YOURSAY ‘The bottom line is, we have not progressed economically and socially.’

 

Idris Jala takes Bloomberg to task over article

 

Jesse : Aiyoh! You believe in your own propaganda for so long that you can longer see the wood from the trees.

Anything honest or critical is intended to tarnished Malaysia's success story. Keep on that line and you will soon believe that your nose is actually on your head.

 

We have wasted billions on grandiose and unproductive projects, largely to satisfy greedy politicians playing racial and religious politics to the detriment of the nation. All the money that Petronas wasted and now 1MDB.

 

We are led by a bunch of hopeless bigots focused on superficial projects like tallest building, tallest flagpole, etc. Even Proton is an abject failure. Just because the PM wanted a national car for prestige does not make it financially viable. It is really a poor copy of a Japanese car. Consumers are still paying dearly for it.

 

MAS, a previously successful airline, was bastardised to cronies and now needs rescuing by a foreigner. For once, take heed and put on your thinking cap if you can still find it!

 

Someonroutthere : The bottom line is, it is a grave situation despite all the ‘impressive’ growth mentioned, the country has not progressed economically and socially. The rakyat have not enjoyed any of the fruits of this growth. In fact many are not able to eke out a decent life.

 

This is a testament to the leakages and poor management of the country’s finances. Pilferage and corruption abound as depicted by the numerous auditor-general’s reports. And the perpetrators are getting bolder by the day.

 

The common trait is the ‘poor’ quality of the political leaders. All woven from the same dirty piece of batik. The rot started from the head a long time ago and we need courageous leaders to speak the truth and do the right thing. Change for the better will not begin until we admit that the country will end up in the trash bin if a better path is not charted.

 

Old Timer : “Thirdly, as detailed in the World Bank’s Global Economic Prospects Report 2014, Malaysia’s efforts at reducing poverty have been a great success, virtually eliminating absolute poverty to less than one percent."

 

Mr Idris Jala, when was the last time you visited your kampung and the remote kampung of Sarawak and Sabah? There are so many people living below the poverty line. The World Bank's report is based on lies fed by the government, and you should know this.

 

Anonymous_3e79 : I don't believe any of the statistics that comes out from Idris Jala. The government lies at every level of administration as it is run by a pack of corrupted leaders. Idris is allegedly likely a benefactor of these corrupted gains.

The people feel the pain and from all the empty offices and factory lots and scandalous government investments from 1MDB to Felda Global Ventures Holdings Berhad (FGV), we know the economy is on life support and it's a matter of time that s**t hits the fan.

 

Negarawan : We just need to compare Malaysia with Singapore to see the glaring and undeniable truth in William Pasek's article. The rebuttal from Idris Jala is empty and pointless, and was written with the same degree of ignorance and incompetence that has caused the failure of the Umno government.

 

Can Idris explain why Singapore has grown by leaps and bounds ahead of Malaysia, although they started with nothing? Can Idris explain why in Singapore there is no more racial and religious strife? Can Idris explain why the Singapore government and its leaders are highly respected around the world? Can Idris explain why the Singapore dollar is almost three times the value of the ringgit?

 

Idris, my word of advice to you is to take care of the basic rights of your own people first, their right to use the Alkitab, in which you have not issued any point-to-point rebuttal to the detractors. We want to see your sincerity.

 

Ib : If the Performance Management and Delivery Unit (Pemandu) is so good, why are people in Ulu Slim in Selangor and Sarawak villages still living without piped water?

Why are schools in the middle of mid sized towns appealing to charities for help to buy basics like desk and chairs? Why are schools and universities producing students that cannot contribute to societies?

 

Your programmes are all skewed around sidestepping the major issues. If you have guts, you would have introduced policy changes and not thousands of Mickey Mouse projects and key performance indicators (KPIs) that have no impact on the things that matter. Please get out and stop wasting more of the rakyat’s money on your self-glorification projects.

 

Meh : Dear Mr Idris, with the ringgit at its present level, do you honestly think the economy is in good shape? If that is so, how can the ringgit be so low. Surely the rest of the world cannot be wrong.

 

SSDhaliwal : What growth? Idris, stop hiding behind creative statistics, which you are fond of using. Growth has to be measured by debt which is now well above RM100 billion piled on especially by 1MDB. Using borrowed money to spearhead bogus projects at severely inflated rates is fictitious growth that has been exposed for what it is - a sham.

 

Clearwater : The transformation that is most glaring is that of Idris Jala; from respected corporate man to alleged brown noser since he joined the Prime Minister’s Department as a minister.

The fact is, despite all the glowing statistics he quotes, most Malaysians are stuck in the middle-income trap with escalating inflation beating them almost senseless in 2015.

The above is a selection of comments posted by Malaysiakini subscribers. Only paying subscribers can post comments. Over the past one year, Malaysiakinians have posted over 100,000 comments. Join the Malaysiakini community and help set the news agenda. Subscribe now .

These comments are compiled to reflect the views of Malaysiakini subscribers on matters of public interest. Malaysiakini does not intend to represent these views as fact.