.Jangan engkau menentang perintahnya yang engkau tidak mengetahuinya.Sebab,menentang begitu bererti engkau mencabarnya.Biarkanlah segala perbuatannya yang engkau lihat.Meskipun berlainan dengan syariat.Cukuplah sebagai contoh kisah Khidir membunuh anak desa.Bagaimana Musa bersungguh-sungguh menghalangnya.Bila rahsia Khidir jelas terbongkar.Musa tidak dapat berkata lagi.Dan cuba meminta maaf daripada Khidir.Begitulah ada yang menakjubkan ilmu orang sufi.
d) Seorang yang al-sālik tidak boleh mempunyai sebarang keinginan untuk bergaul rapat dengan syeikhnya untuk tujuan dunia ataupun akhirat. Oleh itu pergaulan dengan syeikhnya hanyalah semat-mata untuk menghampirkan dirinya kepada Allah S.W.T.
e) Seorang yang al-sālik hendaklah menghilangkan segala ikhtiarnya kerana berasa cukup dengan ikhtiar syeikhnya, sebahagiannya atau keseluruhannya yang menyangkut soal ibadat ataupun adat kebiasaan hidup. Oleh itu antara tanda-tanda yang menunjukkan seorang yang al-sālik itu bersifat benar ialah jika syeikhnya menyuruhnya masuk ke dalam dapur api nescaya dilakukannya. Walau apapun yang berlaku seorang yang al-sālik tetap memegang teguh ikhtiar syeikhnya. Ia mesti mengakui seorang syeikh itu mempunyai kelebihan tersendiri dalam berikhtiar jika dibandingkan dengan ikhtiar seorang yang al-sālik.
f) Seorang yang al-sālik tidak boleh dengan sengaja mencari-cari rahsia hal keadaan syeikhnya sama sekali. Perbuatan yang sedemikian boleh menyebabkan kecelakaan dan padah pada diri seorang yang al-sālik itu sendiri. Sebagai seorang yang al-sālik seharusnya bersangka baik dengan syeikhnya dalam semua hal dan keadaan.
g) Sebagai seorang yang al-sālik, dia hendaklah sentiasa ingatkan kepada syeikhnya ketika ia berjauhan daripadanya (syeikh). Begitu juga jika syeikhnya itu ada bersama-samanya maka hendaklah ia sentiasa ingatkan dan membayangkan syeikhnya itu dalam hatinya ketika melakukan semua urusannya, baik ketika musafir mahupun tidak, supaya mendapat keberkatan daripada syeikhnya itu.
h) Sebagai seorang yang al-sālik ia hendaklah merasakan bahawa setiap keberkatan yang telah didapatinya, baik keberkatan di dunia mahupun di akhirat adalah kerana syeikhnya itu. Sebagai contoh seorang yang al-sālik telah mendapat kelebihan daripada Allah S.W.T., atau pertunjuk berupa ilhām atau keistimewaan ijābah, maka tidak boleh mengatakan atau menganggap hal itu disebabkan oleh keupayaan dan barakah daripada dirinya sendiri yang dekat dengan Allah S.W.T. Sebagai menghormati gurunya ia mestilah berkeyakinan bahawa ilhām dan anugerah daripada Allah S.W.T. itu adalah disebabkan oleh keberkatan dan kelebihan daripada syeikhnya itu.
i) Sebagai seorang yang al-sālik, ia tidak boleh merahsiakan atau menyembunyikan daripada syeikhnya sesuatu yang bersifat hāl, lintasan-lintasan hati, kejadian-kejadian, perkara-perkara yang dikashafkan dan kekeramatan yang telah dikurniakan oleh Allah S.W.T. semasa di bawah pimpinan daripada syeikhnya itu. Segala sesuatu yang berkait dengan kehidupan seorang yang al-sālik tidak boleh dirahsiakan daripada syeikhnya. Ini merupakan satu adab dan peraturan yang mesti ditaati oleh seorang yang al-sālik.
j) Seorang yang al-sālik itu tidak boleh sengaja menunjuk-nunjuk atau mencari-cari ta‘bir berbagai-bagai kejadian, mimpi dan perkara-perkara yang dikashafkan ke atasnya. Walaupun ia mengetahui dengan jelas ta‘bir perkara-perkara yang tersebut itu, maka tidaklah boleh ia berpegang teguh terhadapnya. Apabila seorang yang al-sālik itu bertanyakan sesuatu kepada syeikhnya maka hendaklah ia bersabar menanti jawapan daripada syeikhnya itu dengan tidak mendesak agar syeikhnya memberikan jawapan yang segera. Begitu juga jika ada seseorang yang bertanyakan sesuatu kepada syeikhnya itu, maka janganlah sekali-kali al-sālik itu memberikan jawapan soalan orang yang tersebut di hadapan syeikhnya.
k) Seorang yang al-sālik tidak boleh menyebar dan menyiarkan rahsia-rahsia syeikhnya, walau dengan apa cara sekalipun.
l) Seorang yang al-sālik tidak boleh mengahwini perempuan yang sudah diketahuinya bahawa syeikhnya sendiri ada hati mahu mengahwininya. Seorang yang al-sālik juga tidak boleh mengahwini bekas isteri syeikhnya, sama ada bercerai hidup atau cerai mati.
m) Seorang yang al-sālik tidak boleh memberikan nasihat dan tunjuk ajar kepada syeikhnya, sekalipun syeikhnya meminta buah fikirannya dalam sesuatu perkara yang mahu dibuat atau ditinggalkannya. Dalam keadaan itu seorang yang al-sālik hendaklah menyerahkan masalah yang dihadapi itu kepada syeikhnya sahaja dengan penuh keyakinan bahawa syeikhnya itu lebih tahu daripada dirinya dalam masalah tersebut dan syeikhnya itu sebenarnya tidak perlu meminta buah fikirannya. Sebenarnya perbuatan syeikh meminta buah fikiran al-sālik itu hanyalah sebagai satu polisi syeikhnya supaya dapat ia menunjukkan rasa kasih dan sayang terhadap para al-sālikin itu sahaja. Bagaimanapun jika ada tanda-tanda bahawa syeikhnya itu memang benar-benar mahukan buah fikiran al-sālik itu maka bolehlah ia memberikan buah fikirannya kepada syeikhnya dengan penuh kesopanan dan ketertiban.
n) Seorang yang al-sālik hendaklah menjaga, mengambil berat terhadap keluarga syeikh sepanjang pemergiannya. Seorang yang al-sālik hendaklah sentiasa berkhidmat dan berbuat baik dengan mengunjungi dan berkhidmat kepada keluarganya. Langkah seorang al-sālik ini merupakan perkara-perkara yang boleh menambahkan lagi kasih sayang syeikh kepada diri al-sālik. Tegasnya dalam hal ini, kedudukan syeikh itu samalah dengan kedudukan para saudara dan kawan atau sahabat. Perlu diingat bahawa seluruh kerja yang dilakukan mesti dengan keikhlasan agar ia akan mendapat limpahan hidayat dan rahmat syeikhnya.
o) Seorang yang al-sālik apabila merasakan dirinya ada sifat ‘ujub dan riyā’ maka hendaklah ia segera berjumpa dan memberitahu kepada syeikhnya hal keadaan tersebut. Dengan berbuat demikian seorang syeikh akan dapat menunjukkan bagaimana cara untuk mengubati penyakit tersebut. Jika hal tersebut disembunyikan maka penyakit yang terdapat pada seorang yang al-sālik seperti al-riyā’ dan al-‘ujub itu akan bertambah subur dan sulit untuk dibuang daripada dirinya.
p) Sebagai seorang al-sālik, hendaklah menghargai setiap pemberian daripada syeikhnya. Setiap barang yang diberikan oleh syeikh kepada seorang yang al-sālik hendaklah dijaga dengan sebaiknya, bahkan jangan sekali-kali ia menjualkan barang pemberian tersebut kepada orang yang lain. Mungkin ada rahsia di sebalik pemberian tersebut yang berupa manfaat di dunia atau di akhirat di samping dapat menghampirkan dirinya kepada Allah S.W.T. di sebalik pemberian tersebut.
q) Seorang al-sālik hendaklah menjaga sifat benar (al-sidq) dalam kesungguhannya mentaati syeikhnya itu. Dalam konteks ini, para mashā’ikh tariqat bersepakat bahawa seorang al-sālik yang benar-benar sempurna ketaatannya kepada syeikh akan mencapai kemanisan ma‘rifatullah dalam dhawqnya, walaupun hanya berada dalam satu majlis sahaja di awal pergaulannya dengan syeikh tersebut.
r) Apabila seorang yang al-sālik menemui dan melihat beberapa kekurangan yang terdapat pada diri syeikh seperti banyak tidur di waktu mendekati subuh atau kurang wara‘nya dan sebagainya lagi maka sesungguhnya terkadang Allah S.W.T. sengaja menjadikan kekurangan tersebut pada diri seorang wali, iaitu ketika seorang wali itu berada dalam keadaan yang ghaflah. Bagaimanapun, selepas itu ia akan ingat dari kelalaiannya dan segera berusaha bersungguh-sungguh untuk mencapai dan mendapatkan apa yang sepatutnya ia capai. Hal ini ada diungkapkan oleh Ibn ‘Atāi’illah al- Iskandari dalam kata-kata hikmahnya yang antara lain menyebutkan:سبحان من ستر سر الخصوصية بظهور وصف البشرية وظهر بعظمة الربوبية في إظهار العبودية . Maksudnya: Maha suci Tuhan yang telah menutup rahsia khususiyyah dengan kelihatan sifat-sifat kemanusiaan. Dan Maha Suci Tuhan yang telah memperlihatkan (kepada hamba-hambaNya) dengan kebesaran ketuhanan dalam memperlihatkan (bekas-bekas) kehambaan manusia. Semua yang berlaku pada diri syeikh itu adalah dari kehendak dan ketentuan daripada Allah S.W.T. yang bertujuan untuk mendidik dan menunjuk ajar di samping mengasuh para al-sālikin. Dengan pengalaman tersebut, para al-sālikin akan dapat melihat dan menyaksikan kekurangan-kekurangan seperti yang berlaku kepada syeikhnya itu. Dengan demikian tentulah mereka akan dapat melepaskan diri dari kekurangan-kekurangan tersebut pada diri mereka. Kadang-kadang Allah S.W.T memberitahu seorang wali itu menerusi kekurangan-kekurangan yang berlaku pada dirinya, disebabkan kuatnya sifat benar (al-sidq) dalam maqām al-ridā terhadap qadā’ dan qadarnya, atau pun disebabkan oleh lemahnya sifat benar (al-sidq) tersebut. Dengan cara tersebut Allah S.W.T akan memberikan kefahaman kepada para waliNya tentang perubahan ahwāl sifat benar mereka atau sifat dusta mereka kepada Allah S.W.T., agar para awliyā’ itu dapat bersyukur kepadaNya ataupun meminta keampunan daripadaNya apabila mereka menyedari kesalahan tersebut. Oleh itu sebagai seorang yang al-sālik wajiblah ke atasnya menjaga kepercayaannya terhadap kewibawaan syeikhnya itu. Oleh sebab itu sering kita dengar dari kalangan ahli-ahli tasawwuf satu ungkapan tentang hal ini dengan kata mereka:زلات المقربين رفعة لمقامتهم واستدلوا على ذلك بالاكل من الشجرة Maksudnya: Kesilapan dan kegelinciran orang-orang ‘ārifin (kerana melakukan sesuatu kesalahan) itu adalah peningkatan maqam mereka. Hal ini disandarkan kepada peristiwa Adam memakan buah khuldi.Pandangan dan pendapat ini disandarkan kepada peristiwa yang berlaku ke atas Nabi Adam a.s. dan isterinya Hawa dengan memakan buah larangan. Namun kesalahan tersebut telah diampunkan oleh Allah S.W.T dan disucikan keduanya dari segala dosa.
