Tuesday, September 28, 2010

What's next, Government?

In every organization that requires a turnaround plan, what are our priorities as the Commander in Chief ?
  1. Cut costs
  2. Find additional source of revenue
  3. Improve revenue from current operations/sales
With the ETP showcased to the world on 21 Sept 2010 at PWTC, it is clear that the Government is serious and wants to elevate us into a high income nation. This clears POINT NUMBER 2.

Now, we all know that the Government did a Subsidy Lab and the findings were shocking - Idris Jala announced that we could end up like Greece soon if we don't reduce our dependence on subsidies (direct and indirect).

So yes, the Government had announced subsidy cuts and is expected to announce more of these some day based on those findings. That clears POINT NUMBER ONE (no need to payout so much subsidy) and POINT NUMBER THREE (Government gains from taxes, royalties etc).

Unfortunately, by doing so, the Government is hurting the people's wallet and gets unpopular each time they slash subsidies. By lifting subsidies before our wallets get filled, we all might end up with depression pretty soon won't we?

To me, the Government's message seem to be saying "we are all in a painful mess now, so let us hand-in-hand overcome this".

Unfortunately, Mr Prime Minister, the Government needs to look at the biggest action for POINT NUMBER ONE, just like what the private sector always do. No survey was conducted, but I am pretty sure a majority will tell you that we need to reduce the size of our civil service especially in Putrajaya.

Of course, we cannot sack the civil servants (guys, it is a fact and I know this for sure) and we cannot give them a big hug, big kiss together with a Voluntary Separation Scheme (VSS).

But there are things that need to be done and can be done with regards to this, my dear Government. For starters, the Pegawai Khidmat Singkat (PKS) must go to cut costs and the Government can continue operating under the eyes of the Pegawai Tadbir dan Diplomatik (PTD).

And we roll on from there to downsize our civil service - perhaps PEMANDU should roll out a Civil Service Rationalisation Lab / Programme !


Also, at a small corner of my mind, I am beginning to wonder if the current Government's New Economic Model, 10th Malaysia Plan and Economic Transformation Programme will go along or gel together somehow.

And the biggest worry, from my personal point of view, is that we might end up like Japan - a rich country with a poor population. Oh well, what a way to start the morning!

2 comments:

Kenn said...

NEM - Will it be about big players and mega projects, not an economic model per se?

katdog said...

The point that hurts the rakyat the most is that the mess we are in was not created by the rakyat, but we are being asked to 'share' in the burden.

During the heydays of high economic growth, the profits that were made by all those UMNOputra were never shared. The UMNOputras paid themselves huge salaries, dividends and 'benefits' to themselves but when the economy tanked, the rakyat's money was used to bail out all those 'economic leaders'.

This is precisely the issue with privatizing profits and nationalizing losses.

Even today, the government continues to waste taxpayers money (national service, new Eurocopters, new naval supply ships, new parliament building?, corruption) yet demand that the rakyat share in the burden of the country's debt? How can anyone accept such reasoning?