By Sara Wak

My Dear Ministers,

I think both of you must know what are the reasons why Malaysian economy has been on the fall for the last decade. Malaysia has a lot of oil and gas and the income was supposed to enable Malaysia survive for many years to come.

However, What PETRONAS has made since it was incorporated has evaporated into thin air, where the profits have been WRONGLY used by the Federal BN Government to support many failed business deals, such as The Bumiputra Finance scandal, the buy back of MAS shares from Tajuddin at RM8 a share when the market price was only RM3 a share, and many others such as Port Klang Free Zone, Parwaja Steel, etc etc.

There are just too many to name.

Perhaps you should read what Malaysians have been circulating among themselves on the article below in comparing Malaysia to Greece, which Dato Seri Idris Jala also used !

Bureaucracy – you are only too aware, otherwise you won;t be talking about KPIs. Bloated civil service – so many civil servants Corruption – need we say more on this when contracts are awarded without tender ?

Tax evasion – when Inland revenue does not do anything on transfer pricing !

No transparency in governance – Govt and ministers are not held accountable.

These sounds very familiar in Malaysia.

I would like to comment on some of your proposals, although I wish I can do so for all of them :

Text book loan scheme and tuition subsidy aid to be abolished

If you look at many developed countries, the government provide FREE text books for primary and secondary school children, and now you are talking about Text book loan scheme and tuition subsidy aid to be abolished!

Just look at the poor natives from Sarawak and Sabah for example, including the Kelabits and Penans in Sarawak, some parents do not even have money to book their children’s text books and uniforms !

If we are serious about Human assets for the future of Malaysia, we should try to encourage all children to be educated, especially those who are poor. In Malaysia, those who are poor are mainly those in the villages like in Sarawak and Sabah, especially the natives like Dayaks, Kelabaits, Penans, Malays, Kadazans, Muruts, Kenyahs, etc etc.

If the BN Government can allow RM billions to be wasted through corruption and bail-outs, how is it that they cannot afford to buy the books for primary and secondary schools, at least up to Form 3?

Malaysia’s fuel prices are among the cheapest in the world.

I am sure both of you are very intelligent people, otherwise how could you both have such high education and went up so high in positions to MD, and ministers?

When you say furl prices are cheap in Malaysia, what are you comparing them with?

Are you comparing apples with apples or apples with oranges?

Just look at the regular petrol fuel prices below:

Malaysia – RM1.80 per litre

Singapore – S$1.757 per litre

Australia – A$1.35 per litre

You should not convert the prices in Singapore and Australia from S$ and A$ to RM in order to compare them.

What you should compare is the per capital income of the population in each country.

In Malaysia, a fresh graduate can only earn RM1,500 a month, this is very good already, some in Sarawak can only earn RM1,000 or less a month.

In Singapore, a fresh graduate earns at least S$2,000 a month and in Australia, a fresh graduate earns at least A$3,000 a month. I know it as 2 of my children were offered engineering jobs in Malaysia for RM1,500 a month, they were also offered S$2,000 a month in Singapore and A$4,500 in Australia a month!

Look when you compare fuel prices, you need to look at the earnings and you cannot just simply convert the various prices into a single currency.

Why don’t you compare prices of cars in Malaysia with those in USA, Australia and NZ and UK?

I hope both of you have done some studies in economics and finance before you start doing all the analysis and comparison and make yourselves look stupid in comparing apples with pears!!

Foreign students will pay full fees at public universities

I wonder why this is brought up. Has the Malaysian Government not charging full fees for foreign students? If it is the case, why are public universities not offering Malaysian students to study in local universities at reduced prices and allow foreign students to study there?

In most developed countries like Australia and Singapore, they only offer some places to foreign students but at full price! I wonder what the BN Government has been thinking all along. Why not offer those university places to pour own Malaysians at those reduced rates instead of them spending more overseas?

I would like to hear your comments on the above points which I raised with you and look forward to your response.

Thank you.