YOURSAY | ‘With GST, our purchasing power has been reduced by 20 to 50 percent.’

PM: Malaysia on track to becoming high-income nation

Clever Voter: The transformation programme has good intentions. The publicity was excellent, given the amount of investments spent. But the jury is still out.

Productivity continues to be lagging behind. With the exception of a handful of agencies, the public sector performance is appalling.

The country’s social capital remains weak, public sector abuses are rampant, human rights and respect are way below standards, education is below par and public utilities and services are horrible.

Where are the 1.8 million new jobs? Overall, the amount spent isn't worth the outcomes. Once again, we have been misled.

Fair Play: What is PM Najib Razak talking about? High income is measured in US dollars. Assuming high income is US$15,000 a year and the exchange rate is RM3.40, the equivalent is RM51,000.

Now with an exchange rate of say RM4 on average, it's equivalent to RM60,000 a year. RM60,000/RM51,000 = 17.6 percent increase in productivity, other things being equal.

Can Malaysia improve productivity by this huge percentage given the high 'standard' of its educational system?

Mafeeah: Well, Najib, you are giving a feel-good macro view of the economy. Just go to the ground and see how many people have become poor after the Goods and Services Tax (GST)? Their purchasing power has been reduced by 20 to 50 percent.

Look at the number of car sales. Look at how many people could afford a home and education. You are just shooting your mouth off at an international forum. This is not what is happening on the ground.

However things could be slightly better if you shared the RM2.6 billion with all of us. Will you?

Game Changer: Our country is burning with crisis every day and Najib is daydreaming that the country is achieving its goal to become a high-income nation. What is wrong with this picture?

Anonymous_1416272691: Yes, Malaysians will be transformed into high-income earners just like our Indonesian neighbour who earns a minimum wage of 3,000,000 rupiah per month. At the rate of our falling ringgit, all Malaysians will be millionaires by 2020.

Old Timer: By the way, if Malaysia is really on the way to high-income nation, why do we need a RM2.6 billion donation from an individual with no name, face or identity?

Why Tell Me?: For once the PM is right, but being a politician he could only hint. He actually meant ‘Umno Malaysians’ on track to achieving high-income status.

Remember any questions posed to him, he answers only to Umno at closed-door meetings. The donation fund of RM2.6 billion is to assist only Umno MPs.

They started to accept kickbacks of a few thousands, then few hundred thousands, then a few millions and now by billions.

The Analyser: Doesn't Najib mean "on track to become a high cost of living nation"? I wonder if he included students on National Higher Education Fund Corporation (PTPTN) loans in his poverty survey?

Wow, 1.8 million jobs created since 2010, and still there is a massive unemployment problem among young graduates.

Frankiepo: We're already a high-income nation, this I declare. My father earned RM100 per month in his time, today I'm earning RM1,000 per month.

That is a ten-fold difference, and if you don't call this high income then tell me what is? Praise be to our Bugis Warrior.

Swipenter: Zimbabwe is also a land of multi-millionaires, billionaires and even ‘trillionaires’ under President Robert Mugabe. Unfortunately in Zimbabwean currency.

Not too long ago, RM1 = 25 Bangladeshi taka. Today it has depreciated to around 19 Bangladeshi taka. Now the Bangladeshi workers are ‘impoverished’ by our weak ringgit.

Our income/wealth is not increasing but our cost of living is over the last few years. Not too long ago we complain that RM50 won't buy us much. Now try RM100 and see what you can buy with it.

In other words our standard of living is dropping, not increasing, and that goes against achieving a high-income status.

Ablastine: Najib, today the ringgit is RM3.10 against the Singaporean dollar. If you extrapolate the graph, by 2020 the ringgit should be about RM5 to RM6 against the Singaporean dollar. This means that it will have a value lower than the yuan.

I suppose you can tell your kampung folks anything and they will believe you. But one thing a lot of us believe though is that by 2020, you will be the richest man on the planet, assuming you are still around.

Negarawan: The life savings of all Malaysians have been shaved off by 40 percent vis-a-vis the US dollar, and the PM is saying that we are on track to become a ‘high-income’ nation?

It is easy for him to say this as he has a ‘high-donation’ income.

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