2. We were so successful in creating jobs that we have to import foreign labour. We were effectively helping to solve the unemployment problem of other countries.
3. Our cost of labour is now higher than our neighbours and of course against China and Vietnam.There is no way we can compete with them. If our labour cost increases further, especially if we want to have a high income economy, we can no longer compete for FDI, at least the labour intensive ones.
5. Unless Government revenues increase, the money will have to come from reduction in development expenditure. This may not be welcomed by the people.
6. For the private sector the money can come from more efficient management, higher productivity through more efficient output by workers or through investments in better machinery and equipment. Almost invariably the higher wages and salaries will increase cost and therefore the prices of goods and services.
7. Higher income will therefore result in higher cost of living. This will reduce the purchasing power expected of higher incomes. This would be meaningless unless the increase in cost of living will be less than the increase in incomes.
8. Unless the increase in incomes is properly managed, it will not enrich the people in terms of purchasing power. As the cost of living rises, the increases in income may not purchase more than what the previous lower income would. Indeed it may be possible that the increases in income will actually purchase less goods and services than the previous low income.
9. We see today the purchasing power of the developed countries with much higher income than us. The United States is said to have a per capita income of USD36,000, roughly five times Malaysia’s USD7,000 per capita. But the people are not five times richer than Malaysians in terms of purchasing power. In fact in certain cases the purchasing power is the same as Malaysians. According to the McDonald’s Hamburger Index, the Ringgit is the same as the US Dollar in purchasing McDonald’s hamburger – one Ringgit will buy in Malaysia what USD1 will buy in the US.
10. Clearly the increased income in high-cost countries does not give an increase in purchasing power equal to the increase in income as compared to low-cost countries. It is important that the Malaysian public understand this.
11. Malaysians are very sensitive to price increases, in many cases illogically. When crude oil increased in price from USD30 per barrel to USD140, Malaysians expect the pump price of petrol to remain the same. This is illogical. Surely the increase in crude price will be reflected in the retail petrol price.
12. The Government can subsidise. But when Government subsidises it must tap the money from other allocations. Perhaps it can use the extra profits from the sale of Malaysian crude in the market. But this would not be enough as we consume three-fourth of our oil and sell only one quarter. From the sale of one quarter of our oil, we cannot fully subsidise three quarters that we sell at the old price.
13. There must therefore be an increase in the price of retail oil. Malaysians must accept reasonable price increases when incomes and profits are increased on our way to becoming high-cost developed country. There is no way we can continue to enjoy low cost of living while we ensure we earn high incomes.
14. A high-income economy must therefore also be a high-cost (of living) country. But with good management the high incomes would increase our purchasing power to some extent, especially in the purchase of imported goods and services and when traveling abroad. There should be also a certain increase in purchasing power in the country. In effect despite higher cost of living we will still enjoy higher purchasing power and a higher standard of living.
15. I am all for the Government’s high income policy. My worry is that the people may expect high income without the accompanying high cost of living. It is better for them to be forewarned.
Dear Tun,
I wanna share my opinion regarding the building of high income nation in Malaysia.
First, a high income country do not need protectionism.
We, the rakyat should be felt RICH and Wealthy before a successful high income nation could be achieved.
This is my proposal hope dear Tun can take note:
First, its all about perception management. In order to let the rakyat to feel rich and confident, the prices of Imported cars must go down. A successful nations must be shown with materialism.
The government has already collected enough taxes from automobile industry. These money should be used in return, to build Proton competitive.
I understand that there are however, cons in this proposal.
First, imported cars must be cheap. People afford to buy Honda, Toyota , Nissan at ease.
Second, Proton must be much cheaper, in developed nation, cars are soo cheap because the gov. din’t tax much and to let the citizens enjoy their materials.
Third, Impose another ‘kindly named’ tax and increase Toll fee to high level, ie. rm3 per way. but this must be done after 6 months of reducing imported cars price.
In the end, domino effect could arise, a new breathe of enjoyment on imported cars and cheap protons could further cover the anger in newly increased taxes and toll fees.
Most important Tun, I hope you read this ..
its all about perception management, to build a society, people need to feel rich, when they feel rich, positive energy arises, its all like ponzi scheme. Life is a ponzi scheme, its up until one point they realized its actually the same, the thing only stop. But when that time, another new ideas arose and start again.
Cheers Tun, I love your blog so much it is so much better than your good friend, Anwar.
Bagi saya ia bukan tentang “ekonomi berpendapatan tinggi” semata-mata kerana istilah di atas bersifat statik, dan tidak menggambarkan proses.
Secara mikronya, negara berpendapatan tinggi adalah negara yang mempunyai persaingan yang juga tinggi….di mana syarikat-syarikat atau majikan-majikan sanggup membayar harga yang tinggi kepada pekerja-pekerja mereka untuk mendapatkan kemahiran yg ada pada calon pekerja..persaingan juga membawa makna tidak ada monopoli mana-mana syarikat dalam satu bidang khusus..sebagai contoh bukan hanya ada satu saja syarikat yang diberi lesen untuk menjalankan satu bidang tugas/tender/projek pemasangan dan sebagainya..persaingan sihat ini sebenarnya penting kepada rakyat jelata kerana pekerja dibayar berdasarkan nilai sebenar mereka, kedua, berlumba menghasilkan yg terbaik dan berkualiti dan sebab yg paling penting merendahkan kos untuk menambat hati pengguna..ini tidak berlaku di dunia monopoli, di mana tiada persaingan dan hanya satu pihak yang dominan dan berkuasa.
Salam buat Tun sekeluarga.
Wawasan Datuk Najib(semoga beliau sihat dan cepat sembuh) untuk memakmurkan lagi negara ini melalui satu strategi Transformasi Ekonomi, iaitu satu cita-cita untuk menjadikan negara ini mencapai tahap Ekonomi Berpendapatan Tinggi amat dialu-alukan.
Untuk mencapai cita-cita tersebut, kerajaan perlu menjadi peneraju dan pemacu yang dapat menggerakkan jentera pelaksanaan dengan berkesan, juga dengan dibantu oleh pihak swasta dan yang paling pentiang dan utama penglibatan rakyat sendiri.
Aktiviti ekonomi seharusnya melibatkan semua sektor, seperti pertanian dan ternakan, industri memproses dan pembuatan, perkhidmatan, pelancungan dan sebagainya yang membolehkan ekonomi berkembang secara sama rata kepada semua lapisan rakyat.
Pengumuman Menteri Perusahaan Asas Tani
Salam Tun,
You and some bloggers (comments by Arin and Parameswara 2) have said what the HIgh Comm in London could not answer when I asked him this question; “are we competent enough to be a high income nation by 2020?”(i think that’s the target, sorry if im mistaken).Mayb my question has put him on the spot, in front of everybody.
Anyways, I think some of us here believe that Malaysians have many hidden potentials that the current environment (politics, social issues, corruption etc) has not made it viable for these potentials to materialise.
1. My idea is, we need a CHAOS leadership. A leader with a team of professionals, strategically tackle the inefficient and breaks down the complacent.
The theory is the same as the corporate raider( private equity funds)@ Gecko in The Wall Street (a character which has some relevance to what I’m talking about).
On the other hand, we work with the resources that we have. Our PM at least is making some effort towards economical goals, not only just political gains.
What he needs is an independent team of experts( if he doesnt already have) and turn the government upside down.
In times of panic and chaos, humans tend to stick to each other and help out and of course there will be people who would want to take advantage. But if that can be managed, you’ll end up with people who are always on alert and sensitive to their performance, and wash out the sleepy heads.
2. Btw, we have some very good ideas and bright minds in this blog. Why not send some of your ideas to The Star or NST so that more people can benefit from your ideas.
Or mayb, send them to the PM himself. He might hire u to be in his brainstorm team.
(not the same as being in Dewan Negara@rakyat where i sometimes question the efficiency and productivity. Nonetheless, that’s how the system works)
🙂
assalamualaikum Tun.
terima kasih atas penjelasan Tun…
Tun, alangkah baiknya jika rakyat tidak diberikan gambaran yang bercampur-campur oleh kerajaan berkenaan ekonomi Malaysia kini. Gambaran yang indah diberikan apabila dekat dengan pilihanraya kecil, gambaran yang suram diberikan apabila bonus tidak diberikan. Rakyat diperbudakkan oleh kerajaan. Kita marah jika ada orang perbudakkan kita begitu juga rakyat. Berikan gambaran yang telus walaupun pahit.
Inflasi perlu di bendung Tun. Rakyat akan sendirinya memilih BN jika kerajaan ini dapat membendung inflasi..
sekian terima kasih
buat jln keretapi dr penang ke kelantan, buat port besar di kelantan + international airport, gerenti duit masuk. brg2 dpt bypass s’pore. cepat masa perjalanan. tapi disebabkan politik kepartian sempit, benda mcm ni diabaikan walaupun jelas menguntungkan malaysia.
Dear Bobo,
Why don’t you show us the whole picture of living in Australia. How much does it cost to have a dental treatment there? How much does it cost to get a child enrolled in a kindergarten there? How much is the income tax?
I am tired of checking and re-checking misleading information. I hope we all could provide more credible comments here. Thank you, Tun.
Dr Mahathir,
Regarding the proposed PNB RM5b 108 floor tower why can’t it be built in Iskandar, Johore.
Salaams
Dearest Tun
Thanks AliRimba for the nice words of encouragement.May God bless you.
Thanks Tun.
Increase export! Minimise imports.
Keep the flow of money within Malaysia and gain more from elsewhere.
If government can do everything to try to make the above happen, I’ll vote for them during the next election.
Assalamualaikum Tun,
TO UNDERSTAND “HIGH INCOME”..
Where money comes from? this is the biggest question unanswered for many people. you might say money comes from job or employment. if thats true, then money comes from businesses? now if we try to understand how businesses operate, which basically provide product or services.. but this doesnt make sense if money comes from businesses, as businessmen/women does not supply money. therefore based from the example above, can we conclude that the root of money does not comes from employment neither businesses?
So where is the money supply? who is responsible coming up with the idea of money? to understand properly, lets look at the history why we need money. during stone age, the tribes people already had ‘money’ actually, but lets define it as ‘money’ is actually medium of exchange. which ‘money’ is capable for someone or between people to exchange goods and services. at ancient times, people use feather, beautiful stones, handcraft, animal, etc etc.. as a form of exchange, during that time barter system is the economy mechanism.
over a period of time, people started to discover metals, that is when metal age has began, the people acquire iron, copper, ore, gold and silver. eventually the society is flourished with things made from metal, jewellery made from previous metal like gold/silver. and we had people specialized in certain expertise, for eg: gold smith. now the gold smith had this safety vault to store the valueables. on the other hand, people has the need to store their jewellery, gold coin, and other previous items as well, but since gold smith is the one had safety vault, the public started to enquiry gold smith if they can rent some space in the safety fault. the gold smith okeyed so everytime people deposit something in the vault, gold smith will issue this gold deposit cheque.
in the open market, people used to trade gold with other necessary stuff. which is either exchange gold with wheat, rice, food, animal, household items, furniture, etc etc.. so gold is a form of money. then eventually people just directly buy things with gold deposit cheque because it is much more conveniet than carrying gold coin. in expectation the business owner able to use the gold deposit cheque either as buy other things or take it to the gold smith and redeem the gold in the safety vault. This is how the “paper money” has begun.
years went by, and the goldsmith made an observation about his safety vault renting business. depositor rarely came in to remove their gold, and never all came in at once. meanwhile the goldsmith had another business, he lends out his gold charging interest. while the convenience of gold deposit cheque(money) came into acceptance by the public, the borrowers when taking loan began asking for gold deposit cheque instead of actual gold. eventually more and more people wanted to borrow gold deposit cheque from goldsmith, this gave the goldsmith even a better idea.
given the fact that no one really came into the vault to claim gold, instead of only issueing gold deposit cheque (issueing loan)backed by his own gold, he started to issue more loans using other people’s gold in his vault. the goldsmith thinks as long as the loans is repaid, his depositor would not really notice whats been happening. the point is enable goldsmith yield much more profit compared to previous scenario.
over period of time, goldsmith secretly enjoying a very rewarding income. he become richer than ever before but suspicious grew among the depositor in his safety vault. they worried if goldsmith is spending their deposited money, and depositor got together and threaten to withdraw their gold if goldsmith didnt proof any transparency about his new found ‘wealth’
despite what generally people might think, it turned out the situation wasnt that bad. the gold was indeed all available in the goldsmith’s safety vault. instead of taking back all the gold due to unpractical reason, the client (depositor) demanded the goldsmith(banker) to cut the mint by paying them share of the interest rate. This is the beginning of banking, banker pay low interest rate to depositor, and banker loans out the gold depositor cheque(money) to others at higher interest rate. the both interest rate difference enough to cover banking operation cost and some profit for goldsmith(banker). the logic of this system is simple & seems logical enough to satisfy the demand for credit.
But today is no longer the same system, the banker does not contempt with the profit as he need to share the interest rate profit with other depositor. at the same time, the europe trade is spreading fast around the globe and creates high demand for credit by the people. another barrier banker faces is he only able to give credits(loan) based on limited amount of gold in his safety vault. then he came up with another idea, since no one ever take a look or threaten to withdraw gold in the safety vault (happened previously), he started to lend out the gold deposit cheque(money) which the gold doesnt need to be in the safety vault.
as long as all the gold deposit cheque holder doesnt come to the vault at the same time to demand real gold, nobody would find out whats banker been doing anyway. this leads to banker become enormously wealthy. over the time, the magnitute of the banker has become suspicious again for the gold depositor, so this lead to some people wanted to exchange their gold deposit cheque(money) back to the gold again. and evetually leads to bank closure because not enough gold for exchange.
but undenialably the large artificial credit(loans) volume created by banker has enormous benefit to the trade accross europe and the world, which is essential to the success of european commercial expansion. therefore this practice of creating money out of thin air is continued, legalized & regulated. banker agrees to abide limit amount of fictional loan money allowed based on certain amount of gold price (not the actual gold). specifically which is at 9 fictional dollar equal to 1 real dollar (9 to 1) this is known as fractional reserve system.
this regulation is enforced by surprised inspection & also arranged just in case of a ‘bank run’ happened, central bank would support local bank with emergency infusion of gold, but if simultaneuos ‘bank run’ occurred in many local bank, with the credit bubble burst, the whole banking system would come crashing down. To understand what is fractional reserve banking system, it is a practice expanding the money supply and lend out to the public with additional interest rate. ironically if 2 parties which is an individual and an individual, which one borrows from another, they could not inflate the circulating medium by a loan transaction for the simple reason that the lender could not lend what he didnt have, as banks can do… (reference from : Professor Irving Fisher, economist in his book 100% Money-1935)
for eg: bank A prints and lends out $100, and expecting borrower to return $110 after 1 year, thats 10% interest. indirectly bank just created a mathematically impossible situation. this situation doesnt change if lend to 10 people, or whole country or entire world’s population. the only ways for debtors to return $110 of the bank’s notes is if the bank prints, and lends, $10 more at 10% interest… the result of creating 100 and demanding 110 in return, is that the collective borrowers of a nation are forever chasing a phantom which can never be caught; the mythical $10 that were never created. The debt in fact is unrepayable.
However, the debt is indeed payable as well, which means through competition with another debtors. the current economy situation is like, you need to compete with another in order to bring back the principal + interest rate money so that you’ll be able to pay the loan. eventualy this is what a game is, first of all, what is a game? the game system(any game) must have winner and loser, thats what our current economy is when using monetary system.
what happened to the loser? the only solution is borrow more money, since everyone is subscribed to same set of economic rules, same set of national money. from here the debtors able to starts a business or something and try to pay debt back again. in order for the whole economy in more balanced situation, the loser must target to acquire money from the rich people or rich corporation only, because those are the only one which doenst have debt. unfortunately the situation is kinda opposite as most of the rich acquired their wealth previously through selfish mean.
actually in a more direct way of speaking, national debt would be able to reduced as long as we change from true capitalistic economy to communism way of economy mechanism. however, since the fractional reserve system already in place, we wont be able to fully pay off the debt, its just mathematically impossible as well.
http://www.onemalaysia.cz.cc
Tun,
For your information.
Most of my friends, their majority salaries are use to installment the car loan.
Assalammualaikum Tun,
1. HIGH INCOME ECONOMY. That
Pelaburan untuk munafaatkan ekonomy negara dan individu.
Mengundang pelaburan perlu perihatin jangan sampai pelaburan itu menyempitkan kedudukan anak bumi,yg belum mampu bertanding, kesudahannya akan tewas.
Kerajaan Malaysia,Pemimpin Melayu GAGAL memantau akan erti tujuan mengundang pelaburan asing.Di China,India,Singapura dan kebanyakan negara,mereka juga mengundang pelaburan,TETAPI, dalam masa yg sama,mereka menjaga hak hak anak bumi.Mereka tidak kehilangan tanah dan identiti.
Di China,India tidak wujud,perkampungan Melayu,Malay Town atau sebagainya.Di Malaysia bukan saja China Town,India Village atau sabagainya,malah bolih dikatakan Malaysia bukan hak milik anak bumi.
Anak Bumi malaysia,merempat di tanah sendiri.
Di Singapura,mereka juga menggundang pelabur asing,TETAPI mereka mengawal hak hak mereka terjaga.Pekerja asing dari India,Bangladesh sebagainya,mereka hanya mampu cari makan saja,tidak seperti pekerja Cina,dari China dan Cina Malaysia,mereka akan diberi kelonggaran PR
dan peluang mencari kelebihan.
Batam,Bintang,Balai,Tanjung Pinang dan banyak lagi kepulauan Riau
bolih dikatakan sudah hak milik Singapura,bolih juga dikatakan Singapura kedua.Begitu juga Johor,dengan perkembangan pelaburan project IDR,bolih dikatakan juga Johor,milik Singapura. Anak Bumi Johor sekarang kebanyakan sudah jual tanah dan maruah,dan merempat di tempat lain.
Apa erti pelaburan jika ianya merugikan anak bumi.
Anak Bumi masih jauh untuk bertanding,justeru itu hiduplah cara sendiri,walau tidak membangun kita masih Tuan pada hak kita.
