Why should people bear the consequences of an inefficient government?
This article was earlier published in TheAntDaily.com on 30/12/2013
After the fuel price was raised by the Barisan Nasional (BN) government, the prices of other essential items and public utilities are due to increase beginning January 2014. And if the BN leaders are denying that, we are expecting it because we know that they are not telling the truth anyway.
Our people are getting frustrated with the entire situation. Almost every day, we see the impact of the price increases. Our food supplies and other daily needs are affected one way or another. It is very clear that inflation is just right in front of us.
While the BN government is taking back the subsidies of importance one after another, the Putrajaya administration budget deficits keep on increasing annually. The deficits did not actually happen overnight or innocently like what many BN leaders claimed.
Decades of overspending, power abuse, mismanagement and corruption has driven our nation into a dangerous situation right now. The poor will become poorer than ever, the middle-income earners are also beginning to feel and experience what the poor have been suffering, while all those BN politicians and their cronies continue to plunder whatsoever remains of our nation’s wealth.
It is public knowledge that the BN leaders did not heed the people’s complaints about corruption, power abuse and mismanagement within its power house.
And finally, International Trade and Industry Minister Datuk Mustapa Mohamad declared that the BN government has no choice but to roll back subsidies. So, whose fault was that? Why should our people have to bear the consequences? Why make our people suffer when all those corruption, power abuse and mismanagement are being carried out by these BN leaders and their cronies?
The BN government only knows how to increase and create more taxes and withdraw subsidies from the people. They never cut their expenses at all but instead keep on increasing their expenditures which resulted in continuous budget deficit. In the end, they decided to print more money in order to cover up their losses.
Just look at the lump of government expenses. First, it has been inefficiently carried out, then it was geared towards non-capacity-building projects. For example, the Port Klang Free Zone (PKFZ) and the KLIA2 are capacity-building projects but they experienced high cost overruns with continuous delays.
Unnecessary spending on private professional consultancies, services, protocol and ceremonial functions, grandeur and white elephant projects means nothing to the people. They are all simply a total waste of public funds.
If this BN government is really serious about looking after our people’s well-being and socio-economy, we challenge it to carry out the following measures:
1) Cut your massively high expenditures;
2) Implement open tenders for projects and government work orders;
3) Downsize the bloated civil service;
4) Privatise several government facilities and services in order to create efficiency;
5) Reduce the number of ministers and ministries to curb duplication of functions, roles and responsibilities; and
6) Implement open market structure and emphasise performance-based policies.
And many more measures which are common sense.
The other question here is, after the Auditor-General’s Report revealed the blatant mismanagement, and wastages as a result of power abuse and corruption within the administration, did the BN government really take remedial measures and implement standard operating procedures to prevent a recurrence?
If the government has yet to act to curb all these negative elements within its administration, then why force the people to pay for all these government mismanagement and losses? Is it fair to push the buck to the people?
I believe this government has a choice. It is just that the government prefers to protect and pamper its politicians, the ruling party leaders, their cronies, the ineffective, inefficient and errant civil servants, instead of looking after the interests of the people, who pay income tax annually to the government.
They prefer to spend millions of ringgit on utility bills, jetting around for fun, subsidising and enriching themselves in the name of the so-called New Economic Policy (NEP) and claiming to be championing the rights of the Bumiputeras.
Should the people need to bear such consequences continuously? Why must we pay for their crimes? We must put an end to such painful experience caused by this inefficient administration.
It is the constitutional right of every citizen to call for this ruling coalition of party elites to be toppled from the seat of governance. It is indeed our people’s right to do so!
