www.kopihangtuah.blogspot.com
Information and discoveries on Altantuya, 1MDB and GST should come from the relevant authorities such as AG, PAC, the Police, the Judiciary Service and the Royal Customs, whoever is responsible. I find it inappropriate for the Prime Minister to answer those questions. He is conflicted. You need a third party to dig in. The most he should do is to state his innocence (or guilt). What is more important is the economic state of our country. How is Malaysia doing?
ALAYSIANS seem to be hostile to their Prime Minister, YAB Dato' Sri Najib Razak, particularly on the social media. What is more worrying is that the ex-Prime Minister, YABhg Tun Mahathir, and the ex-Finance Minister, YABhg Tun Daim, have also joined the bandwagon, much to the delight of the opposition parties regardless of their intentions. For a non-partisan observer like me, this is indeed damaging to the country. What is (assuming) a stable position (economy) can undergo a u-turn when the World's confidence in the country is diminished causing further impairment to the Malaysian currency, Ringgit. This is a game of perception and not necessarily the underlying reality. Whilst there are many reasons for public queries (including those by Tun Mahathir) to be answered (by Dato' Sri Najib), due care and diligence is also required to establish whether or not those queries are fair.
The debacle on Altantuya's murder for example. The question about who instructed the murder should be answered by the Judiciary Service if not the police. How is it logical that the question was directed to the Prime Minister? In addition, whether or not to allow any further investigations to proceed or to suspend the death sentence to the accused, it is never the executive decision of the Prime Minister, and it never should be, and it never was to begin with. I find it rather amusing really.
In the case of Goods and Services Tax (GST), I think Malaysians need to read more. If I am not mistaken, the newspapers (as well as social media) have been publishing pages of explanations, diagrams, examples, lists, Questions and Answers and all sorts of information being made available by the Government. I have personally read all these and I have also done it from a lay-man's perspective when comprehending those articles. In my mind, it is not just adequate but comprehensive.
Then there is 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB). We have a bi-partisan ombudsmen mechanism called the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) whose members are appointed by the parliament from both the governing parties as well as the opposition parties with significant degree of independence and they (the Committee) are charged with representing the interests of the public by investigating and addressing complaints of maladministration or a violation of rights. I am not sure what the PAC is doing but at least the Auditor General (AG), who reports to the PAC, has commenced investigation with the help of the police. The Prime Minister has made it clear that his comments (on 1MDB), if made, should not carry any weight because he is conflicted by the fact that his family member is implicated (his step son). The Minister of Finance II, Dato' Sri Husni Hanadzlah, has tabled all necessary information on 1MDB in the parliament, some of which have been made public via newspapers. Anything more than that will have to come from the result of the investigation by the AG (or PAC), logically speaking.
In short, what I am trying to say is, information and discoveries on Altantuya, 1MDB and GST should come from the relevant authorities such as AG, PAC, the Police, the Judiciary Service and the Royal Customs, whoever is responsible. I find it inappropriate for the Prime Minister to answer those questions. He is conflicted. You need a third party to dig in. The most he should do is to state his innocence (or guilt). What is more important is the economic state of our country. How is Malaysia doing? Well, I am very, very fortunate to have really good friends on Facebook who give numerous comments that are relevant to the quesion of Malaysian economy. I learn a lot from these people and hence, I have decided to collate those status comments into proper paragraphs describing the Malaysian economy as follows:
Budget Deficit
Firstly, the Government has been reducing the budget deficit by 0.5% every year since 2009. That equals to 3% deficit reduction. 2015 is budgeted to achieve a revised deficit of 3.2% as opposed to the earlier budget of 3.0%. A mere 0.2% is not going to have any significant impact on the country's ratings. It is a necessary adjustment to allow some funds to be channeled for recovery activities relating to the mega flood of 2014/2015 as well as the drop in oil prices. With this rate of reduction in budget deficits, Malaysia should reach about 0.7% deficit by 2020. This is a very good target.
Foreign Reserves
Secondly, many concerns over the foreign reserves are misunderstood concerns. The foreign reserves are not measured by the absolute amount but by the number of months that the amount can finance retained imports. As at 15 September 2014, Bank Negara Malaysia reported that the International reserves stood at RM422.3 billion sufficient to cover 8.9 months of retained imports. This is a really good statistic considering that the Global standard is at 6 months. A 50% margin of safety (2.9 months / 6 months) is a really strong position. This same reserve can also cover 1.2 times Malaysian short term external foreign debt balance. This is indeed a healthy liquidity position.
Ringgit Malaysia
Thirdly, let's talk about the weakenig Ringgit. Of course we worry that the weakening of the Ringgit or the strengthening of the United States of America Dollars (USD). Why do we worry? We worry if we have to settle our obligations in other currencies. If we look at the flip side of it, those who wants Ringgit can get Ringgit cheaper. Who are they? Our export partners. A relatively weaker Ringgit will actually grow our exports and hence, drive the Gross National Income (GNI). This will result in Malaysia accumulating more foreign currencies to balance the weak Ringgit position and strengthen our foreign reserves. This is good. If our exporters close down, our exports will fall resulting in a dampening domestic consumption due to reduced income. This would certainly paralyse Malaysia akin to what Greece is experiencing. Luckily we are not heading that way. So should we now have a positive perception of the Government? Go figure!
A relatively weaker Ringgit will actually grow our exports and hence, drive the Gross National Income (GNI). This weill result in Malaysia accumulating more foreign currencies to balance the weak Ringgit position and strengthen our foreign reserves.
* kopihangtuah
| mcmlxxv:viii:xxix |
0 comments:
Post a Comment