Dunia Wang bukanlah budaya Melayu.
Pembangunan bukanlah Ilmu Melayu.
Bolih menceburi,tapi perlu cari ilmu dahulu.
Dearest Tun
May I..
//By alirimba on October 31, 2010 4:45 PM
Salam Tun,
To Parameswara 2,
You are not alone. Your comments are very well acknowledge. Continue the spirit towards making Tun`s blog brainstorming meaningful. Thank you.//
Dear saudara alirimba,
1-Thanks for a very encouraging response from you.
2-I sincerely believe that our nation must not ape the other nations economic model.Most of these nations have prospered doing the things they must do in view of their own unique circumstances.
3-What it seem to be the trend of every Govt is just follow these supposedly superior models.The problem with this is the moment we have arrived to their level they on the other hand would have arrived to another level.
4-If we must follow them again,then we will only be trailing their asses and that would surely be a rather stinking position to be in forever.
5- We must discover our very own economic model totally different from the present known model.What is the right way to do is definitely not carved in stone that we must shut ourselves from new ideas,no matter how crazy they may be.The best of ideas may come from the most unlikeliest of sources.Ignore them at our great loss.
6-So we must do our SWOT [strength-weakness,opportunity,threat]analysis.And brainstorm how to benefit from the oportunities these analysis could deliver.
7-This is the only way Malaysia can hope to break from the vicious cycle of followship to be the new 21st century leader that I sincerely believe we Malaysians are destined to be.This is based on the multitudinous strenghts afforded us as I have repeatedly brought up in my comments.
8-Well Tun if you think that I am thinking too big ,well,you influenced me.Its your fault.
Thanks alirimba.Thanks Tun.
Assalamualaikum Tun Mahathir.
Thank you for the posting. Your writing again makes clear and simple on a could be difficult subject. I especially like your last point.
I will take this high income economy as something which will come sooner or later. Whether we like it or not. Its a change. And as with any other change, there will be people who can or willing to accept it and vice versa.
But most importantly any change have to be managed. This one though, is a tough one. Doable but tough. As your last point, Malaysians need to be forewarned. Or may I add, Malaysian must know about this and understand it as much as possible. My only concern is that we may have bigger portion of the population, whom do not want to understand.
As for me, my wife and my children, insyaAllah, we are gearing for this change.
Terima kasih Tun Mahathir.
Tujuan Pelaburan untuk meningkat ekonomy,negara atau individu.
Kerajaan Malaysia,Pemimpin Melayu,orang melayu GAGAL
membendung pengertian pelaburan.Mengundang pelabur asing dan akhirnya yg kerugian adalah anak Malaysia,sendiri.
Tidak seperti,negeri CHINA,INDIA,SINGAPURA,contohnya dengan mengundang pelaburan dengan masa yg sama mereka mengekalkan hak hak anak bumi.Di China,di India,tidak wujud Malay Town,Malay Village atau sebagainya,tetapi di Malaysia,Indonesia,bukan saja wujud China town,Indian Village,malah bolih dinamakan Negara Malaysia kepunyaan pelabur asing.Anak Bumi,orang melayu seolah menumpang di tanah sendiri,Tidak ada apa yg nak di banggakan.
Nyata sekarang dengan pesatnya pelabur Singapura,di Johor,sudah kelihatan orang melayu sudah tersingkir.Di Batam,Bintang,Tanjung Pinang dan kebanyakan tanah Riau sudah kepunyaan Kerajaan Singapura,pelabur Singapura.ADAKAH TAK MALU,kita rasa itu hak kita lagi.
Di Singapura,kerajaannya memastikan apa jua tidak tanduk mereka hak mereka,masih tetap di jaga.Perkerja India,Bangladesh hanya berkerja untuk menanpung keperluan mereka,pekerja hanya cukup makan,hanya khayalan untuk kaya.Orang Cina dari China,dan Malaysia akan diberi kerakyatan,diberi perluang untuk maju.
Apa dia pelaburan kalau ianya merempatkan hidup anak bumi,jika tidak memantau kepentingan sebenarnya pengertian pelaburan.
Kalau tak tahu bersilat janganlah buka gelanggang.
Persiapankan diri dahulu sebelum bertempur.
In the iList this month, CNN is focussing on Malaysia. It reports on AirAsia and I am so happy to note that it says all the positive things abt this corporation. Tht because AirAsia was on the verge of bankruptcy, it is now expanding so quickly, AirAsia is facing a shortage of pilots as per worldwide issue. AirAsia took it onto themselves to offer interested persons and their staff to become a pilot in the AirAsia academy. All of these potential pilots comprised of Malays, Indians & Chinese staff as well as female.
I am so glad to note that it does not discriminate the positions based on sex nor creed or race. It is totally based on meritocracy. It has such a good and positive feedback from CNN. Kudos to Tony Fernandez and to Malaysia.
We shld have more of these corporations on the good publicity. And becomeworld class.
Salam Tun,
i concur with the comments by Imran and wish to add my own perspective to it.
By ImranAuthor Profile Page on October 31, 2010 8:00 PM
>To become a high income nation, the country must be able to >produce its own contents and not just relying on foreign firms >establishing their plants here. Malaysians themselves have to >become producers, inventors and innovators. Malaysians themselves >have to be equipped with entrepreneurial and management skills.
Until we learn that achievement is to be the rule rather than the exception, with these exceptions always getting media attention, we then still live like katak bawah tempurung.
>For example, big firms like Google and Facebook were once personal >projects that was commercialised.
There are tons of ideas here but progress and implementation is extremely difficult. This is said many times over and over again, the government just doesn’t get it. It has a bearing on politics, the suffering of political parties in the past is due to the same effect, of not getting it.
So let me put it simply. What the minority of ordinary people with bright ideas and hope want is not excuses and politics, they just want an avenue to try their out ideas and voice out their valid concerns. Sometimes it is not even money that we need. The disinterest shown by government officers is enough to deter us from even voicing out our ideas. What good is it to explain a great idea to someone who is not even aware of the possibilities ? And why is that someone sitting on a chair of authority ?
A government is NOT the authority, a government is a government. The goverment may call upon an authority to handle situations requiring such authority. Or the government may have in house authority on the subject. But this does not mean that the in house authority is the best in the country. Someone outside of the government may be the real authority, an expert on the subject and such person should be consulted. Basically, if you wrote a well researched book on the subject, you may be regarded as an authority. You are an author of the subject.
But if you have not written a book, have not even read a book on the subject, and you are the government, then you need be honest to yourself and call in the right authority, and not simply reject an idea simply because you do not like it. Sometimes government officers try to potray they know much, but an expert sitting at the other end can clearly see at which level the officer is talking. It can be very embarrasing, but we are a culture of face saving, and so the misguided or ignorant officer is politely left to his blissfull ignorance. Would you want to offend a goverment officer if you are the one applying for the grant ?
Quite often government makes decisions they think is right, without the correct study and consultation of experts. We can only shake our heads when this happens, and it happens often, and we take our opinions to the ballot boxes. Because we are not consulted and not allowed to comment. Because the governent thinks it is the authorty.
Quite often too the in-house ‘authorities’ in the government are not really authorities at all. If a government officer has never had to run his own business, and never had to make sound business decisions and then tries to engage in a ‘discussion’ with private sector, it is worse than a chicken talking to a duck. At times it is very embarassing to note how ignorant the officer is. At best, philosophy is used to retain pride.
I was told a long time ago in Sweden, if you are good, the government offers you a job and pay you four times what the private sector pays. Such persons is then indeed the authority *and* the governer. If the leader of a successful private concern is now the government, then who will even dare question his recomendations and decisions ? Still there will be competition and debates. This then ensures high quality management in the government.
I would agree that in order to do a proper study and consultation, time is required and this means delays. But why are we in a hurry to make mistakes ? Whatever happened to biar lambat asalkan selamat ?
So i would favour a good study into any proposal, openly and properly debated. By open i do not mean public. It is not necesaary every single project or idea is debated publicly. A room of experts is sufficent to debate the matter. But quite often it is not even debated. Tak ada masa. There are always more important things to do, like dinners to attend and other functions ?
As for ideas, inventions and such, if we have to fill in forms, sit for stupid interviews, wait to be called as if we are beggars, then tolerate ridiculous waiting period for a decision, then no capable persons with bright ideas will endure this nonsense. It is usually take our excellent ideas out of the country, get them implemented, and probably get rich as well. It is as simple and as plain as that. How many government officers know this ? How many willing to admit it ? If to admit is even difficult, forget cure.
And in our absense, the creative ones, usually those who thrive in the art of taking good care of the boss, ‘create’ projects in order to qualify for grants, gets the grants, and we later hear the grants closed due to abuse. It does not surprise one bit. The government has to wake up from being authoritarian and be pro active and seek out these people with ideas, talents, and offer them help to make their dream projects a reality.
But i have serious doubts this will happen as government officials always consider themselves ‘in-charge’ and thus simply unable to bow to someone who has a good idea. The minute you challenge this non-existent authority, that will be your last meeting with the officer.
Over a period of many years of cold shoulder, of uninterest, sometimes corrupted, and even mockery responses to what could be a good idea given out by very capable people, the generator of these good ideas leave. The grass is greener on the other side even if there is no special status accorded.
>To become a high income nation, potential Malaysians ideas needs >to be capitalised and commercialised on , and their potential must >be fully unleashed. The Governmnet has a vital role in unleashing >it.
I think it is not possible for the government to play this role for as long as they are not able to bow to the opinion of experts and experienced practitioners.
>Sadly to say, despite Budget 2011 theme is to prepare the country >to a High Income Nation, there was hardly any support announced to >help unleash bright talents and ideas that who knows one day might >become a success.
>Malaysian innovators are left with less support now.
Because these experts or talents as you call them, normally provide an insight far different from public opinion. And the government is afraid to not listen to public opinion and so tells the experts to shut up basically.
>Drawing from my own experience, we hardly received any support >from the Government regarding our product. We have recently >developed a new product and we seek advice from MyIPO for patency. >Despite contacting them twice via their published email, we did >not receive any response at all from them. We were not seeking >fund I remind, we were just seeking advice on how to Patent our >product.
It is difficult being a govnernment. It takes guts. One has to be cunning and sincere, and work hard. It requires devotion. It requires initeraction with the beholder of the ideas. There must be debates, arguments, and finally a decision. If this path is followed, even a ‘no’ decision would be respected, because it has been honestly debated. One walk away feeling being attended too, being served, even if the project or idea is rejected.
But this environment is totally alien in the government. In most governments i would say !
>Not all inventors have the capital and not all capitalists have >ideas. This bridging has to be done to allow successful business >to fluorish.
>
>Thus, if the country wants to be a high income nation Tun,
>I would suggest :
>1) The rakyat’s potential should be unleashed by the Government
>2) This is done by giving them entrepreneurial awareness and >facilitate them by cutting on red tapes and providing incentives
>3) Nurturing new ideas, valuing its potential and providing aid to >them judiciously
>4) Providing a one stop centre where grants, technical and >networking support is available for new bright business to >fluorish.
There is one important aspect you missed out. Here in Malaysia we are suffering from severe lack of capable people. Expertise levels are so low. If you are an expert here, you must be really busy and have a very stressfull life because all the good works come to you, and you suffer from your own success. You cannot delegate or outsource, the minute you do, the project stalls. Again it is due to lack of capable followers. Eventually, you burn out.
The good ones have left, and the government wants them to come back.
But i really think the government should listen to the ones here first. The good ones here have not left, not because they do not want to, but they were delayed for various reasons.
So i think the government should really focus on trying the keep the good ones who are still here to remain here. If these people are not convinced and subsequently leave, forget about trying to get back those who left ealier.
Maybe i ought to apologise for sounding so critical, but i do think the government is not going about doing things the right way as far as the above subject is concerned.
At least the policies are right, but implementation is more important and is everything.
Selamat Sejathera Tun
(second part on high economic income)
After listening to many comments in Tun
Salam Tun & fellow bloggers,
As I mentioned earlier, I am concerned on the way the government want to implement this idea of “high-income economy” and with hope to achieve its objective. With the current situation, a lot more have to be done first before embarking into the program.
I was once asked by my European friend – ” how Malaysian can manage their daily life when compared with my country where most people earn much more than their Malaysian counterpart but your cost on 3 major basic items. namely; houses, cars and foodstuff are higher than ours?” However, that doesn’t mean that they are better off than us. This is because they earn higher income derived on productivity but they have to pay higher tax which are to provide better social services ( even allowances for unemployed and allowances for number of children etc ), among others which we lack of or even are non-existance.
At the end of the day, as what Tun always emphsizes, that we should aim for higher quality of life rather than striving daily to earn and maintain higher income in which a big chunk goes to tax. GO FOR QUALITY RATHER THAN QUANTITY.
I was made to understand that the majority members of team of advisors to the government on this policy are made of foreign “experts”. They maybe expert in their country or from their experiences derived from situation in advanced countries. There is nothing wrong with that but “cut & paste” approach is TOTALLY a no-go when come to find solutions to our problem or application of national development strategies. Our situation is unique and therefore require its own developed formula. Tun’s handling of the asian financial crisis was a classic example ( Mahathir vs The World ) that many experts now have acknowledged of its success against their ealier own comments/advices during the crisis.
I hope the government must take a cautious approach on this. “Biar lambat asal selamat”.
May Allah bless and protect all of us.
To HBT,
You said:
“I. You have worked in Canberra when you are a FOREIGN student in Australia. I have worked as FOREIGN student at Can$3.50 per hour in a Chinese Cuisine restaurant in rural area in Ontario in the 80s, illegally, to be honest to Ayahanda Tun.”
You assume that I was a foreign student. In fact, I held residency status in Australia. In any case, locals and foreigners were paid the same. The only restriction was foreign students could only work up to 20 hours per week. This was in May 2008.
You said:
“II. In KL, majority of the general workers are being paid part-time basis at RM5 but Uncle McD paid only RM4.50 per hour in the whole country to all SPM school leavers.
III. These abundant school leavers are waiting for their results and they do not mind getting RM4.50 per hour as time passing and experience gaining jobs.
IV. Moreover, these students can get pocket money from their parents.
V. Due to domestic labour market competition for supply and demand curve, all the franchise and retail operators are using Uncle McD as the gauge in paying out for the hourly wage.”
What is your point? And how is it relevant to the arguments I made in my comment? I can see that you are having trouble with your own English writing skills. I would prefer that you have a friend read my comment and have him explain to you in simpler language for you to understand my points, although I am sure I used very simple language.
It appears you may not understand logic.
Notice I was NOT comparing the wages paid by McDonalds in Australia with that of in Malaysia. I was comparing what I could do with working 1 hour in Australia and that of in Malaysia.
Allow me to repeat: I earned AUD25 per hour in a HARDWARE SHOP in Australia. in 1 hour I had enough money to buy 4 McChicken Value meals with AUD1 to spare. At a SIMILAR (i.e. HARDWARE SHOP — no… not McDonalds) in Malaysia, I could earn only RM5 or less. With RM5, I could not afford EVEN 1 McChicken Value Meal at McDonalds after working the SAME HOURS and PERFORMING THE SAME DUTIES.
You said:
“VII. The question is,
I read someone saying “Thanks god we have Proton because we sure cant afford imports” or something along this line.
I hate to break your bubble but Proton is overpriced and poorly built. I still dont understand why we should have an indigenous automotive industry? One of the cheapest cars in Aus is the hyundai getz, albeit it is slightly more expensive (after currency conversion to RM), it is still better.
It seems like everything Malaysia has done is all for the sake of propaganda which then fixate people away from questioning the government’s performance.
Its like USSR. Why send people to space? To convince your people that the government is progressing but in actual fact, it is only to stop people for second guessing the government. Putting that piece of mind at the back of people’s head. It USSR put more money into agriculture, people wont have to starve in “developed” USSR.
KL tower and twin tower like their other monumental icon of corruption such as bakun dam has never fail to amaze us in showing how defective and reckless the government policies are . How do all the price tags on these investments justify their existence?
Instead of spending all the money on the mountain of crap, i bet a few universities can be built. More teachers can be trained, more roads can be built.
Now Najib thought it would be awesome if he could build another tower as if KL hasn’t had enough of them. So i guess building another tower is way better than paying bonuses to civil servants. Sure he says no rakyat’s money will be poured into the tower but where is his proof? Who is going to fund the tower? GLCs? As if they have liquidity to come up with the money.
I guess being a PM of Malaysia is an easy task. You dont even have to give an opinion. Just take all the opinions from everyone and implement it. You dont have to peruse these opinions. Hell you dont even have to look good. Just be bald and old.
Dear Tun Mahathir,
Read your thread with greater interest,I think we need to look at the proposal in an holistic level:
1)We could still subsidise staple index’s and still increase the income level without effecting FDI.
2)The proposed plan is not going to be done in one year period and these proposal may take some time.
3)we need to improve all level of skills to compete and that needs time and re-training processes.
4)By improving all level private and civil servent income, we could gratually reduce corruptions etc.See what has happened in singapore.
5)We need to select the right partner’s for local investment who could pay good salaries to our citizen’s.
6)The biggest issue in malaysia is that,all the goods and services has gone up and there is no serious action from current government to tacle these greedy traders
7)We can’t continue to maintain 1960 pay scale’s and also manage corruption in both sectors
8)we need to stop all this unnecessary spending on Infra’s and re-visit the revenue making initiatives such as Datuk Idris presented resently
9)Our country need coporate CEO’s to manage the day to day business affairs and politicion to strickly tacle the people’s affair
10)Reduce the overall nation operating cost and as we could gauge the GDP and Revenues, why can’t we also have expence control program in government dept?
11)We must stop the government agency as a wish list agency, to spend all the collection comming from taxes etc,Must have sinking fund measure is place.
12)We must stop worring about what our citizen could think and concern!! and start looking at way’s to improve their living standard by asking and showing them that there is no such thing as free lunch. All must work hard to improve oneself and the nation as a whole.
13)Go away with the GLC big brother association and make everyone accountable.