s) Sebagai seorang yang al-sālik janganlah membanyakkan percakapannya ketika berada di hadapan syeikhnya itu, sekalipun ia dibenarkan berbuat demikian. Sebagai seorang yang al-sālik dia seharusnya mengetahui bilakah waktu yang sesuai untuk dia bercakap-cakap dengan syeikhnya. Oleh itu janganlah ia bercakap dengan syeikhnya kecuali setelah mendapat keizinan daripadanya. Dengan keizinan itupun mestilah dilakukan dengan penuh beradab sopan, khusyuk dan tawādu‘’ tanpa melebih-lebihkan percakapannya tetapi cukup hanya sekadar yang diperlukan sahaja. Jika tidak beradab sopan seperti yang telah dijelaskan di atas, maka seorang yang al-sālik itu diharamkan dari mendapat kurnia dengan terbuka hijāb hatinya. Apabila seorang yang al-sālik itu telah diharamkan dengan yang demikian itu maka ia tidak akan mendapat untuk kali keduanya kecuali hanya segelintir yang memperolehinya.
t) Sebagai seorang yang al-sālik, janganlah ia meninggikan suaranya apabila berada di hadapan syeikhnya. Kerana dengan berbuat demikian, menurut anggapan ulama tasawwuf merupakan adab yang buruk. Tentu kita masih ingat satu peringatan daripada Allah S.W.T tentang hal ini seperti firmanNya:وَاقْصِدْ فِي مَشْيِكَ وَاغْضُضْ مِنْ صَوْتِكَ إِنَّ أَنكَرَ الاَْصْوَاتِ لَصَوْتُ الْحَمِيرِ . Maksudnya:Dan sederhanakanlah langkahmu semasa berjalan, juga rendahkanlah suaramu (semasa berkata-kata), sesungguhnya seburuk-buruk suara ialah suara keldai.
u) Sebagai seorang yang al-sālik, janganlah duduk dengan cara yang tidak beradab sopan di hadapan syeikhnya dan tidak duduk di atas sajadah yang diduduki oleh syeikhnya itu. Seorang yang al-sālik hendaklah ketika bersama-sama dengan syeikhnya dalam keadaan merendah dan menghinakan dirinya dan sentiasa sibuk untuk berkhidmat dengan syeikhnya itu. Setengah dari kalangan ahli tasawwuf mengatakan berkhidmat dengan syeikh itu sebagai satu amal soleh yang paling afdal.
v) Sebagai seorang yang al-sālik hendaklah bersegera melaksanakan segala apa yang diperintahkan oleh syeikh ke atas dirinya. Sesuatu perintah hendaklah dilaksanakan tanpa menunggu atau menangguh-nangguhkan atau mencuaikannya dengan berehat-rehat atau merasa tenteram sebelum menyelesaikan segala perintah dan arahan daripada syeikhnya.
w) Sebagai seorang yang al-sālik ia hendaklah berusaha untuk menjauhkan segala perkara yang tidak disukai dan digemari oleh syeikhnya. Seorang al-sālik juga tidak boleh melakukan sesuatu yang merendah dan menjatuhkan akhlaknya yang terpuji.
x) Sebagai seorang yang al-sālik, janganlah ia berdamping dengan orang yang tidak disukai oleh syeikhnya di samping mengasihi orang yang dikasihi oleh syeikhnya.
y) Sebagai seorang yang al-sālik hendak sentiasa bersabar apabila tidak dihiraukan oleh syeikhnya. Perlu diingat seorang al-sālik tidak boleh berkata seumpama: Mengapakah syeikh melayan si polan itu begini, sedangkan aku tidak dilayan dengan sedemikian itu?
z) Seorang yang al-sālik tidak boleh menyebarkan kata-kata syeikhnya kecuali setakat yang boleh difahami oleh orang ramai.
http://www.delisufi.blogspot.com
Terima kasih Tun.
For Puteri Tujuh, you are absolutely right in your observations.
But taking the world at large, our beloved Malaysia should be friends with all on the official diplomatic front. Other personal insidious beliefs is another matter of which we should not be concerned. Have you worked with the Americans ? I have known them since age 7.
America is a huge country and the World is even a bigger place. America produces 30% of the World’s GDP. MALAYSIA’S BIGGEST TRADING PARTNER. And Americans need to be reminded that our beloved Malaysia IS A FRIEND TO ALL. Malaysia was very close to them during the Coild War 1948-1989 which the United States won. The brilliant Lee Kuan Yew with his 13 failed Policies for Singapore nearly got crushed by the pressure placed on President Suharto in 1997 and Washington DC had to be reminded by the brilliant Lee himself personally. Our Tun saved our beloved Malaysia from possible chaos. Remember those days, TP ? Again, the apocalyptic events in October 2008 stripped Singapore of all what she had garnered for decades before that. Is the payback going to be the infamous TPPA to save Singapore and our intended demise again ? A second try so to speak !
Our World has never been easy to contemplate in black and white or even in technicolour. It is surreal. If you roll back decade after decade right back to 1900, the news were very much similar but slower.
I have said there is no problem with our beloved Malaysia as long as we behave NORMALLY and observe anything we do NORMALLY. Our beloved country need not even to conquer or show off anything and we will be there. For those who are not aware, this country is unique because we have most of the ingredients to build a successful Nation. In this peaceful, stable and prosperous Nation, we became interesting and strategic literally overnight because of strategic political and socio-economic reasons eg. the major sea route runs between East and West – Straits of Melaka and the South China Sea, And Malaysia is RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE, not Singapore, – a huge developmental area stretching from the Red Sea to the Sea of Japan which is populated by ancient and dynamic peoples. You may not have noticed the slow internationalization of Kuala Lumpur. In other words, what used to be interesting and exotic places have become unattractive and comparatively our beloved Malaysia without much effort has come out tops even when our ex-Minister of Tourism used to tour other holiday countries at the Rakyat’s expense which no other country’s Minister of Tourism did.
During the period you mentioned, PAP cadres were parachuted into Malaysia looking for the ‘low hanging fruits’ which they swiped accordingly from the coffers including the wholly UMNO owned New Straits Times and Sime Darby. One PAP cadre landed into the Chief Editor’s chair with no SQUEAK from anyone (I take it you did not notice PT). And to make him comfortable in the Ulus, a luscious Sime Darby contract was placed on his lap. We are just a bunch of happy NORMAL people. If you know what I mean. For your further interest, I personally saw a good lady wearing hot pants in the 1st Class Cabin of the SIA when she too came up to KL to harvest the ‘low hanging fruits’. Of course, she succeeded.
Because we Malaysians by nature are friendly and hospitable and we never boast or look down on others but forever courteous, some people, foreigners and locals take this as a sign of weakness and stupidity. And because the Singaporeans have always expressed themselves forcefully and loudly especially to the Super Powers behind our backs which is now confirmed by Singapore’s spying on our personal lives since 1972 that our beloved Malaysia is easy to handle, we must always beware of Greeks bearing gifts if you know what I mean TP ! And when some folks in the neighbourhood began to tell us that we are not as good as they, then it is time to present the facts which I have been presenting all this while.
PT, are you aware that there are many in present day Malaysia who have better grades than the brilliant Lee Kuan Yew with his Double Star First in Law from the University of Cambridge in 1947 ? Do you know he entered the lowest ranked non-collegiate Fitzwilliam House (31 colleges in total) by the back door ? If any one wants our respect and admiration, all facts have to be presented transparently !
Where are you Washington DC ?
A wise person does not repeat a fool’s mistakes that resulted in the March 2008 debacle where the incumbent lost unprecedented 5 states.
The iron lady, Margaret Thatcher of Great Britain who was the Prime Minister when the British fought the Falkland war and brought glory to Britain, lost her Prime Ministership when she imposed poll tax on the British people.
Please do not burden the people by increasing toll and patrol prices, whatever the excuses or justifications because the people cannot print money like QE(Quantitative Easing)
amin tan
Dear Ilioni,
1. The complicated procurement process that you claimed had been done in this country. The owner of this blog knows best. Some people are really lazy or stupid ; some pretended to be lazy so that others become stupid. But of course, I did not mean you, I know you are very clever. Apologize.
2. The best leader has the capability to see things like a “Dyslexia syndrom person” without the difficulty to learn. I hope you understand.
3. I have not tell you why that trader sold me at higher price (overall) . She counted the weight of some vegetable twice or thrice with some very fast actions. I knew but I pretended I didn’t know. When she blamed the government, I guess that’s it. It is done purposely. So, I propose if anyone encounter these rogue traders, dont be apologetic, say to them, ” I dont want to pay and take back your goods” and move elsewhere. We hope they learn something.
5. Well Ilioni, it is not your own good money. For government, as an example, do we need to buy 4th generation Intel iCore 7 processor when we know 2nd generation icore 3 processor can do the same required job if icore 3 processor is cheaper ? But of course , if we can buy iCore 7 processor cheaper than a vendor selling icore 3 processor, then why buy iCore 3 processor ? If the government wants to help a local start-up bumiputra company, it is a different matter. Always, the policy and guideline are there to follow.
Just to add a few more point with regards to the electricity tariff increase. Electricity rate will increase anyway, if there is a way to minimize the effect of these rate increase, it needs to be explored, informed and promoted by the government using certain policy implementation (People will start implementing them if they find it beneficial for them in long term and it is reliable with not too much maintenance cost).
If my previous figures are applicable with the installation cost in Malaysia, maybe we could cut down the operating cost of our PM complex & deputy PM electricity. (Last year the electricity bill from our PM complex amounted RM 2.2million and around RM900k for deputy PM)
If the installation cost are the same between what it cost in UK and MY, with a RM35k investment generating a annual return of RM 1,850, it is a pretty decent investment with a return of 5.28% (not considering if the electricity rate increase in future). From a bigger perspective, less electricity will be drawn from the grid resulting in less subsidy needed. When more and more people implement this, without huge financial investment on the electrical generator like Bakun, people are basically owning up the cost of building all these small “electric generator” taking in consideration the benefits that it brings to them. Of course, I am no TNB electrical expert and whether our current GRID infrastructure will support exporting the electricity surplus back to the grid is something worth investigating. (I believe it should work, looking at some of the article that I found in the very bottom where some pilot was already started sometime back in 2000). If United Kingdom can do that, why not us?
