Malaysia Today - Your Source of Independent News
Malaysia Today - Your Source of Independent News |
| Posted: 09 Dec 2011 11:14 AM PST The BN government's irresponsible attitude in using citizens' money to help out crony corporations smacks of bad governance It is an open secret that the BN federal government's hidden agenda is to strangle the Opposition Pakatan Rakyat (PR) in order to stay in power. Thus, the ones who will suffer the most are the poor and uneducated masses who will forever be shackled via the very chains of those whom they vote. Selena Tay, Free Malaysia Today Want to go into debt by taking out a bank loan? Deal with a crony bank. Want to subscribe to a telecommunications service? Deal with a crony. Want to take a flight? Ditto. Driving on the tolled highways, using water and electricity; from dawn to dusk our lives are controlled and suffocated by BN cronies so much so that Malaysia can be labelled as a Crony Nation. The BN federal government's strategy to create a large pool of cronies is made with the intent to broaden its vote base because the crony bosses will surely tell their employees to vote BN. It is an open secret that the BN federal government's hidden agenda is to strangle the Opposition Pakatan Rakyat (PR) in order to stay in power. Thus, the ones who will suffer the most are the poor and uneducated masses who will forever be shackled via the very chains of those whom they vote. Only the elite, the powerful and the well-connected thrive in Crony Nation. Former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad has said that the Arab Spring will not occur in Malaysia. But can he be absolutely sure? It is not easy to read the mood of the masses. History has shown this time and time again. For example the "Peasants Rebellion" during the Ming Dynasty in the year 1644 took place due to heavy taxes and rent repayment levied by the government. The rebel forces who had won wide popular support crushed the government army in many campaigns. The rebel forces led by Li Zicheng then captured Beijing and Emperor Chongzhen of the Ming Dynasty committed suicide thus marking the end of the Ming Dynasty. This is history. Ditto the French Revolution in July 1789 and the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia in October 1917. When the oppressed peoples could not tolerate anymore oppression, there is bound to be unrest. All the uprisings occur when power is concentrated in the hands of an elite few who continue to arrogantly flaunt their wealth as they oppress the citizens. News travels quickly The BN leaders have now become boastful and full of pride as they disdainfully ignore the rakyat's pleas for a vibrant and transparent democracy. Questions on accountability are brushed aside in a brusque manner akin to swatting an irritating mosquito. The government must not be over-confident that the citizens are dumb and docile because once the situation reaches boiling point, it will be too late to do anything. In this age of instant technology, news travels quickly. Perhaps that is the reason why broadband penetration is poor in the rural areas. The federal government intends to dumb-down the rural masses with the intention of forever feeding them government-controlled propaganda. As such the rural folk are the government's fixed deposit vote bank in Crony Nation which works extremely hard to control and manipulate the minds of the masses. This is a distinct hallmark of crony nations anywhere. It is very difficult for the opposition to make any inroads into the rural areas in Crony Nation. In the recent 10th Sarawak state election in April this year, Taib Mahmud's PBS party chartered all the helicopters and boats to go into the interiors and therefore the opposition suffered a crushing defeat. The boats would not ferry the opposition's supporters and voters into the polling centres. Thus, it is not unusual for BN to win by landslide margins in Sabah and Sarawak. Everything in Crony Nation is controlled by BN. This gives the lie to Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak's Government Transformation Programme (GTP) which has undergone a metamorphosis into a mafia-like organisation. This is detrimental to the genuine small and medium business entrepreneurs who are not in the BN-mafia and will therefore fail to secure any business contracts or projects. It is clear that Najib's rhetoric does not transcend into political will. As economy is linked to politics, will Malaysia become a failed state? With the nation is firmly in the grasp of BN's iron tentacles, their cronies will have free reign to amass wealth via monopolies in all sectors of the nation's economy. This in turn will lead to nepotism and malpractices. A clear example of this is Umno minister Sharizat Abdul Jalil's "Cattle-Condo Caper", the project which was given to her by Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin who was the minister of agriculture at that material time. It is not surprising then that Malaysia's Corruption Perception Index is on a downhill slide, the latest from position number 56 to 60. This will certainly not inspire confidence in foreign investors. Does the BN federal government know that it does not take a rocket scientist to make this elementary deduction? Still, the federal government continues to put into practice the concept of Crony Nation. For them it is business as usual as they continue to plunder the nation's wealth. The latest shenanigan is the plundering of the citizens' old-age life savings from the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) wherein RM55 billion was taken out by the government to be given to crony companies as unsecured loans. The EPF should be renamed the Eternal Plunderers' Fund!
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| Posted: 09 Dec 2011 11:11 AM PST Malaysia's civil servants-to-population ratio is the highest in Southeast Asia, recording 4.68%, compared to Thailand's 2.06%, the Philippines' 1.81%, Indonesia's 1.79%, Laos' 1.24% and Cambodia's 1.18%. By LIM MUN FAH The efficiency of civil servants is the key to the success of various transformation plans. It also affects the country's competitiveness and the BN government's image. Therefore, it is absolutely correct to dismiss civil servants with poor performance. The Public Service Department has finally recognised the reality that they must remove the "tumour" to ensure a smooth administration while preventing sham, fraud and other abuses. Since they are provided with lifelong benefits, it is unfair to the people if all civil servants are kept in the office, regardless of their performance. The exit policy requires those with poor performance to be reviewed by a special panel and if they fail to improve within six month, they will be asked to voluntarily leave the job. Such a policy is in fact not enough to improve the overall performance of the team. Instead, it must develop a road map, including the implementation of a more stringent management, a reward and punishment system, a productivity index and a downsizing plan. In addition to ordinary civil servants, those in executive level should also be monitored. Various overpriced item purchase, the waste of public funds and other frauds revealed by the annual Auditor-General's Report show us an efficient management. The Public Service Department should make it a compulsory for department, agency and team heads to take management courses before assessing their abilities. If their annual performance ratings are less than 70%, they are required to be reviewed by a special panel and those who fail to improve within six months will be downgraded. The public domain is also facing a serious disciplinary problem. Apart from absenteeism and unpunctuality, there are also criminal offenses, such as three Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) officers were arrested for allegedly robbing a money changer at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) in Sepang, as well as corruption, kidnapping, robbery and theft involving law enforcement officers. Therefore, disciplinary problems must be rectified to improve the team's spiritual outlook. It is staggering that the number of civil servants has actually climbed from 1.14 million in 2007 to 1.4 million this year. The Public Service Department's effort in cutting 29,000 positions this year is simply negligible. Malaysia's civil servants-to-population ratio is the highest in Southeast Asia, recording 4.68%, compared to Thailand's 2.06%, the Philippines' 1.81%, Indonesia's 1.79%, Laos' 1.24% and Cambodia's 1.18%. Therefore, a reasonable ratio target should be set and gradually achieved, to force the public service team improve efficiency and reduce the national burden. To greatly enhance the efficiency of the public domain, filling top positions with outside talents is feasible, including bringing in the private sector's performance-based work culture and time sense. Civil servants should not resist it. The welfare of civil servants has been significantly improved over the past 10 years. Former Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad launched the Malaysian Remuneration Scheme (SSM) to replace the New Remuneration Scheme (SSB) on 1 November 2002, increasing civil servants' salaries by RM15 to RM110. In July 2007, another increment was made and now, civil servants will enjoy an increment of 7-13% and other benefits under the the New Civil Remuneration Scheme (SBPA). The problem is, there is no correspondent increase in the requirement for their efficiency. Hopefully, they can really put words into actions this time or everything will be meaningless.
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