Government got money or not?

Ramadan 4, 1442: When the Prime Minister of a country says the Government does not have much money left, that's serious. Everyone should be panicky. It means the Government no longer has the funds to manage the country properly, let alone pay its debts. In other words, we're reaching rock bottom. Will there be enough money to pay civil servants' salaries? 

 Well, that was what PM Muhyiddin Yasin said yesterday, believe it or not. 

KUALA LUMPUR – Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin said Putrajaya’s coffers are depleting after the government allocated more than RM600 billion for Budget 2021 and other stimulus packages to help Malaysians weather the Covid-19 pandemic.

He said the government had spent large amounts of money last year and this year due to the virus, adding the stimulus packages for the national budget totalled RM340 billion, while RM322 billion was set aside for the national budget.

“I went to school, but I am not good at calculation... how much it adds up... it's more than RM600 billion – that’s a big sum of money,” Muhyiddin said during a Vaisakhi celebration event with the Sikh community in Petaling Jaya.

“What I am trying to say here is that we don’t have much money left.” 

Fortunately, there was no panic reaction to Muhyiddin's remarks. There was no bank run, no riot or looting, nobody died, the stock exchange was nonchalant. In short, nobody was panicky. But how come? 

"Nobody believed him, probably," said one corporate leader friend.

Aiyoo, really?

Well, maybe. One think tank has come to argue that what Muhyiddin said was NOT TRUE. 

PETALING JAYA: A public policy think tank has described as “unsubstantiated and misleading” the statement by Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin that the government is running out of money after spending RM340 billion on economic stimulus measures and RM322 billion on the 2021 budget.

Research for Social Advancement said the statement has misinterpreted the term “government spending” and overstated the fiscal burden on the state coffers.

Researcher Jaideep Singh said the RM40 billion in withdrawals from the Employees Provident Fund was not a fiscal stimulus as it had come from the contributors’ own savings.

“For other macro-financial measures, support typically comes from Bank Negara, which does not rely on government money and therefore does not directly affect the country’s fiscal deficit,” he said in a statement.

Jaideep said the finance ministry itself had admitted that only about RM72.6 billion, or 21.4%, of the total RM340 billion figure took the form of direct government expenditure through fiscal injections.

“This figure covers health spending, cash transfers, the Wage Subsidy Programme and infrastructure spending, which are all borne out of the government’s budget,” he said.

He said the actual amount of government spending to date was likely to be even lower than the RM72.6 billion previously announced by the finance ministry, since not all fiscal injections were immediate.

“There is a time lag between the announcement of fiscal policy measures and the eventual disbursement of funds,” he said.

The remaining RM267.4 billion, he said, covered a range of strategic, operational and monetary policy measures, including loan moratorium extensions, tax exemptions, loan guarantees and financing schemes.

“Some of these, such as tax relief, do not have a direct accounting value apart from the opportunity cost of tax money foregone, which is likely to be negligible for affected sectors anyway.”

He also argued that higher spending due to the stimulus measures was not unprecedented, citing the 2009 budget, which had a fiscal deficit of 6.7% amid the financial crisis.

Jaideep said now was not the time for alarmist claims, adding that the country can already expect an increase in government revenue beyond the 2021 budget’s forecast, with recent hikes in oil prices.

He said the most recent Pemerkasa package had also suggested that the government still had fiscal space to introduce substantial new injections.

“Ultimately, the way out of the pandemic-induced contraction is to implement more directed, strategic expansionary fiscal policy measures to promote consumption and crowd-in private sector investment, not to make unsubstantiated claims about the government’s fiscal situation,” he said.

 

The Malay Male finds his calling at a halal pub

Amir's Half-Easy

Followers of local blogs earlier this century may remember The Malay Male (not to be confused with The Malay Mail), a blog about the dark side of a young journalist from Pahang blinded by the city lights. Well, the journalist and author of that blog, Amir Hafizi, is now 41 and has just joined us at Bru Publication, the publisher of mole.my, as head of its newest division - BOOKS! There's only one reason why Amir is there: to help fellow journalists get published. Yes, believe it or not, very few of us journos can claim to be authors of books even though we may have written thousands of articles in newspapers and magazines. The late Ahmad A. Talib, for example, had written columns for the New Straits Times for decades before he passed last year. But not a hard cover or a paperback in his name and that's our loss. 