Kept on providing subsidy on the electricity is not a long term solution but kept on increasing the price until it become a burden to both businesses and the people is not wise either. We will need to look at every angle to minimize the effect. I am not too sure about the installation price in Malaysia at the moment but some of the figures that I found seems to be similar to what is in the UK website as well. Local reference below,
http://www.isesco.org.ma/ISESCO_Technology_Vision/NUM01/K.Sopian/K.Sopian.pdf (Installation cost in pg 43)
http://www.mbam.org.my/mbam/images/MBJ3Q06(pdf)/@BIPVHadri.pdf
Dear Tun Perak, I doesn’t mean to discount all you said but merely here to do some intellectual discussion that in hope will bring some benefit to our beloved country.
1. The procurement process that you suggested by accepting payment using our palm oil or any trade-able material between the two countries seems complicated. First, you need to make sure that both country must have a bi-trade in place and my gut feeling is that existingly most of the agreement is negotiated at a price using USD and what you are proposing is to use palm oil to do the payment but how? And, at what price? At how many unit? Do we know if there is any country have done this before? The effect of doing that needs to be considered properly before committing to something long term. We have seen in the past instance whereby selling our resources (i.e. water) with a fixed price (which seem ok at the time when we agreed to it) is no longer a valid thing to do at present.
2. A good leader will need to think carefully the effect and how to do it before committing to do something. This is the Trait that we see in our ex-PM (Tun). The reason why we know it is because whatever decision that he have made, very rarely he changes his mind because he has REALLY looked at it from all angles before coming to a conclusion. This is something that we need from the leader from the top from all department (ideally). A good leader will do their own investigation and think it through and listen to what others have to present/suggest and then make up his decision based on his best knowledge. Therefore, it is very important to have a smart sharp committed unbiased leader (regardless of race) and if you have one of this in a department, eventually the culture in that department will change. I’ve seen so many talented people from different races and as long as the leader is a committed unbiased smart leader, there is no problem with that.
3. Since you mention Pasar Borong which I am quite familiar with, the way they do business is quite unique and every trader have different ways of doing business. Some would want to sell at base selling price and some will just cut their price even lower than their purchase price and same cost might get you different amount of good because some trader would rather sell them to recover some cost rather than waste it or put them in the cold storage. Some had cold storage and they will just stick to their price. In some cases, there is difference between different grades of same good and therefore, different prices but I am not sure why there is such big difference. RM7 difference is quite significant. Normally, the price for similar good is quite similar in most cases. When the price increases, it will be across the broad for similar good unless some trader started a price war. Fair competition is good but if throat cutting price will just kill other traders and when it becomes monopoly business it will be bad for the consumer. There is no point predicting the increase but we will see the price in the next couple of month. At times, price increase is not always good for business because it drives away business. In the business world, you will want to increase the quantity but by increasing the price, the quantity in fact will drop resulting in a decrease in profit. But, sometimes, in order to survive in the business, there is nothing much you can do except to increase the price slightly to offset the increase in the operating cost (electricity bill increase plus the knock-on effect with the raw good that they use) and hope for the best that the quantity doesn’t decrease too much.
4. Using the figure that was given in the energysavingtrust that I gave earlier,
http://www.energysavingtrust.org.uk/Generating-energy/Choosing-a-renewable-technology/Solar-panels-PV#1
The average domestic solar PV system is 3.5 to 4kWp and costs around £7,000 which is equip to RM 35,000
A 4kWp system can generate around 3,700 kilowatt hours of electricity a year.
What we are charged by TNB is around RM 0.50 kW/h (for high usage consumer) or roughly around RM0.30-RM0.40 kW/h (for industrial users)
I will only consider for consumer since these installation figure are more tailored for consumer perspective,
A year we have generated a saving of 3,700 x 0.50 = RM1,850
To recover the cost of the installation, it might take 18 yrs to recover the cost (it would be shorter if the cost per unit increases). And, solar panel typically will last 25 years or more accordingly to the link that I was given.
I quite like the idea of exporting excess generated electricity back to the grid. Why waste the electricity generated while others can use it and the source can get back some incentives from it as well.
The upfront cost would be more, but in the business world, a more predictable cost would be more favorable than any varying cost and from our country’s perspective, this is good as well because it shows that the business is here for long term and they reduce their dependency on the subsidized electricity esp. for these heavy electricity users (shifting to a greener electricity source). In the business world, the huge upfront cost can be considered a CAPEX expenditure and the cost can be spread out across multiple years. There should not be issues if there is a strong benefit behind that investment.
5. Right or wrong. In real world, track record have proven to be a important factor in life. When I buy certain gadgets online, I will always look for some trusted review from other users before purchasing it from that seller. Do I always get the cheapest one available. Probably not. You will want to get some kind of assurance that the product that you get are not dodgy. This is also the reason why government help some of our local start-up businessman so that they can start to build up their profile (track record). For any big tenders, it needs to go to a bigger scale companies with good track record (of course priced at a reasonable cost). The risk of delay and overrun in cost is just not worth the risk for a bigger scale tender. Smaller tender can goes to companies with potential (without track record) to help them build their profile. Big local companies without track record can also partner with other foreign companies who have experience as well.
Just my 2 cents again.. 🙂
Mubarakchan, I wish to re quote yours “Washington DC where are you ? Did you back the wrong horse ? Malaysia’s Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad is now proven not only cost effective in Government but also a great Statesman of Asia and the World. And he has compassion. His achievements tell.”
I may come to the conclusion that any great leaders of Muslim countries shall always be in the term of enemy to those who opposes.
Last time, Gorge W Bush stressed in the NST headlines those times ago, that Tun Abdullah was the best administrator of Malaysia. This was as his effort to maintain Tun Abdulllah continue being the Prime Minister of Malaysia. But in reality that time, Malaysia was really in berserk situations. Malaysia lose inside and out. But they will support and back all incapable leaders. Muslim countries must be weak and unstable at all times.
Whoever tried to adopt the Mahathirsm shall be demonised globally.
Recently, foreign western representatives, as stated in a local newspaper, praised the Malaysian’s development and can be recognize as a developed country in due times. Many international rating agencies nowadays always put Malaysia among the top ten in any world ratings. Whether these are true or not, are not in the knowings. But it seems that Malaysia is lagging behind now. These were contradicted during the Mahathirsm times. Malaysia always got the bad ratings. But Malaysians progressed and live harmoniously.
Are they backing the right or wrong horse.
Salam Tun.
I am sure you are delighted that at the end of 2013, more friends, supporters and distinguished Bloggers have appeared on your distinguished Blog to say their 2 sens worth and more. We all will learn much from each other through the discussions brought forth even though some of these arguments were woolly with emotions clouding the distinguished minds of concerned and interested gentlemen/ladies in public affairs as shrewdly presented by you.
With your permission, I like to elaborate more on the troika relationship between the brilliant Lee Kuan Yew, Singapore and Dr Albert Winsemius. Right at the outset, it is observed that Winsemius was an expert in economics. Eventually, he grew fond of Singapore when the baby which he suggested to be produced, came of age and were seen to be successful and thriving. If we take a deeper view of what was real behind all the hullabaloo churned out by the brillliant Lee Kuan Yew through the decades and especially now after all the glittering dust or hot air has settled down, we can see a huge void of the lack of human development of the indigenous human resources which were in place before the arrival of Dr Albert Winsemius in September 1965. The development of human resources to uphold the new facade of a new Singapore was clearly not Winsemius responsibility, it was the brilliant Lee Kuan Yew who held absolute power in his hands. And yet, he is now shown to have done nothing to further the real interests of the indigenious population. But it is shown also that he was good at presenting a World Class Singaporean facade to sell Singapore to the World like a Big Singapre Sale annually. The peoples of Singapore were neglected completely in the successful march of 3rd World Singapore into the 1st World. THIS WAS A COMPASSIONLESS MARCH. And at the end of 2013, the brilliant Lee Kuan Yew has successfully created a 1st World bricks and mortar facade but was forced to import peoples from the 3rd World to inhabit it and show the World that everything is A-OK. So, Singapore is now a 1st World nation with a 3rd World population which maybe divided into 1.5 Millions foreigners, 2.5 Millions of Singapore origin and 1 Million of very rich foreign passport holders to fill a glittering place of abode.
In your tenure, you created (which was 10 years late) the MALAY MIDDLE INCOME GROUP WHICH BROUGHT UP THE CHINESE, INDIAN AND OTHER MIDDLE INCOME GROUPS THROUGH THEIR PURCHASING POWER. Not only this, it is the future potential not only of the Malay group but also the other groups in which the future of our beloved Malaysia lies, somewhat like India with her 350 million middle income group of English speaking Indians. And we have our unique Malaysian Democracy to keep and cherish which without a credible and viable Oppostion is not complete. Where are you Washington DC ?
Winsemius presumed that what was outside his expertise was not his responsibility. A true professional. It was the profound responsibility of the brilliant Lee Kuan Yew with his 13 failed Policies for Singapore. No human audit was done by him. And in following Winsemius’s advice to the latter, the brilliant Lee literally followed word for word which he diligently translated into solid concrete what Winsemius advised him. 100 marks. However, through his lack of understanding of the human creature known as Man or Woman that the brilliant Lee failed in his endeavour to etch his name in the pantheon of historical eternity. If the brilliant Lee knew from his peers on history, there were the examples of Venice, Athens, Sparta, Palembang, Hong Kong, and the mini-empires along the Silk Road, the failure of such a daring enterprise is bound to fail ! AND HE WOULD NOT HAVE EMBARKED ON ANY OF THOSE DERRING-DOS ARISING FROM HIS 13 FAILED POLICIES like the throw of the dice with the founding of the Singaporean Trojan Horse DAP in 1966 etc !
However, the great success of the brilliant Lee Kuan Yew’s Singapore has reached its greatest flow on his retirement in 1990 and will gradually ebb away as more foreigners and world events chip at its vulnerability. But the more forgiving pundits will in the distant future ask, ‘ He succeeded in his life time what he set out to do. Did’nt he ?’ The correct answer will be a resounding ‘Yes’ but at what cost ?
On the cost of the brilliant Lee’s Governments, his cost was what was given to Dr Albert Winsemius who advised him from 1965 to 1984. And the good Dr Albert Winsemius’s reward was 2 medals one of which was gold and a piece of paper. But on the other side of the coin, we read in the media that the brilliant Lee Kuan Yew with his 13 failed Policies for Singapore on his retirement in 2011 was paid a minimum of S$ 3 Millions annually and all his Cabinet colleagues were paid more than S$2 Millions annually each. It is entirely debatable why the inheritors of the good Dr Albert Winsemius advice (a humble and frugal person), be paid such astronomical sums when it was the GOOD DR ALBERT WINSEMIUS WHO LITERALLY CREATED THE MODERN SINGAPORE FROM SCRATCH ?
This is one formula of how to transfer wealth from the 99% Rakyat to the 1% elite legally even though the elites are just pretenders.
The stark example of the great material success of Singapore is now played out in Malaysia with no refinement. The Malaysian Government’s cost is just added on – like buying pencils for RM4 each etc. Hence, the Malaysian Government’s cost ballooned up without checks since 2003 and no tangible results could be discerned anywhere.
The cost for Singapore to be a 1st World Nation and one of the richest, was just 2 medals one of which was gold and a piece of paper – the creation of money without money. For our beloved Malaysia, we believe in the creation of money with money. This is the difference.
