Zaid: Ditch “failed” five-year plans, start fixing real problems now!
IN a scathing attack against the Government, former minister Datuk Zaid Ibrahim urged the Government to do away with the five-year Malaysian Plan, as they have been proven to be unsuccessful.
“Just to do away with this five-year plan drama. It’s waste of time and money. India did not do well with it and ditched this developing method because its implementation was flawed.
“Ministers come and go and they change policies as they wish. Civil servants also scuttle the policies when it suits them, with even politicians being unaware of what’s happening,” he said in a Facebook post.
Recently, Finance Minister Datuk Seri Tengku Zafrul Abdul Aziz announced that the Government was in the midst of preparing the next fine-year Malaysia Plan.
With that, he called upon the public to share their input on the matter so that the Government could enact a comprehensive policy to rejuvenate the country.
Unimpressed with the matter, Zaid urged the public to gauge the effectiveness of Malaysia Plans since its inception, adding nothing substantial were ever achieved with most targets barely met.
“What happened to our great industrialisation plan; the plan for unity and rebirth of the nation? What happened to achieving Vision 2020, where Malaysia will prosper like first world countries?
“Where are the science and innovation in our education system? What happened to creating high-income economy and the empowerment of our people?
“The truth is, all of them are now shelved in the archives of the Economic Planning Unit (EPU), at the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO),” he lashed out.
Offering solutions, Zaid called on Tengku Zafrul to resolve five main issues affecting the country to ensure Malaysia would recover and become competitive globally.
Firstly, the former Kota Bharu MP urged the Government to establish a clear plan to deal with COVID-19 and its after-effects.
“How do you plan to spend money on public health infrastructure? How is the recovery plan going to happen? Get the former prime minister to provide details and debate it in the Parliament,” he added.
Secondly, Zaid said that country’s education system needs to be overhauled to instil competitiveness and produce quality graduates.
Education, food and financial services
For starters, he urged the Government to deal with the quota system, without affecting quality of the graduates coming out.
“How do we produce graduates who can earn enough to repay their student debts? Can we produce quality doctors that can be absorbed into the public healthcare system permanently?
“And please don’t expect our Education Ministers to answer this. Talk to education experts and again, debate it in the Parliament,” Zaid stressed.
On the third aspect, he urged the Government to revamp the civil service and make the pension schemes more sustainable in the long-run.
He opined that the Government should consider removing pensions for Ministers who were already being paid well, with some even being wealthy from the start.
“Can we look into slashing the number of civil servants to make it more affordable to maintain in the long-term?
“And please look into this unnecessary appointment of ministry advisers and special envoys,” Zaid stated.
On the fourth issue, Zaid said the Government should look into reviving the agriculture sector radically given the need to improve food security.
“We need to look into using our abandoned lands, some 30 million acres, to help in this effort. The Malaysian Agricultural Research and Development Institute (MADI) needs to be more in tune with the nation’s needs, especially our farmers,” he opined.
Lastly, he urged the Finance Ministry to issue five more banking licenses to parties who are willing to lend money at an affordable rate.
“Our big banks here should relocate to Manhattan. They have no interest to support small timers and budding entrepreneurs.
“They are only keen to help those who want to make more money, not support those who are financially constrained,” Zaid concluded. – Sept 6, 2021
Zaid forgot to mention the Longest Never Ending Plan, NEP. And Wee KHAT Siong's Cabotage Policy.
ReplyDeleteMicrosoft (1.68 Trillion market cap), Facebook (1.06T)m Google (1.92T), Amazon (1.76T) all dwarf the ENTRIRE MARKET CAP of KLSE (0.44T) but Wee KHAT Siong talk so big, so degil, just so that he can keep MCA's single Menteri seat.
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Cabotage exemption: tech titans appeal to Ismail Sabri
06 Sep 2021
Emmanuel Samarathisa
KUALA LUMPUR – Four global tech giants are appealing to newly minted Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob to reinstate the cabotage exemption policy that governs undersea internet cable repairs.
In a September 1 letter sighted by The Vibes, the four companies – Amazon, Microsoft, Google and Facebook – and the Malaysia Internet Exchange (MyIX) told Ismail Sabri that all it takes are simple changes to the country’s infrastructure to reap greater economic benefits.
“(The cabotage exemption) had (previously) ensured that submarine cable repair works could be conducted efficiently within a short time frame, thus minimising the duration and economic impact of cable disruptions,” said the firms.
“We respectfully propose that the government reinstates the cabotage exemption policy with immediate effect.”
By reinstating the exemption, they said, it would “send a strong message about the government’s commitment to realising the MyDigital agenda”....
...We strongly believe that this policy realignment is a ‘low-hanging fruit’ that will deliver considerable economic benefits to the nation. Such decisive action would be embraced by the rakyat, who recognise the tangible economic benefits that they stand to benefit from with increased connectivity and more reliable digital services.”
The reversal of the cabotage exemption policy by the Perikatan Nasional government on November 13 last year was among the pain points for tech stakeholders.