Amir has lined up at least three big titles for 2021 and while Malaysia waits he has decided to start a column in The Mole called Amir's Half-Easy. Missing is the trademark colorful language of The Malay Male but nearly two decades on, it's still the same, old Amir.

Excerpts from Amir's Half-Easy - What's in a name 

Half-Easy is a play on how my name – Hafizi – is pronounced. That fulfils the ‘writer obsessed with himself’ trope. It also sounds like how one wants his or her eggs, but that would be half-boiled or overeasy.

Talking about eggs, I like the fact that it sounds like the opposite to ‘hardboiled’ as in ‘hardboiled crime thriller’ because I discovered that I’m not noir and more grey or beige in my views of the world.

Also, it is quite sexy, suggesting that I’m only half-easy. A fully easy person is of course a slut and I am no slut, not for a lack of trying. The long list of women I was interested in but who later married better men is a testament to my failures as a slut.

Half-easy also means that some parts of me are hard – which is what is required for certain… tasks.

 Want to read stuff from The Malay Male?

Still want? Go here. 

Annuar, KJ, Reezal: Traitors or rebels? (The ones likely to challenge Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, with a vengeance, at the next Umno elections)

Bangsar, 1 April: Booed and 'parasited' at the last Umno general assembly didn't kill Annuar Musa. And what doesn't kill him makes the seasoned politician stronger. 

"I will continue to serve the people, especially in Wilayah Persekutuan. And discharge my duties as Minister of FT to the best of my ability," he told friends after leaving the PWTC, the Umno headquarters where he and several other Umno leaders labelled as Bersatu-lickers had been given hell by delegates to the party's general assembly last weekend.

"And less politics, more work," he added. 

The last line, no doubt, is meant as an indirect swipe at  those in Umno, not least the party's president (criticizing the party president directly/openly can be costly, as Annuar's own press officer Tun Faisal Ismail Aziz found out last week), who have put the party on a warpath with its two Malay partners in the ruling Perikatan Nasional coalition - PAS and the hated Bersatu led by PM Muhyiddin Yasin.

At the assembly, Umno announced it was going to severe ties with Bersatu come the next general election, whenever that is (GE15 must be held by 2023). It was also decided that Umno leaders who hold Cabinet positions in the current government will eventually resign from their posts and leave the Government. Umno president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, who's facing multiple corruption charges in court, said the party would also go after "traitors" within the party. A clear warning to those who'd rather serve Bersatu or the government than the party.

Annuar, 65 next month, is one of nine Umno leaders who serve as Cabinet Minister in the PN government. He is also the most senior and in recent months has become probably the biggest critic of Zahid. 

The other thorn on Zahid's bud is Khairy Jamaluddin, 45, the Science, Technology and Innovation Minister and MP for Rembau. Observers are expecting more fireworks on the way after his post-assembly call to the Umno Supreme Council to "do the right thing" and ensure that party elections, due later this year, are not delayed.

KJ had given Zahid a run for his money at the last Umno elections in 2018. At the same elections, Annuar Musa, ironically, contested as Zahid's running mate but lost to former Negri Sembilan Menteri Besar Mohamad Hasan for the deputy presidency. At last weekend's general assembly, Zahid and Tok Mat, normally not chummy with each other,  were seen as a cohesive pact together with Umno's former president Najib Razak. Party insiders said that was the plan. They took pains to make sure the trio were seen to be on the same side in the face of the so-called parasites and traitors. 

Another Umno minister in Bersatu's Cabinet, Reezal Merican Naina Merican, has also spoken up. In If we quit, Umno's image will be tarnished, the 48-year old Youth and Sports Minister said Umno ministers in the PN government are doing their best to help the people and country. "There's no end to our duties and responsibilities. If we desert our responsibilities now, it will tarnish Umno's name," he said.

The Umno general assembly did not require Annuar, KJ, Reezal or any of the other Umno ministers in Muhyiddin's Cabinet to resign as Ministers immediately. But all know they are hanging by a thread which is held by Ahmad Zahid. The party president also decides where they contest in GE15, if they get to contest at all.

The only way to change that is to dislodge the president in the next party elections. As I see it, there will not be a shortage of willing candidates. But most probably, it will be either KJ again or Zahid's ex running mate Annuar Musa. 