As soon as NORMALCY returns into the portals of Government, our beloved Malaysia will join the ranks of the 30 best Nations of the World.
Tun, if you have done it alone for 22 years ( with just a phone and a black note book) WITHOUT AN ADVISER OR PHALANXES OF CONSULTANTS PAID BY THE BILLIONS OF RINGGITS which was UNIQUE in this World by behaving NORMALLY WITH A HOMELY FAMILY LIFE – And (i) you created single handedly a new and large eponymous group of middle income Malays which brought up the other middle income groups WITHOUT PAIN(ii) you built a myriad of World Class concrete structures WITHOUT GOING BANKRUPT, (iii) you developed our unique Malaysian Democracy which without a credible and viable Opposition is not complete, WITHOUT A REVOLUTION plus a group of people who only want more and more WITHOUT REASON, why not the others ? Why ? Of course, you know the answer, Tun and you are not telling.
Washington DC where are you ? Did you back the wrong horse ? Malaysia’s Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad is now proven not only cost effective in Government but also a great Statesman of Asia and the World. And he has compassion. His achievements tell.
Man proposes. God disposes.
Dear Ilioni.
1. Of course government could do something to reduce it’s cost. I give an example of establishing a good procurement system . Tapi you dont agree pulak.
2 A good leader must be good in number but this type of leader must serve a better leader who must be good in psychology and also number. Period. You can do the damage but there are two types of damage – 1) real damage and 2) emotional damage. Currently, damage 2) was not managed. Be it now or four years ahead, if the leader and their CONsultants do not know how to manage emotional damage, then their opponent or opposition party will exploit that weaknesses. Do you want that ? We already had seen issue in MAS, TNB and etc. because leader do not had capability to handle psychology matters. The problem is that politics is not actually corporate but psychology in nature.
3. Calculated 1.5% for manfuacturing, but president of Malaysia Plastic Industry hint the increase is 1% (inclusive of electricity , wages and etc). I opined 3% for the whole supply chain. So, if the increase per teh tarik is only RM 0.10 , I would be quite happy. The actual problem is that , some businesses or traders increase their profit margin multiple . I give you an example. I bought my sundries at the Pasar Borong. There is one vegetable trader who charge extra-ordinary high and then when I asked why it is expensive, she blamed the government. I said to her I am not going to pay and buy her vegetables. So, I went to a vegetable trader opposite of her. I chosed the same vegetables with the same amount and weight… and walla….. the price is reduced by RM 7 . So, in silence, I said
Bloody Hell and Go to Hell ! Obviously that over charging trader is going to hell because 1) She lied and 2) I do not forgive her sin. Period.
4. Your idea is some how not that clever. It will increase the cost by 200-300%. Do your math.
5. Sure , reliability and track record is important. Put that in your specification and evaluate accordingly, and you will get the lowest price amongst those who complied with the specification. If you do not place that criteria in the specification, then you cant consider reliability and track record as your evaluation criteria, right ? And if you dont know how to calculate the reliability or your reliability calculation has a lot of uncertainties then you will not know how to put it in the specification , right ? And if you do not have records about the supplier reliability, you cant just assume the reliability is bad, right ? And if the supplier reliability is not proven bad, then you cant conclude the reliability is bad, right ? So, if you cant conclude that the reliability is bad from your own data and your experience, then you have to depend on the supplier declaration in the tender, right ? So you have to accept the supplier declaration, right ? If the supplier declared that it’s product is high reliability but it is proven that it’s product is low reliability, you dont need to pay the supplier, right ? If you have paid, and the reliability is only proven bad after you have paid to the supplier, then you should black-list the supplier. Once, the supplier is black-listed, then he cant enter any government tender , then you get lowest price with the right reliability. Right or wrong ?
Some quarter of a cent answer to Illioni.
In response to one of the response by Tun Perak,
1. I think the main point what the current government is doing is the effort to reduce the operating expenditure (Subsidy) in the effort to bring a more healthy financial figure. Increase in tax might not be the only option and the percentage needs to be start low and only. However, should we just look at reducing subsidy or should we not reduce wastage within the government itself to recoup some saving. That’s something that we have not seen. People are told to tighten their belt but we are not seeing anything coming from the government doing the same. Except asking those who disagree with what they are doing to leave their beloved country.
2. I disagree that it’s a matter of psychology perception. This is a huge economic effect policy that we will be going through and the effect will be serious. It’s a matter of choice whether you do the damage now where you still have four more years to recover. Political or economical? It’s a matter of choice.
3. I think you are too optimistic that there is just going to be 10% increase. That might be true for rural area but for the urban area, the urban living people are barely keeping up with the current rising cost of living and with these increase, it is going to be even harder. How much can the consumer ministry can control? Electricity is used by all business and every fellow citizen as well and this is a double knock on effect. Do you really think that if a food operating stall is going to increase their food price, it will be just a 1% increase? I doubt it. Say you are paying for RM1 for a Kopi Ice. You think they will increase it to RM1.01? I think RM1.10 sound more right. Or even more. Electricity is used for cold storage for business as well. These are just direct hit but how about the increase in the goods at the same time. All these adds up and all these are operating cost. And, the effect is going to be significant.
4. If electricity tariff have to be increased in order to reduce government subsidy, have the government looked if there is any better long term options to help our fellow citizen or businesses? Have they looked at options of encouraging people or business to install solar panels and generate electricity from our rich solar power? Installation price might be high but we can come up with policies to ease the burden and people / business will evaluate the benefits from it. Excess/surplus electricity generated can then be exported back to the grid and in turn be considered to negate the cost of the installation. By doing that, it’s a win/win situation, the government reduce the subsidized electricity and people/business lower their operating cost since part of their electricity are generated using their local solar panel. If solar panel business were to be encourage, it is very important that there should not be monopoly by just one or two major player so that competition can be encouraged to bring down the cost.
http://www.energysavingtrust.org.uk/Generating-energy/Choosing-a-renewable-technology/Solar-panels-PV#1
5. On the point about buying at lowest cost is probably not true in most cases. In a lot of case, we have to look at the reliability of the product or the track record for the service that they are providing. It is not very true that lowest price should be selected in most cases.
Just my 2 cents.
Kemeriahan Di Dataran Putrajaya | Terima Kasih Tun Mahathir
http://www.papablogger.my/2013/12/kemeriahan-di-dataran-putrajaya-terima.html?m=0
Your statements showed that you agree that prices, tax increases and etc is inevitable but your main contention is that it should be staggered (spreaded).
I believe that some of the price hike are actually stagerred (example GST will start in 2015) whereas electricity tariff in January 2014… but the manner all the price increase were announced ( one by one within 1-2 weeks) make the increases seem as though they are not spreaded at all.
Revenue, cost, surplus and deficit are just numbers, but for leaders, the most important aspect is actually not managing numbers but managing the psychology of the people within the nation while keeping the numbers at the back of the head. Unfortunately, Wahid Omar and Idris Jala are not psychologist but mere corporate leaders. I opine those proposals and recommendation should be vetted by a number of political psychologist, conveyed and updated to an economic council to comment and prime minister to decide, and any synthesis and announcement of the policies should be done in the least damaging manner. In this way, the PM would be seen as in control of whatever decision being made.
Regardless of that, a 15% increase of electricity tariff should not damage the profitability of manufacturers and business society that much. Assuming the cost of energy is around 10% of any of cost of good sold, then the 15% increase will only increase COGS by only 1.5%. (in fact the President of Malaysia Plastic Industries Association stated that the reduction in profit margin is only 1% ; reversely meaning that cost increase is actually 1%) . In layman term, if our food expenses today is RM 300 per month, considering only the increase at producer side, the new food expenses is only RM 303 per month. Considering the whole supply chain, including the middleman and retailers, by right, the new monthly expense would not be more than RM 305 per month. There is a problem some where. Some people look at it as opportunity, businesses use the tariff hike to earn multiple profit. Insteade of charging the consumer 1% extra, they are charging the consumer more than that up to 10% or 20%. This is where the domestic trade ministry need to take some action to control the price, put a ceiling price, increase competition and so on.
Secondly, you are right about buying at lowest cost. I dont know what some people mean by procuring at “the best value”. To me the best value is the lowest price offered because the tender specification should have stated the mandatory criterias which any tenderer should comply. So, if the seller try to sell his “goods” at a higher price by giving some extra functionality and services which are not specified in the tender, then these offer are not actually the best value but giving the value that was not needed by the procurer. So, by right, higher price by giving “unspecified value” should not be artificilly discounted below the actual lowest price stated in the tender. If it is done that way, then the procurer may be implicated.
Secondly, I believe that any procurement payment term should be negotiated with the seller. For example, if we are buying new aeroplane or anything big such as ship or submarine or etc. the government should insist that the seller receive the payment in term of palm oil or anything tradable in Malaysia. In that way, the government is actually paying to palm oil producers in Malaysia and not foreigner. The good effects are – (1) it reduce money outflow, (2) any profit made by the producers are taxable , which means that the cost of procuring is reduced by 25% ! , and (3) it allows local products to be marketed at a foreign market, thus reduce the barrier of entry.
Anything, I think the government has to improve on their psychology capability. Current scenario shows , it is their weakness. It may not be that difficult if the Ministers come from layman background like most of us here…but with lavish background, they have to learn a lot from the people on the street who are experiencing bread and butter issue.
errr…maaf ayahanda tun…nak tanya nin….agak2 pam minyak yg dok ada tu bley tak kitew kasik tukar bila keta luaq m’sia/bkan keweta nasional..otomatik rega mesti dibayar dgn rega yg lebih mahal dr keweta dlm negara/keweta nasional…org kitew pown ramei yg bijak mcm en.zul
tuu..ala popler masa zaman ayahanda tu…tak banyak mana kowt kerajaan dapat duit..tp jd lah kami yg semekin taklah sakit ati sesangat….xbleh ek….aiseymennnnnnn….
For Saudara Waja Perak. We need not look further than the achievements and sometimes disappointments of our Tun. His life and the wherewithal of his achievements are all there in this life’s game of snakes and ladders. To answer your question, it could be very long or very short. I take the short route. The first condition of anything be it the purpose to rule over a country and its people is that the approach must be NORMAL or more. The rest automatically follows as in the life and achievements of Tun eg. the ideas, the implementations etc pushed to the projects’ conclusion by the political will and the eponymous black note. But for anything or any person to take note, the Boss must be at his desk at 8 a.m. sharp. And from the tip of the power pyramid, everyone will ‘salam’ together. This is the easy bit. Can the person with the power take this day in and day out, year in and year out for 5 long years or maybe even a lifetime ? And behave normally as well ? It is the buck which stops at the top as our President Harry S Truman said. On the assumption that normalcy or normality could be achieved from top to bottom. Then, we have no need for phalanxes of consultants of any creed or colour. The Boss expects all to do their duty and assume their responsibilities NORMALLY. This was achieved as could be discernable during the Tun’s 22 year Administration – a vital and large MIDDLE INCOME MALAY GROUP ROSE LIKE PHOENIX FROM THE ASHES pulling all the other communities middle income groups up, albeit 10 years late. AND THE BEST OF ALL, ALL AND SUNDRY BEHAVED NORMALLY AT 8 A.M. FOR 22 YEARS ! I did not hear any complaint. I tell a story. I nterviewed some candidates for employment. To a person, they all told me that they would not cheat me. I was surprised that they said so. I told them that to work hard and not to cheat and loyal are STANDARD NORMS, not something special.
