Malaysian Budget 2011 more comments by Bloggers and Opposition Leader

I asked a question in my previous post Budget Presentation 2011 Is it Good or Bad or Both, well there have been much said and posted about the Budget in the last few days, I like these:


By Dato' Sak....Najib and his Budget


excerpts:


Started with these paragraphs:
Everyone was interested at listening to the Finance Minister delivering his budget speech. It was a Friday. So he was dressed in a resplendent baju Melayu. The kain samping he wore costs probably RM 40,000. I know. I was his Information Chief.


They had different reasons going for them. The big corporate boys were happy because they were probably lined up as recipients of big government contracts. The rest? They are indifferent really. If Najib as the finance minister goes around or his people go around, he and they would have a different picture.


Ended with a bang:
What is a budget if I may asked you. a budget is essentially an address on government revenues and application of that revenue. How much is allocated to government ministries. It's about the finances of the government. Hence all those things about the construction of the 100 storey tall building for example is nor relevant. It's not the government's money. The money does not come from government revenue.


Najib must not confuse a Budget with long term economic plans.


read more here.

And this one by Tuan Syed...The 2011 Budget


Started with these paragraphs:
Hot news versus one week later analysis. Well when sometime has passed we get more hindsight and more 'analysis paralysis'. I am just rounding it up and putting my two cents worth about the Budget 2011.


Today the Plus folks reveal that the five year postponement of toll hikes simply means that the Government has to pay Plus RM5.0 billion compensation. Plus the RM2.5 bilion unpaid compensation still owing to Plus by the Government, that is RM7.5 Billion of taxpayers’ funds. That is simply leaving money in the right pocket and paying taxpayers money to Plus from the left pocket. Apa beza sangat ?


There are adventurous ideas like building an RM5 billion 100-storey Warisan Merdeka by PNB. The PM said yesterday, somewhere, that the 100 floors of this building will fill up with offices and businesses, implying the 100 storey building means jobs and humming businesses. Well it does not work that way.


Ended with another bang:
The other ‘blackhole’ that should be on our radar is the Talent Corporation. Even the name Talent Corporation sounds like some Las Vegas adult entertainment “talent hunting” company. There was no mention of the amount to be given to this Talent Hunters but I think it is a ripoff of taxpayers funds.


The plan to get back 70,000 Malaysians working overseas is ridiculous. Even getting back 10% of this figure or 7000 of them is ridiculous.


Most of them are non Malays who have left the shores for greener pastures overseas. Why would they come back? And if they come back, where would the Talent Corporation place them? Can the Talent Corporation go to IOI Corporation or Gleneagles Medical Center and say ‘we have found this guy who is earning USD30,000 a month overseas. Can you give him a job for RM150,000 a month?’


Its not going to happen. The only alternative is to find them places in the GLCs. I don’t think this will happen either.


So what gives? The fun will be in the “talent hunt”. Whoever the clever beggar “con” sultant or sub-contractor who thought up this idea and slipped it between the sheets is going to make tons of money undertaking the “hunt”. Whether they bag any birds is not relevant. The fun (and the money to be made) is in the hunt. No need to head to the Las Vegas “one armed bandits”. The stick up can be done here. ‘Stick ‘em up’.


read more here.


Of course a National Budget is not complete without a blasting from the Opposition:


From the FMT....Anwar Blast Budget 2011


Excerpts:

Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim today denounced the Najib administration for entrusting a multi-billion project to the untested and controversial 1 Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) and for its obsession with grandeur at the expense of the people’s interest.

Delivering his speech in the debate on Budget 2011, he said 1MDB was not yet fit to handle such a massive project as the RM26 billion Kuala Lumpur International Financial District (KLIFD).

Based on information provided by Malaysia Companies Commission, he said, the company had no business address and auditor prior to its appointment by the Prime Minister to handle the KLIFD project.

He noted that the company’s chief executive officer reported, just days before the Najib’s budget speech, that it had made a RM425 million profit. He said this was questionable.

Must Read more here and here.


I think Anwar Ibrahim has raised some pertinent questions there, which will be very good ammunition for the Pakatan in the next GE, BN better be prepared to defend against the onslaught as some items in the Budget 2011 like the 1MDB and Menara Warisan Merdeka among some, are canon fodder for the Opposition, never mind the fact that they cannot and I suspect will not come up with an alternative budget of their own to show Malaysians that they are prepared for Government. 


The BN Government has been warned.