Back to politics. See… It would be logical to think that if Malaysians were keen on the current opposition alliance forming a new government (since the head is now sorta attached), they should seriously consider what the opposition has to offer, right? Or is this merely a case of “punish BN”? …. No…. Really?
Okay, so I looked around blogosphere for some semblance of citizens taking the whole “new government by September 16th” thing seriously. I looked for anyone with anything to say about this. (For those too lazy to click that, its basically DAP’s version of Budget 2009). And yes, I had nothing better to do I read it. Hey, the way I see it, doesn’t hurt to be prepared.
So, what’s my impression of Rocket’s plan for next year’s spending? Here’s a snippet.
- Its short. But then again, I think one of the papers somewhere mentioned that this was only a brief;
- One of their proposals has a noble cause on the surface, but is really taking the poor underpaid worker on a roundabout trip. If I read it right, this is how the circling goes. Reduce EPF of poor man. Pay poor man “Malaysia Bonus”. Pay a quarter of that to him in cash (woopeedoo) and the other three quarts back into EPF (poor man falls to the ground when his inner ear pops from the spinning);
- They sneaked in the “Renegotiate Unfair Contracts” for political mileage. It ain’t about allocating the budget.
- They REALLY focus on the poor (especially the part where they repeat over and over about not being race selective, we get it already! Move along with it!)…. basically, there is almost nothing given to the ordinary middle class need-a-sampan-to-get-home-from-work urbanite (damn leftists)
- The part about the Seed Fund is begging for corrupt mismanagement and cronyism… (oops! I mean “mentoring”). Not to mention, startups don’t usually make any profits lar (if you haven’t heard, the internet bubble burst after you sold your listed company, you lucky bastard Mr. Economic Advisor to the Secretary General), so that bit about tax exemption for the first three years is just so… current government.
- Oh, I take it back. They DO focus some on the rich. Look! “To encourage private investor participation, losses incurred by such investments shall be tax deductible from the investors’ individual or corporate income tax” (I can already hear our top ten gazillionaires breathe sighs of relief. For those who don’t get it… here, this is why my salary is paid by one of those scrooges: Rich dude puts all his money into a startup that he owns. Have the government gift him a dollar-for-dollar, why don’t cha? Tank it. Get tax deduction and pay zero tax.)
I’d better stop here. Lest I be accused of treason on September 17.
P.S. I voted for the fella. Really.