14)Petronas is rich and we are doing little to divest in nation revenue making essientials.Such as tourisim product,each state to have their respective colonies to cater for tourist with culture,food and entertainments plus duty free prices without endangering religion and customs.For that we need Billions to restore the heritage and needed relocations.and Petronas do have the means.
I could go on and on… ,The world is changing and even most developed countries are facing uncertainty and what malaysia could do is not to follow the traditional method to improve their citizen’s living standard and We all must walk the talk.
The important in any implimentation strategies is to have programs that all walk of life is in someways involved to inspire the idea and the nation’s dream.
Assalamualaikum Tun Yang Amat Dihormati,
Untuk point 15,adalah cabaran besar untuk kerajaan memeberi pemahaman kepada rakyat biasa,yang sudah biasa hendakkan barangan asas kekal murah,servis cemerlang,pendidikan murah atau percuma dan lain-lain tanpa membayar lebih sedikit.
Bagi pendapat saya,memperbanyakkan pekerja berkuali serta berkemahiran tinggi.Saya juga menyokong penuh sekiranya,kerajaan terus menyokong serta membantu dalam sektor melibatkan Reserch & Developement.
Saya juga menyokong dengan mereka yang menjadikan blog Tun ini sebagai pendebatan berilmiah serta macam ‘brain storming’juga,tapi tidak berkenan dengan mereka hanya tahu merungut,kondem dan kurang sopan terhadap Tun,serta merendah-rendahkan kemampuan pentadbiran kerajaan untuk merealisasikan suatu visi.Pergilah saja berhijrah ke negara lain yang memenuhi citarasa sendiri dan keluarga,biarkan kami dan mereka yang lain sememangnnya bukan sahaja bekerja untuk diri sendiri serta keluarga,tapi untuk negara,walaupun susah dan senang,kita berdiri sebagai satu bangsa Malaysia,yang salah kita kritik(seperti yang Tun tegur),yang betul kita galakkan.Kejayaan serta kemakmuran bukan hanya disediakan untuk generasi sekarang ,tetapi juga untuk dikongsi dan diteruskan kecemerlangan untuk generasi akan datang.
Saya sentiasa mendoakan kesejahteraan ke atas Tun dan Tun Siti.Semoga Tuhan membalas segala jasa dan budi baik Tun selama ini.Terima Kasih.
YB Tun,
Adakah projek mega, contohnya, Warisan Merdeka, akan menjana ekonomi negara kepada berpendapatan tinggi?
Jawapannya, YA kepada golongan tertentu sahaja. Golongan yang macamana, golongan arkitek, kontraktor, konsultan, surveyor dan berkaitan dengannya. Dan yang menyedihkan kepada golongan yang mendapat komisen yang tidak sepatutnya atau golongan penerima rasuah.
Bagaimana dengan rakyat jelata? Berkemungkinan akan mendapat manfaat jika terdapat limpahan daripada projek tersebut. Diharap kita faham dengan perkataan “limpahan”. Limpahan bermaksud jika terdapat lebihan sahaja. Jika tiada limpahan maka golongan di atas akan sudah “sapu” dahulu. Jika projek itu terbengkalai atau tidak mendapat sambutan daripada pelancong atau pelabur, maka tiadalah limpahan manfaat kepada rakyat. Malahan bebanan pula.
Bagaimana hendak menbiayai projek tersebut? Menurut PNB tanpa mengguna wang pendeposit. Agak pelik kerana berkembangnya PNB adalah disebabkab wang pendeposit. Contohnya, jika wang pendeposit berjumlah RM2 billion, maka boleh tidak PNB membayar sekarang (right now) kepada setiap pendeposit. Jika tidak, maka PNB sedang menggunakan wang pendeposit untuk beroperasi. PNB akan mengambil masa untuk mencairkan “asetnya” untuk mendapat tunai. Itu pun kalau boleh ditunaikan, jika tidak “cair” maka malanglah sungguh. Dan janganlah pula nanti dividen yang akan dibayar akan rendah walaupun masih di atas faedah simpanan tetap(alasan yang selalu diberi jika dividen rendah daripada tahun sebelumnya).
Saya tidak menghalang sebarang pembangunan. Tetapi mestilah untuk kesejahteraan rakyat. Janganlah syok sendiri atau angkuh dengan status sekarang atau dengan tidak membuat perancangan yang teliti. Jangan disebabkan orang lain buat (contohnya negara jiran) maka kita pun hendak buat sama.
Wasalam.
Salam Tun Mahathir,
I read your article regarding High Income Economy with agreement.
As you have rightly pointed out, besides of promising the rakyat of becoming a high income nation, the rakyat must be equipped with the capacities and skills to become a citizen that contributes towards Malaysia becoming a high income nation.
To become a high income nation, the country must be able to produce its own contents and not just relying on foreign firms establishing their plants here. Malaysians themselves have to become producers, inventors and innovators. Malaysians themselves have to be equipped with entrepreneurial and management skills.
For example, big firms like Google and Facebook were once personal projects that was commercialised. Now these firms making revenues in billions. Thanks to the conducive business environment in the US where potentials are being tapped and well exploited.
We managed to transform from an agricultural based to a manufacturing based country by inviting foreign makers to setup plants here. Now as time evolves, we need to evolve as well. To become a high income nation, potential Malaysians ideas needs to be capitalised and commercialised on , and their potential must be fully unleashed. The Governmnet has a vital role in unleashing it.
Sadly to say, despite Budget 2011 theme is to prepare the country to a High Income Nation, there was hardly any support announced to help unleash bright talents and ideas that who knows one day might become a success.
Malaysian innovators are left with less support now.
Drawing from my own experience, we hardly received any support from the Government regarding our product. We have recently developed a new product and we seek advice from MyIPO for patency. Despite contacting them twice via their published email, we did not receive any response at all from them. We were not seeking fund I remind, we were just seeking advice on how to Patent our product.
Not all inventors have the capital and not all capitalists have ideas. This bridging has to be done to allow successful business to fluorish.
The idea of Google or Facebook did not came from giant firms. It came from young minds whose talents were discovered by investors. I was once proud that the Government were aiding new businesses with grant through SMIDEC but now have been discontinued.
It is heard that it has been discontinues because of abuse. Some have applied for grants by submitting business plans and they use their funds for personal use. There should be scrutiny in the system instead of totally discontinuing it.
The act of totally discontinuing it is hampering the genuine honest business ideas to fluorish. This leads to brain drain and a waste for what an idea might turn into. A potential Malaysian version of Google might be there somewhere in the country, but just because of no support is being given to these genuine makers, their effort will just go to the drain.
Thus, if the country wants to be a high income nation Tun,
I would suggest :
1) The rakyat’s potential should be unleashed by the Government
2) This is done by giving them entrepreneurial awareness and facilitate them by cutting on red tapes and providing incentives
3) Nurturing new ideas, valuing its potential and providing aid to them judiciously
4) Providing a one stop centre where grants, technical and networking support is available for new bright business to fluorish.
With this effort we hope that one day we could make ideas by Malaysians a global success, and if that happens, Malaysia as a high income nation will be just at our doorsteps.
Just my 2 cents Tun,
Best wishes and Salam,
Imran
Founder of Junior Brothers, Malaysia’s Original Card Game Maker
Salam Tun,
To Parameswara 2,
You are not alone. Your comments are very well acknowledge. Continue the spirit towards making Tun`s blog brainstorming meaningful. Thank you.
ALIRIMBA.
Dear Mr Mahathir
A high income society must be supported by an increase in national productivity. Our national income must be doubled in support of a high income society so we have more money to go around.
If high income is a priority, we have to revamp our industries and our currency must be strong. That means we can no longer have a strong manufacturing industry which has been one of the backbone of Malaysia.
I support the government’s initiative of a high income society but im afraid that is may not be possible in the near future. I am no economic professor but from the way our GDP stands at the moment (around 5-6% per annum), i doubt we can achieve a high income society in a few years. Our economy is expanding very slowly compared to its previous state prior to the Asian economic crisis.
The government has done too little to ignite the fury in our economy.
Another setback to the high income society initiative would be whether our workers deserve a high income. Our country produces 20% higher tertiary graduates while the 80% have SPM education. So do we deserve higher income? There isn’t enough “qualified” people to sustain a high income society. Of course we cant force employers to pay RM 5000 for a office boy and they shouldn’t do so.
Australia is truly a high income society. Daily goods are cheap, cars are cheap, fuel is cheap but services and real estates are expensive. Thats one of manay of the drawbacks of a high income society. Expensive services!! Seeing a dentist for a toothache will set you back at AUS 200. Thats RM 600! No tooth was pulled out even. But if you have medical insurance, either government-owned or private, its usually free. So its the little things that counts. What im trying to say is, the government will have to work out policies to reduce the negative impact of a high income society.
Malaysia has not experience in this area, it is better if we observe and learn from the Europeans(Scandinavian countries), Korea, Australia and maybe Singapore. We can even adopt their model. I will not have any complain if Malaysia adopt an Australian model. I think what they have done to their country is awesome. Living in and learning from their society has made me an accomplished person.
However, every high income society has their own dirty little secret including Australia. They are flaws. It is up to the government to mend those flaws.
My verdict on Malaysia being a high income society in the foreseeable future, not promising at all. Another ploy from the government. It has a political motive over an economic one. Common sense will tell you that it is impossible.There is simply not enough money to go around.
Salam Ybhg Tun
By Lionelchee 28th Oct.
Nice comment you put in there. Why dont you bring along your whole family with you.. You and your family may apply for permanent resident a spent the whole of your life in your favorite country. That should be good for you… and maybe us here.
Salam Tun dan keluarga.
Maaf Tun; Sebagai sebuah Negara yang bercita-cita ingin terus berkembang hingga mencapai tahap status Negara maju, kerajaan harus KERAP melakukan
Good morning Ayahanda Tun,
May I….
//By bobo on October 28, 2010 4:46 AM
If I were to work at a similar shop here in KL, I would be paid only RM5 or less per hour. I could not afford even one McChicken Value meal working the same hours and performing the same duties.//
Dear bobo,
I. You have worked in Canberra when you are a FOREIGN student in Australia. I have worked as FOREIGN student at Can$3.50 per hour in a Chinese Cuisine restaurant in rural area in Ontario in the 80s, illegally, to be honest to Ayahanda Tun.
II. In KL, majority of the general workers are being paid part-time basis at RM5 but Uncle McD paid only RM4.50 per hour in the whole country to all SPM school leavers.
III. These abundant school leavers are waiting for their results and they do not mind getting RM4.50 per hour as time passing and experience gaining jobs.
IV. Moreover, these students can get pocket money from their parents.
V. Due to domestic labour market competition for supply and demand curve, all the franchise and retail operators are using Uncle McD as the gauge in paying out for the hourly wage.
VI. There is no right or wrong by comparing KL with Canberra, and there is no right or wrong by expressing your emotional status due to Constituted democracy and liberty regardless of races.
VII. The question is,
Tun,
Salam dan sejahtera selalu. Apa komen Tun, BN propose calun BN di Batu Sapi yang tak reti cakap Bahasa Malaysia?. macamana rakya kampong nak pergi mengadu atau bercerita masaalah mereka. Ade kesilapan teknikal lagi ke dalam BN, atau BN masih tidur
daydreaming…
1.it’s a capitalist enviroment (economic bubble, internal tension,ali-baba-ali,rich-richer-poor-poorer, etc)
2.malaysian pupil still get lower margin (for example – can malaysia gov afford to give their pupil free education for all level? which most of our minister plus prime minister never dream this and already said no)
maybe gov should allowed pupil to produce ringgit by using printer or photocopy machine to achieve HIGH INCOME ECONOMY…
just wonder…
**Ini cubaan pos kali kedua** OK here goes…
To those of you who thinks inflation is something that is naturally inherent to an economic model, you are terribly wrong. God gave us bounties with no strings attached essentially ! It is humans who went on imposing all kinds of conditions to the models so as to glean profits for themselves, often times at such unreasonable rates that they cause the model to become unsustainable ! For a country that is almost all sustaining such as ours, there is no excuse to have large inflation rate on essential items such as food and other nature based products that are produced locally. Small inflation due to the middlemen activities such as logistics and distribution costs are understandable but other than that, it should draw suspicion towards manipulative activities by irresponsible quarters either locally or internationally. So stop saying things like inflation is something that is unavoidable and that it comes with the times ! That’s like saying, it’s OK to become leeches and suck people’s blood as we move along, like what is so readily acceptable in a TWISTED Capitalist society ! Small indicative index yes, large inflation numbers…something must be wrong somewhere !
Remember, you only take out an amount that is equivalent to your contribution to an economic model… plus a little profit out of it, if you will. Anything larger than that, you would be depriving someone else’s rightful claim to a decent livelihood…or event a livelihood, which is cruel !
Thanks ayahanda Tun. 😉
p.s. Visit my blog – http://Blogs.FanBox.com/RaptureRecipes
Tun,
Your comment at paragraph 9,
Nowadays, everything is at the tip of the finger because of IT.
The cost of McDonald burgers in US is as below,
Big Mac just the sandwich is $3.45
Filet of fish $3.12
Happy Meal w/ hamburger is $2.97
Happy meal w/ cheeseburger is $3.23
Happy meal w/ nuggets is $3.67
(Source : http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080409231520AAc9VgD)
The price in Malaysia,
Big Mac = RM 6.95
Filet of Fish, RM 6.00
Happy meal w/cheseburger = RM 7.70
Happy meal w/ nuggets RM7.95
(Source http://www.mcdonalds.com.my)
In Summary, if the currency is 1:1 ratio then everything are “twice (2x)” expensive.
For Malaysian, Income per capita is US7000 = RM 21,770
Compared to American , their Income per capita = US 36,000.
If their income per capita (American) is similar with Malaysia which is US 21,770 then their purchasing power is more then Malaysia two fold. However, their income per capita is much higher which is at US 36,000. So it is more then three fold.
With the necessity to buy vehicle (as public transport is bad), the higher cost of vehicle (multiple fold) compared to developed country even limit further the purchasing power of average Malaysian.
Our purchasing power is very low, not up to standard with the developed country.
JB_FROM
Salam,
Tun kata:
“My worry is that the people may expect high income without the accompanying high cost of living. It is better for them to be forewarned. ”
Pendapat saya:
Kami rakyat biasa tentulah mengharapkan pendapatan tinggi dengan kos saraan hidup yang rendah. Orang yang dah kaya mungkin kurang terasa kesan peningkatan kos kecuali golongan Haji Bakhil.
Masalah utama negara ialah pengurusan dan rasuah. Kerajaan BN perlu memperbaiki jentera pengurusan pentadbiran. Setiap perbelanjaan hendaklah diteliti.Pembaziran harus dielakkan. Yang rasuah kalau boleh hantar ke negara People’s Republic China untuk jalani hukuman yang bersesuaian. People boleh bermaksud rakyat, kebetulan hampir sama nama dengan Pakatan Rakyat.
Sekiranya kerajaan telah menjalankan kajian terperinci bahawa misalnya pembinaan bangunan Warisan Merdeka akan memberi faedah ekonomi dan sosial kepada negara,maka teruskan dan terangkan kepada rakyat faedah2 yang nyata boleh diperolehi. sekiranya tiada kajian terperinci, tangguhkan atau hentikan. Nanti DAP hantar roket tembak Warisan Merdeka untuk diganti tapak itu kepada Universiti Merdeka.
Banyak berlaku pembaziran di negara ini, lampu terang benderang, pegawai2 kerajaan selalu ke luar negara, projek2 yang tidak nampak jelas. Sebagai contoh National Broadband Initiative satu objektif yang baik tetapi skala perlaksanaannya nampak terlalu besar. Perlu segera sangat nak bagi kat orang kampung ke? Kalau perlu ,siapa sasarannya? Kena tengok kesesuaian teknoloji dengan keperluan keutamaan rakyat. Orang kampung lagi minat harga barang harian turun daripada teknoloji broadband. Orang Jelebu duk bising harga barang mahal sekarang ini. Kalau ada broadband tak ada duit nak buat apa? Teknoloji ICT berkembang pantas di malaysia tetapi adakah banyak mendatangkan hasil kepada negara. Jangan kerajaan belanja terlebih tetapi pulangan kurang. Sepatutnya kita kena Think Big, Start Small lepas tu baru Scale UP!!! la ni kat Malaysia tak main lagi start small? Pemimpin politik jaga2 sikit ,hangpa bukan faham sangat pasal teknoloji. Kena minta pandangan kedua dari pihak lain. Kadang2 proposal diberi walaupun dari pegawai kerajaan bunyi sedap tetapi senget kerana kepentingan peribadi. Bukan orang politik saja manusia. kakitangan awam pun manusia juga.
Lagi contoh2, Agensi Angkasa Negara, MIMOS, Instiut Sosial malaysia,anak2 syarikat Sime Darby dan pelbagai agensi2 kerajaan hidup segan mati tak mau yang boleh dirkelaskan kepada golongan WETA(White Elephant Travel Agency).Mungkin jimat kos jika WETA diturunkan pangkat kepada unit2 lebih kecil saja sekiranya tidak banyak sumbangan kepada negara. Mungkin tak perlu agensi besar untuk menjalankan tugas kecil. Duk perabis beras saja. Mungkin Dato Najib boleh minta khidmat nasihat adiknya Dato Nazir dan lain2 berkaitan macam mana nak uruskan kewangan atau menstruktur semula agensi2 ini.
Proton sekurang2nya ada jual kereta, rakyat boleh faham persaingan kuat tetapi PROTON terbuka sehingga kita tahu apa berlaku termasuk cerita power window Ir.Syahrizan dan apa langkah2 yang sedang diambil untuk memperbaiki organisasinya. Tengok muka Dato Syed Zainal bercakap berkerut2 pun (jangan lupa check blood pressure selalu ,)kita boleh rasa kesungguhan Proton walaupun menghadapi cabaran global. Untuk makluman saya tiada kaitan dengan beliau atau mana2 ahli Proton, kaitan saya hanyalah sebagai pemilik kereta Proton saja. Sebenarnya kritikan rakyat terhadap Proton amat berguna untuk meningkat kekuatan dan cabaran kepada Proton untuk jangkamasa panjang. InsyAllah sekiranya BN masih bertahan untuk satu abad lagi ,Proton akan capai kejayaan besar di peringkat antarabangsa.