In our country, all workers are well-behaved, sensible and loyal. In all the years, whether in the plantations, the mines, textile factories or air-conditioned offices, I have had no problem with them. They actually deserve more. Have you noticed how our road-signs are mostly badly placed and pointed in the wrong directions ? It is because the workers immediate supervisors were never around and so we pay the price of getting lost all the time. What does this tell us ?
All things are possible if we or responsible authorities are NORMAL. All problems are HUMAN MADE and it is up to us to resolve all these HUMAN MADE PROBLEMS. You only have to look at the sad state of Malaysian Chinese politics. On the political side, they are leaderless and on the socio-economic side, 90% of them are up a greasy pole of no return. Please note I am a born optimist otherwise like our Tun we cannot last one day.
We are all aware that all our Prime Ministers take in the brunt of the blame of any dissatisfaction or unhappiness as expressed by our Rakyat. However, I would like to point out humbly that this is not correct. Why ?
1. Where are we, if the Tunku did not give us an understanding and accommodative space and admonished us to be happy which we are to this day ?
2. Where are we, if Tun Abdul Razak with his intellect and vision did not forsee that we needed a bigger cake for all to have a big and fair bite in time ?
3. Where are we, if Tun Hussein Onn did not hold firmly with his due observation of the laws and had the wisdom of Solomon ?
4. Where are we, if our TDM did not encourage the emergence of the large MALAY MIDDLE INCOME GROUP (which was 10 years late) WHICH WITH THEIR PURCHASING POWER BROUGHT UP THE CHINESE, INDIAN AND ALL OTHER MIDDLE INCOME GROUP
And the myriad of key world class infrastructures all over ?
5. Where are we if our TAB did not recognise that a VIABLE OPPOSITION is a key to our unique MALAYSIAN DEMOCRACY WITHOUT WHICH OUR DEMOCRACY IS NOT COMPLETE ? Where are you Washington DC ?
6. Where are we all if our distinguished Prime Minister YAB Dato Seri Najib bin Tun Abdul Razak does not care for us ?
That’s it ! The 6 Prime Ministers all contributed and more. If we look North, we see a square peg in a round hole and if we look South, we see a round peg in a square hole. And if we look further, we see bullets flying, fires burning, people dying and tear gas blowing. We have got something precious which we must build upon for ourselves, our family, our children and our children’ children !
Salam Tun,
saya berharap tun dapat memberi nasihat yang sebaiknya kepada Gov yang ada sekarang. sebagai anak muda saya amat risau tentang masa depan malaysia. TQ
Assallammualaikum Tun.Saya mohon ruangan
Dear Mr Mubarak Chan.Tq very much for your vote of confidence.Would you care to comment the issue about environmental tolerance? The current administration I mean.They don’t have the clinical skill to manage rakyat anger.Note the word clinical.I was made to understood that certain organism died easily when exposed to air.It seems that too much oxygen,element essential to life is a great killer of life at the molecular level.Note the molecular level.By parallel, I am of the opinion that Najib think thank erred in their drawing board decision.Those ‘policy’ like IMF ‘antidote’ seems work very well in the drawing board in the Ivory Jade Tower.They simply died in the oppresive heat of the street.As they says small leak sink ship.Who can question Najib and his think thank intellect.But do they have the clinical skill’s?Note the word clinical again.Now Najib suffer’s the Law of Unintended Consequences.Wherewithal to conduct operations.Can he stand the threshold of pain like our Tun?What will be his tolerance then?Can we accept his perfomance by the benchmark of Tun?Do I have the right to make this call?I say I do because”The trained men saw themselves ‘mirror image’ in the other’s and the fraternity is an elite one.”Najib simply must jump through the hoop, like Tun winner will be absolved..Government were selected by it’s citizen and answered to them.But will Najib answer’s my sms?My e mail? Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?Thank you sir.Thank you Tun..Thanks for reading this.
TNB can reduce the cost of electricity by switching to [LED] for street lights i i i i i. The savings would be more than 50%.
I am happy to see you have thoughts about it and had a voice in it. Unfortunately, price is going to increase anyway. It is inevitable. I will be blunt with you. I had the greatest respects for you as a prime minister even when I was a child I wanted to be like you. All speeches of protecting your own race is just all talk. Look what have your people have done to them. Instead of protecting their own malays, they are only merely using them. The poor are going to be heavily affected soon. Own own business will have more difficulties but I just pity the families that will have to go through difficulties now. I have no issues of price increases as it is a world phenomena now with spending craze to pump up economy. Your team is doing a very good job of destroying UMNO and affecting other malay supporters who are faithful to them. They are sucking them dry. I have observed and I summed up the outcome. Life will still continue. Government will not change for another 5 years. I it changes there is no point anymore. Politics seems to be taking over the economy and not instead of helping it is making everyones life difficult. I do not care what titles anyone has or respect anyone who is not helping mankind to progress but depress to the point of poverty and dumbed down to stupidity. Putting once race above others, setting titles to achieve authority and demands respect for the people to be grateful to even live in this country and the people have to bear the losses incurred by the government who spends more just to distribute the BR1M instead of just banking in directly to the needy. Sorry, I am seeing everything crumbling around me now. I will continue to work hard and make sure my company stays above water. I tried to maintain even my malay workers who needs to survive on high cost of living. I raised their salary many times but the high cost beats the odds. I have shrugged my shoulders. My workers are good people, but if this goes on, I am letting them go because I cannot maintain my Company. I can expand more if policies change to help the Small/Medium business to expand. Halting ways to boost economic growth and increasing taxes and remove subsidies is a wonderful way to create chaos. Foreign Workers issue is one of them. Causing us to pay more on officials who demand more bribery from us to protect our business to continue. I love Malaysia. Sorry to say there is even more bribes your officials are asking more than ever, when certain law is enforced. Maybe the Government is blind or refuse to reduce the amount of enforcement on certain policies to help the Small and Medium Business. Maybe I am babbling nonsense. Or just pouring out my heart and thoughts.
Thanks for reading this
Logiknya Datuk Najib akan bagi balik duit pada rakyat. Rakyat akan dapat merasai nikmat pemberian dari kerajaan. Tapi bagaimana dengan modal insan rakyat? Adakah seperti pelancongan agama? Saya terkejut melihat ada istilah pelancongan agama. Kemudian saya membaca seterusnya…oh pasal pergi haji. Ada kira untung.Istilah itu salah. Dan memang telah diambil kesempatan di Bukit Gambang. Saya tahu pasal Rosmah lebih awal dari orang lain. Dan saya tahu pasal pelancongan agama lebih awal dari orang lain. Itu sebab saya bangkitkan pluralisme. Ini totally 100 persen dari Datuk Najib. BERJAGA JAGA DATUK NAJIB. KAMU MELALUI LANDASAN YANG HAMPIR SALAH.Terima kasih Tun.
errr…maaf cakap la yea….e he ee…najib sepatutnya blaja dr ayahanda tun m….pemandu sepatutnya dipandu oleh ayahanda tun m…najib bergegar gegar berkata janji ditepati..apa barang janji ditepati…cakap dah mcm geng pas/pkr/dap jew….fedap la….seteressss…errr…tumpang tanya… katanya brg2 makanan tak dikenakan gst….gamaknya..owang miskin mcm saya nih yg lebih 25thn keje basic bawu 1250 xyah pakai katil tilam kerusi meja dapoq cerek letrik oven keweta moto tv radio batu pasir tanah selori kena gst tak..makanya klo balik kg..xmuat badan tangan kirikanan pegang beg…owh beg beso kena gst tak gamaknyer…maaflah saya konpius….
Tun
And the following incisive comments.
6. https://bigdogdotcom.wordpress.com/2009/06/17dap-is-a-true-lee-kuan-yew-off-spring/
7. http://anotherbrickinwall.blogspot.com/2009/06/lee-kuan-yews-malaysian-tour-of-duty.html/
Tun
Sorry. For completeness sake, my piece on Dr Albert Winsemius is not complete without the following distinguished Blogs.
1. http://www.futurefastforward.com/malaysian-update/1856-by-matthias-chang/
2. http://www.bigdogdotcom.wordpress.com/2009/06/12/lee-kuan-yews-on-going-agenda-is-reflective-in-his-current-visit-to-Malaysia/
3. http://www.chedet.cc/. Tuesday June 16, 2009
4. http://ourstory.asia1.com.sg/dream/lifeline/win4.html/
5. http://sgforums.com/forums/10/topics/399818
Sir, I have been inspired by my friends, Sibotak, Amin Tan, Waja Perak and many others for their sincere views of the state of the Government of our beloved Malaysia.
Let us go back to basics again. This time it is the developmental history of the one-street town, the Republic of Singapore and then we fast trek to the present, 27 December 2013. In a few days, we all Malaysians will say ‘Auld Lang Syne’ to 2013 which has been a fruitful year to some and an exciting year to all of us. My special greetings also to the pro-Lee Kuan Yew phalanx of MNMN, The On, Dont be Small Minded, the rocket scientist from Singapore, saxykumar, yusof12, the inimitable and chameleon-like HockBengTeohhalfpast sic, austogi, etc.
It is now alleged by Singaporean pundits that Dr Albert Winsemius, 1910-1996, was the man responsible for the development of modern Singapore with his advice to the Singapore Government from 1961 to 1984. The success of the Housing Development Board in attracting and giving a good image to foreign investors, the Singapore Harbour Board, the construction of the Changi Airport, the land reclamation, the signal creation of the Asian Dollar market to fill the time void between Zurich and Tokyo and many others have been attributed to his wise advice by no less than the brilliant Lee Kuan Yew with his 13 failed Policies for Singapore himself in his personally written tribute to this great and humble Dutchman. HE WAS NOT PAID AT ALL BY THE SINGAPORE GOVERNMENT OR IN BILLIONS OF RINGGITS throughout his tenure but was only rewarded by 2 medals of which one was gold and a piece of paper. His frugality was interpreted by Lee as ‘ a congruence of the Calvinistic and Confucian philosophy of life ‘. That was what he wrote in 1996 for the good Winsmius deeds before 1984. Dr Albert Winsemius was the ONE AND ONLY CONSULTANT AND ADVISER. THERE WAS NO PHALANX OF CONSULTANTS ALLEGEDLY PAID BY THE BILLIONS OF RINGGITS.
Fast trek to the present being the fast dying days of the end of 2013.
