Mr.Najib, Is My Money Well Spent?

The Budget 2015 announced by Dato' Seri Najib recently, has received mixed reactions from the Malaysians. In fact, the recent budget also received criticism from the Malaysian economic experts such as Tan Sri Ramon Navaratnam. The most important question is, whether the budget is really people-friendly?

The 2015 Budget amounts to RM273.94 billion, an increase of RM9.74 billion compared to the previous year. And as in previous years, emolument or the civil servants' salaries, is the largest component of the budget in 2015 in which next year, the emolument is estimated at RM65.6 billion. This is a big increment, especially when compared to the year 2013 which only reached RM61 billion.

Does the increase in emoluments relevant, when in reality, the government is actively trying to control the government deficit?

Eliminate the post of the Special Envoy

If anyone asks me about a field that promises money for life, I will definitely recommend the person to join politics (related to the ruling party). Within last few years, Dato' Seri Najib has introduced the positions of "special envoy". Datuk Seri Samy Velu (former MIC president and “famed” for his eloquence in Malay language) has been made Special Envoy to South India for infrastructure. Datuk Seri Ong Ka Ting (former MCA president) as the Special Envoy to China and Datuk Seri Dr Jamaluddin Jarjis is the Special Envoy to the United States. Not forgetting, Dato' Seri Tiong King Sin has been appointed as Special Envoy to the East Asia. The Special Envoy post is an addition to the existing ambassador posts.

It is worth to be noted here that countries like India, China, United States and Japan have long had ambassadors and other diplomats from Malaysia's representing our country there.

Thus, the establishment of the office of the Special Envoy is seen as unimportant and just a waste of public money. However, Dato' Seri Najib is likely to deny this statement by saying the Special Envoys are appointed to bring in investment opportunities and other benefits. For example, Samy Velu has good relations with India since he brought many Malaysian companies to invest in India’s infrastructure-building during his tenure as the Minister of Public Works. In that sense, Samy Vellu is the perfect candidate to bring Malaysian capitalists to invest in the emerging India or that’s what Mr. Najib thinks.

For me, this idea is unreasonable. Yes, the success of Samy Velu helping Malaysian companies to venture in India must be taken into concern, but what is the current Minister of Works, Dato Fadhillah Yusuf doing? Could he not continue to bring Malaysian businesses to invest in infrastructure developments in foreign soil? If not, why should he be retained?

Likewise are with all the other Special Envoys. If the existing Ministers and the current ambassadors are doing what their tasked for properly, the office of the Special Envoy should by any sense, be irrelevant.

Many may be wondering why I am pushing for this position to be abolished. Before you call me an opposition “cyber trooper”, I should duly explain. This is due to the fact that a Special Envoy is paid up to RM27,000 as monthly salary. This is greater than the net salary of the Prime Minister! And perhaps, there may also be other benefits. Assuming the position of Special Envoy eliminated, the amount of civil service’s emoluments can definitely be reduced.

Eliminate the posts of Special Advisor to the Prime Minister's

Currently, there are four positions of Special Advisors; Datuk Seri Dr Abdullah Md Zin (Religious Advisor to the PM), Datuk Wira Mohd Johari Baharum (Special Advisor on Northern Corridor Economic Region), Tan Sri Dr Rais Yatim (Advisor on Social Affairs and Culture) and Datuk Seri Shahrizat Abdul Jalil (Advisor on Women’s Development and Entrepreneurship). They are also expected to be paid with a hefty sum monthly, which eventually will result in soaring final figure of emolument.

It is never my intention to question the credibility of these four individuals and spread fallacies, but is Datuk Seri Dr Abdullah Md Zin’s post really necessary since Dato 'Seri Jamil Khir is the minister responsible for Islamic affairs? Should Rais Yatim be appointed when Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz is in charge of the Ministry of Tourism and Culture? And most important of all, should Shahrizat Abdul Jalil be appointed as Advisor on the women’s development when the Dato Rohani Abdul Karim is responsible for the Ministry of Women, Family and Community Development? Was she appointed to the post just because  Dato Shahrizat is Wanita Umno chief, despite the fact that she has lost the election and was linked with the “Cow-gate” scandal?

Should civil servants' salaries be raised?

Yes, the government officials also need a pay raise, but any increment must be followed by improved quality and workmanship. But, is it happening in Malaysia’s public administration?

Public employees whom are not productive and are of poor quality are maintained in the government for fear of "losing votes". Several years ago, the Civil Service New Scheme (SBPA) was introduced and contained "Exit Policy", in which public employees will be evaluated every year and to those who scored less than 70% mark, will be sacked from the public service. However, the objection from CEUPACS (which later agreed with lower scores) and various other parties, SBPA has been replaced with the Transformative Remuneration Scheme which comes with no “exit policy”.

Malaysia currently has 1.4 million civil servants. For me, this is not so bloated compared to other countries because in Malaysia, army and police officials are also counted as public employees, unlike in other countries. However, we cannot and should not compromise with lacklustre performance of some civil servants and they need to be removed. Official statement shows that only 1.1% of civil servants scored less than 70% appraisal marks each year. If so, the "Exit Policy" should be re-introduced in a new form after discussion and explanation of all the parties involved. For this time, it is appropriate if a higher threshold mark of 75% -80% is set.

Conclusion

I personally agree with the rationalization of subsidies, but such attempt alone will not help the government to achieve or a balanced budget. My recommendation is Malaysia needs to reduce expenses in the payment of emoluments by putting the welfare of the people as the main intent, rather than to meet the "passions" of politics.

