Veteran newsman A Kadir Jasin has fired a scathing salvo at Prime Minister Najib Razak's handling of the country's economy, saying nothing short of replacing the ruling coalition can bring improvement.

Commenting on an article in The Star today about struggling childcare companies, Kadir noted Najib's haste in implementing the minimum wage policy was a disaster.

He said the childcare case reflects how small companies are unable to afford better wages and consumers are unable to pay for the increased costs arising from this.

"In his fixation with high income economy, (Najib) had enforced the minimum wage nationwide on July 1 this year despite objections by many parties.

"This is despite knowing that many employers do not have financial capacity to pay the prescribed rates.

"For this reason alone, he is no longer fit to continue as the prime minister.

"Consider this my feedback to his request for public input for the 2017 budget.

"Let us have somebody else planning the budget," wrote Kadir caustically in a blog posting.

"His cockeyed high-income policy and pseudo transformation have caused so much damage to the economy and brought untold miseries to the people.

"Only the rating agencies seem to like his transformation mantra. The worse is yet to come," wrote the former New Straits Times group editor.

Najib, who also holds on to the post of finance minister despite years of criticism for his dual portfolios, will be tabling his 2017 in the coming parliamentary sitting.

Kadir pointed out his claim that the government’s revenue might have fallen below its operating expenditure "has neither been challenged nor clarified", and has urged Second Finance Minister Johari Abdul Ghani to "tell the truth".

'Opposition must replace BN'

He said the only solution to the country's economic woes is "ousting the BN" and urged the opposition not to waste the "golden chance" at the next polls.

"Neither Najib’s removal nor the reformation of the institutions would be possible without the BN being removed from the seat of power.

"In the nutshell, the opposition's objective in the coming general elections (GE) should be the defeat of the BN.

"Anything less is unacceptable and ineffective," wrote Kadir.

He said naming the coalition was a lesser concern to the various parties closing ranks and getting their act together.

"They should position themselves as the future government and behave likewise - enough of partisanship and jingoism.

"They have to band together to convince the people that they are a better alternative to the BN," he said.

"The opposition leaders should learn to speak and behave like leaders, cease partisan politics and put an end to petty squabbles or risk being condemned by the people for missing this golden opportunity."