Prime Minister Tun Mahathir Mohamad is a pensive leader. He writes a lot about ‘burdening the people’ and giving the fishermen ‘the net, instead of feeding them the fish,”.
But it seems this applies to some situations and not others. The government he is running, for example, does not want to learn the ropes.
Leaving the Budget 2019 to Lim Guan Eng has delivered a mirror of all budgets we see across the globe. Except for the few Muslim nations where budgets are not dependent on ‘taxes’, ‘levies’ and duties.
Yes, these are the filthy rich nations I am talking about. But let’s face it. The Budget 2019 is no different from the Barisan Nasional budgets.
Ex-PM Najib Razak is using this moment to vent his anger for losing the hotly contested elections in May. But he did not do better than Lim. He has not realise that yet.
Some are asking whether this budget is a people’s budget or what exactly?
The BN groupies are arguing the BN’s economy was growing over 5%. We know it was not the exact figure.
Though the Pakatan Harapan’s ‘economy’ is growing below 5%, it is a healthy growth because it does not have the cheat sheet the BN had.
BN was bleeding the nation with billions syphoned out of the country through a massive hidden network of hardcore cash heist.
Many benefited from the luxury of hidden-tax-free holidays when the money transited across a criminal network. They also benefited from the ‘interests’.
We all know that now. And we can talk about it freely now.
Having little choice but to heavily tax and burden the rest of the country, the PH budget ruffled Petronas. They took a hefty 30% from Petronas’ money, BN opposition MPs are saying.
But looking at it from far, it would seem the logical thing to do. Petronas ain’t gonna die giving more money to the government.
Yet, it shows once again, that petrodollars are still the mainstay of Malaysia’s economy. ANd it also shows how much the Najib Razak regime was shadowy.
They bluffed their way to the international community to make them believe the country had a vastly diversified economy.
We believed them in this aspect despite the knowledge they were stealing 1MDB money. But now the truth is out.
The Malaysian economy is not sustainable. It was never sustainable. They were using big words, camouflaged in economic jargons that only the few would understand to tell the world all were ok.
If they were ok then, a large chunk of it would be ok now. But since the economy under BN was heavily pumped by sugar-nanny China, things turned sour after May 9.
The Pakatan Harapan regime probably did the right thing to bring the economy back to its real-time figures.
They know they can pick up the pieces in the next three to four years if the global oil economy is doing well. And the signs are it will get better for the oil industry.
The Saudi debacle in the sad Jamal Khashoggi affair and the piling pressure from all over the place to punish the Saudis has an impact on the oil economy.
Saudi Arabia has brandished a potential oil war if it is cornered on the death of one man who was so little known when he was alive.
Unfortunately, Malaysia will benefit from such a geo-political attrition.
“Oh. Not forgetting, oil prices will rise,” says the BN. And yes, it will rise and PH will benefit from it in many ways. This will help redress the economy, redistribute the wealth and keep the PH in power.
yes, the first PH budget sounds miserable. It is still a ‘tax’ budget and a ‘petrodollar’ one. Malaysia has little choices.
But if they PH opens their eyes and push the lazy government machinery to work, they may reverse the situation.