YOURSAY 'Most of what happening now is a direct legacy of Dr M's administration - no open tender and direct negotiation with Umno cronies.’

Cut costs, don't raise prices, Dr M tells gov't

Onyourtoes: Which businessmen would not want to do it if they could reduce cost? When they reduce cost, the purpose was to increase profit, not to maintain or reduce price, unless the market is sufficiently competitive to compel them to match with the competitors.

This is what market competition is all about. This is Economics 101 which most of our leaders, including those claiming to be finance wizards, are incapable of comprehending.

How do businessmen reduce cost when they are operating in an economy saddled with distortions and colossal rent-seeking practices?

How do they reduce energy cost when lopsided IPP (independent power producer) agreements were never rectified and corrected? How do they reduce transportation cost when all the highways are operated by cronies, all of which are also monopolies?

How do they reduce the prices of essential goods such as rice, sugar, flour and cars when subsidies on them were reduced but the monopolies in importation and distribution are still in the hands of the selected few?

How do they reduce transactions cost when businessmen have to grease the politicians at every nook and corner?

How to reduce inflation when so many people are getting fat pays for doing almost nothing (in fact, their contributions to the economy is negative), while those working their butts out are getting pittance?

How to increase efficiency when most of the workers are so poorly trained and motivated?

One thing I do agree - the government could cut its cost (expenditure) by at least 20 percent without jeopardising its output, i.e. without affecting the services it provides to the people.

There is too much fat in the government, either in the form of overpricing or over-purchasing, a topic which I have highlighted in numerous occasions.

Awakened: Three months ago when Pak Lah (former PM Abdullah Badawi) launched his latest book ‘Awakening’, Mahathir was unhappy with some of its content where Pak Lah criticised him and stopped a number of his costly projects, such as the crooked bridge and the dual-track railway.

In the book, Pak Lah mentioned that the government will go bankrupt if these projects were allowed to go on. Mahathir responded sarcastically that he should not have built KLIA (Kuala Lumpur International Airport), the North-South Highway, etc.

Mahathir had been very unhappy with Pak Lah for trying to save money for the government and he seemed to be happy with PM Najib Razak's spendthrift way.

Now he is doing an about-turn by asking Najib to cut cost after Najib incurred an additional RM300 billion deficit during his last five years as PM and finance minister. Mahathir must have realised that even many Umno ministers and pro-Umno NGOs are unhappy with the sudden multiple price increases.

Franco: Dear Tun, wasn't this what Pak Lah initiated after taking over from you? If you had let him do his job in the first place, the rakyat will not be in this state of affairs.

Pak Lah wanted to save some money and re-evaluate all the so-called mega-projects. He wanted to take the country to a stronger financial footing before re-embarking on some economically driving projects at a later stage, but no one allowed him to do his job.

Anonymous #23456263: Is the crocodile shedding tears for the rakyat? Shouldn't he ask, who introduced negotiated tenders that raises the costs of projects? Who introduced rent-seeking IPPs and highway concessionaires?

Who led the government into renting Putrajaya, instead of the government building it? Who wasted money by building the Petronas Twins Towers, instead of an MRT (mass rapid transit) system for Kuala Lumpur?

Multi Racial: Most of what happening now is a direct legacy of Dr Mahathir's administration - no open tender and direct negotiation with Umno cronies.

He must have think we have forgotten how he brought in Tajuddin Ramli to messed up MAS (Malaysia Airlines) and wasted billions of taxpayers’ money.

He also thinks we have forgotten about Proton which cost the country so much just to keep this company alive so as to inflate Dr M’s and Umno’s egos. His only consolation is that his successors are worst than him.

Anticonmen: The cunning one thinks the 'rakyat sudah lupa'. Who was the one who did away with open tenders and introduced 'negotiated tenders' in the 80s?

Who was the one who introduced and even perpetuated the NEP 'spoon-feeding' instead of terminating it in 1999 and practising meritocracy?

Who was the one who bailed out his bankrupted son and cronies in 1998? Who was the one who carried out the many wasteful mega projects that did not benefit the country, such as Perwaja Steel, Proton and KLCC (Twin Towers)?

Versey: Again, Mahathir so conveniently forgets that during his term as PM, he signed the lopsided highway contracts, IPPs, the crooked bridge, the building of the gigantic Malaysia's ‘White House’ without giving a thought of its maintenance cost, Proton, and the list goes on as mentioned by the late Barry Wain in his book ‘Malaysian Maverick’.

Why didn't Dr M advise the government to sell off its executive jet to save on maintenance and running cost?

He ought to advise the Najib administration to stop funding Perkasa's racist programmes which is wasting taxpayers' good money to do something that is not only detrimental to the nation, also against the constitution as pointed out by some lawyers.

Jiminy Qrikert: Cost-cutting often involves a ‘heads must roll’ exercise. This is especially so if it is recognised that the company was severely badly managed and not just confined to operational level inefficiencies.

In such instances, the first to go is often the CEO. Sometimes, in near-crisis situations, the entire management team is replaced.

The rakyat is facing a near-crisis situation with all the price hikes taking place. It is time to kick the CEO out and replace the entire management team.

Impossible to slash costs with bloated civil service

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