Most Read
Most Commented
Read more like this
mk-logo
From Our Readers

Najib Abdul Razak's most recent comment about his preference for ‘half-boiled egg’ and what not, against the backdrop of Oxford Economics’ Sarah Fowler’s concern about the nation’s rising external debt, is not a joke.

The sixth prime minister of Malaysia, since Independence, is known for making blunders with his public statements. The first was when he shouted to a disenchanted audience in Penang during the Gangnam Style Concert, “Will you support BN?” Despite hearing the answer “No” twice, he still went on to ask the same question a third time.

Next, he appeared with a bunch of spinach, and since then, the nickname ‘Kangkung PM’ has stuck with him. Not learning from the mistake he made, he picked up a RM1 a chicken from a local supermarket, when the world was anxious about the MH370 aircraft and the way the acting transport minister had responded to the international media.

Today, Najib came up with the illustration that a Chinese official had insisted that he should eat his egg only after it had been boiled for 10 minutes, instead of taking it hard-boiled. I am not sure if there is anything cynical about it, but to me, the idea of a half-boiled egg is synonymous to anything that is half-cooked.

The Hokkiens have a saying, which literally translated means “Half a container of s**t”. In those days, there were people collecting the excreta from the containers placed in a toilet located outside the house and to collect half a container of excreta required the same amount of work, but the returns were just half compared to a container full of excreta.

Farmers preferred to collect the excreta only when the container was full because it was more efficient. The excreta was after all used as organic fertilisers in farms.

In the English idiom, anything ‘half-cooked’ means carrying out a task haphazardly without completing the job well. It could also mean something that is being churned out without being thoroughly thought through.

I wonder if the Chinese official was trying to suggest something to our prime minister, when he noticed that Najib had wanted his egg half-boiled. Very rarely otherwise would any government official in a host country insist on the way how food is prepared in a certain manner, especially when the guest had a certain preference.

Whatever, Najib should be made to think more about it. The country’s external debt has shot up close to 40 percent of its gross domestic product (GDP) during his term as prime minister. Meanwhile, our trade surpluses are on the decline.

At a dangerous point?

Are we now at a dangerous point? Will we be easily hit when another financial crisis hit the region as the Asian financial crisis in 1998? Will the country go bankrupt if the economy is not being managed well?

If people like Sarah Fowler are already expressing their concerns, Najib should wake up from his slumber and start managing the economy. Managing a country’s economy is unlike doing an undergraduate degree programme, where you can take lightly and expect to scrape through.

With next year’s Goods & Services Tax (GST) being implemented, we can expect more unions will go on strikes to demand for higher salaries. I wonder if Najib’s administration has even discussed this significant issue with the employers. If not, we may see one strike after another like what happened to Australia at one point, or even a nationwide strike or ‘hartal’ as in countries like Bangladesh.

GST will hit the people below the belt. It is going to be a nightmare for Najib if he does not manage it well before bulldozing through the GST. Najib should have heeded the anti-GST campaign that took place recently, because it is obvious to me that it had attracted a wide section of the community.

I do  not want to see the country being declared a bankrupt; therefore, perhaps, it is time for Najib to stop eating half-boiled eggs. He should make sure that before he presents the egg to anyone, it should be properly and thoroughly prepared. Anything half-cooked can be disastrous to the nation.


STEPHEN NG is a chemist by training. He dealt with printing ink, paint and emulsion polymer for 15 years before becoming a freelance writer.

ADS