Then transport minister Datuk Seri Wee Ka Siong undid the policy put in place by his predecessor Anthony Loke that players said sped up undersea cable repairs.
Wee’s decision drew flak, and he was blamed for the country’s missed opportunities in terms of attracting cable landings by the likes of Facebook because it favoured a single company – the Optic Marine Services (OMS) group – and the Malaysia Shipowners’ Association (Masa).
Sighted correspondences with government agencies showed that there had been concerns about OMS’ track record in performing repairs, among them the lack of proper equipment, including vessels.
Tech giants such as Facebook and Google prefer a Dynamic Position 2 (DP2) cable repair ship.
OMS recently acquired the CS Lodbrog vessel that can perform undersea cable repairs and maintenance. It has another Malaysian-flagged vessel, the Cable Orchestra (previously the Fu Xing), a barge that has done some repairs in local waters.
Masa, on the other hand, has the right to jam applications in favour of Malaysian-flagged ships, therefore delaying repairs.
Citing sources, The Vibes reported that Wee’s policy was among the reasons investors raised when Malaysia was exempted from Facebook’s latest Apricot loop, which included other Southeast Asian countries like Singapore and Indonesia.
Under Ismail Sabri’s government, Wee returns as transport minister, with insiders telling The Vibes that it may not bode well for the matter, “but we’ll wait and see since we do have to be objective, even if it is the same person we’ll be dealing with”.
This is not the first time the tech giants and MyIX have written to the prime minister. Previously they wrote to Ismail Sabri’s predecessor Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin on November 23 last year, but nothing substantial happened. – The Vibes, September 6, 2021
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The retraction of the Cabotage waiver by Wee KHAT Siong was a stupid move, made simply to spite the earlier PH policy, as well as to please connected cronies.
DeleteAnd Wee KHAT Siong is too arrogant to admit his error.
He blabbered about "only 48 hours" for an approval to be given to waive the requirement.
If a a Fibre optic cable is down, 48 hours additional Internet downtime to get approval is like 48 weeks.
In the 17 months Wee KHAT Siong has done so much damage to our economy. No Need 5-year plans for Transport. Just Reverse His Stupid Decisions.
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Malaysia at a standstill on transport matters, says expert
FMT Reporters -September 7, 2021
PETALING JAYA: The government has not addressed major unresolved problems in the transport sector and this will result in huge losses to the economy, according to transport consultant Rosli Azad Khan.
Rosli, a transport planning consultant, said that in the last 17 months there has been no major improvements in the transport system, which in turn has failed to drive the economic sector.
“I would put issues related to transport as those that drive economic activity, especially logistics and passenger traffic modes,” Rosli said.
He had also expressed disappointment over the reappointment of Wee Ka Siong as transport minister as he had held the same position in the Muhyddin Yassin government and had not addressed the issue.
“If a football team fails to win any games, I would expect a new team to be formed. The coach and captain ought to be replaced. Retaining them will not change the game strategy, so we can expect the same results,” he said.
One of the major unresolved issues Rosli commented on was Kedah’s Kulim International Airport (KXP) which was expected to cost approximately RM1.6 billion in just its first phase of construction.
First planned in 2014, KXP was pitched to be a major airport that would accommodate both passenger and cargo and would ease the traffic at Penang International Airport.
“I don’t think it should be a priority for now. The air transport sector has had a negative growth for the last two years due to the pandemic,” he said.
Even now, the government has yet to do anything about KXP and the Penang government has asked for clarification on whether or not the airport has been approved for construction.
“Hardly any risks or consequences will occur if the airport was delayed for several more years until air transport demand has stabilised,” Rosli said.
Rosli said the government’s main priority in transport matters should be Phase 2 of the Klang Valley Double-Tracking Project (KVDT), which is in legal limbo after the contract was terminated by the Perikatan Nasional government.
The project consists of two Keretapi Tanah Melayu (KTM) tracks spanning 110km, with one track going from Salak South to Seremban and the other between KL Sentral and Angkasapuri to Port Klang.
Rosli said there was a need to support commuting passengers, as there had been a drastic decrease in passenger ridership volume since 2015, when KVDT first started.
‘Due to the construction, there have been reductions in the service capacity as well as delays which have caused many passengers to switch to other modes of transport,” he said.
He added that the stalling of the project has created more issues with road traffic, such as massive traffic jams, as more passengers start switching from rail travel to road vehicles.
“It creates many unnecessary traffic-related problems which again require unnecessary road expansions and adding of new capacities, which are equally expensive,” he said.
“The truth is our government has failed to look into all these issues and by having the same people back in charge, it will not make it any better.”
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Five Year Plans are not necessarily bad as such.
ReplyDeleteMajor infrastructure projects, societal initiatives do benefit from long-term plans made within a framework of broad overall national objectives.
The main problem in Malaysia is the Corrupt practices, diversion of project awards to cronies, Race and Religion tainted objectives, atrocious project execution - which are all related and linked.