MH17; Who Shot It Down?

Russians are worse off now, especially after the “phase-three” economic sanctions by the United States and European Union are now unleashed.  The purported “phase-one” started after the annexation of Crimea from Ukraine and the most recent sanctions were induced by the downing of MH17, a Malaysia-based civilian airliner allegedly by pro-Russian rebels. However rather surprisingly, Russia’s oil industry is be subjected to any sanctions directly. Surprised? Well, since one-third of Europe’s consumed oil comes from Russia, European Union has no guts to sanction the Russian oil industry as it will pose systemic risk to EU’s already struggling economy. How opportunistic!

Whilst the initial exercise of economic sanctions could be justified, the reason for the latest sanction is very much doubted. Before I even start, I wish to stress that I am neither a Russian apologist nor a supporter of Putinism. But looking at the pace where Russia is made a scapegoat before a full-scale investigation concludes, creates suspicion whether the US and European Union are trying to engage in a “zero-sum game”.

The international team tasked with the thorough investigation at the crash site has barely started its work. Theories and speculations are running wild on the possible causes that have killed almost 300 innocent lives on their flight en route to Kuala Lumpur. Any interested souls can have a simple browse on the Net regarding MH17, only to find almost 90% of articles in international news portal pointing their finger to Russia and its brutal honchos, the rebels in eastern Ukraine.

The fact that these sources of information, may it be by news portal or even from the “official sources” are mostly Western-backed or pro-Western mediums. Thus, by reading such sources, readers can be easily fooled into believing that the Russians are the ones behind this mishap. I am not suggesting that the Western news sources are all bad, but the question is “how reliable is their reporting?”. The Ukrainian intelligence unit has released a purported leak conversation between the rebels and a Russian military officer. The validity of the “leaked tape” has since been debunked by a group of international experts. How true the “finding” of this group is, too is questionable. Similarly, a video showing a surface-to-air missile being transferred to the rebel-stronghold from the borders of Russia has also been declared as doctored.

Okay, so it seems that the Western forces are unleashing their propaganda machineries to out-win their arch-nemesis, the Russian Federation. But, Vladimir Putin does not just stand by and watch. He too, has engaged the Russian propaganda tools to influence the Russians that it is indeed Ukraine, which is responsible in shooting down the MAS airliner. A research by the Lezada Centre shows that 82% of Russians feel that the Ukrainian force is the black sheep behind the mishap.

Both sides are busy influencing the world that their rivals are actually responsible for the tragedy. But as always, the United States and its backers are winning the race. As expected, none is and never will be, accepting the blame as it would only lead to international condemnation. To all the ordinary men and women hoping for justice to be done for the victims, do not ever fall into the traps of these propagandists.

In this case, the biggest propaganda comes from the United States. Let’s just admit it; most of us have huge admiration for the Uncle Sam’s nation, making us easily believing whatever it says. For me, taking a retrospective view, the United States is one of the biggest spin-doctors the world has ever met. The previous governments of the United States, be it under the leadership of Democrat or Republican presidents, have frequently used false claims and fabricated news to make the Congress and the civilians agree on the need to enter into a war.

Remember Vietnam War? In order to combat and defeat the Communist forces of North Vietnam, the Lyndon Johnson administration fabricated a false mishap called the Gulf of Tonkin incident, in which it was claimed that the Communist North Viet Nam force has attacked the US’s sea destroyer. It was because of this lie, a resolution was passed in the Congress allowing the United States to fight the communist force.

Remember the First Gulf War and US’s Operation Desert Storm? Iraq pursued on a mission to annex Kuwait, only to be stopped by the United States’ interference. Ironically, the US has aided Iraq when the latter fought against the newly founded Islamic Republic of Iran from 1980 till 1988. To obtain approval from the Congress and the public to attack the Iraqi forces, the George Bush Sr. administration fabricated rumours by broadcasting a “revelation” by a nurse who claimed to work in a hospital in Kuwait. She alleged that the Iraqi forces brutally remove babies from incubators and threw them onto the floor, leaving them to tragic death. This was also later proven untrue.

Remember Operation Desert Fox in 1998? The Democrat Clinton-government initiated this CIA-led operation by attacking Iraq by making false claim that the freshly-defeated Saddam regime from the First Gulf War has been hiding its clandestine nuclear programme and not cooperating closely with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to dismantle its nuclear facilities. This fabricated claim helped to “legitimise” the airstrikes on Iraq by the Clinton government. This claim was later repudiated by Mohamed El Baradei, the Director General of IAEA, saying instead, the Iraqi government and its scientists have cooperated in bringing Iraq’s nuclear capacity within United Nation’s requirements. This was even mentioned in his book, “The Age of Deception”. The lie fabricated by United States has created distrust among Iraqis and Saddam himself, making it difficult or even impossible to verify Iraq’s nuclear capacity after the Operation.

Remember the invasion of Iraq in 2003 or the “Purple Revolution”? George Bush Jr. fabricated a claim that the Saddam regime was developing Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) programme and this will endanger the Western and worldwide population. This was the basic reason to topple the dictator Saddam. Although Saddam is not a public figure to be valued due to his atrocities, the actions of US to intrude a country by basing on false lies should never be supported.

I am not a US hater, but I urge the laypeople not to simply believe the information by the news providers, even if it is the CNN or BBC. Let us all wait for the end-result of the on-going international investigation (hopefully a neutral one). By the way, the Malaysian Premier, Mr. Najib Razak deserves plaudits for securing a deal with the separatists for a smooth investigation and return of the bodies and black boxes.