Ah Jib Gor-nomics: Mahathirism revisited - Hoorah for Cronyism



YOURSAY 'This is no more than a mega-subsidy scheme for business and industry. Yet Najib wants to cut oil and other subsidies.'

Tun Razak Exchange: A soon-to-fail mega-project?

your sayOng Guan Sin: From a PM who is known to buy off the electorate with a RM500 handout, don't be surprised if, being so desperate for a failing project with his late father's name on it, he applies the same to the prospective investors, only that it will be RM500 million apiece.

Malaysia is indeed doomed with a PM who is desperate and indiscreet with public funds.

Bob Teoh: This is no more than a mega-subsidy scheme for business and industry. Yet Najib Abdul Razak wants to cut oil and other subsidies. This is simply Ah Jib Gor-nomics.

The end result is that his tenure will be a greater failure than Dr Mahathir Mohamad's as it costs very much more.

Paul Warren: When The British gave us our Merdeka, they gave up the cost of administration and provision of security, but kept for themselves the revenue generating assets of the country.

Umno is just doing the same. Committing the nation to huge future expenditures but contracts are given to crony Umno companies.

So what does it matter if Pakatan Rakyat wins? They can carry the burden of costs of running the country. Umno continues to receive the benefit of revenue generating assets as well as revenue generating contracts entered into now.

Just like the British when they gave us independence and yet kept for themselves all the plantations and tin mining companies.

JomUbahUbah: I fully agreed with DAP national publicity chief Tony Pua. This will be another big white elephant from our Mr Flip Flop. It's time to vote out the corrupt Umno and BN.

NasiLemak: Malaysiakini has a strange set of readers. Everything is wrong for them in this country. They think PKR and DAP are always right.

Look at corruption in Selangor. Four years ago, public money was used to bail out former Talam chairperson Chan Ah Chai. No corruption? It's okay to do this?

PKR/DAP in power will be worse. It's bad as it is when they are not yet in power.

Foodforthought: NasiLemak, you too are a strange feller, the facts are slapping you in the face and yet you refuse to acknowledge them.

Raja Chulan: This is yet another contractor/construction-based mega-project where the money will be wrinkled out up-front during the construction phase by Umno politician and cronies.

Thereafter the white elephant will be left there for taxpayers to clean up the mess later. This is the same tactic used over and over again by the Umno government to suck the rakyat's blood and sweat.

Telestai!: What Najib failed to recognise is that when you promote a financial hub, you don't need a dedicated district because in the age of IT, physical proximity is no longer an issue.

Rather, what is critical is availability of human resource. If you don't have it, you can import but can you attract talent to work in Malaysia?

Singapore is an excellent example of a financial hub but notice that it hasn't got a special district for it. Yet many international financial institutions like banks and insurance/re-insurance companies have relocated there.

With excellent infrastructure, low tax rates, high quality dwellings, it is easy to see why they don't need a financial district.

Anonymous #43051382: We Malaysians know that all these mega-investment announcement are just sweet nothings that go into our ears. The billions and billions in investment are just to create a feel-good atmosphere... that's it.

Nothing solid will come out of those announcements. Indeed, the election is very near.

Anonymous_3e86: The bigger the project, the greater the kickbacks. Like all the other mega-projects, this one will most likely end up as a mega-white elephant. Has Labuan been recognised as a successful financial hub? Did it surpass Singapore?

Ferdtan: The government thought that by just changing the name and voila, you hereby have a transformation and a new brand.

If it is so easy then we don't need costly consultants. Najib, please tell us what is new, other than the usual tax incentives?

When investors invest their millions, they look for long-term benefits. They look at the political situation, share structure (now they are limited to 30 percent), the available qualified workers and the reasonable ease to do business unhindered by bureaucracy and corruption.

Other smaller factors include whether it is a safe place to work, with no worry of crimes and restrictions on foreign experts allowed to work in the country. It is not all about monetary incentives.
Dumb&Deaf: Tony Pua has brilliantly put his finger on a massive problem: these BN dinosaurs are trapped in an analogue time-warp, no matter how fond they are of dropping catch-phrases like "K-economy" or "Internet savvy".

It's virtually impossible for them to think outside the box because they are the box!

Odin: I agree with Tony Pua that this project is highly unlikely to succeed. Only some 400km south, there is a great financial centre already.

There, the government is almost 100 percent clean like the city. There, you don't find extremist groups causing all sorts of problems. There, you don't find racists and religious bigots irritating and provoking those not of their kind and religion.

There, corrupt politicians are so few and far between as to be non-existent. There, life is so much better not only for the locals but also for expatriates. - Malaysiakini

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