Within this context, we must re-visit the ill-advised Grand Tour of the Ulus by the brilliant Lee Kuan Yew to the hinterland and digits or cohorts of the Republic of Singapore. The only exception was the good lady who served him fine English tea out of fine china bone porcelain tea-cups which must have been a memorable occasion for him who never visited this backyard often which even his high ranking cadres and family eschewed since 1965. That fateful trip was between the 8th and 15th of June 2009. It was significant now because the famed and vaunted dysfunctional meritocratic pyramid of yes-men with the smartest fellow on top collapsed after losing US$ 108 Billions of the CPF’s citizens Trust money on Wall Street in October 2008. Why ? None of us Malaysian had a credible crystal ball then in June, 2009. But we now have the beautiful hindsight of the logic of the brilliant Lee for the big sweeping tour of the hinterlands of Singapore – our beloved Malaysia, its friendly and hospitable citizens who have never denied a warm welcome to one and all. That’s us. What about them, the brilliant Lee and his Government. What was so important that he risked life and limb drinking fine English tea in a Kuala Lumpur salon ? Can you see it, ladies and gentlemen ? Still cannot ? OK. To cut matters short, and you and me are no Einstein – it was the brilliant Lee’s fervent hope in 2009 that Malaysia signs the infamous (not known to be infamous then) TPPA as instigated by Singapore in 2006 to wrench wide open the rich and luscious market of our beloved Malaysia for the sole benefit of Singapore’s critical survival. He probably had the signal from Washington DC that all systems on TTPA were ‘GO’. To quote from his personal tribute to Dr Winsemius. ‘ He arrived in mid-September (1965) and submitted his memorandum to me on Oct 2 in which he painted a grim but not hopeless picture. His recommendations were to restart the barter trade with Indonesia and get a common market with Malaysia. The first we did but the common market was not a starter ‘. HERE LIES THE RUB. The importance of the TPPA for Singapore’s own survival today and our beloved Malaysia’s demise tomorrow !
English trained chaps always return to the basics. And being brilliant, Lee had a long memory of events and that particular Winsemius Memorandum of 2nd October 1965 !
However, MAN PROPOSES AND GOD DISPOSES !
Bye and bye, the brilliant Lee Kuan Yew’s brightest and closest confidants and advisers departed from the public arena and at the end of 2013 which year began with only 7 policy failures has now ended up with 13 as of the last count. These being :
1. The use of money as investment for Foreign Policy which caused the deaths and injuries of innocent men, women and children. Malaysia has no such blood on her hands. Vide. Thasin. Shinawatra. ASEAN Regional News. 2003 – 2013.
2. The 2 Child Policy of 1970s to 1980s. This is the killer. Vide. Singapore Government White Paper on Population (now outdated). In 1959, when Lee Kuan Yew assumed power. the indigenous population was 100%. In 2013, 62%. By 2030, 42%. Only Hitler tinkered with the demographics.
3. The loss of US$ 108 Billions by the dysfunctional meritocratic pyramid (dismantled in 2013) of yes-men with the smartest fellow on top, of the CPF Trust money on Wall Street in October 2008. Vide. Channelnewsasia. Lee Kuan Yew November 2008. All Singaporean Blogs. Financial Times London Gillian Tett, ‘ Singapore’s Harvard Investment Model ‘ April 2010. The Star. Seah Chiang Nee’s Saturday Column.
4. Humanity and Multiculturalism never practised. Vide Channelnewsasia. 2011. The Curry Smell Tribunal. 2012. The 188 bus drivers strike. The toilet fights etc.
5. The perfunctory Judiciary which is well-known the world over. Vide. The unfortunate and fortunate Mr Chee. The unfortunate Tan Koon Swan. The Aussie, Malaysian, German drug mules. Dr Woffles Wu. Shaw – If the Police stopped at one, he would not have been in trouble. But they stopped at 51. Poor girl !
6. 5,000 pigs are imported daily. The flower nurseries contracts. King of the Road. The sale of Kim Eng Securities to Maybank. etc. etc.
7. A world class transportation system was not established. Frequent breakdowns with the MRT unlike Hong Kong’s which has 99% efficiency. Vide. Mahubani, a distinguished diplomat and scholar.
8. The highest paid Cabinet Ministers in the World. Vide. Warren Buffet.
9. A full-fledged standing military of 300,000 Reservists on alert at all times, aging Gurkha Brigades, rusting tanks, F-16s, AWACS, Apaches, 9 submarines, spies with swallows and ducks, a strategic water reserve of S$ 2 Billions, secret caverns and bomb proof buildings, corvettes, etc. to defend against neighbours who have never raised a voice in anger, ever !
10. A practice of spying on the neighbours and their personalities either in Singapore or their place of abode especially their personal lives since 1972. Vide General News 2013.
11. The creation of the Singaporean Trojan Horse in 1966 which was in Opposition for over 47 long years and did nothing for the Malays, Chinese, Indians and all but only twiddled their thumbs and contemplated their navels. Vide Lee Kuan Yew’s tribute to Dr Albert Winsemius.
12. The Little India riot of 2013 will result in the collapse of the population Policy of the Singapore Government. It is allleged the Indian Government was better in the negotiations between the two sovereign countries.
13. Lee Kuan Yew is still there in Parliament since 1959. During this period, our beloved Malaysia has had SIX democratically elected Prime Ministers. Where are you Washington DC ?
Putting all things together, the Republic of Singapore has to consider the following 4 options from 2014 onwards. If the infamous TPPA is not signed by Malaysia now, the period of complete independence and freedom for the Republic is very much shortened due to the fact that it was a one-man brilliant show and external world events beyond her control :-
1. Singapore to become the 53rd State of the United States.
2. Singapore to become a Crown Colony again.
3. Singapore to re-merge with Malaysia. ‘ A good horse does not return to old pastures.’
4. Singapore remains as a status quo.
And as for our beloved Malaysia, we have Tun as a great Statesman of Asia and the World – a Malay, our Malaysian Democracy which without a viable Opposition is not complete, and our burgeoning Malay middle income group which will bring up the Chinese, the Indian and all other middle income group with them and last but not least, a large number of wise men and women who only hurl verbal abuses at each other and shoot paper arrows. No more. No less. PEACE, STABILITY & PROSPERITY.
And my latest observation of the desolate political scene of the major Opposition Blogs who have now courteously address our Tun either as Dr Mahathir or Dr M. A far cry from the days when I thought I was in the land of some horrible ogre. Let us all hope that all will realize sooner rather than later that the Tun is not such a bad chap after all in comparison with others in the neighbourhood ! Another exciting year awaits us !
.
1. DSN should sack those consultants (SavedRM7.2biliions)
2. DSN should retire those ‘also ran’ andincompetent senior civil servants, Chairmen, BODs, and topmanagement staff of GLCs (Saved RM7.2billions)
3. DSN should ban‘Doa Selamat’ in all government offices (Saved RM7.2billions)
4.DSN should dispose luxury assets like ‘Masjid Besi’, private jets,etc. (Saved RM7.2billions)
5. DSN should layoff redundant civilservants so balance thereof can start earning their salaries (SavedRM7.2billions)
6. DSN should cut MPSs’ and ADUNs’ salaries andallowances (For failure to govern the Country) (SavedRM7.2billions)
7. DSN should stop IMMEDIATELY ‘fixing what is notbroken!’ (Saved RM7.2billions)
8. DSN should fix those broken roadfittings, bus-stops, potholes, government buildings, leaking pipes,faucets, etc (Saved RM7.2billions)
9. DSN should be realistic notdramatic! (saved RM7.2billions)
10. DSN should dispense strategynot defend policy! (Saved RM7.2billion) 11. DSN should startworking and stop talking! (Saved RM7.2billions) 12. DSN shouldstart thinking and stop dreaming! (saved RM7.2billions)
Sekian,Tun, terima kasih. Wassalam.
This read hot from the Press. http://www.tremeritus.com/2013/12/26/tpps-corporate-power-grab-clearer-but-opposition-building/
Our Government would have save a lot of time and money over 4 years if it was realised that our beloved Malaysia could always join LATER with more BARGAINING CHIPS. Instead of our important civil servants spending their time and money over 21 furtive and utterly secret negotiations in 21 different exotic and lush locations for weeks without the Rakyat’s knowledge of the expense and the purpose of the TPPA ! Were the multi-billion ringgits consultants involved ?
Tun
Just a small amendment.
3. Sell the GLCs to the incumbent Management and their partners.
A key asset which has ended up with the Government is the GLCs managed by civil servants with no accountability. Let us hope the honeymoon period with the great derring-dos of the Republic of Singapore is over with the public perception of the brilliant Lee Kuan Yew’s 14 failed Policies for Singapore. The reason why Singapore set up GLCs which some of them became successful over time is this.
After 1965, the Singapore Government found that traders were not suitable to be industrialists as their wheeling-dealing ways were contrary to the long gestation period of an industrial undertakings. Early pioneering industries with some traders involved like Fair Lady Fashion, Eupoc, Starlite Ceremics, etc failed. I set up one with the latest Swiss machinery with some associates, succeeded only after a Japanese brand took-over. The brand is successful to this day. Singapore has no natural resources. An industrial economy would provide revenue and employment.
Our beloved Malaysia has different requirements for our Rakyat – the building up of a durable and sustainable Malay large and small business in commercial intercourse with the other communities – a win win situation for all. If the Government keeps all these GLCs, where, how and when the Bumiputras are going to start ? And also, the United States and the West have bailed out their biggest banks and commercial undertakings since 2008 about 7 years after our Government took over the failed corporations. Is it sauce for the goose and not sauce for the gander ?
Our Government has plenty on it plate without having to try to do a business to make money. And importantly, ex-central planning Nations of Russia, China and maybe India realize the folly for a GOVERNMENT TO DO BUSINESS WITH CIVIL SERVANTS ! Their economic systems have become CAPITALISTIC LONG LONG AGO for reasons which are obvious. In other words, as regards, what sort of economic system our beloved Malaysia has ? Can one truly say it is CAPITALISTIC or COMMUNISTIC ?
I have proposed many times previously that the Government should
1. Sell back the GLCs to the former owners of the GLCs if they did not break the laws.
2. Sell the GLCs to new Bumiputra owners and their new partners.
3. Sell the GLCs to the incumbent owners and their new partners.
And set-up a Monitoring Unit in the Prime Minister’s Department to monitor and ensure that these new owners are serious about their goals, making money in the national interest !
This sale of the GLCs will improve the efficiency and cost of running the Government with less headaches, etc.
please listen to people, or at least to our respectful former PM.
4 years are not too long, listen to pemandu will not drive the country for betterment.
If you study transformation in OCD, they can only last 3-5 years, then you need transitional as to keep the continuity success.
Well-done, on this most important topic concerning money belonging to the Rakyat. We must go back to the basics. The first is that the Minister of Finance is the Big Boss the Prime Minister. Our beloved Malaysia is probably unique in the World and in the Guiness Book of Records that we never had a Minister of Finance since May 2002. We all thought it was a temporary measure then but since that fateful day, we did not see any advertisement for this important job either and we are now embroiled in religious semantics which do not affect our stomachs or pockets or whatever. But we did see eager with beady eyes. Singaporeans parachuting into cosy jobs in companies like the New Straits Times wholly owned by the UMNO since 1972 and Sime Darby looking high and low for ‘low hanging fruits’ which have all been swiped by them since 2006. We also heard a lot about the mysterious and faceless Oxford 4th floor boys who could do things without the red-tape and now the nebulous and faceless consultants from far away who could produce answers to our age old problems if paid accordingly. But they are not responsible for the success or failure of their expertise with is safe-guarded in the legalese language at the bottom of their serious engagement agreements – to quote the brilliant Lee Kuan Yew with his 14 failed Policies for Singapore – the nitty-gritty or the Devil is in the fine print. Our beloved Malaysia maybe the only country in the World where we do not have a Minister of Finance, who reads the fine print which contains the Devil . Then logically, who is the person responsible for the price for the purchase of a pencil or an eraser or even a pocket calculator in the Government ? From this lowly depths of purchasing pencils and erasers, we jump to the next level concerning the minimum wage.
