Please read:
http://www.theedgedaily.com/edge-links/1645-is-it-big-enough.html
| Will it do the job? |  |
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Tags: mini-budget
| Written by Melody Song | |
| Tuesday, 10 March 2009 20:23 | |
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]>–> With the impact of the global economic crisis hitting home, citizens waited in anticipation as the second stimulus package was officially unveiled by Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak. The Edge Malaysia trawled the blogosphere to read what netizens had to write about the mini-budget. From Najib’s desk A good place to start would be Najib’s blog, which starts on a hopeful note. “I aspire to ensure that this package will be fresh, engaging and benefit all Malaysians,” Najib wrote, assuring his commenters that the 500-odd suggestions he received was helpful in providing him guidance in determining what issues the rakyat are concerned with. Second-guessing Prior to the unveiling, Salvatore_Dali speculated that the SSP would be between RM10b and RM15b, and that any sum greater than that would weaken the ringgit substantially. “As things stand we will be incurring a 4.8% deficit. If the SSP is another RM10bn, the deficit will swell to 6.9%; if it’s RM15bn the figure will be 7.6%; and if the government is aggressive and do a RM30bn SSP, the figure will be a scary 9.6%,” he wrote. Eric Yong, the Executive Director of Crest Builder Holdings Berhad opined that the government’s first step would be to tackle smaller scale priority projects first such as infrastructure improvements and public amenities. He also felt it was highly unlikely that any mega-projects would be funded directly by the government as they have been implementing the Private Finance Initiative (PFI) concept. Dissatisfied public even before the unveiling of SSP Other bloggers expressed some dissatisfaction with the earlier-tabled RM10 billion to be spent. Political analyst Khoo Kay Peng went straight for the jugular in critiquing what would impact the rakyat most: the whispers of how the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) may be reduced to 8% or lower. Khoo’s concerns included the lack of savings by the Malaysian public post-retirement. “More than 12% of all Malaysians do not make any personal saving from their monthly income. About half save less than 10% of their monthly income in addition to the EPF contribution,” he blogged. “We do not have that many RM10 billion to throw around. It is time for the government to put in some serious thoughts into ensuring that this country will ride out of this economic storm better and more competitive,” Khoo concluded. While most who blogged on the subject of the SSP expressed their views in an analytical form, Zubli Zainordin opted for a form of a haiku-like poem to express his mild annoyance at the way the government is reacting to the global economic crisis: “Too Small. To Even Cover The Huge Holes. In Our Malaysian Economy”. After the unveling The figure of a RM60 billion stimulus package surprised many, including tunku, who wrote: “I was expecting nothing more than RM30 billion. All the best to Najib. The most important part now is the fast implementation of it. It should be closely monitored 24/7.” Rocky’s Bru chimed this man-on-the-street opinion: “I want to see how it’s going to benefit the smaller-income guy and his family.” hermansamsudeen took a more cynical view, questioning the funding for such a large package: “Peliknya, mana Najib dapat 60 Billion untuk belanja nie? Semua itu pastinya hutang yang dibuat atas nama Rakyat Malaysia dan Rakyat yang tak tau apa-apa tak pasal-pasal berhutang.” (The strange thing is, where does Najib get the RM60billion to spend? It is most likely debts made in the name of the Malaysian people – people who don’t know anything about it, who suddenly have acquired debts.)
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