Ini hanya sedikit contoh saja. Jabatan Audit Negara lagi tahu apa yang dah berlaku.
Good morning Ayahanda Tun,
Latest development from Hanoi, Vietnam according to thestar online. It did not mention the sovereignty right of Malaysia including Japan and other Asean countries under MOD in the south island as free port in Vietnam may have natural oil and gas under sea.
1. Saturday October 30, 2010
PM: Asean to continue as the most vibrant economic region
By MAZWIN NIK ANIS
mazwin@thestar.com.my
2. HANOI: Asean will strive to ensure that it continues as the region with the highest economic growth, Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak said.
3. The Prime Minister said the 10 Asean nations would also want to ensure the grouping
Salam untuk Tun dan keluarga.
Apabila kerajaan bercakap tentang Ekonomi Berpendapatan Tinggi, kita faham secara ringkasnya ialah bertujuan untuk menaik taraf dan menambahkan punca pendapatan bagi setiap isi rumah dalam sesuatu keluarga seluruh rakyat Malaysia. Dengan kata lain, setiap individu yang terlibat dalam aktiviti ekonomi Negara(yang tidak terlibat harus dilibatkan seperti suri rumah, warga emas, remaja penganggur dan sebagainya) supaya berupaya memperolehi pendapatan yang lebih baik dan lumayan berbanding sebelumnya.
Cita-cita tersebut tidak boleh tercapai secara semulajadi dengan sendirinya seperti mengharapkan bulan jatuh keriba, tetapi perlu DIJANA melalui idea-idea dengan menciptakan punca atau sumbernya. Peluang untuk meningkatkan pendapatan perlu dijana(dicipata atau diujudkan peluang) dengan cara yang bersistematik.
FELDA adalah antara contoh dalam era Tun Razak yang dilakukan kerajaan bagi menjana ekonomi rakyat miskin(melalui pertanian dan perladangan) dan dasar ekonomi baru bagi menjana pendapatan rakyat secara seimbang(bandar dan luar bandar) dan sedikit tumpuan dilebihkan ke kawasan luar bandar.
Manakala dalam zaman Tun Mahathir pula tumpuan lebih dilakukan dalam bidang Industri dan peluang perniagaan termasuk hak pemilikan ekuiti dan system Pensyarikatan Malaysia dengan langkah penswastaan entiti kerajaan yang telah banyak membawa kemakmuran kepada Negara hingga kini(walaupun ada sedikit ketirisan yang telah diperbetulkan dan diharap dapat terus diperbetulkan).
Adalah diharapkan dalam era Najib dan TPM nya, kombinasi bagi semua formula ini, iaitu aktiviti ekonomi ini harus diaplikasikan secara seiring/serentak dengan merebakkan atau meluaskan aktivitinya hingga ke kawsan luar bandar dan kawasan-kawasan yang kurang maju agar agihan ekonomi itu seimbang antara Bandar dan luar Bandar.
Untuk merialisasikan tujuan ini, harus melibatkan semua pihak(kerajaan, swasta dan rakyat sendiri), iaitu melakukan usaha dan amalkan cara BERPEMIKIRAN TINGGI dengan cara usaha yang lebih kreatif mengaplikasikan teknologi dan menggalakkan serta melakukan inovasi yang lebih kreatif lagi bagi tujuan PERCAMBAHAN dan PENJANAAN BERGANDA.
http://www.doughroller.net/earn-extra-income/multiple-streams-income-move-closer-financial-freedom/ ).salah satu cara menambah pendapatan.
Inovasi yang dimaksudkan ialah dengan melakukan aktiviti industri tambah nilai(terutama hasil perladangan oleh petani, bahan sumber asli dan malahan banyak lagi, termasuk juga barangan hasilan industri yang masih dalam bentuk terurai dan separa siap kepada barangan siap untuk domestic dan eksport).
Plan Transformasi Ekonomi(ETP) seperti yang diumumkan oleh PM tentang beberapa cara dan tindakan yang akan dilakukan kerajaan sebagai langkah mengenalpasti sumber dan punca yang boleh menjana peluang ekonomi kearah berpendapatan tinggi agak memberangsangkan.
Dari segi perlaksanaannya harus dilakukan secara serious(melibatkan agensi kerajaan, swasta dan rakyat sendiri) berterusan tanpa berlaku banyak ketirisan walau dimana-mana. Kita tidak mahu usaha itu tersekat separuh jalan(hangat-hangat tahi ayam) seperti mana program-program pembangunan yang telah berlalu dan juga program yang diwar-warkan sebelum ini.
http://www.ask.com/wiki/High_income_economy?qsrc=3044 ).
http://finance.mapsofworld.com/economy-reform/latin-america/income-distribution.html ).
http://biz.thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2009/5/8/business/3856160&sec=business ).
http://business.globaltimes.cn/world/2010-06/540527.html ).
Malaysia boleh berjaya mencapai status negara berpendapatan tinggi dan sekali gus Negara maju dengan syarat; ianya dapat diterjemahkan secara adil dan terus kepada rakyat tanpa ada yang tercicir, terutama dikawan luarbandar dan kawasan lain yang kurang maju dan masih mundur. Tq.
Salam semua
Tun,
Saya mahu luahkan sadikit feedback. PM beria sangat cakap dalam himpunan UMNO, pemilihan wakil calun mesti di ambil kira kalau mahu menang. Tapi calan BN di Batu Sapi Sabah tak pandai berBahasa Malaysia pun, apasal terlepas pandang ke? Datin tu cakap saya tak kisah dalam bahasa orang putih, tapi rakyat tempatan kisah.
Gongpauh
To those of you who thinks inflation is something that is naturally inherent to an economic model, you are terribly wrong. God gave us bounties with no strings attached essentially ! It is humans who went on imposing all kinds of conditions to the models so as to glean profits for themselves, often times at such unreasonable rates that they cause the model to become unsustainable ! For a country that is almost all sustaining such as ours, there is no excuse to have large inflation rate on essential items such as food and other nature based products that are produced locally. Small inflation due to the middlemen activities such as logistics and distribution costs are understandable but other than that, it should draw suspicion towards manipulative activities by irresponsible quarters either locally or internationally. So stop saying things like inflation is something that is unavoidable and that it comes with the times ! That’s like saying, it’s OK to become leeches and suck people’s blood as we move along, like what is so readily acceptable in a TWISTED Capitalist society ! Small indicative index yes, large inflation numbers…something must be wrong somewhere.
Remember, you only take out an amount that is equivalent to your contribution to an economic model… plus a little profit out of it, if you will. Anything larger than that, you would be depriving someone else’s rightful claim to a decent livelihood…or event a livelihood, which is cruel !
p.s. Come visit my blog – http://Blogs.FanBox.com/RaptureRecipes
Money is just a tool of trade. Higher income doesn’t promise a good living, peaceful country or create more jobs for the new generations if people who own the money is stupid or greedy.
I rather choose to become a skillful human resources citizen of the country who could contribute into the country productivity to achieve Vision 2020. A small country like Malaysia needed the citizen has a higher and unique skills set who know how to utilize the resources to produce high quality products with the same production cost that could be sustained for about 10 or 20 years.
That require each citizen to be trained with high quality education or develop our own smart thinking human resource without destroying the country natural resources. It will increase the demand to products and services due to it’s superior designs and quality.
For e.g., producing quality products without limitation of quantities using the same duration of productions time. The citizen still coming home everyday has enough quality time to spend with their family in contributing to prepare the next generation of the country. An example of elimination the obsesses and the addictions to the job with carefully design how the work could be done in lesser time.
Our unique multiracial country has advantages over the others if we strengthen the bond between races to achieve common goals to make the country succeed like we used to in your time.
The key secret is how to transfer the knowledge gained to our future generation efficiently.
Boring Malaysian mentality. Even the government always mumbling about economy, income and more with the very less interest in building a joyful country. We have so much holidays yet our holidays means all day shopping, dining and thats all, not much evens. I do believe low or higher income would do never more than today. Are we trying to level ourself with Dubai residents? High income economy? Having a chef in every residents home? What’s the point, high income economy could also means giving the ‘land owner’ more money and giving the ‘workers’ more job to do in the same amount of time. I see everywhere workers have only rights on paper, the cafe owner abuse the workers to work 10 minimum hours excluding the time needed to setup before and clean the shop after just because ‘you workers must do it’. I have seen bankers busy working till late 10pm everyday, not because they want the overtime, but simply because if they didn’t do overtime, their workload could end up unfinished. For the time spent parallel to wages, workers in Malaysia are doing crazy, being forced to work long hours and yet still need to find other 2nd job if possible just to feel the ‘ease of living’. High productivity (money) assured for business owners and not productive at all for workers. High income economy means more productivity (product/money) in less time, so maybe our workers need to work double in the same amount of time. Their wages may up a bit ( extra 10% maybe) and more? All goes to the land owner (extra 100%). I believe this policy is actually helping minority (the rich) to get richer and abusing the many workers stuck with their current economic status. Our state to state salary is not evenly level anyway per profession and that is ridiculous for Malaysia, a small country.
Assalamualaikum Tun.
Saya pun setuju dengan Tun.High income sama dengan high cost of living.
So,saya kira setiap keluarga pertengahan dari sekarang patut prepare bagaimana mengurus kewangan keluarga masing-masing.
Saya bernasib baik kerana dapat selesaikan pembelian rumah sebulan dua sebelum harga minyak diumum naik dua tahun lepas.Sekarang tak dapat dah harga macam dulu.
Macam orang muda lain,saya juga ada hutang niaga dan kenderaan yang mana ada dah selesai dan ada yang semakin susut.
Lepas 2,3 tahun akan datang mungkin target saya untuk hutang sifar (kecuali rumah dan kenderaan) akan tercapai.So,mungkin boleh mula memikirkan perancangan perniagaan yang buat kedua sekian kalinya.
Pada masa sekarang perkara lebih ditumpukan kepada menambah skill knowledge untuk perniagaan yang akan ditumpukan.
Adik-adik pompuan yang merokok (apa kena dgn pompuan) dah mula pakai tudung sambil tanya bila abang nak masuk keje…terasa bagaikan holiday.
Seseorang patut pikir tentang high income bermakna high cost of living.Don.t you?
Terima kasih Tun.
A’kum Tun,
I am so happy that you share with us your thoughts about this matter. Before we can become a developed country or high income country, we should first take care of the ‘rakyat’ and their needs. We should cut down the poverty or make it ‘poverty zero’ if possible. Once this is done, then I am sure, everyone would be happy to live in this country and trust BN even more.
But now, it seems that every time there is by election somewhere in Malaysia, then only we will hear that Government will spend some ‘special money’ to give away to the poor in that area. Like the recent development for new house in Gua Musang. It is obvious that they are doing it because of the by election in Galas that soon to be taken place. People are not blind. Sadly, the government think that we are blind. I know it is a good thing to develop housing area for the poor and to help them improve their life, but my question is, are they sincere in helping the people? Or is it just because the by election is around the corner, so they need to spend the special money just to win the election?
I will be happy to see Malaysia prosper and be the best Muslim nation in the world. Saying it and doing is 2 very different thing. Saying it is very easy but doing it,definitely not so easy. And Government is saying as if being a developed nation is so easy to achieve.
First of all, our education system has to be right and well taught to the student. Our teachers must be highly educated and well exposed to the world. Not just someone who graduated from Maktab Perguruan and expect them to teach our future generations to be a good student and lead the country in the future!
Being a developed country means that everything must take into place. Everything must move together, not just by having the highest tower in the world. Every department must work side by side in achieving this. This is not easy. Government must make sure that everything work well and accordingly or else it would be a disaster. I am myself not very good in economics. So I am not going to say anything about it. Let the best brain do that part. I rather talk more about managing the people in order to improve themselves.
Government must work hard to improve on many sectors. Government officers are very lazy. They have the mentality of procrastinating task because they just lazy to do it now. Every time you go to the government offices, especially Immigration, you will always be asked to come back tomorrow to do a very simple thing. This is simply due to them being lazy and do not want to work when it comes near to closing time.
This is just one example I can share here, but there are many more cases like this. So how are we going to have a developed country if the government never spend on training and development for our human capital? We give billions of ringgit to some department but not so much on building the nation through our workforce.
If we want to be the best, we have to train them to be the best. If we want to be most successful country in the world, we have to work hard. There is nothing easy in this world.
I just saw a video of President Obama being a guest in one of the tv programme in the US. He was asked about ‘YES WE CAN’ slogan. He replied to the question and said, yes we can do it, provided we work hard.
So in Malaysia, we set the target of being a high income country by 2020 or so, but the question is, are we ready? Are we working hard enough to achieve that? I do not doubt the Chinese because they have always work hard, but I doubt the Indians and Malays.
Good luck to Prime Minister Najib. As long as he lets his wife be in front of page of newspapers and TV every day, his rating will drop surely. And comes next general election, if BN were to lose, one of the reason is definitely her! She is just too much of attention seeker!
I pray that Malaysia will be blessed by Allah and the people of every races will continue to live happily side by side. Let’s work hard and make sure that our children can get the best education and health care from the Government!
Thank you
God bless Malaysia!
aziz
Salam buat Ayahanda Tun,
Siapa yang cakap sebuku roti kat U.K boleh dapat dengan harga 5p…? Nak cetak gambar bersaiz postcard kat ASDA boleh la dapat sekeping.. Ayam pulak, siapa kata hanya 10p… Ayam mati kena langgar dengan lori boleh la kot.. Ayam KFC (halal punya) seketul pun sepaun lebih..
Tapi yang menarik, pasal kereta. Seliter petrol sekitar 1.2 pound (dalam RM6.00) dan boleh gerakkan kereta berkapasiti 1.8L sejauh kira-kira 15km (kos petrol per km = RM0.40). Kat sini, seliter sekitar RM2.00 atau RM0.13. Tol kat sana, hampir tiada (jarang-jarang jumpa), kat sini ada banyak… Ada yang RM0.15/km dan ada yang lebih-kurang RM0.25/km. Jadi kos perjalanan (petrol campur tol) di U.K masih RM0.40/km dan kita kat sini (RM0.28 – RM0.38/km).
Kos kereta baru model setara 1.8L pulak dalam RM60k-RM70k di sana tapi kita RM120k kat sini. Lebihan RM40k – RM50k atau RM6k/annum – hayat 9 tahun @ RM500/bulan… Dengan purata perjalanan 3,000km sebulan, lebihan kos kereta adalah dalam RM0.13/km. Cakap mudahnya, kos berkereta (dikecualikan susut nilai dan senggaraan) di sini per km adalah dalam lingkungan RM0.41 – RM0.51 tapi di U.K hanya RM0.40..!
Tapi kena ingat, perkapita perbatuan di Malaysia adalah antara tertinggi, sebab itu warranti kenderaan di negara maju hanyalah sekitar 60,000km/tiga tahun tetapi kita 100,000km @ 3 tahun. Itu menunjukkan kita kuat berjalan… Jadi, janganlah merungut kos berkereta mahal sebab kita menggunakan jalanraya (km/tahun per individu) antara paling tinggi perkapitanya.. Tu tak masuk lagi nak ekzos SS besar paha dan tukar rim sport. Janganlah samakan dengan U.S – asal kurang saja minyak dalam negara, mulalah menjajah sana, menjajah sini..
Juga kita jangan selalu sangat mengeluh, kerana kita pengguna antara tertinggi perkapita gula dan macam-macam lagi termasuk roti canai. Jadi, berani belanja, berani la tanggung la..
Dearest Tun,
I totally AGREE with Tun. Higher incomes will lead to higher cost of living.
There
Salam YB Tun,
Why high income economy?
Why not high net saving?
In practice, net saving is vital( the equation is income less expenditure which is equal to net saving).
What ever happen to income and expenditure is not of my concern. The most important is the saving that I could have.
Then the existing government (including so called think tank)should work it a plan of which a high net saving could be enjoyed by RAKYAT (including me).
Doakan semoga YB Tun diberkati sentiasa.
Dearest Tun,
Thank you for your enlightment with regards to the subject of “High Income Nation”. I used to work in Malaysia as a manager for 5 years. During this time, my income was spent on my family’s basic needs and children’s education. I can hardly afford a local holiday with my family. I was struggling with the installment of my Proton Wira. My savings was zero. Fortunately I received an offer to work overseas which means I have to leave my family. It was hard for me to choose and I decided to accept the offer. It was 3 times my last drawn salary and after 3 years with the company, my income was doubled. Eventhough the cost of living is high in the country I was working, I can save 50% from my income. My family can enjoy overseas holiday every year. I bought another car (imported model) for my wife. Money was never an issue. I can fly back to see my family 2 to 3 times a year or vice-versa.I can afford to retire earlier if I want to spend the rest of my time with my family.
No wonder we have so many Malaysians seeking their fortunes outside Malaysia.
Take good care Tun.
Salam Tun.
With your explanation, i hope everyone in the street will have a clear picture about the definition of HIGH INCOME ECONOMY. No doubt that High Income and High Cost of Living are like railway track’s iron beam. They must be parellal. Separation of one would be a disaster.But that is not my point here.
I was atracted towards one of your sentence, “one Ringgit will buy in Malaysia what USD1 will buy in the US”. Is this the case under each and every single circumstances?
Japanese branded sedan car cost about RM140K in malaysia. Does the same brand of car cost USD140K in US?
I am not critisizing anybody or anything here but i strongly believe there are lots of space for improvement here to reduce the cost of living.
