I am very concerned that if Malaysia is going to challenge the rest of the world, it may just end up like the other basket cases because chasing money to balance the economy is not only futile but will lead to perpetual economic and political turmoil.

Perhaps it should just be more exports and less imports, allow easy set-up of businesses, remove class-difference between citizens, ensure the government provides subsidies to provide affordable living standards (after all, that is what a government should do) and not try to push up our economic status compared to other nations.

It seems that our government wants to project a certain ‘standard’ at the expense of the welfare of the citizens. Foreign investments will come as long as we are stable politically and economically, refrain from racial and religious bigotry, have a low corruption rate and practice exemplary world- class human rights laws for all.

So to say it again, subsidies must remain and include more goods for the sake of all Malaysians for otherwise the people suffer because there is no law to implement the minimum wage across the board for all employees.

Employers seem to command the attention of the government and there is less attention paid to the employees or the unions. It is not a chicken-or-egg situation either; all it takes is not to take sides because one cannot exist without the other.

The NEM is not for helping the people - instead it seems to be more for the government of the day. Looking at the auditor-general's report, just how much of federal funds have been wasted in failed projects and policies? An example is Pos Malaysia.

Imagine increasing postage costs because there were not enough postage sales and revenue to pay wages. When did anyone realise that Pos Malaysia incurred losses? Worse still for RM500 million.

That speaks a lot for our national policies. GLCs are seemingly used as pawns for political and self-interested parties.

Incidentally, ‘1Malaysia’ must include the opposition since there is about 40% of support for them from the population. Engage with the opposition and there will be better results. I have had my say here and only hope more people will support what I have said.