Since 1990, the Americans have told us we are now ‘globalised, free trade hold sway and all human rights are like the United States.’ OK. We accept all that. By accepting all that, our beloved country is now part of the international community of nations with our open economy open to the dictates of all our trade agreements so on and so forth. We are now also open to competition with other friendly countries as regards the production of goods and services – the life blood of any nation. In other words, outside our jurisdiction we have to be super competitive as regards the pricing and quality of our manufactured goods. AND AS YOU RIGHTLY SAID, TUN. THE COST eg. the cost of everything including that of the RM900 minimum wage which we now have to take as the golden mean for the rest of the country upwards. Some Opposition States have already rewarded themselves handsomely without remorse or recourse as much as blinking an eye-lid. And the Opposition did not apply for the vacant post of the Minister of Finance and no loud squeak from them either. Maybe, with so much Rakyat’s riches around, they could not see the gold from the gold bullion !
Tun, you succeed in your 22 year Administration by putting the square pegs into the square holes and the round pegs into the round holes. Each person has his or her merits. And this very important ability of a person you rightly and cleverly recognised. You did not build up a meritocratic pyramid of yes-men with the smartest fellow on top. With the beauty of hindsight, Singapore after some due consideration has dis-mantled this much flaunted and vaunted dysfunctional meritocratic pyramid of ‘yes’ men overnight in 2013 after it was in existence since 1965. The prospective applicants for jobs will not have their almighty academic qualifications considered but their hidden talents as well. Well-done, Singapore ! Now you are like us in the Ulus ?
As the Boss, Tun, you created a ‘holistic’ (I copy this from somewhere) team of dedicated and loyal normal persons who were charged with the varied tasks allotted to them. Each provided their feedback to you, whether it was from the Minister of Finance or the Minister of Agriculture, or the Minister of Trade and Industry etc. You decided on their feedbacks, their warnings, the raw facts etc. All the front-line or leading edge of a Nation’s pulse as regards happiness, prices, supplies, shortages, etc. etc. were assimillated by you at one go via the phone and the famous note-book.
And where were the 4th Floor boys or the multi-billion ringgits consultants with the Devil in the fine-print ? The answer is best provided by my favourite American President who is my favourite not because he dropped 2 atomic bombs on Japan but because he was a normal and homely person like you, Tun. Harry S Truman ! And he said. ‘ THE BUCK STOPS AT MY DESK.’ In other words, he was responsible for the decisions of the United States Government – no 4th Floor boys or billion ringgits consultants for him.
Tun, you literally moved mountains without the 4th Floor boys or the mult-billion ringgits consultants. I remember I never permitted the consultants to tell me what to do. I told them what to do and the results they produced. One must never permit consultants to sit on one’s head !
Tun, the best lesson or example of reducing cost in a Government is to study how you did it during the 22 year Administration of your tenure. This golden period produced more in terms of everything apart from the infrastructures which we see everywhere but also the important emergence of the MALAY MIDDLE INCOME GROUP WHICH BROUGHT UP THAT OF THE OTHER COMMUNITIES ALSO ! This is the key to the peace, stability and prosperity of our beloved Malaysia today.
As you are very aware, that in our small country, any movement of prices upwards or downwards, the Government has to consider very carefully AS A WHOLE within the context of the international environment and our domestic Rakyat. And you with your COMMONSENSE, the ABILITY TO THINK OUT OF THE BOX and COMPASSION could produce a WIN-WIN formula for all. Now, the detractors complain you were a DICTATIOR. They did not clarify whether you were a BAD DICTATOR OR A GOOD DICTATOR OR EVEN A REAL DICTATOR AT ALL. One thing they did NOT complain is YOU WERE AN ABNORMAL DICTATOR !
The Government as I said many times before as led by the UMNO with the 13 components may climb the highest mountain and dive down to the deepest ocean given the will and inclination to be NORMAL ALWAYS !
It is still not too late. But the train of success cannot be kept waiting forever !
thank you for the nice and long 21 points. You must be well rested in Down Under under to belanja us your thots ….
1. Governing is always an expenditure. But when government privatise its basic services like water, power, road and transportation, it means that there is a source of income if those services are run on a business platform. The same goes for education and medical care, evidenced by the numerous private colleges and hospitals. There is money, but govt not looking at the right places.
2. The govt must exercise care when taxing the people, especially the middle to lower income group. Profits from privatisation of public services, and the excess of it should be returned to the people, and not simply dive into the pockets of the corporations or concessionaires like TNB, IPPs, Plus Highway, Syabas. Or even the excess from JPJ collection (must be humongous), should be allocated for public benefits, like building better and safer FREE roads for motorist.
3. I believe, unlike Singapore and Japan, Malaysia is not short of natural resources, like the wealth from PETRONAS, to buffer the shock of increased govt management costs.
4. Minimum wage of RM900 is no big deal and in fact justified for this times. But the govt agencies, like Kem.Hal Ehwal Pengguna must look into ways on how to curb the unrelated price increase of basic consumer goods. What are the officials there doing shining their balls for?
5. The govt, or rather the heavily paid consultants, must not behave like it owns PETRONAS and thinking of profits alone. The people also have the right to whatever success from business venture undertaken by the National Oil Company. The success is not exclusive to a few macamlah bapak dia punya bisnes !
6. The govt with the I-Love-GST attitude is taking the easy way out and is heading for doom and will take along with it the PM-I-Love, or who thinks he is.
7. Govt can make more money, if it puts its head to work. Paying for “expert” opinion and shady consultants, again is costing the rakyat millions if not billions. We put one sleepy head down, now another self-loving version crops up.
8. The people’s welfare must not be run like a business. Dont just think about profits. Think about how the rural poor will be affected by increased price in basic foods and needs.
9. However, the govt must exercise cost down, and its depts managed with the utmost cost-consciousness and not be treated like a shopping budget. Clearing the coffers every year end?
10. What are the KSU’s doing about this?
11. Government high officials often waste money because it holds the tidak apa attitude. So long they get salary, who cares about what the people say. They are like funky traders in Spot Commodity Market. Up down still can make money.
12. I dont think TNB wants to reduce power usage by changing to LED lights. Around my neighborhood they even turn on the street lights all day long.
13. Luxury goods are not the people in majority concern. Govt can do whatever is needful to extract as much tax from this segment. But what is the govt doing about this open opportunities?
14. To spike profits from the business or from the businessman himself?
15. The govt obsession with increased tax is not sensitive towards the people. It’s more like wagging its tail just because it can.
16. To whose benefits actually is this 15% increased power tariff? l understand that it is not TNB, but PETRONAS who will make money from this exercise.
17. It means that somebody is in a hurry to make as much money while he can.
18. Why should the electricity tariff always be on the increase? TNB clocked billions in profits. How about LOWERING the power tariff?
19. Maybe the Government should buy back TNB? Splurge all profits from this venture on the rakyat and win next GE.
20. Yes, Government needs to come out of its madness of doing same thing and expecting a different result.
21. Perhaps, it will be a wise move if the govt put Capital Controls in place first. In case the big shots wants to move their business and transfer tons of money to some island in the Caribbean.
Nice Article! Allow me to add a couple of points.
1. Big money spent but degraded quality. Quality of Education today is dropping year by year but yet our PMR, SPM results show improvement every year. If that is true, how is it possible that the recent PISA results shows that our country is ranked 56 out of 65 countries. We can continue to draw the line lower and lower but the fact is that the next generation is just going to lose out in the global race. Instead of being critical of ourselves and set the bar high, we are trying to please the master with a good looking KPI. This is not healthy for our country.
2. To improve the public security, more money needs to be spent. No issues with this. BUT, money needs to be well spent and well managed. Both increasing the number of police personnel and upgrading the police salary so that they are quite comparable to the public sector is the probably the first step in the effort to reduce corruption and build a better image for our police force. There is no point talking about reducing corruption while their salary is just too low for them to have a decent living. After providing a decent living to our security personnel, then strict enforcement needs to be done to make sure that anyone who receive corruption will be punished and taken seriously.
3. Regarding increasing the minimum pay which indirectly will bring up the other higher paid personnel will drive business away from Malaysia. After staying attractive as a cheap labor industrial country for so many years, is this still the path that we are still going down under? And, how do maintain our business and at the same time bring up the salary of the worker? I believe that Tun knew the answer for quite some time. We need to start innovate and start with high technology. In order to do that, we need to be able to keep our talents and remain attractive to them. However, a lot of the current policies are driving our talents away to our neighbor country and the brain drain problem is nothing new but it’s going to get worse than getting better in near future. Just to quote an example that I believe that you might be aware our MALAYSIAN LEADING Asian liver transplant surgeon Datuk Dr K.C. Tan 10 years ago. This is just example that is out in public and there are a lot others which are just not known in public. It is the policies that drives away all these top talent to other countries, meanwhile other country will just welcome them with big open arms since with no investment needed, you now have a top of the cream to work for their society. It is very important to have the top capable leaders to lead the important areas. Once you lost them to other country, it is going to be super hard to get them back. In the end, our community that is at lost.
5. I really hope that the government are monitoring the knock-on effect by increasing both the petrol and electricity charges. Any right minded person will know that this is going to be a chain effect. When some businesses operating cost goes up, the cost will be transferred over to the consumer or business will shut down.
6. Tun, there must be something that you don’t know. The government seems to be in the opinion and telling that the price will not change with the implementation of GST.
7. Obviously, the current government doesn’t like the idea of “cost down”. Every year auditor reports are being tabled and no one needs to be accountable. Ideally, the head of the project needs to take full accountability and for big amount, the head of department needs to be penalized as well. BUT, no such action have taken place. In business, when they anticipate business loss that quarter, travel ban are anticipated and any unnecessary cost are being cut to reduce the damage but in government department, they seem to operate quite differently.
8. I wonder what’s the difference between different departments or state governance that resulted in different comments from the Auditor General reports. If we kept on giving excuses that these wastage is due to carelessness or improper procedures, and no one needs to be accountable, there will not be any change. The answer (at least that I believe) is in the leadership of a department/state. Until we start to promote quality leaderships from the top, things will not change.
9. The idea of using LED lights is brilliant and needs to be carefully examined (with regards to their life cycle and the cost of replacing and the operating cost saving that we get from it). I am pretty sure that in the end, we will save in long term (but someone just need to work it out and it’s just a simple math). However, it takes a ex-prime minister to bring this up to the work department to look at it. Obviously, no one is too bothered about how much the operating cost is.
10. I once remembered that when Tun visited Ipoh and passed by the Ipoh old town and when Tun passed by the two main street, Tun commented how does people do business on those streets when there are no parking spaces along the roads. After a while, magically, parking spaces started showing up on those street. This just show how important it is to have a sharp mind leader. Unfortunately, this is something that we are lacking in our current administration. How much can you expect from a person who can’t even differentiate when he is in a Twitter office or a Facebook office?
