The Universiti Malaya Association of New Youth (Umany) deems that Budget 2016 is clichéd and corny. Najib Abdul Razak’s government does not make any audacious reformative move to solve the economic malaise, but gives political candies and distribute our nation’s resources as he pleases to get political support instead.

Umany urges every Member of Parliament to reject Budget 2016 so that the Budget 2016, which will never solve our country’s crux of all matters, can be reviewed.

On Friday, Najib has tabled his 2016 Budget themed ‘Prospering the Rakyat’ in Parliament. RM 267.2 billion has been allocated under Budget 2016, federal government revenue collection is projected at RM225.7 billion whereas fiscal deficit is projected to be reduced to 3.1 percent, which is notably a budget deficit for 17 consecutive years.

Umany criticises the Budget based on five reasons:

First, the imbalance of expenditure.

In 2016, the administrative expenses account for 80.5 percent of the total expenditure, which is RM215.2 billion in total. The remained 19.5 percent of the total expenditure which worth RM52 billion is the development expenses. The imbalance ratio of expenditure is fully shown even though it has been slightly improved compared to last year.

The majority of people are still not benefiting from the Budget, which is the first budget tabled after the implementation of the Goods and Services Tax (GST).

Although GST has helped filled the fiscal gap caused by the drop of tax on oil income, what people get is not a long-term plan to reform our economy and increase our income ultimately, but is a short-sighted plan which aims to slightly increase the amount of BR1M as a means to ‘repay’ to society and play the populism card.

But the government has not forgotten to shrink the funds allocated to many ministries such as the Higher Education Ministry, Women, Family and Community Development Ministry, Natural Resources and Environment Ministry and so on. As a result, the general welfare of all citizens will soon be affected badly.

On the other hand, the bloated public sector, the culture of waste practised by public servants, national debt and many others are all contributing factors of administrative expenses staying high. In administrative expenses, the salary of public servants has reached RM70.5 billion, which contributes 26.4 percent of the total amount.

If the RM13.1 billion budget allocation of public servant pension and RM5 billion service schemes are added, one third of the budget allocation will go solely to public sector.

Umany criticises the government’s inability to develop the economy of our nation and to produce more working opportunities and its alternative - recruit the unemployed to be public servants to create the false impression of low unemployability rate, making the large number of public servants as BN’s stronghold but to be fed by taxpayers.

A ‘ministry that covers anything’

Second, the extremely high proportion of Prime Minister’s Office expenses in total development expenses.

The Prime Minister’s Office receives RM14 billion out of RM52 billion of development expenses, which contributes to 27 percent of the total amount. Since the Prime Minister’s Office was established, jobs of different ministries have been taken over, making itself to be a ‘ministry that covers anything’.

The list of items starts from mufti, legal training, kindergarten, national security, nuclear energy, human rights, house plan, economic planning, highway planning and so on are all under the job scope of the Prime Minister’s Office. The question is: why does the job scope of the Prime Minister’s Office overlap with the ones of other ministries? And what is the significance of having other ministries?

Also, lots of details in its budget allocation are not explained by Najib, such as Facilitation Fund (RM3 billion), Community Restructuring (RM750 million), Close to People Project (RM1.3 billion). It is possible that prime minister can interpret all these funds and project as how he prefers?

Umany needs to question if every sen paid by the taxpayers will be used wisely and without any wastage. Or will the money be missing as there is no effective way of monitoring, as how it has always been?

Third, the slump of budget allocation for High Education Ministry.

The Higher Education Ministry is one of the ministries that experienced budget cuts, which sees a 15 percent reduction compared to last year. The amount allocated is RM24 billion. Many local universities such as Universiti Malaya (UM), Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) and Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM) are facing budget cut, ranging from a few ten million ringgit to a few hundred million ringgit.

Umany firmly believes that education is the pillar of which a nation is built. Therefore, it is appropriate to increase budget for education and optimise administration, so that the quality of university lecturers, facilities as well as students will be improved. However, Budget 2016 showed the exact opposite by slashing the money allocated to education sector.

One of the missions of the Higher Education Ministry that has always been the topic of discussion is to see local universities break into the top 100 in the world. Because of that, Umany is very doubtful about this whole idea when our universities is receiving less and less funds. Or will every university still have the financial support to achieve the long-awaited status by increasing students’ tuition fees soon?

Fourth, buying votes on the eve of a state election in East Malaysia.

The huge difference between the previous budgets and Budget 2016 is the budget allocated for infrastructure in East Malaysia. Putrajaya allocated RM29.2 billion for development in Sabah and Sarawak. The Pan-Borneo highway, which costs RM800 million and will be toll-free, is one of the highlights of benefits provided to East Malaysia.

This budget also marked an epoch as Sabah and Sarawak are allocated with RM1.2 billion to improve water and electricity supply quality. Sabah and Sarawak, the two large states that is blessed with abundant natural resources, has always been the main contributors to Malaysia’s economy. However, these two states have always been abandoned by the government, specifically when budget is tabled in parliament.

It is hence no secret that all these major changes are all due to the fact that East Malaysia is going to hold state elections soon. Umany believes that the development of East Malaysia should always be our nation’s focus, with attention given to the lifestyle and culture of all aborigines living inland.

They should not be concerned about by the authority only when state election is around the corner because this is exactly a move to give political candies to the voters. The obligation of a government should be to take care of the welfare of all citizens regardless of ethnic group and religion, but not to let the people in East Malaysia to be continuously living in an abyss of misery and try to solve their problems when the state election comes.

Hence, Umany criticises the government’s move as it adopts such a hypocritical move to buy votes.

Sweeping 1MDB under the carpet

Fifth, refusing to discuss the 1MDB issue.

Recently, Dewan Rakyat has bulldozed through a motion to suspend Lim Kit Siang for six months over his remarks on 1MDB which the Dewan Rakyat refused to discuss. The situation remains the same when Najib refused to talk about it during tabling of Budget 2016.

1MDB, a company under the Finance Ministry, was expected to receive fund worth RM1.1 billion from the government. However, the financial support has been hastily cancelled and is not included in Budget 2016. It is very obvious that Najib is trying to prevent any public outrage for the time being.

Umany deems that Najib as prime minister and finance minister must not avoid from explaining the truth of the scandal-hit 1MDB issue and explain the whereabouts of the large amount of money. Umany urges Najib to provide full and detailed explanation regarding the 1MDB issue, and to step down until fair and just investigations have been conducted on this issue.

Umany also urges the government to greatly reduce the number of public servants, distribute our country’s resources fairly, and improve its own transparency and efficiency, so that it will effectively carry out economic reform, improve its governance ability, increase income of all citizens and ultimately improve the quality of lives of all Malaysians.

Otherwise, Malaysia might eventually experience the collapse of all established systems and follow the path of Greece to be a bankrupt nation. Last but not least, Umany urges every Member of Parliament to reject Budget 2016 so that Budget 2016 can be reviewed and an automatic no-confidence vote can be asserted against Najbi’s administration.

HO CHI Yang is president of the Universiti Malaya Association of New Youth (Umany).