Read also: The biggest losers if Umno leaves PN -  Rocky's Bru, 18 Oct 2020; No DAP, No Anwar, No Bersatu, Mahupun No Umno, Sukan milik semua - Getaran, 1 April 2021; PAS, Pribumi to stay together - The Mole, 1 April 2021

Umno-PKR, why not? As long as it’s not the devil

Updated: An advisor to the Umno president hints at an Umno-PKR collaboration happening AFTER, not before, GE15. Read What I expect from Zahid's speech

Original post

KL, 27 March: Annuar Musa sure knows how to put his own party president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi in a spot. And the seasoned Kelantanese politician does it with amazing regularity these days. Latest, he matter-of-factly urged his boss to use the Umno general assembly, which starts today, to explain the Umno-PKR cooperation, a subject that has raised lots of questions about the president as well as former president and ex-PM Najib Razak's intentions.

"There have been speculations, questions and contradicting news repots (on the cooperation). Some say that the president discussed with PKR; some say there was a letter with signature supporting [PKR president} Anwar Ibrahim. Anwar was also reported as saying that there were discussions, but not cooperation. PKR sec-gen Saifudin Nasution Ismail said they were just normal meetings." - Annuar Musa, speaking to reporters after an event graced by Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin today.

People tend to think that Annuar Musa is doing this because he has little to lose, especially after he had lost his secretary-general post in Barisan Nasional in January for his regular taunts aimed at the president. But I believe Annuar is simply asking Zahid to come clean: if Umno is to work with Anwar Ibrahim's PKR, the party must be allowed to decide; it cannot be left to individuals within Umno, not even Zahid or former president and PM Najib Razak, 

And I think he's right. If the General Assembly decides tomorrow to formally end Umno's ties with PM Muhyiddin Yasin's ruling Bersatu, it will need a winning path from now until the general election, which must happen by 2023, or die. 

Zahid's people fear that coming clean on the PKR matter could cost him the presidency at Umno elections in August (and the more suspicious ones suspect that Annuar Musa is eying for Zahid's seat because he has nothing to lose). But if Zahid and the immensely popular Najib both think that PKR and Anwar Ibrahim are the way to go, they really should just explain why. If Mahathir Mohamad's worst enemies could be persuaded to accept the Tun as PM for the second time in 2018, how hard would it be to cajole Umno into working with Anwar Ibrahim? 

No permanent friends or foes in politics, remember? In Ku Li's words, Umno may work with anyone ...  anyone but the Devil. 

READ also Umno PAU-wow: Future in Perikatan for GE15  tops agenda by The Vibes Mat Hassan sees Umno winning at least 70 seats on its ow, without PAS by The Mole PAU2020: Masa untuk Umno  bukti kemampuan diri by Getaran

What's really bugging RUM - Peja, the Transport Minister, or the prospect of KTMB going to China?

updated: Prasarana, the government-owned public transportation company, sacks its president and CEO.  When politicians run corporations, things can go wrong very quickly ... 

Original posting:

There seems to be a lot going on at KTM Berhad in spite of the pandemic. The story that has been making its rounds lately is that the workers' union in the government-linked rail company is up in arms as KTMB awaits new chairman (March 14). 

Excerpts:

[The new chairman, Peja]  will also have to contend with RUM, a union known for being aggressive but short of militant. The union is vehemently opposed to the new CEO appointed by (Transport) Minister Dato Dr Wee Ka Siong, against Destini-KTMB JV to do MRO, and up in arms with MoT's preference for China's CRRC. 

Those who know the history of RUM would readily cite the big strike of 1962 - The days when Malaya's railwaymen went off the rails. But that's history. Trade unions of today are nowhere near as militant and RUM is no different. But we also rarely hear of a trade union that's against almost everything that the management is trying to do. And that is what's exactly happening at KTMB now.

Talk that the recently ousted Perak Menteri Besar Ahmad Faizal Azumu, 51, affectionately known as Peja, who is also the deputy president of the ruling Muhyiddin-led party, Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia, will be appointed chairman of KTMB isn't helping with matters.  

RUM president

If RUM president Abdul Razak Mohd Hassan hasn't made an appointment to meet with Transport Minister Wee Ka Siong to trash out the issues at hand, I suggest he makes one. 

But if it's true that the union has lost faith in the Minister over the recent appointment of KTMB's chief executive officer, or it fears a China takeover, and maybe like most of us is NOT in favour of a politician like Peja helming KTMB, Razak should ask to meet the Prime Minister himself.