11. I guess Tun wrote this to express your opinion and advice before the damage is done and is irreparable. Once the price goes up, it very rarely goes back down. Once investor left, they will not come back again. I hope that they will not reply back to your advice with coming up with setting up a investigating lab to look at it. Maybe they can appoint you as the special advisor and not spent another few million to get some CONsultan to do the CONsultancy.
Once again.. Looking forward to read more of your post here..
Travelling expenses by government servants is an area where the government can cut costs. There should be a limit on how much an officer can claim each month. Travelling expenses should not be considered as fixed income where an officer will claim to the maximum every month. Another expect of travelling which the government can reduce costs is that all officers should travel on economy class. Why allow even a junior officer to travel on full economy and upgrade to business class. Government officers should serve the rakyat and not behave like bosses and towkeys at the expense of public fund.
For HockBengTeohhalfpastsic. Welcome back in your new format, my friend. For your information your hero the brilliant Lee Kuan Yew with his 14 failed Policies for Singapore closed down the whole Chinese Schools system and the Nantah University over 40 years ago ! He did the correct thing for at least once !
For you, halfpastsic, sauce for the goose but no sauce for the gander eh !
You are clearly missing the forest for the trees and have not understand the spirit behind what Tun wrote. Didn’t Tun has just explained how certain decision will have indirect benefits or the other way around?
Do understand that its no longer Chinese vs Malay or etc but its Malaysia against the world. Its how to improve Malaysian exports versus other ASEAN country. Its how Malaysia can attract more FDI. Its how Malaysia can improve our global competitive ranking outpacing our neighboring countries. Clearly education have always been the basic foundation blocks of a nation. By suggesting racial based policy that attacks a certain race/religion will only make Malaysia less competitive as a whole due to less equipped next generation in the backdrop of globalization.
the etc.etc include elimination of duplications, hand-offs, disconnects, non-value added activities such as slogans and not forgetting how to manage the ‘sacred cow(s)’. identify and agree/accept what are the critical business issues as well as the critical process issues making the government to be in this present situation. in short, reduced cost will result in increased revenue or profit. haven’t the consultants ever heard the word ‘RE-ENGINEERING’ or ‘RENEW’?. american organisations have been doing this DAH LAMA DAH Chedet oi. wassalam!
1. Bravo Tun! Brilliant advice for Dato’ Seri Najib @ Ah Jib Gor and Gang/CONsultants. All of them are lost…Inilah masaalahnya bila kita ada PM yang bukan pemikir…main hentam keromo saja.
2. The Government must appoint Tun at its advisor..and Tun must charge them millions of ringgit.
3. This is the best article Tun has written so far. Tun summarizes basics for ECON 101/FINANCE 101 and a bit of basic accounting/business in one simple article (yet very informative).
Thanks Tun.
*** May Allah SWT bless Tun and family ***
Saya berpendapat kerajaan adalah CLUELESS dalam menangani masalah kenaikkan sara hidup… menaikkan harga barangan tapi tiada alternative diberikan… adalah satu FACTS yang hanya 20% Malaysian mempunyai degree, mostly hanya berpelajaran tahap SPM sahaja… jadi berapa banyak pendapatan almost 80% Malaysian ini?? tidak dikira lagi masalah graduan menganggur? adakah mereka boleh survive….?? saya juga terbaca GLC2 mengamalkan “Close door” untuk pekerja baru untuk menjimatkan cost, adakah ini patut? ada juga GLC memberhentikan pekerja “leasing” mereka serta merta kerana dasar ” melanjutkan usia persaraan”… ramai tak disambung kontrak… pada saya ini adalah pembaziran tenaga muda… ramai tenaga muda tidak berpendapatan tetap…
Secara “theory” saya SETUJU dasar pengurangan subsidi demi pembangunan ekonomi , tetapi yang kita lihat kerajaan tiada strategy langsung atau “blue print” secara details pelaksanaan pengurangan subsidy… contohnya jika mengurangkan subsidi petrol maka perlulah seiring dengan peningkatan mutu perkhidmatan awam… tapi adakah ini berlaku? apakah strategy peningkatan penggunaan perkhidmatan awam? mungkin selepas ini kerajaan perlukan menggalakkan “work at home” atau bekerja 2-3 hari sahaja di pejabat selebihnya… beroperasi di rumah sahajalah… untuk langkah penjimatan… dan khas untuk warga kota sahajalah…
Saya juga berpendapat banyak “LEAKAGE” dalam perlaksanaan budget kerajaan… contohnya perbelanjaan 2 billion untuk peningkatan infrastructure perlancongan…. bagaimana budget ini akan disalurkan dan dilaksanakan? siapa yang akan bermanfaat? Apakah Datuk Nazri Aziz berkeupayaan menguruskan perbelanjaan sebegini besar? atau adakah ia akan dibazirkan seperti projek AZAM yang dikendalikan oleh Datuk Syahrizat? perlaksanaan perbelanjaan budget mestilah secara telus dan efficient bukannya sebagai duit belanja suka2 oleh individidu yang tiada keupayaan dan speciality untuk mengendalikan budget sebegitu besar… Begitu juga budget untuk PERMATA…. apakah kemampuan agency yang melaksanakannya? begitu juga BRIM, tiada reliable platform and agency yang memantau perlaksanaan…. maka akan terbuka ruang untuk penipuan dan rasuah…. yang telah berkali-kali terjadi tapi tiada tindakan….
Begitu juga perbelanjaan besar untuk consultant2 luar oleh pihak kerajaan dan prime minister office, dengan pelbagai advisors yang kita ragui keupayaan mereka… pada saya ini hanya menggalakkan menteri2 kita malas berfikir kerana dah dioutsource kepada consultant2…. saya berpendapat perkhidmatan PTD perlulah ditingkatkan untuk mengganti dan mengambil alih peranan consultant. Pada saya tidak salah gaji PTD direvise tapi mestilah setanding dengan kelayakan masing2.. contohnya seboleh2 calon PTD mestilah ada master dan berpengalaman 5-6 tahun dalam industry untuk justify kelayakan gaji mereka… begitu juga pengambilan mereka mestilah berpadanan dengan speciality/degree masing2… dan kita pon tidak perlu terlalu ramai PTD…tapi memadailah di kementerian2 stategic… bukannya buat kerja office dan administration sahaja….
Saya juga berpendapat sudah2lah tue bergantung pada PRIVATE untuk pembinaan jalan raya, tidak dinafikan memudahkan kerajaan dari sudut pengurusan, tapi perlu diingat rakyat lah yang perlu membayar akhirnya akibat AGREEMENT yang dibuat kerajaan. Pembinaan jalan raya adalah tanggungjawab kerajaan, pengutipan tol mungkin perlu untuk road maintenance dan operational cost, tapi toll will be very minimum.
Kita juga dapat merasakan kenaikkan harga bagi barangan keperluan dan makanaan, jadi saya rasa elok juga kerajaan “melabur” lebih banyak dalam aktiviti pengeluaran makanan. Negeri2 seperti kedah, kelantan, perlis boleh dipertanggungjawabkan untuk menstabilkan harga makanan melalui pengeluaran makanan dan barangan asas.
Ramai rakyat mengeluh akibat kenaikkan harga barang… bayangkan jika mempunyai tanggungan anak lebih dari 3 orang… bagaimana quality kehidupan mereka? bagaimana pelajaran mereka? adakah keluarga akan berpecah belah? saya berharap kerajaan dapat berfikir dari aspek ini… mungkin perlukan new incentive for big families dan tiada keupayaan kewangan yang kukuh….
Saya berharap lebih ramai rakyat dapat tampil dan menyuarakan isi hati masing masing dari hanya berharap pada politician untuk menyelesaikan masalah… Begitu juga pihak media arus perdana, laporkan kesusahan rakyat… bukannya beri bayangan kehidupan mewah 10-20% malaysian sahaja… ramai lagi di perlukan perhatian dan bantuan…
Terima Kasih…
It seems that much of the good policies, approaches etc which had been showed by Yg Bhg Tun during the 22 years tenure were not been adopted. For example, among the Tun’s approach of leaderships was to encourage the private sectors to spearhead the nation buildings. These approaches proved big benefits to the nation. Highways, ports and all other infrastructures existed within at fast rates. Everybody employed. The Chinese companies had their shares and also the Malays and Indian companies. Samy Vellu always had happy smiles those time. The Government obtained big revenues from the corporate taxes and other taxes. The Government didn’t even think to impose extra taxes to the peoples as it had enough revenue already.
Last time, the price of diesel was very much lower compared to petrol. Tun ensured that price of diesel was as low as possible. This was because diesel was the very much necessity for the nation buildings and to encouraged the ‘cost down’. The national developments were at its heights and gave back huge revenues to the Government. When Tun Abdullah took over, the price of diesel went up almost at same price as to petrol. As the consequences every prices went up. Everything was not cheap anymore.
Now the price of the most basic necessity things; energy, is about to go up. It will lead to the increase of other related things. Tun’s promotion to increase the peoples purchasing power shall becomes to just a promotion.
I agree that the con-sultans must think as corporate figures to increase the main revenues rather than from the public taxes.
Salam Tun.
I agree with Tun.
If they still govern like this,
I don’t know what will happen with BN.
They think Sabah & Sarawak can save them
again like last PRU?
They will totally mistaken..
I don’t want a war Tun,
but if it cannot be avoided,
then let it be…
Karl, cina apa2 pun tak mahu, please leave the chinese schools alone. You want to fight, fight with pkr.
Suggestion – disband PEMANDU that’s costing the rakyat millions (billions?) of Ringgit. I am surprised that Najib is so weak as to swallow hook, line and sinker everything that is proposed by PEMANDA….can’t he think for himself? There’s no need for PEMANDU to study the high cost of living. Ask the man on the street and he’ll tell you. I’m sure Najib is smarter than that. The possibility of UBN losing GE14 is becoming more and more real….unless Najib wakes up! May Allah protect us all from the bunch of idiots running (oops…ruining) our beloved country.
How come at your Premiership there are more mega projects and less money problem for the Govt.?
I think mega projects are not the real problem but corruption and wastage are the real culprit.
May I congratulate you for giving such sound and sincere advice to the current government. With your 22 years of sterling experience as the best Prime Minister ever, Datuk Seri Najib should take note.
Tun has been extremely cautious and polite, more like dropping innuendo and suggestion.
May i add one more point; why not the government cancel one mega project and use the money to buy over PLUS Malaysia Bhd or freeze the increase in toll rate in perpetuity. If the government can handle the problem of toll increase, instead of being defensive, the opposition would lose one big ammunition.
Please do not repeat the mistakes committed by the Tun Abdullah administration.
As Tun correctly said prudent administration can earn the good will and support of the people, besides BRIM.
amin tan
I have one suggestion for govt to cost down – that is, to cancel the promise made prior GE13 to fund the Chinese private schools. I think that would be more than a cool RM 1billion savings that could be spread to the rural people, especially the Malays who voted BN into control now, and winning the next GE. The message is so clear, Najib should just read the writing on the wall without having to refer to his oracle con-sultan. Alahai Najib …
🙂