Jom semak!
"Perception can be deceiving hence seek the story that lies behind the picture otherwise risk prejudice".
Behind every number, often lies a story, a success, a weakness or just simply a change of circumstances.
I'm a Penang girl so I'm drawn towards the MPSP numbers for Penang.
The Perception
As soon as Kerajaan PR took over the numbers have significant improvement!
Amazing! Are they the better government?
Seek the story behind the numbers
Do you know that for year 2012, MPSP budgeted a deficit of RM29m.
It makes one wonder, if the are in excellent gain, why are they predicting loss?
That is almost a minus of RM89m (from gain RM54m to loss RM29m).
Let’s explore what lies behind numbers....
I hope you understand that budget are sometimes in deficit when we are setting up a system of we are developing. A good government is one that would invest with hope to reap some return on investment, but occasionally, the government will invest for no rewards but purely for the welfare of its people.
Investments takes time to turn around, and sometimes at a turning point, where there is a change in government, another party who was not involved in the development process can benefit from the gain... you know.... like people say "lembu punya susu, sapi dapat nama"
At what cost and what risk to Rakyat?
Some government in an attempt to cut cost, only develop areas that are already develop, so the cost for building new infrastructure are low.
A better government is the one that plans for the future, and considers building in area that needs and requires development even though it might cost more. You can see some of the government efforts in Malaysia like building Bukit Jalil, Putrajaya, Cyberjaya and KLIA in outskirt area, to help push the development in the area.
Once such development takes place, it creates a new economy to further stimulate the area, it creates indirect jobs to support this new development and its new infrastructures will benefit people in urban area.
Let us get back to specifics of this example
Seberang Perai was not as developed as Penang Island itself. In the past there are alot of focus in bringing the development in this area up, thus requiring more expenditure to support and maintain the area. Assuming the government made a good development decision, as soon as it takes shapes and stabilize, you should start to see gain.
This is evident in the drop in deficit that you can see in year 2005 to 2006.
Even if we continued under BN, I would have expected to see improvement in the budget but not one as excellent as the one shown above by PR.
For me, a gain of RM54m would’ve ring alarm bells because MPSP is a service industry for Rakyat's welfare.
The BN government policy is that they will continue reinvesting and developing the area. I think we can all agree that a government's job is for a continuous effort for a better future.
Just think simply.......
"Ayah kita beli rumah, teruk membayar mortgage. Satu hari nanti, kita akan inherit asset tu. Kita cuma kutip sewa dan bayar repair jer. Kalau kita simpan duit sewa tu, tak buat apa-apa, duit tu akan bertambah kat bank. Tapi kalau kita invest duit tu sama macam pengorbanan ayah kita, dengan harapan agar anak-anak kita akan dapat hasil investment yang lebih baik, duit kita akan nampak berkurangan sekarang tetapi dalam jangka panjang, taraf hidup keluarga kita akan bertambah tinggi, sebab dari satu assets, sekarang dah jadi dua."
The difficult job of being a government
How much investment should a government re- investment and how much should the government sit on? It's a balancing act.
Do you think that a good government should sit on gain rather than reinvesting to the people?
My opinion is that governing a country is not like managing a company. If was like managing a company, then surely Mitt Romney would've won his presidency campaign in America.
Another thing worth nothing, now under PKR, MPSP has been selling assets to push the gain up (for cleaner books). For us to see if this is a good thing or not one must check how this impacts the people's life and how much money they will now need to spend to re-purchase these assets back.
SP areas are constantly banjir and you can see lack of investment in the last few years.
PKR knows they need to start investing in the area again because NGO are screaming at them constantly.
Perhaps that is why PKR are planning a deficit to help them cope with development in the area again for social gain.
What BN have been saying is Government deficits for positive stimuli of the economy is necessary but this is not something can be easily comprehended by the average Malaysian.
Is PKR a better government?
My opinion is simply no.
PKR fails to reinvestment to stimulate the economy and people's welfare because they are playing political games.
DAP needed the good books to secure this election and did that by sacrificing the people social gain.
If they win again, they will need to focus back in doing their job as government rather than playing games, they need to focus on improving rakyat's quality of life.
They need to spend money for investment, just like any normal government do.
Think how and at what cost......
· In year 2001 the deficit was RM31m.
· In year 2010 the gain was RM54m
· In year 2012, the expected deficit is RM 29m?
It's almost like DAP pressed the reset button! Suddenly the budget is revert back like year 2001.
I'm utterly disappointed because DAP often bragged about their numbers, but "manipulation of books" like sitting on a gain that is not in balance with their governmental responsibility towards rakyat is extremely costly.
A better government would have worked on the investment already made, and keep the steady growth. The aim is to be stable, to see less fluctuation in the numbers.
Guys......
Behind every numbers lies a story, you just need to seek it. Behind every financial statement, there are notes to accounts. Behind every budget, there are explanation for expenditure and investments.
Here are some tips you can use to dissect the numbers above:
· Inconsistency of years used for comparison and some missing years during transition in Kelatan (missing years 1990 - 1994 and year 1998 to now) and Kedah (missing year 2008)
· Economic crisis or economic boom
· Price change, demand and supply change
· The industry and what was the department set up for?
The most important question you must ask is why are the gains made not being invested back in the economy to help rakyat especially for countries like Kelatan and Kedah?
My opinion is that government deficits as positive stimuli of the economy should be welcomed but it must be managed so that it doesn't get out of hand. I think in the past, as Malaysia was going through growth there were many mistakes made but now I strongly believe in the transformation within BN and have faith in their experience in governing.
Thank you.
~fida.i~
Here is an article worth reading...
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