YOURSAY | ‘Debt servicing will soon overtake education spending as the biggest expenditure…’

Najib’s hidden budget time bomb exposed

Kim Quek: Hiding massive borrowings under GLCs (government-linked companies) to beautify its heavy budget deficits yearly has been the hallmark of PM Najib Razak’s deceptive financial wizardry.

And that is in line with his political philosophy of emphasising on forms while foregoing substance. His annual budget speech is a fine example. All sound and fury, but very little substance.

Take his Budget 2017. Full of little goodies here and there designed to capture electoral support of his target groups of voters, but hardly any policy decisions to deal with the real problems that are bedevilling the country politically and economically.

Issues such as colossal corruption with impunity that has sapped investors’ confidence, institutional reforms to restore public trust, liberalising the economy by encouraging free enterprise in lieu of state control and crony monopolies, rejuvenate education system to upgrade human resources, promote research and systemic agenda to increase mechanisation and raise productivity, etc.

It is such policy initiative through judicious financial allocations that will breathe a new life to the nation. But what Najib has done is the exact opposite; he is squandering our money on populist gimmickry while dragging the country disastrously into deeper debts.

Hang Babeuf: This is DAP MP Tony Pua's view. On the other hand, if you were to take Utusan Malaysia's word for it and view of the matter, and follow its blanket coverage of Budget 2017 to the virtual exclusion of everything else over the last two days, this budget is the world's most significant document since Crick and Watson's 1953 paper on the structure of DNA. Take your pick...

Fair Play: Pua, those in the accounting profession know too well about creative accounting to cook the books (financial statements of a company). But creative budgeting?

It looks like the accounting profession can take a leaf from the books of the PM. Well, in the kingdom of the blind, the one-eyed man is king.

Mosquitobrain: I am bad at 'figures'. But I know for sure, if my expenditure is more than my income, than all hell will break loose. I'd be in deficit. I have to beg, borrow or steal to sustain my bad habits.

This is happening in the nation now under MO1.

Anonymous S303: This matter has been around for the longest time, raising public debt via other entities… Is MRT (Mass Rapid Transit), HSR (High Speed Rail), state entities included in NFPCs (non-financial public corporations)?

Why is the ever-greedy investment community not seeing this and instead giving the country AAA ratings?

Mytwocents: Yes, what I want to know is why is the EPF (Employees Provident Fund) getting peanuts for lending our money to the spendthrift federal government and now wants to pay commercial rate to borrow money from banks ostensibly to hedge against currency fluctuation in their investments overseas. What kind of logic is that?

Ex-PJ: Indeed, debt servicing will soon overtake education spending as the biggest expenditure at the current rate of borrowing...

Roger 5201: It is precisely this kind of "clever accounting", hiding excesses from the one pocket in another, that will get our economy into trouble.

By the time these people are done with scrapping our coffers, those who stay back, including our children, will be saddled with an astronomical national debt. This is neither fair nor very smart.

MariKitaUbah: Ticking time bombs in Malaysia... sooner than later more expenditures will be cut as already proven in the medical and education lines.

There is more to come. Our financials are running dry. Just wait and see, time will tell.

Clever Voter: Everything that is reported and said are legitimate. We cannot accuse the BN government of doing the wrong things because there isn't any policy that stop them from reporting expenditures differently.

How much transparent they wish to be is 'within the law'. We are faced with a government that uses public money on 80 percent plus on so-called operating expenses. In other words, to support a bloated civil service which is also their core supporters.

Milking the GLCs is one way and if that doesn't work, it is external borrowings. External debts are fine so long as they are managed prudently. But are they?

Sadly, the politics of government expenditure hasn't changed. It's business as usual.

Existential Turd: It is important to expose the mendacity and accounting fraud that government of the day is doing.

Because once the opposition wins the general election, they will quickly discover the extent of the hole BN has dug the country into, and Umno-BN will surely accuse the new government of incompetence or corruption.

If the new government must cut subsidies and benefits in order to balance the book, they will surely be blamed for being anti-rakyat or anti-Malay.

Anonymous #01428088: Former DPM Musa Hitam said this country is fast becoming a failed state. Indeed, it already is.

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