Dear Tun M, can u tell the people who has power, they only can win the rakyat if they can control the inflation rate especially food.we not asking for subsidy.we asking merely for them to control the price to go sky rocking.the second thing is, please stop centralized everything in KL.the price of houses are ridiculous.even the double story terrace house cost more than half a million.dont u think if they build the menara warisan the price of everything will be higher?prices of goods and houses.i’m not a fan of current government and i hate the opposition.they dont understand what people really want.they should solve current problem.i dont really understand about economy.most of the rakyat dont.but what i do understand is, sometimes if i went to the supermarket,RM100 can buy less than 10 items.i heard in japan the politician always consult academician before make a policy.not sure whether its true or not.but its a good idea dont u think?i’m no one in this world,no one will hear my voice.but i really think the gap between riches and average person like us are huge nowadays.the politician usually are rich,that’s why they dont know how bad the economy of real and average people especially in KL.
p/s: when i was a young kid, i always have to cut back a lot of thing cause my parent divorce and my mom work as a clerk.she always told me and my sibling,study hard and you can buy a bungalow house.i dont think its relevant now
Salam Tun & Bloggers,
I don’t really know the details of the implementation on the high income economy. Nevertheless, the concept is good to me. But Tok Det is right, it must come with value i.e. increase in purchasing power. That’s all that matters.
Speaking of purchasing power, I recall my experience living in the UK where for British pounds 38k could actually afford me a BMW instead of a mere proton saga in Malaysia. For 10 British pounds I can actually enjoy taking a bus to the city, buy some nice fish and chips, a kit-kat, some chips, newspaper, one second-hand CD and take another bus home. In Malaysia it
Pos Malaysia has already on a fast track to be in the high income economy. For many years ordinary postage was 30 sen then suddenly jumped to 80sen. This is a rip-off for their incompetency. I asked at the counter girl at Batu Gajah if she is getting any raise. No. So the high income is not trickling to the lower staff. Are they going to replace the CEO? “Dunno”, the girl replied.
Young bright graduates are known for their idealism and dreams. Many want to be a millionaire by 40 and retire to travel and relax. Many a sweet young thing (syt) want to marry the rich, be happy and raise children. Many of the not so young go for datuks. The elderly rural folks want their children to be well off hoping they get sponsorship to do hajj.
The point is that citizens want to be in the high income bracket. Individually, it is more doable if one has the knowledge and willing to work hard. It is the efforts of people, the building blocks of society that finally lead the nation to prosperity. It is not so much of a nation-imposed phenomenon.
It augurs well for everybody if the nation attains a meaningful and balanced high income economy. The foundation, policies and strategies to do so must be in placed. We have yet to fully enhanced human capital to reap knowledge economy. Workers must be assured of minimum wages in accordance to the job specifications and categories. The elderly, above 60 (as in Australia) must be given welfare. These are just of examples of what high income economy should cater also.
We are blessed with abundance of natural resources, equitable climate and human diversity. The credo is sustainable living at own level of attainment and taking care of the environment. The abode of peace is here.
Tun,
Bab lain saya setuju. Bab yang Tun ingat orang Malaysia zaman sekarang punya ‘intelligence’ macam orang-orang dahulu, saya bangkang habis-habisan.
Kenapa saya kata begini? Cuba lihat ‘point’ nombor 11, bab Minyak. Memang lah kalau nak ikut harga pasaran USD 30 naik USD 140 sepatutnya naik jugak harga minyak. Itu untuk orang yang tak paham cara penjualan dan pembelian harga bahan mentah nih.
Mana orang boleh jual beli minyak mentah pakai kilo? orang jual beli minyak pakai ‘long term contract’ – PSC. Kalau dah agreement kata USD 70 dollar satu barrel selama 5 tahun, itu jer ler harganya…. mana ada naik turun?
Geng-geng kedai kopi boleh la Tun temberang. Masalah nya, geng2 ni bukan geng2 yang akan tumbangkan kerajaan melalui undi. Diorang kena suap. Sekarang ni geng-geng yang Tun hantar pegi luar negara dulu-dulu tu, yang bijak-bijak tu, yang pandai-pandai sumer tu dah balik dan dah besar panjang dah.. dah boleh mengundi dah… diorang ni boleh pikir jauh, bukan takat pikir apa yang berlaku depan mata, propaganda macam Utusan lah, TV3 lah.. nih bukan zaman 80-90an Tun.. sekarang ni budak kampung SPM pon boleh dapat 19A. 19Am bukan 9A. Gila pandai tu. Melayu makin bijak. Dah tak boleh di pijak-pijak dan di tarik macam lembu lagi. Zaman Hang Tuah dah lama tak wujud kat Malaysia melainkan dalam kerja-kerja Gomen. Itu pon ada jugak yang undi bulan, sabit dengan roket. Kenapa? Tun pikir ler sendiri.
Sekarang orang dah tanak tengok apa yang kerajaan boleh bagi SAHAJA. Sekarang, semua rakyat nak tengok ‘trasparency’. Rakyat nak tengok kalau kontrak RM 200 juta tu diberi kepada satu syarikat, kami nak tengok sampai lubang cacing setiap satu sen duit tu mana pergi. Itu rakyat Malaysia sekarang. Semua dah bukak mata. Semua dah sedar. Kerajaan punya ‘camoflage’ media dah tak jalan dah, maybe pasal yang tukang buat iklan semua dah tua-tua uzur tak mampu nak bagi idea yang lebih bernas dan ‘subtle’.
Apa masalahnya Kerajaan bagi subsidi? Tak der masalah. Jangan ler belanja duit ke tempat yang bukan-bukan. Nak bina menara 100 tingkat? Syarikat apa yang nak sewa situ? Kalau dekat KLCC tu logik la jugak, syarikat ‘O&G’. Ker pakai modal kerajaan/bajet baru nak bayar sewa? Pusing-pusing, ‘roling-roling’ duit balik-balik orang tu jugak yang kaya, orang tu jugak dapat kontrak, orang tu jugak yang bagi sedara mara kotrak lain. Jemu dah orang Malaysia tengok benda-benda jijik macam ni Tun.
Ambik duit PETRONAS sama macam tahun-tahun lepas. Padahal keuntungan, makin kurang. Lepas tu duit nak gali perigi dah habis. Terpaksa jual anak syarikat. Tahun depan nak kena jual lagi ker? Tahun-tahun seterusnya? Nanti dengan ‘Twin Tower’ pon kena jual. Habis lah. Mungkin tak berkat agaknya tak bagi kerajaan Kelantan duit ‘royalti’. ALLAH itu adil.
Sambung ler tipu Tun. Tak lama. Bagi 10 tahun, BN jatuh ler. Kenapa? Pasal semua budak-budak yang membesar sekarang semua tak suka dengan propaganda serupa begini. 10 tahun lagik dah boleh undi. Geng-geng yang tak pangkah BN sekarang masih dan akan lagi tak pangkah BN 10 tahun lagik.
Pikirlah sendiri Tun. Bukan kurang ajar. Tapi ini hakikat menegakkan benda yang betul dan merobohkan benda yang salah.
Saya doakan Tun semoga diberkati ALLAH, dan di panjangkan umur, mudah-mudahan mampu membuat ibadah-ibadah lebih lagi. Insyallah.
Dear Tun,
Personally, I don’t want high income economy until and unless demarcatiion line between the have and the have not is significantly reduced, though not at all be abolished.
Good morning Ayahanda Tun,
1. Will High Income Economy contributes to High Living Standard Cost?
2. Yes, it will.
3. Can average Malaysians live comfortably with High Living Standard Cost in KL and PJ?
4. Yes, it will depend on how we manage our fixed income and monthly fixed and variable operating expenses.
5. At the moment, majority of the rakyat see the construction of 100th floor storey of Warisan Merdeka beside Staudium Negara and Stadium Merdeka as another wastage beside Petronas Twin Tower and KL Tower which will drive our living standard cost higher.
6. They are anti-development because they do not accept Malay domination in the ruling government even if they admit themselves as Malaysian 1st after 53 years.
7. Will there be a snap general election in 2011?
8. I personally think that PM Najib should call for snap election PRU 13 as soon as possible to gain his full mandate as the PM; and it should be run simultaneously in Peninsula; Sarawak and Sabah in order to make 16th September as Malaysia Day under the philosophy of 1 Malaysia.
9. If we do not make a step further, we will never know who wins, right?
10. Furthermore, Pas, Dap and Pkr are not legally bind as Pakatan Rakyat since they have different views and opinion in running their parties under the slogan of Pakatan Rakyat.
11. Whatever the outcome will be; BN may not re-capture the lost states; but BN must learn how to work with stronger oppostion parties to make sure Malaysia may reach high income economy with moderate cost of living standard.
Good day Ayahanda Tun. Having stonger opposition parties in the whole country is generally good for Malaysia to prevent fund wastage due to 2/3 absolute power.
Hi aly (the person who commented on my sharing dated 27th October at 4.50pm)
Usually I will not want to make a direct reply to any questions that directed by any other readers or commentators. This is simply because my comment is not directed to them but to Tun. But I hope to make you to become a better reader and observer in Tun blog, I decided to reply your comment.
If you look carefully at my last few comments, you will realize that I have full of praise to Tun for all his past achievements and contributions. My admiration to Tu will be less than you. I admire Tun for his strong will and drive in putting up a blog and sharing his views with everybody. If we observe properly, one of the purposes that Tun putting up a blog is to enlarge and deepen our Malaysians individual knowledge and understanding that surrounds us and our beloved country. But if the readers do not put in extra effort to read properly and carefully before started commenting, then he or she will not be able to benefit from this blog reading. Similarly if commentators do not make sincere, sensible and logical comments, instead making criticizing and personal attack to Tun or some other commentators based on emotional feeling, then the particular person and the rest of readers on blog will not be benefitted because this will waste their time effort to read your irrelevant comments and criticisms. If we appreciate Tun and what he has done for us, then every one of us should start making quality and careful comments.
To answer your comments directly, I said
“10. Clearly the increased income in high-cost countries does not give an increase in purchasing power equal to the increase in income as compared to low-cost countries. It is important that the Malaysian public understand this.”
Malaysians who have visited, worked, or lived in developed nations would agree that this is not true.
I worked in Canberra, Australia while I was studying there. I earned AUD25 per hour for a hardware shop job that required me to arrange goods on shelves. That was my first job ever — I had no experience.
After working 1 hour, I would have enough money to buy four McChicken Value Meals (with AUD1 to spare) at AUD6 each.
If I were to work at a similar shop here in KL, I would be paid only RM5 or less per hour. I could not afford even one McChicken Value meal working the same hours and performing the same duties.
Good day Tun and hope you are in the best of health. Since the dawn of this phrase ‘high income economy’ I have spent a lot of time wondering how we the people of Malaysia can really attain such a status. Do we get up one fine morning and go to our bosses and demand a bigger paycheck? Are employers going to shed its staff to make it more leaner thus redistributing the salary scheme since redundancy has been eliminated? Are those who would be building the 100 storey tower, redevelopment of Sg. Besi Airport, Pudu Jail, and the Sg. Buluh land be highly paid? It seems, everyone is still vague on how these initiatives can translate into us achieving a high income nation / economy. At best these projects would be seen as a sudden burst of energy that would see the construction sector and all associated sectors benefit from it. What happens when we have laid the last tile on the 100th floor of the planned Warisan Merdeka? What will be the fate of these sectors once these mega projects are completed?
Will the people employed to undertake these project continue to earn a high salary?
Will sustainability prevail?
Or would we have reached the top of the hill and everything would be downhill from then on?
Tun, please do me a favor and tell the powers that be that we are not morons. You want a high income nation…..the solution is simple. Begin with doing away with the high import duties imposed on foreign cars. By doing this, foreign cars would not only be so much cheaper, the loan repayment would not be nightmare as what is happening now. Essentially the people would have more disposable income which would translate to them leading a better life.
But by doing so, PROTON would be crucified you might say. Well its high time they were anyway. With the new Inspira, they have taken plagiarism to whole new level. If Proton does not survive this onslaught, it would lead to their demise. 27 millions lives made happier as compared to protecting a car maker. That for a start is a high income nation.
Dearest Tun
//By checkerAuthor Profile Page on October 27, 2010 4:19 PM
It seem majority of CheDet’s bloggers ( as to-date )are not in favour of the proposed “high-Income Economy” to be adopted. This is a clear message from the people. I am really concerned where we are heading.
May Allah bless & protect us, ameeen.//
1-I agree with checkers.What is the good thing of a high income economy if it is coupled with a high cost of living.What is important is our purchasing power.Go for high income only if we can keep our cost low .What I think would be a more challenging task is how to lower our cost of living and raising a little our income.That would be perfect already.We are not expecting too much.
2-This way at least we can aggressively attract tourist to come in big numbers allowing us to make tons of money from them.Nowadays tourists are beginning to complain about how costly things already are in Malaysia.Due to the natural beauty ,strategic location and unique truly Asia assets this is an extremely low costs but high income industry that we should give our hearts and soul to.
3-This 21st century is also the time for wellness revolution as more affluent population become very health conscious and willing to pay whatever price for them , and the great secrets to our health could be found in our rainforests hence the huge potential of our agro based businesses.If only we put our hearts and souls in this area..Another low cost but extremely high margin business for us here.
4-Explore unconventional high income generators like network marketing,a business that could grow exponential allowing Malaysians to grow their businesses into China,India,Indonesia and the rest of the world through our natural cultural links we have been blessed with.This is the lowest of costs and highest of returns business ever known!!
5-This Network marketing business if properly and creatively motivated by the Govts could do wonders to our economy.Of course since there is nothing much for the politicians in this industry nobody ,including Tun,is interested to explore further.
6-High income economy as is now aggressively pursued by the govt is so ‘in the box’ and more aimed at enriching the politicians and capitalists only and the selected few from amongst their cronies.The masses we are afraid won’t be very much receiving its benefits.But we are likely only to suffer its costs.
7-Tell you what Tun I think only the UMNOPUTRAS and others who could see their opportunity to make money from the huge projects to come are the ones truly excited.For the rest of us we think real bad times are ahead of us the costs will come but our income may not.
8-I an afraid this ETP thing will not be very well received by the Rakyat.The trust level is very low.That’s what I feel.I am not excited at all.But maybe I am alone.
Thanks Tun.
We need to go back to basic and start it here in our own soil. The basics are, hypermarket – the daily basic needs, building and housing – a place to work and stay, car and motorcycle sales – the ride that we need, daycare centre for children and the elder – a better place for our loved one and a place for a better investment… I only need 10,000 people to make the hypermarket come true! If only, 10,000 of us who are educated enough join and help me make the dream come true today, we will have the hypermarket ready by tomorrow! http://kerjaya-muslim.blogspot.com/
Dear Tun,
The topic of high income economy is very timely and relevant to all Malaysians. Apparently many are not economists and do not understand the whole issue of national economy and nation building. Being an economist, I wish to comment what Tun has written.
“3. Our cost of labour is now higher than our neighbours and of course against China and Vietnam.There is no way we can compete with them. If our labour cost increases further, especially if we want to have a high income economy, we can no longer compete for FDI, at least the labour intensive ones.”
We should not look at the comparison as being negative. China and Vietnam has different economy setup from Malaysia. These two nations have just awaken from economic awareness. Whereas, our country has been longer in the drive for economic development. As such naturally wages awareness in China and Vietnam is still lower than the expectation in Malaysia. I agree with our government high wage and high income economy ala western countries, UK, US and europe. This is to avoid vicious cycle of poverty due to below subsistence wages. How can a person survive on a RM400 a month wage in Kuala Lumpur or even in Kelantan for that matter? Ordinary decent lunch and dinner for a person costs around RM10 plus drink. RM20 per day is already RM600 per month. Don’t underfeed our workers. They become emaciated. This below poverty line of wages is inhumane, cruel, exploitative and uncivilized. We can still hear of such atrocities taken place in China and Vietnam. As a result of this unholy practice, due to wrong government policy, people resort to vice and other undesirable activities to survive. So, congratulations to our PM for coming up with such bold policies to break the vicious cycle of poverty in our midst. High income economy is humane, civilized and respect human dignity for survival.
“4. When we increase incomes it will not be only wages and salaries which will increase, profits as income must also increase. Government can quite easily pay high salaries and wages. But even for the Government the money must come from somewhere.”
Government has its revenue, coming from taxation, like import export duties, income tax, vehicle tax and so on. The Government also gets revenue from pension fund (EPF) and borrowings. The Government should not fear paying high wages to the civil servants so that they can have decent income to pay for all the basic necessities,; food, clothing and transportation to perform their duties. They must have enough calories, protein and all the nutrition to be alert in their jobs. If the government do not spend on a deficit expenditure but insists on balanced budget all the time, it will be a waste. Deficit here means government revenue is less than expenditure. The shortfall is taken from the people’s savings. When people receive income, they spend only 70%. The 30% called savings is lost to the economy, or leakage. Meaning to say, if the economy just continue every month with a reduction of 30% not spent, then the economy will shrink by 30%. We must understand all of us at this moment survive on another person’s expenditure. We buy food, clothing and cars. The seller of these food and services get income and survive from our expenditure. If everybody stops spending for a year, just to put it on a very extreme form, then nobody gets income. Without income for a year, you’ll be emaciated and the country will face very serious and fatal recession, unemployment, and chaos. This is just to remind everybody it is not prudent to balance budget. In fact, balanced budget in this time of our civilization is stupidity.
Our PM’s economic transformation programme of RM670billion should be lauded and praised. Dato’ Seri Najib definitely has vision. Everybody is talking about global recession coming to our shore, started from America, quickly spread to europe, Japan and the rest. We can’t be sitting idle waiting for the global tidal wave to drown us out. China can withstand global recession because it has already started an unstoppable momentum of development. Malaysia under Dato’ Seri Najib is bold and innovative to come up with this economic transformation programme to impede, nay, to counter the imminent coming of recession to our shores. Assuming without the economic transformation programme, we just let things be as it is, we find there is no demand to our exports of oil palm, electronic items and everything due to the recession in other countries, then there is withspread unemployment and no income for our people. With RM670billion ETP stimulus, we will create many jobs and opportunities which are anticipated to be lost due to the anticipated coming recession. Hopefully this ETP stimulus will counter future loss of jobs in our country.
Let us all support our present government. I call upon the opposition to do likewise and do not undermine the government’s good effort to bring prosperity to the people.
In addition, our government is very wise to devise a private sector-driven investment programme so that we do not have to depend on FDI. Our private sector driven investment can raise fund through share market. Coupled with the government’s initiative, we should be able to see Malaysia achieve a developed nation status in 2020.
To sum it up, every nation of the world should have this ideal economic policy for their nation;, to have full employment without inflation. Recession means unemployment. Inflation means reducing purchasing power and the standard of living.
