Sunday, May 30, 2010

Reducing Subsidy or Reducing Corruption?

On last week, Idris Jala revealed the fact that we are heavily subsidized and that if the country continues to be run that way, it will face bancruptcy by year 2019! (full details in http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2010/5/27/nation/20100527171008&sec=nation
Yes, we have to be awared that we are given the highest subsidies - 4.6 per cent of GDP even higher than Indonesia (2.7 per cent) & Philippines (0.2 per cent). What Idris failed to adress is the fact that the government operating expenditure has been soaring over the past years and that the deficiencies in the delivery system has caused billions of ringgit losses to the country.
Few recent examples are the PKFZ scandal and the huge overrun of Bakun Dam project. There were certainly misconduct by certain party which Rakyat ended up have to foot the bill.
On the other hand, what had government done in curbing corruption? Millions of Ringgit can be salvaged and channeled to even allowing greater subsidy for the poor if there is politically will to curb corruption. I felt ashamed to claim myself as Malaysian when looking at the deteriorating standing of us in the Corruption Index
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