(The problem with Najib is not his ideas in his 10MP but his willpower and having the right character to make the actual change. After the stunt, he pulled off in Perak, who is going to believe what he says? Image source: Bloomberg)
Najib had tabled the 10th Malaysia Plan (10MP) yesterday and already there has been nothing but praises to this plan. The former PM, Pak Lah even went one step to say that “the 10th Malaysia Plan is a big leap to a new platform that will bring Malaysia greater success”.
But was it really a “big leap”?
Can we really put our foot into the “First World” status as mentioned by Najib?
There was no trace of any changes to NEM in the 10MP (is it due to PM being scared of the Perkasa buggers?) and certain things like lowering the age for primary school does not really means anything if we failed to check on the quality of education (the students will be getting the bullshit at an earlier age now).
The 30% Bumiputera equity quota is still there in 10MP (computation of the 30% is still elusive to this day) and despite PM’s promise to closely monitor this, we know that the system has been tainted to the roof and we are only going to go back to square one.
MIC was there with Samy Vellu promising to “monitor” the implementation of benefits to the “Indians” (why of course) as usual – wondered what happened to all the previous monitoring (until Hindraf had to take the issue to the streets).
And in the midst of calls for cost-cutting measures, tightening the expenses and wanting to reduce subsidies, some jokers came up with the idea of shifting the Parliament to Putrajaya for a tune of RM800 million.
If the old Parliament building (which by the way, was recently renovated for millions of ringgit) was completely destroyed (due to fire, etc) we can probably talk about having a new building for the Parliament. But if the old building is still good, then why waste RM800 million?
Whatever Najib has said from his carefully prepared speech in Parliament on 10MP actually means nothing to the ordinary people.
Why?
It is because whatever Najib has said is nothing but a general policy – another politician talk, designed to bring high hopes to various sectors. This is just one man making promises to the nation – whether he can make good of his promise, is another ball game altogether.
The same was echoed by Anwar Ibrahim when he said:-
“You may have grand ideas, but whether you can implement it, it’s another thing”
The PM has given his “speech” in the Parliament – the various Ministers have to go back to their Ministries and start formulating how in the hell they are going to implement the plan at the Ministry level. They only have the framework and perhaps some statistics to work with.
And we all know that we have some big-time clowns heading some of the Ministries in Malaysia. Once the Minister has done with his Ministry level framework (in months), the buck now will be pushed to the various heads of department who now need to work out the details of implementation and enforcement before the ordinary man in the street can start seeing the success of the so-called 10MP.
What I am saying here is nothing new.
In the past, when Prime Ministers announced the Malaysia Plans, almost everyone applauds the “big leap” that the Plan promise to make in the next 5 years. But when it comes to a stage where someone like Idris Jala comes out and say that Malaysia may go bankrupt if nothing major is done, you will realise that whatever “big leap” that was promised ended up as nothing but empty promises.
So, similarly on 10MP – ya, it sounds good with Najib pointing at various areas of economics and promises of high income (which will be necessary if the Government is going to pull out the subsidies) and making Malaysia more resilient (ya, throw in juicy words like “first world” whilst you are at it).
Ya, it sounds good just like the past Malaysia Plans which saw Malaysia slipping away from the same footing with South Korea and Singapore!!
If I was Pak Lah, I would not be so quick to say “big leap” on this 10MP right now – let’s wait for the actual implementation and enforcement. After all, this is Malaysia – we are bound to have flip-flops and reversal of policies due to political reasons.