There are many issues I have not addressed because it will take very long to analyze and explain every sector and every aspect of the economy. Hopefully the present government will be retained in the coming general election to see us through the economic transformation programme and bring us to be a developed nation by year 2020.
amin tan
9. We see today the purchasing power of the developed countries with much higher income than us. The United States is said to have a per capita income of USD36,000, roughly five times Malaysia’s USD7,000 per capita. But the people are not five times richer than Malaysians in terms of purchasing power. In fact in certain cases the purchasing power is the same as Malaysians. According to the McDonald’s Hamburger Index, the Ringgit is the same as the US Dollar in purchasing McDonald’s hamburger – one Ringgit will buy in Malaysia what USD1 will buy in the US.
hmm,
but what about the cost of items like TV, Cars etc?
fresh grad in US can afford a car without 7-9 years loan unlike malaysia.
i feel you are just using examples which are advantageous to your view. please be fair and illustrate the REAL situation instead of putting up smoke screens like our newspapers. You can’t afford to bullshit people on the internet.
Hahaha…I was gonna say something about this. Turns out it’s Tun again that breaks the ice first. Yep, this is definitely something that needs to be looked into by the current government. It’s not as easy as saying : “I want a high income nation” and kaboom! the whole thing changes overnight ! There are micro issues that need adjustments. To me, it basically boils down to being able to reap the natural bounties of God the best intelligent way you possibly can. Being a very resource rich country like ours, its only natural that the chance of attaining “high income with low inflation” economy is much better than say…a country deprived of such bounty, like that little neighbour of ours down south! Provided of course we know just how to fully manipulate our wealth to our advantage. Creating new labour paradigms and new technologies to improve the way we produce things will eventually translate into higher returns for lower expenditure. Make full use of technology, multimedia for fast communication that will reduce cost, mechanization in agriculture, more effective methods for the fishing and aquaculture industries, new way of cattle breeding, intelligent exploitation of the jungles riches, new wealth in biotechnology exploration (both for food & medicine), exploring solar energy and renewable energy sources. These are all means of reaping maximum output at lower input which will eventually translate into higher income for our society. Yes, better productivity with easy executions and less spending in short. If possible, even the garbage collector should be able to do his job smelling like a milion bucks at the end of his work day ! hehe ;D
High income society however, does not mean everybody, young and old working their way to a prime minister’s job or that the country will eventually be deprived of janitors and garbage collectors ! You can only find that kind of society in heaven, I believe. ;P
Dear Tun and all,
I would like to comment on the first reply:
Why did you say Tun didn’t tell the truth?.. I could see that he has said everything… without backing the government.
You said that Tun didn’t mention about inflation, but only tell about high cost of living.
Inflation is the situation when the prices of goods and services go up, which means cost of buying things would be higher. So, what’s the difference?..
Please read all of Tun’s posts before blaming on him. This post is the continuation of many more related topics previously. And again, he has mentioned about so many other things including indirectly advising the government on what he thinks the right way to lead the country.
Don’t ask him to advise the government anymore…he had done so many things to the government and now he is still writing for us so we could know what is on his mind. You can ask the government to appoint him as our country’s advisor like our neighbour…but I don’t think he will agree.
Please think before you throw your comments on a respected world class economist!
Salam Tun & fellow bloggers,
It seem majority of CheDet’s bloggers ( as to-date )are not in favour of the proposed “high-Income Economy” to be adopted. This is a clear message from the people. I am really concerned where we are heading.
May Allah bless & protect us, ameeen.
salam Tun,
semoga sihat2 selalu dari anakanda di Pulau Pinang.
Tun, saya cuma mahu MENGADU tentang perkembangan terkini berkenaan IFF (Islamic Fashion Festival) yang diadakan baru2 ini dan tentang rancangan terbaru kerajaan untuk menambah kelab2 malam dalam usaha menjadi hub hiburan malam sebagai menarik pelancong ke negara kita.
Saya amat kecewa dengan perkembangan semasa ini dan saya jangkakan sebagai umat Islam, pasti ramai yang akan membantah rancangan ini dan menunjukkan kesannya di dalam pilihan raya umum seterusnya. Saya sayang barisan nasional terutamanya UMNO dan saya harapkan barisan nasional dapat mengekalkan pemerintahan pada penggal seterusnya, tapi saya bimbang dengan pendekatan terbaru kerajaan sekarang akan membawa kesan yang buruk.
Bantulah kami Tun,
Bantulah UMNO,
Bantulah Barisan Nasional,
Buatlah sesuatu agar Malaysia tanah air tercinta ini akan maju dengan acuannya sendiri, bukan mengikut Barat. Isu agama Islam adalah lebih sensitif berbanding isu perkauman. Tun sendiri mengetahuinya.
Salam,
Malaysian Malays
Dearest Tun
So Najib is considering to call for PRU13 already, so fast?Although I personally think he shouldn’t rush it would also be unwise to let the impending economic calamity come first which will then make all his talk about a high income economy a great joke.Nonetheless my sincere recommendations to ensure Najib can help pull the BN through with a 2/3 majority:-
1-First and foremost concentrate on the Malays.If the Malays don’t buy you,forget the non Malays.One Malaysia has been confirmed by Najib a rhetoric, as special privileges is irrevocable.So the non Malays only hope now is with the opposition.Maybe Karpal Singh knows better.Even if he is only lying no one would know until the day they actually try it, so there is still a hope.
2- Go down to the streets and meet the honorable laymen regularly.To show respect dress and speak like a layman .At the moment think low income first.Go check the overhead bridges ,walkways and other public amenities esp those near Chow Kit and see for himself just how horribly clean these places are serving his people. Surprise check the services of the public transportation system, personally once in a while and regularly through reliable spies…and make this a habit.
3- Be the imam for Friday prayers once in a while at Putrajaya mosque or national Mosque.If he can give the sermons live telecast to the whole nation now that would be awesome for him.The Malays still have a soft spot for a leader who can lead congregational prayers.That’s how Anwar can be so ‘suci dalam debu’ to the Malays.This was one of Pak Lah’s few strength that I know..
4- Do not ever do the ‘ I help you,you help me ‘nonsense esp at these coming by elections ceramahs. And it will be wise to keep these people as faraway from ceramahs as possible too- ROSMAH,PAK LAH,KHAIRI,NAZIR,ASTRONAUT MALAYSIA.Make use of these by elections to sell the ETP and high income economy with all their hearts and soul to gauge whether the people on the streets really trust their vision so that we shouldn’t postpone the PRU13.
5- Mainstream media to be fair to both sides ,lets ‘shock and awe’ the voters with this maturity. Live TV debates between the leadership of the parties involved on selected issues (Anwar vs Najib..maybe the whole world may want to watch).We don’t want the Rakyat to boycott the mainstream media and rely only on the alternative media,do we?
6- This thing should not be talked about until after election ,the Idris Jala Vision 2018 and the subsidy cut matters,let alone do any actual cuts.We Malaysians are extra allergic to this subject.
7-Things to invoke the Official Secrets Act to stop people from discussing (a) the new Istana Negara at Bukit Duta that cost almost RM800 million although we already have a huge Istana Melawati at Putrajaya (b)about Scorpene the submarine or (c)Tanjung Pagar surrender to Singapore.Is the OSA still in force?If not bring it back.
8- Please remind Najib try not to raise his voice too much in his election ceramahs as though the listeners are deaf.Its not inspiring but mostly annoying.Tun can’t you coach him a bit.His nemesis Anwar speaks so beautifully,gentle at times,suspense at other times,hilarious almost all the time and when the people are all already in his grasp,then only will he painlessly fixed the rope on their noses.
9-To get to these ceramahs BN PEOPLE should drive laymen cars like PROTONs,PERODUAs or small cheap foreign cars.But if they can ride bicycles or the Kap chais that’ll be a bonus.
10- Oh yes..Get Musa and gang sacked from SIME and pretend to be tough with the management of other loss making GLCs.It’ll be great if Najib can announce that all dealings with Govt will be by open tenders only if it is not yet done,and with immediate effect announce there will be no more need of management companies/middlemen who don’t value add anything at all to be involved in such dealings.
11-I know its very risky but it will win over the atas pagar people who wants to see a true UMNO transformation.How come we don’t hear about the fight against politik wang anymore?Bring this issue back less the rakyat will think that Najib himself pun ‘bergelumang dengan taik’ that’s why the silence.
12-Last but not least,Najib must work and pray very very hard.All the best from me.I hope he can try to convince me to support BN.
Thanks Tun.
One point I strongly disagree is the McDonald’s Hamburger Index that Tun mentioned – One Ringgit will buy in Malaysia what USD1 will buy in the US.
This is not true at all. Having been staying in US for a few months, I notice that the cost of living in US is quite low for US citizen: Big Mac is only around USD3-4, car is around USD10k, landed link house is around USD200k, bread is aound USD1. Other daily groceries are also much cheaper if compare dollar to dollar to MYR.
And the same profession such engineer is earning the same amount of salary dollar to dollar compare to Malaysia. In US, an engineer can buy a Toyota Corrola in 6 months after graduate but in Malaysia, it takes 6 years. It takes 20 years to payoff a house loan in US but it takes 2 generations to payoff house loan in Malaysia for the same size of landed property.
For that reason, even only husband is working, the whole family can live comfortably. This doesn’t applies in Malaysia where both husband and wife have to work to make ends meet.
The high cost of living in Malaysia is driving a lot of professionals to either work in Singapore or oversea.
salam Tun,
i’m was studied about the good governance…so why don’t we applied in our countries..because of from here we as ‘rakyat’ know the flow of the government.that is because of our countries not very clear about the good governance in our local government.
regards,
waktukita
Salam Tun,
i would agree to your entire blog on this subject. i wish to add as follows :-
1) moving from low income to high income requires plenty of additional knowledge from the workers and management. this is not at all addressed by the government. it worries me to feverish levels.
2) the gov only addresses security, economics and opportunities. i am afraid even given such huge opportunities, the same ordinary people whom are without much skill cannot really benefit. the disparity between rich and poor will only widen.
3) it looks to me like the game will be the same. the pure lobbyists will benefit most, the skilled people left or pushed behind curtains, and the normal workers told to work even harder. the net effect is actually a worse economic climate than before. it may lead to a downfall of the gov if the gov does not pay speedy and close attention to this.
4) to achieve this high income, a revolution in thinking is required. there is a need to be knowledge led. but there is no effort in this direction at all. it is ‘assumed’ we have a pool of people to do it. i hear the gov say ‘increase/enhance’ human capital. what on earth is that exactly ? what are the programs ? will they work ? is the right emphasis given ?
5) many of the older generation management does not want to give up, and rely on their age advantage to ‘rule’. this does not provide a competitive environment.
6) it is extremely to difficult for one to admit that he or she does not know or out of touch with progress. given the pace of advancement in science and technology, what we used to know over ten years ago is today is easily obsolete. this principle applies throughout the organisation, from management down to clerical level. an inefficient clerk contributes significantly to the lack of performance in a company. a high income economy requires high performance companies and organizations.
7) in this era, it is only those who have strong fundamentals and continue to pursue knowledge who will remain strong and mentally sharp. this i would estimate at roughly 20% of people above 60 years of age.
8) the remaining 80%, the ‘rethorics’, should retire. they have contributed, have done well, deserve to be respected and cared for, and should really benefit from their hard work in a retirement home by the sea side.
9) the top 20% aggressive and sharp elderlies will no doubt be sought after for advise, wisdom, foresight, and even capital. these are the people who actually hold the entire framework together.
10) i remain a little skeptical on this high income tone, because i realise it is the same people still running various organisations and companies and with the same workers. on what basis do we hope for different results with the same captains ?
short of a cultural revolution, i do not think it is not going to happen they way we think it will. but there is still time and i hope what i highlighted is acknowledged. i keep my fingers crossed.
Selamat Sejathera Tun
I am very disappointed with Tun comments on
Salam Tun & Fellow blogers,
I am no expert in economics but I made observation and concluded that the best way to progress is keeping in balance. There are so many factors involved that we cannot just focus on a few, leaving others in lingo. All those factors must move forward in tandem otherwise we will soon face serious national problems. i would prefer to see moderation , kaizan ( little by little improvement )concept, slow & steady approach. Going in fast lane will invite high risk. Hectic rat race will cause unhappines and stress in people life that will subsequently lead to you know what.
Case 1 : Tun once professed that the national developement can be easier achieved through industrialisation and that must be accompanied by having large domestic consumption. That led to the policy of having 5 children in a family. What is the situaton now?
Case 2 : LKY once believed that Singapore can achieved a fully developed nation by ensuring of having smart parent to produce intelligent child ( to create super race ) and adopt the only 2- children in a family policy. That didn’t go down well as expected but the reverse happens that many graduates do not want to commit to early marriage and having children because woel rk pressure and that too costly to bring-up children. Now the new proble come up – negative growth.
Actually there is no specific model to be adopted in order to achieve fully developed nation, high income status or call it by any other names. It will fail if we do not keep it in balance, moving in tandem, slow and steady sort og approach. The cut and paste method too will not solve the problem. The answer lies with prudent government policy and productive, efficient & effective administration with high commitment and integrity. That calls for stable government with strong leadership and the current situation in Malaysia is rather worrying.
May Allah bless and protect us all.
Dear Tun,
You’re saying…
Low income = high cost of living.
and
High income = higher cost of living.
So what other choice do we have?
Is the ‘rakyat’ destined to be forever slave to this economy manipulation and mismanagement?
It is so obvious that the current government (including the government you lead previously) did not do a good “managerial” job managing the country’s economy.
Which means, the ‘rakyat’ will be left with only one choice;
We will have to change the government in the next G.E.
In my opinion, it’s no use to be a so-called “high-income nation” if our cost of living becomes higher as well. If our salaries become higher but at the same time the price of food and goods become higher, then the salary rise is meaningless, as it sounds like a plus-minus-zero theory – we get salary rise, then the price hike fiesta, then it will be the same as no salary rise at all. When that happens, then it will only be a sign of a bad economy, as it may promote higher inflation rate and money devaluement.
To be a high-income society in real definition, there should be not only salary rise but also low goods price, low inflation rate, and high productivity at the same time. We may even need to change our lifestyle even when we are rolling in money – go to work by motorcycle or LRT, etc.
Assalamualaikum Tun,
I too fully support the government good intentions for having a high income society. However, as Tun had pointed out, what good if we have a high income society, while at the same time cost of living also increases.The positive impact will be neutralised with the negative impact.
Just the other day, I met another friend of mine. I seem to be meeting a lot of old friends lately. This friend of mine had been living in UK for 4 years.
Anyway, he was saying to me how UK life was. The salary in the UK is not much different compared to salaries in Malaysia. This means a clerk there earning GBP1,200, while in Malaysia a clerk would earn MYR1,200. The same goes for a manager earning GBP5k then in Malaysia the same manager would earn MYR5k. Having same salaries and wages between the UK and Malaysia means that the UK is not a high salary society.
Of course there was one “minor” difference. I was told to buy a loaf of bread over there is 5pence, a chicken 10 pence. What does this mean in Malaysia terms? It means if we compare dollar to dollar, a clerk in Malaysia earning MYR1,200 can actually buy a whole chicken for 10 cents. In the UK, with just GBP 20, you could buy a whole cart of food. We can safely say, although the clerk in the UK is only earning GBP1,200, he is actually a wealthy man indeed.’
In Malaysia a whole cart of food would cost around MYR400. That would leave the clerk MYR800 left (1,200 minus 400). With MYR800 there is also the rent to pay which cost another MYR400. Then there is the electric bills, the car loan installments, the parking bills, children cloths, toys,education expenses,etc.
In the UK, with just GBP10k you could buy a car. This means the clerk earning GBP1,200 could actually save money for 1 year and pay the car in cash. I was informed it was normal for a person in the UK to have 3 cars.
In Malaysia, the lowest car price ( I think its the proton saga) is MYR 30k which will probably take 9 years for the clerk to pay. He would also incur interest expenses for the car loan so the proton saga he will actually paying is actually MYR60k.
The above is just to illustrate, although the government intentions is noble and good to raise the standard of living of the people, what would be more important is to increase the purchasing power for every Malaysian Ringgit earned.
The UK has no natural resources. That’s why she had to venture out and colonise other nations to get natural resources like timber, rubber, gold, steel,etc. And yet, even without it’s own natural resources the UK is able to provide lower priced products.
If the UK can do it, I don’t see why Malaysia with abundant resources can’t. Focus on increasing purchasing power instead.
Dear Tun,
For the benefit of others who are interested to know , I manage to extract from the internet the Legatum Prosperity Index for year 2010. Malaysia is in the 43rd position.
The Legatum Prosperity Index seeks to answer these two fundamental questions. Most people would intuitively agree that
SALAM BUAT TUN BERDUA MOGA DIRAHMATI ALLAH S.W.T.
1) MENTERJEMAH “HIGH-INCOME-ECONOMY” BERMAKSUD EKONOMI YANG BERPENDAPATAN TINGGI. KENA LEBIH JELAS ADAKAH BERMAKSUD KERAJAAN SEKARANG CUBA MERENCANA SATU SUMBER EKONOMI YANG AKAN MEMBERI PENDAPATAN LEBIH TINGGI KEPADA PEKERJANYA ATAU EKONOMI NEGARA MALAYSIA ?
2) KALAU UNTUK TUJUAN MENINGGIKAN PENDAPATAN PEKERJANYA KERAJAAN SUDAH PUN BOLEH MEREALISASINYA DARI DULU LAGI. KERAJAAN BOLEH CAMPUR TANGAN TERHADAP SKIM GAJI YANG DIBERI OLEH SYARIKAT SWASTA ATAU PUN KERAJAAN , TERUTAMANYA GAJI MINIMA YANG DIPEROLEHI SESEORANG PEKERJA.
3) RIMBA EMAS BERPENDAPAT SEBENARNYA NEGARA KITA SUDAH PUN MEMBERI PENDAPATAN YANG TINGGI KEPADA PEKERJANYA TERUTAMA PEKERJA-PEKERJA DIBAHAGIAN PENGURUSAN. ADA SETENGAH-SETENGAH KILANG SWASTA MEMBERI GAJI YANG MELEBIHI DARI RM 2000.00 KEATAS KEPADA SEORANG PENGURUS BAHAGIAN TERTENTU.
4) JADI TIDAK PERLULAH LAGI ADA PENINGKATAN KEPADA PIHAK PENGURUSAN KERANA AKAN LEBIH MEMBEBANKAN KEWANGAN TUAN PUNYA KILANG. YANG LEBIH BERTEPATAN DENGAN ‘EKONOMI BERPENDAPATAN TINGGI’ INI IALAH GOLONGAN YAMG DIBERI GAJI DIBAWAH PARAS KEMISKINAN IAITU DIBAWAH RM 300.00.
5) KALAU GAJI YANG GOLONGAN TERENDAH (SPM) DITINGKATKAN PALING MINIMA RM 1200.00 MAKA SAYA PASTI RAMAI RAKYAT TEMPATAN AKAN BEKERJA. MASAALAH SEKARANG KERANA KETIDAK KETEGASAN KERAJAAN MENETAPKAN TANGGA GAJI INI KEPADA PIHAK PENGILANGAN KETUA-KETUA BAHAGIAN PERHUBUNGAN(HR)TELAH MENGKITUL (MANDALIR)TUAN PUNYA KILANG
KEPADA GAJI TERENDAH UNTUK KEPENTINGAN LAIN YANG LEBIH KEBENDAAN.
6) BEGITU JUGA KONSEP ‘EKONOMI PENDAPATAN TINGGI’ INI TIDAK BOLEH DITERAPKAN KEPADA GOLONGAN PENIAGA KERANA BAGI KUMPULAN INI UNTUK MENDAPATKAN PENDAPATAN YANG LEBIH TINGGI BERMAKNA KENAIKAN HARGA JUALAN MEREKA.
7) GOLONGAN INI PERLU DIKAWAL SELIA DENGAN MEMATUHI HARGA KAWALAN YANG DITETAPKAN BERDASARKAN KEHENDAK PENGGUNA BAWAHAN SEKALI BUKAN BERPANDU GOLONGAN PERTENGAHAN DAN KEATAS KERANA KEMAMPUAN YANG MEREKA MILIKI.
8) DARI PEMERHATIAN USAHA KERAJAAN DAHULU SEPERTI PEMBERIAN BALIK WANG CUKAI (ROAD TAX) TELAH DINAFIKAN OLEH PIHAK INSURAN MAKA KEJAYAAN PIHAK KERAJAAN UNTUK MENTERJEMAH “HIGH-INCOME-ECONOMY” KALI INI MUNGKIN JUGA AKAN DI HALANG OLEH INSTITUSI-INSTITUSI LAIN YANG JUGA MENCARI PENDAPATAN MEREKA DARI WANG GAJI YANG DITERIMA OLEH PEKERJA-PEKERJA.
9) PERLU KITA INGAT SESUATU PEMBERIAN YANG BAIK KEPADA PEKERJA-PEKERJA TETAPI TIDAK DILAKUKAN USAHA MENGHALANG PERAMPAS WANG KENAIKAN GAJI INI BOLEH JUGA DIANGGAP OLEH RAKYAT SEBAGAI SATU PENIPUAN WALAU PUN TIDAK BEGITU NIATNYA , MAKA AKHIRNYA BOLEH MEMBAWA KESAN KEPADA SOKONGAN KEPADA KERAJAAN.
10)SESUATU PERUBAHAN TENTU ADA SEBAB-MUSABABNYA , OLEH ITU ADALAH LEBIH BAIK BERGANTUNG KEPADA KEMAHUAN ALLAH S.W.T KERANA MASIH ADA HARAPAN LAGI AKAN KEBENARAN PADA HARI AKHIRAT NANTI.
WALLAHU’ALAM
“High income economy” – First time when I heard about this, already worried either the study has really been done properly or just another flowery phrase. Totally agreed that there is no meaning of high income if at the end our purchasing power is below than before. Every time the goverment servant salary increase the price for goods will increase as well, eventhough not even 1/3 of Malaysian is goverment servant. Imagine what will happened with the minimum wage implementation. Do our goverment able to control the good price?.Let see some example here..in KL, the price of nasi ayam (night market)now is already RM4.50 compare to last 10 years which is RM2.50. But how can Japan as a high income economy country still can keep the price for drink at the vending machine as YEN110 as per last 10 years when I was still a student. Now back in Japan what surprise me that it is still at same price and furthermore some even offer discount as low as YEN80 per can. No surprise, that they can reduce the price with better vending machine design that will need less electric supply or lower price from the distributer with all the cost reduction enforcement. But when we ask why the minister oversea trip getting higher or the cost for public service management is higher than before? The answer mostly seem to be DO NOT ASK ANY QUESTION (Waste of your time)! Why we in private sector doing lots of cost reduction but it seem to be a strange word in the goverment sector? Ohh.. my example nasi ayam & a can of drink is not acceptable since it was rice and can drink..? But other stuff price also remain the same if not lower than.. just imagine how can they keep it.
Try not to make easy money by asking us to pay more tax with the credit card tax and recently with extra charges for our Astro service. Do ask question why we subcribe to Astro.. it was because the poor local broadcasting signal.. (yeah when it is raining Astro no signal but if not it was better then).. So at the end the question that you will ask yourself
1. Should I move to other places with better purchasing power?
2. Should I move to other places that will justify my tax payment?
3. Should I keep staying here and sufferred with all these mismanagement?
Salam Tun,
It is great to read your opinion.
By the way, how is your health?
Do you still continue with physiotherapy session?
Anyway, if you wish to have private physiotherapy session, please let me know.
I can be reached at InfinAid.Physio@gmail.com or mobile number 016-322 0992.
Details on InfinAid Physio Centre can be read at http://sites.google.com/site/infinaid/
Last but not least, let’s make Malaysia as high income country ASAP.
Take care, Tun.
Hello Dr Mahathir,
I have a question, how is it possible for us to have free email such as gmail, or hotmail or facebook etc… How is it possible that it is free?… and yet Microsoft or Google (just like any company or industry) seemingly successful. Is it possible for us to have free (if not cheaper) petroleum for the citizens of Malaysia from Petronas? rather than Shell or BP for example.
Just wondering,
Visit http://music-miracles.blogspot.com/
I think high income economy is a great idea. It is a forward thinking. No doubt that FDI works during your era. Now the conditions has change. Foreigners is no more interested to open factories in Malaysia anymore due to higher cost.
Maybe we should change the strategy to something different like getting foreigners to open their high tech R&D or labs here, high quality, high brand name, inventions, robotics, high tech products, biotechnology etc. Oh yes, maybe it will still be in the form of FDI but in different manner. But the government must be really serious about this. It is not easy. They must provide the right environment and the rakyat must be well equipped. We can’t expect Malaysians to work in factories as hard labour anymore.
Your brilliant leadership has made Malaysian recognized around the world. Goods that have ‘made in Malaysia’ behind it has certain values to many countries. Today’s generation should work harder to bring your vision forward by reenergizing it.
I agree with Tun that higher income doesn’t mean that we will have higher purchasing power in the country. But I think we will get higher purchasing power for our businesses in acquiring knowledge and high tech machines. It may also be cheaper for our corporate to buy companies outside Malaysia.
Dear Tun,
When I think of a higher cost of living that comes with higher income, I worry about all those people who are retired or going to retire when that happens. Younger people may be better able to adapt to the new circumstances but older people are just going to accept a lower standard of living. It is a little like when the currency crisis hit in the late 90s. Suddenly you were not able to afford many of the things you used to be able to afford.
Assalamualaikum Tun,
An Unsustainable System Anti-Capitalism in Five Minutes
We know that capitalism is not just the most sensible way to organize an economy but is now the only possible way to organize an economy. We know that dissenters to this conventional wisdom can, and should, be ignored. There’s no longer even any need to persecute such heretics; they are obviously irrelevant.
How do we know all this? Because we are told so, relentlessly — typically by those who have the most to gain from such a claim, most notably those in the business world and their functionaries and apologists in the schools, universities, mass media, and mainstream politics. Capitalism is not a choice, but rather simply is, like a state of nature. Maybe not like a state of nature, but the state of nature. To contest capitalism these days is like arguing against the air that we breathe. Arguing against capitalism, we’re told, is simply crazy.
We are told, over and over, that capitalism is not just the system we have, but the only system we can ever have. Yet for many, something nags at us about such a claim. Could this really be the only option? We’re told we shouldn’t even think about such things. But we can’t help thinking — is this really the “end of history,” in the sense that big thinkers have used that phrase to signal the final victory of global capitalism? If this is the end of history in that sense, we wonder, can the actual end of the planet far behind?
We wonder, we fret, and these thoughts nag at us — for good reason. Capitalism — or, more accurately, the predatory corporate capitalism that defines and dominates our lives — will be our death if we don’t escape it. Crucial to progressive politics is finding the language to articulate that reality, not in outdated dogma that alienates but in plain language that resonates with people. We should be searching for ways to explain to co-workers in water-cooler conversations — radical politics in five minutes or less — why we must abandon predatory corporate capitalism. If we don’t, we may well be facing the end times, and such an end will bring rupture not rapture.
Here’s my shot at the language for this argument.
Capitalism is admittedly an incredibly productive system that has created a flood of goods unlike anything the world has ever seen. It also is a system that is fundamentally (1) inhuman, (2) anti-democratic, and (3) unsustainable. Capitalism has given those of us in the First World lots of stuff (most of it of marginal or questionable value) in exchange for our souls, our hope for progressive politics, and the possibility of a decent future for children.
In short, either we change or we die — spiritually, politically, literally.
1. Capitalism is inhuman
There is a theory behind contemporary capitalism. We’re told that because we are greedy, self-interested animals, an economic system must reward greedy, self-interested behavior if we are to thrive economically.
Are we greedy and self-interested? Of course. At least I am, sometimes. But we also just as obviously are capable of compassion and selflessness. We certainly can act competitively and aggressively, but we also have the capacity for solidarity and cooperation. In short, human nature is wide-ranging. Our actions are certainly rooted in our nature, but all we really know about that nature is that it is widely variable. In situations where compassion and solidarity are the norm, we tend to act that way. In situations where competitiveness and aggression are rewarded, most people tend toward such behavior.
Why is it that we must choose an economic system that undermines the most decent aspects of our nature and strengthens the most inhuman? Because, we’re told, that’s just the way people are. What evidence is there of that? Look around, we’re told, at how people behave. Everywhere we look, we see greed and the pursuit of self-interest. So, the proof that these greedy, self-interested aspects of our nature are dominant is that, when forced into a system that rewards greed and self-interested behavior, people often act that way. Doesn’t that seem just a bit circular?
2. Capitalism is anti-democratic
This one is easy. Capitalism is a wealth-concentrating system. If you concentrate wealth in a society, you concentrate power. Is there any historical example to the contrary?
For all the trappings of formal democracy in the contemporary United States, everyone understands that the wealthy dictates the basic outlines of the public policies that are acceptable to the vast majority of elected officials. People can and do resist, and an occasional politician joins the fight, but such resistance takes extraordinary effort. Those who resist win victories, some of them inspiring, but to date concentrated wealth continues to dominate. Is this any way to run a democracy?
If we understand democracy as a system that gives ordinary people a meaningful way to participate in the formation of public policy, rather than just a role in ratifying decisions made by the powerful, then it’s clear that capitalism and democracy are mutually exclusive.
Let’s make this concrete. In our system, we believe that regular elections with the one-person/one-vote rule, along with protections for freedom of speech and association, guarantee political equality. When I go to the polls, I have one vote. When Bill Gates goes the polls, he has one vote. Bill and I both can speak freely and associate with others for political purposes. Therefore, as equal citizens in our fine democracy, Bill and I have equal opportunities for political power. Right?
3. Capitalism is unsustainable
This one is even easier. Capitalism is a system based on the idea of unlimited growth. The last time I checked, this is a finite planet. There are only two ways out of this one. Perhaps we will be hopping to a new planet soon. Or perhaps, because we need to figure out ways to cope with these physical limits, we will invent ever-more complex technologies to transcend those limits.
Both those positions are equally delusional. Delusions may bring temporary comfort, but they don’t solve problems. They tend, in fact, to cause more problems. Those problems seem to be piling up.
Capitalism is not, of course, the only unsustainable system that humans have devised, but it is the most obviously unsustainable system, and it’s the one in which we are stuck. It’s the one that we are told is inevitable and natural, like the air.
A tale of two acronyms: TGIF and TINA
Former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s famous response to a question about challenges to capitalism was TINA — There Is No Alternative. If there is no alternative, anyone who questions capitalism is crazy.
Here’s another, more common, acronym about life under a predatory corporate capitalism: TGIF — Thank God It’s Friday. It’s a phrase that communicates a sad reality for many working in this economy — the jobs we do are not rewarding, not enjoyable, and fundamentally not worth doing. We do them to survive. Then on Friday we go out and get drunk to forget about that reality, hoping we can find something during the weekend that makes it possible on Monday to, in the words of one songwriter, “get up and do it again.”
Remember, an economic system doesn’t just produce goods. It produces people as well. Our experience of work shapes us. Our experience of consuming those goods shapes us. Increasingly, we are a nation of unhappy people consuming miles of aisles of cheap consumer goods, hoping to dull the pain of unfulfilling work. Is this who we want to be?
We’re told TINA in a TGIF world. Doesn’t that seem a bit strange? Is there really no alternative to such a world? Of course there is. Anything that is the product of human choices can be chosen differently. We don’t need to spell out a new system in all its specifics to realize there always are alternatives. We can encourage the existing institutions that provide a site of resistance (such as labor unions) while we experiment with new forms (such as local cooperatives). But the first step is calling out the system for what it is, without guarantees of what’s to come.
Home and abroad
In the First World, we struggle with this alienation and fear. We often don’t like the values of the world around us; we often don’t like the people we’ve become; we often are afraid of what’s to come of us. But in the First World, most of us eat regularly. That’s not the case everywhere. Let’s focus not only on the conditions we face within a predatory corporate capitalist system, living in the most affluent country in the history of the world, but also put this in a global context.
Half the world’s population lives on less than $2 a day. That’s more than 3 billion people. Just over half of the population of sub-Saharan Africa lives on less than $1 a day. That’s more than 300 million people.
How about one more statistic: About 500 children in Africa die from poverty-related diseases, and the majority of those deaths could be averted with simple medicines or insecticide-treated nets. That’s 500 children — not every year, or every month or every week. That’s not 500 children every day. Poverty-related diseases claim the lives of 500 children an hour in Africa.
When we try to hold onto our humanity, statistics like that can make us crazy. But don’t get any crazy ideas about changing this system. Remember TINA: There is no alternative to predatory corporate capitalism.
TGILS: Thank God It’s Last Sunday
We have been gathering on Last Sunday precisely to be crazy together. We’ve come together to give voice to things that we know and feel, even when the dominant culture tells us that to believe and feel such things is crazy. Maybe everyone here is a little crazy. So, let’s make sure we’re being realistic. It’s important to be realistic.
One of the common responses I hear when I critique capitalism is, “Well, that may all be true, but we have to be realistic and do what’s possible.” By that logic, to be realistic is to accept a system that is inhuman, anti-democratic, and unsustainable. To be realistic we are told we must capitulate to a system that steals our souls, enslaves us to concentrated power, and will someday destroy the planet.
But rejecting and resisting a predatory corporate capitalism is not crazy. It is an eminently sane position. Holding onto our humanity is not crazy. Defending democracy is not crazy. And struggling for a sustainable future is not crazy.
What is truly crazy is falling for the con that an inhuman, anti-democratic, and unsustainable system — one that leaves half the world’s people in abject poverty — is all that there is, all that there ever can be, all that there ever will be.
If that were true, then soon there will be nothing left, for anyone.
I do not believe it is realistic to accept such a fate. If that’s being realistic, I’ll take crazy any day of the week, every Sunday of the month.
Reference : http://www.counterpunch.org/jensen04302007.html
Social evolution in an emergent society
Karl Marx was right when he said that “the history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles.” Every power establishment eventually undergoes a downfall, of which the lower class takes advantage in order to improve their situation; in the most extreme cases, the action takes the form of a full-fledged revolution and in the not-so-extreme cases, they at least make themselves noticeable enough to make sure they are never again ignored. The history of the civilizations in their path to our pseudo-democracy (modern history) can be defined as a painful ‘stagnation-revolution-stagnation’ cycle: generally, when revolutionaries take control, they represent the exponent of human liberties, but just in that time frame, just in their own context.
Nowadays, the “everything for the people, nothing by the people” disposition of the enlightened absolutism seems like a bad joke. However, if we take into account the historical web surrounding that one thread, we must admit it was an advancement that resulted in a slightly more enlightened society. This can mislead us to think that if absolutist monarchy had not make such a concession, maybe that very order would have endured for a much longer time, or maybe the shift towards liberalism would not have been so gradual, would it? But could monarchy even afford to not make such a concession? Of course not: cornered by dangerous new ideas, every power establishment ends up trying to adapt to them superficially, disguising the old and known with a shining fur to go by unnoticed, although later the plan backfires; that is precisely how we see enlightened despotism now and we can only conclude that people in the future will laugh at our concept of liberalism and democracy.
From primitive societies to capitalism, all have tried their best in their physical context, not accounting for ups and downs. That is the human propensity, as long as the environment allows it. In other words, it is not just that we ‘are’ better people or more civilized beings: the technical conditions have allowed us to be so. Were we left tomorrow without our essential facilities (tap water, electricity and transport for goods and people), faster than seems possible the inhabitants of the ‘developed nations’ would take up a new paradigm: chaos.
So yes, capitalist economy is an advancement, even with its current characterization that owes more to the monetary reforms on the mid-20th Century than to its original ideas. Although a case could be made that it is a perversion of what liberalism ‘could have been’, the idea of alternative ways will not be further entertained here, as the fact is, the average life of a human being has improved considerably throughout the last two hundred years, since the industrial revolution. We witnessed its effects on mechanization, medicine and methodical education; it is technical know-how, to a certain point carried out by capitalism, which has improved our lives. But capitalism, and indeed the monetary system in general too, can only take us up to a certain point.
Sure enough, we must not forget that while life expectancy in the Americas, Oceania and Europe (and even Asia to an extent) has raised considerably, in Africa the situation is still deplorable. Worse still, it does not show signs of improvement: taking a look at the current data, we will see we double the live expectancy of many South African nations. We double it. Trying to look for discrepancies of that level in other animals will result in a practically useless exercise and that is precisely why it is highly enlightening.
Why does this happen? Why is there still classic slavery in those poor countries and paid slavery in developed or developing countries? A lot has been said about this, so we’d better not get deep into the immediate causes again and focus instead on the general problem: that kind of thing happens because the now-not-so-new capitalist model, once the prototype of the maximum freedom possible for humanity, has been obsolete for almost half a century now, therefrom the decay and need of ‘playing dirty’ to survive, just as a cornered animal. Even though the new technology is already here, the economic system is not up to date: clean and practically inexhaustible energy sources, more practical methods of agriculture, an almost entirely automated manufacturing sector (and soon the same will go for the services), more energy-efficient and faster means of transport for goods and people, instantaneous global communication, advancements in medicine (more than half of the major medical advancements have happened in the last hundred and fifty years), and the dawn of cybernation and nanotechnology.
The current political-economic model is already attempting to reconcile with it all and will keep trying to do so with what’s to come, but it will eventually fail. It won’t even be able to justify its very basis: the human employment in the production process, and therefore the concept of product ‘value’ mostly defined by the human time and work required in manufacturing. The mechanization of the industrial age substituted twenty men for just one driving a machine and the automation of the computer age is already substituting employees of all sectors for a few technicians -and no, those jobs will not come back. If the eight-hour day was achieved with mechanization, what will then be achieved in the next day’s labour-shrinking revolution, taking automation into account? Even with the extremely consumerist practices of capitalism and its low efficiency when trying to synchronize production systems to avoid redundancy, the difference would be astronomical -but currently, the power establishment doesn’t give up in that respect. Still, what will happen when more efficient technics are also applied? Exactly, the concept of employment and wages as the basis for economy will end up being obsolete. The monetary system
My friends and I were first time landed as students in Canada in 1980. For the initial 6 months or so, we had to put most of our purchases on hold whenever we went shopping, as one Canadian Dollar was equivalent to 1.76 Ringgit Malaysia.
Eveything was expensive to us when we converted to our currency.
I am sure even tourists from Malaysia who have travelled to countries like UK, US, Canada, Australia (and now even to Singapore) have the “same feeling” as we did.
Well, since we are not competative to countries like China and Vietnam in term of “Cost of Labour” and we want to be become a “Developed Nation”, I think “High Income Economy” is the BEST option.
But,unless our Government drastically reforms and changes many of the “policies”, “High Income Economy” could be of adverse consequences or can only only be left as a “dream”.
Regards,
http://www.leading.com.my
Salam TUN,
Ini antara article menarik untuk dikongsi mengenai issue minimum wages ini… harap2 pihak kerajaan dapat consider… =))
http://remgold.blogspot.com/2010/10/minimum-wages-atau-minimum-skills.html
Minimum wages atau minimum skills?
Saya baru tiba di Singapork pulau indah-kecik tadi petang selepas seminggu main-main kat KL. Naik Firefly Subang-Budget Terminal Changi seperti biasa.
Lalu baca surat khabar beberapa hari lalu, catching up on the news.
Satu berita yang menarik minat saya ialah perbincangan di pulau totet ilet ni tentang pekerja bergaji rendah – pekerja kolar biru kata orang.
Di sini, Menteri dalam Pejabat Perdana Menteri juga ialah ketua gerakan pekerja! Namanya Lim Swee Say.
Ada orang kata jika menteri dalam Kabinet jadi ketua buruh, maka tak akan ada demo pekerjalah. Exactly what the government wants.
Dan itu, pada saya, juga baik untuk pekerja. Makin kurang demo pekerja, mogok awam, lebih baik. Kerana takut pelabur lari.
Kita lihat di Perancis dan England, mampoi satu negara baru-baru ini apabila pekerja pengangkutan mogok. Tak ada keretapi, tak ada bas, macam mana nak gi kerja?
Swee Say ada satu argument yang dibincang panas di Singapoora, dan juga relevan untuk Malaysia.
(Di Malaysia, para pengetua gerakan buruh ramai yang masuk pembangkang).
Argument biasa untuk pekerja ialah: Mesti adakan minimum wages – gaji minima, untuk berlaku adil kepada pekerja.
Di Malaysia dan Singapore tidak ada gaji minima, bermakna majikan boleh suka-suka kasi orang tu gaji.
Jika dia nak bayar gaji tukang masak kat restoran dia RM800/S$800, dan pekerja di kilang dia RM550/S$500 tak ada undang-undang yang kata tak boleh.
Cuma, jika gaji rendah sangat, orang tak akan datang.
Macam restoran mamak satu Malaysia selalu bising tak ada mamat nak kerja kat restoran mereka, sebab tu kena ambil pekerja dari India, Indonesia dan Nepal.
Hello, kamu kasi gaji kecik sangat, baik mamat tu kerja jadi office boy yang gajinya rendah sikit, tapi dia dapat duduk dalam bilek aircon.
Gerakan buruh Malaysia mahu ada minima untuk semua pekerja – baik di ladang yang menoreh getah dan tanam sawit, mahupun drebar, pekerja kilang dan restoran.
Di Singapork, Swee Say kata lebih penting daripada paksa adakan undang-undang gaji minima ialah pastikan semua pekerja ada minimum skills – kemahiran minima.
Jika tak ada, siapkan latihan untuk mereka.
Ini, kata beliau, lebih adil untuk pekerja.
Dan pelabur tak akan lari kerana takut dipaksa bayar gaji minima untuk pekerja kilang dan office boy.
Maksudnya jika di Malaisia atau Singapoura gaji pekerja kilang mesti paling kurang RM1,200/S$1,200, dan office boy mesti dibayar RM900/S$900, mungkin pelabur asing lari.
Baik di buka kilang dan pejabat di Jakarta atau Vietnam. Di sana, gaji lebih rendah dan tak ada gaji minima.
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INI bahagian cerita syiok sendiri – anda boleh skip terus baca di bahagian bawah!
CERITA LAMA: Sebelum jadi wartawan, saya dulu pernah kerja di sebuah firma arkitek di Temasek.
Sebab saya belajau mechanical engineering, maka saya jadi design draughtsman (orang Amerika kata ‘draftsman’) dalam mechanical dan electrical department, firma arkitek Australia tu di Singapore.
Dah lama tutup saya rasa syarikat International Project Consultants di Pasir Panjang Hill.
Jika kamu ada projek, arkitek Australia dua partner tu buat pelan kasar, lepas tu mereka bahagi kat architectural draughtsmen draw betul-betul.
Masa tu belum pakai komputer lagi. Belum ada sofwe architectural plan kat komputer. Kat pejabat Wang Computer pun belum ada! Ini tahun-tahun 1982-1985.
Kami draw pelan pakai kertas transparent (lupa apa nama sebab dah 30 tahun dulu dah!) dan ink hitam. Drawing paper.
Meja drawing saya di pejabat hah, lihat GAMBAR ni. Saya ada beli satu untuk gunakan di rumah juga dulu – mahai nak mampoi, tapi amat diperlukan dulu.
Pena untuk lukisan teknikal saya pula di GAMBAR BAWAH ni.
Draughtsmen jika tak pandai pegang technical pen Faber Castell masa tu, tak boleh cari makan.
Kena hafal colour code. Putih maknanya untuk draw line nipis, 0.25mm thickness. Nak draw tiang besar, gunakan yang warna purple tu, 0.70 thickness.
Kena pandai buka pen itu 100 per cent, dan repair sendiri jika rosak – baca tentang bahagian-bahagian pen di sini. Orang dulu miskin, kalau rosak kena repair sendiri. Sekarang phone rosak, TV rosak, kereta rosak, orang politik rosak, kita main nak buang saja.
Sambung cerita – lepas archi department habis, sketch itu dibahagi kepada civil engineering department yang calculate besi dan palang besar mana nak pakai, dan banyak mana batu-bata dan simen nak pakai. Pastikan bangunan tak roboh.
Sketch juga dibagi kepada department saya – kami lakar wiring letrik nak jalan mana, lampu berapa banyak nak letak, aircon berapa besau, dan ducting untuk aircon nak jalan kat bumbung sebelah mana.
Berapa sejuk aircon ni?
Harga mesin aircon ni bagaimana – ini aircon besau oi, bukan yang kamu pasang kat rumah.
Saya pernah tolong design aircon sistem untuk mall besar di Sandakan, bangunan bank di Raffles Place, dan juga untuk rumah-rumah orang kaya.
Yang saya respek betul mat salleh Australia dua orang ni, mereka tak sombong.
Yang satu ada Lambo warna biru – pertama kali saya nampak Lambo depan mata.
Di pejabat ada DUA orang office boy Melayu yang diajak duduk dalam pejabat belajar jadi architectural draughtsmen!
Mereka masih kena hantar surat naik scooter (ini belum zaman ada email lagi!).
Tapi bila tak ada kerja, omputeh ni suruh mereka pegang pena lukisan tu, belajar jadi draughtsmen. Mamat senior draughtsmen Cina kena ajar mereka.
Lepas tu ada receptionist pompuan budak Melayu, pun boss suruh belajar buat drawing. Tingkatkan kemahiran!
Mereka dibayar lagi oleh boss untuk gi kelas malam belajar technical drawing.
Mana lebih baik?
Kasi mereka gaji minima sebagai office boy dan receptionist?
Atau naikkan kemahiran minima mereka, seperti yang dibuat oleh boss lama saya, Philip Conn dan John Malone?
(Dah tua-tua, baru teringat cerita ni!)
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Berbalik cerita asal.
Itulah yang kita harap kerajaan akan lakukan.
Naikkan taraf kemahiran pekerja.
Galakkan mereka tambah ilmu dan kemahiran.
Di Temasek, syarikat kena bayar ratusan atau ribuan dolar sebulan (ikut company besar atau kecil) kepada tabung latihan pekerja.
Dan majikan kena berikan mereka MASA untuk ambil kursus – di institut atau sekolah latihan pemerintah di luar.
Nak buat bangunan pencakar langit pun okay, nak belanja berbilion pun tak apalah. Tapi jangan lupa orang di bawah tu.
Sebab jika tenaga mahir kurang, maka pelabur tak akan masuk, walaupun negara kamu ada bangunan 100 tingkat, ada International Financial District yang canggih.
Kamu ada kuasa, bantulah orang yang tak berkuasa agar bertambah kuasa mereka nak mencari makan.
(Maaf, saya gunakan example Singapork sekali lagi. Bukan sebab negara kecik ni bagus sangat, tapi sebab itu contoh yang saya tahu sebab saya kerja kat sini).
Dear Tun,
1.Agreed that high income will most probably accompanied with low purchasing power due to relatively higher cost of living. Inflation might seem luring to high income as people tend to spend more should they have extra moneys, thus putting aggregate pressure on price level or inflation.
2.Like Tun, I am also all for the high income policy by the Government and that we should be cautious of possible higher cost of living that could deteriorate the standard of living. BUT, I will always in favor of policy that looks into bridging income disparity between peoples and poverty reduction of course. I would think Government should address this first.
3.Achieving high income economy will not guarantee that the income gap will be shrunk and that absolute (hakiki) poverty will be reduced. High income per capita is merely a meaningless indication as it fails to reflect welfare of the people living in the country. In addition, high income cannot guarantee you and me to buy more of things should living cost skyrockets.
4.Here’s the fact. Malaysians with high income category is only pooled around 20%. This shows how serious our income disparity. And yes, the current indication of USD7,000 income per capita has no meaning.
5.Do we really need to achive high income status while the abundance of wealth is in the hands of 20% of Malaysian people?
I don’t see any needs for Government to direly chase over high income status. Why the timeline until 2020? What’s the rush? We just put unnecessary pressure to ourselves.
6.Again, I’d like to reiterate that Government should really look into bridging income disparity and poverty reduction as these are criterias for not merely growth, but ‘sustained’ growth.
Dear Tun,
HIGH INCOME ECONOMY MUST MEAN CAPABILITY OF EARNING HIGHER INCOME DUE TO HIGHER CONTRIBUTION OR HIGHER PRODUCTIVITY.
HIGHER INCOME ECONOMY MUST NOT MEAN HIGHER INCOME WITHOUT ANY DIFFERENCE IN PRODUCTIVITY.
HIGHER INCOME ECONOMY MUST ALSO MEAN BETTER RECOGNITION OF LOCAL RESOURCES AND TALENTS, MONETARY WISE.
HIGHER INCOME ECONOMY MUST ALSO BE SUPPORTED BY SELF SUFFICIENT ECONOMY I.E. ON BASIC NECESSITIES SUCH AS FOOD AND CLOTHINGS. WITHOUT THAT WE WILL HAVE HIGH INFLATION.
IT IS OUR HOPE THAT WITH HIGHER INCOME ECONOMY, LOCAL RESOURCES WILL BE PAID HIGHER THAN THE CURRENT RATES. FOR EXAMPLE, IF WE INVITE YOU AND TONY BLAIR TOGETHER FOR A TALK, WE SHOULD PAY YOU EQUALLY OR HIGHER SIMPLY BECAUSE YOU HAVE MORE USEFUL TOPICS TO DISCUSS AND SHARE – NOT THAT BECAUSE YOU’RE ASIAN/ MALAYSIAN, WE PAY YOU RM100K AND TONY BLAIR RM1 MILLION.
/// 9. We see today the purchasing power of the developed countries with much higher income than us. The United States is said to have a per capita income of USD36,000, roughly five times Malaysia’s USD7,000 per capita. But the people are not five times richer than Malaysians in terms of purchasing power. In fact in certain cases the purchasing power is the same as Malaysians. According to the McDonald’s Hamburger Index, the Ringgit is the same as the US Dollar in purchasing McDonald’s hamburger – one Ringgit will buy in Malaysia what USD1 will buy in the US. ///
Yes, purchasing power may differ for different countries. One way to compare apple-with-apple is to use the Big-Mac Index. However, this is not scientific nor accurate. Economist use the purchasing power parity (ppp) concept.
So, Malaysia’s nominal per capita GDP was US$7,450 in 2009. The US’s per capita GDP was US$46,000 in 2009. There US’s per capita GDP was about 6.2 times that of Malaysia. However, Malaysia’s per capita GPD (ppp) was much higher at US$14,900. Hence, the US’s per capita was only 3.1 times that of Malaysia. Therefore, for comparison across countries, we should use ppp instead of nominal GDP.
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/my.html
As mentioned earlier, the Govt must reduce expenditure, especially civil servant. We need to drastically reduce this liability at least by half. In terms of oil, one way is to encourage use of hybrid car instead of totally relying on fossil fuel. Use hydrogen cell or electricity to move the car and therefore we have more fossil fuel reserve to sell to others. Let others pay for our fossil fuel.
Totally agree with your points, Tun. But, I believe the “high income policy” refered by Dato Najib is only for the government servants.
I truely agreed with this policy as per Tun writing. But try to removed the oil subsidy and you see many of us will sell their car and everyone will try to use the public transport.This will be seen a real income earner position if they could ever affort be a owner of any car or not. Of course the national car sales will be down.
Likewise if the oil and diesel subsidy is removed and allocate to subsidise the selected food and/or public transport then all Malaysian will enjoy . We will have less traffic on the road if we spend all the oil subsidy into providing the inter city/town trains and their feeder buses with all the infrastructure. This is now demonstrated in develop countries in Europe and Japan.
We will have no air polution as the trains and buses will be running on electricity. We create projects and new townships,jobs and all the other supporting businesses. This need to be plan properly and not using the existing train stations. We may choose to use the wind turbine for the electricity generations which arre less dependable on fuel as the renewable energy. This will also increased the demand of electricity and can be generated within wind turbine business and other downstream activities with deep studies of the pro and cons.
May this come true fast and get the people ready for this over years by reducing the the fraction of the oil subsidy year by year this will prepare Malaysian to achive this goal. This is my personal view and welcome your views
By the way Tun is I cannot remember if ever we have any National Transportation Policy which provide the guideline since Merdeka.
i agree with u Tun…i love u…i respect u…
/// 9. We see today the purchasing power of the developed countries with much higher income than us. The United States is said to have a per capita income of USD36,000, roughly five times Malaysia’s USD7,000 per capita. But the people are not five times richer than Malaysians in terms of purchasing power. In fact in certain cases the purchasing power is the same as Malaysians. According to the McDonald’s Hamburger Index, the Ringgit is the same as the US Dollar in purchasing McDonald’s hamburger – one Ringgit will buy in Malaysia what USD1 will buy in the US. ///
Yes, purchasing power may differ for different countries. One way to compare apple-with-apple is to use the Big-Mac Index. However, this is not scientific nor accurate. Economist use the purchasing power parity (ppp) concept.
So, Malaysia’s nominal per capita GDP was US$7,450 in 2009. The US’s per capita GDP was US$46,000 in 2009. There US’s per capita GDP was about 6.2 times that of Malaysia. However, Malaysia’s per capita GPD (ppp) was much higher at US$14,900. Hence, the US’s per capita was only 3.1 times that of Malaysia. Therefore, for comparison across countries, we should use ppp instead of nominal GDP.
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/my.html
A high income economy entails among others, that we move up the value-added chain and having a strong ringgit.
In the ” lost decade ” of the past 10 years, we have failed to do both. As Tun rightly pointed out, we have effectively solved the unemployment of other countries.
Even on the currency side, our ringgit is still miles below its strength pre-1997 financial crisis not just against the major currencies but against that of our neighbours like Thailand and Singapore.
Agree. Most, if not all, Malaysians would like to achieve high income status. You said:
“I am all for the Government’s high income policy”
I assume you mean ALL policies/projects/initiatives announced by the Gov are FULLY supported by you. Could you please elaborate on how these could help in achieving a high income society?