Going the full monty

Published: Friday June 4, 2010 MYT 12:00:00 AM 

Updated: Monday June 17, 2013 MYT 1:27:50 AM

WHY NOT? BY WONG SAI WAN

The Government’s piece-by-piece way of unveiling its grand plans to improve everyone’s lot may just not get the desired effect, or may even backfire

DATUK Seri Idris Jala’s favourite question to anyone listening to the story he has to tell about the Government’s grand scheme of things is whether one would rather it be revealed slowly or all at once.

“Would you rather see a striptease where we show you one by one, or would you rather see everything at once?” Idris would ask his audience when talking about plans for the removal of subsidy on fuel.

Most times his audience would tell him that they would prefer to have the information all at one go.

Idris would comply and give the people the full monty for the petrol price plan; and not surprisingly, there seems to be not much criticism of his proposal for fuel prices to rise by 10 sen every six months over the next three years.

Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for other announcements related to the Government’s programme, which had always been “striptease” shows.

The revelations had been very slow in coming, not very exciting and hardly titillating.

From his stints in Shell and MAS, Idris found that people liked to digest the information given, and only then “will we get the buy-in”.

However, unlike his previous work places, where his audiences were employees, the buy-in from his cut-subsidy programme at the end of last month has not been as quick.

In fact, he was quite taken aback by the criticism; the level, volume and voracity of the attacks were overwhelming for this mild-mannered man who is more used to a captive audience.

The “stakeholders” (those who have an interest in what the programme is about, or are affected by it) this time round are the people of Malaysia.

Idris and Tan Sri Dr Koh Tsu Koon, his fellow minister in charge of this portfolio, are finding out that 27 million people have got very diverse views, especially if they are fanned by those determined to see Idris and his team fail.

Especially since it involves money.

Politicians, both those in Oppo­sition and in the ruling Barisan Nasional coalition, seized on the opportunity to attack and criticise the various announcements, especially that on the need to cut subsidies.

They zeroed in on his widely reported “country will go bankrupt statement” – the Opposition saying that it just proved what they had been saying about the Barisan wasting the people’s money being true, and the backbenchers dismissing the statement as an exaggeration.

However, Idris had placed several provisos to his scenario that the country would go bankrupt because of subsidies, the first being that if the country failed to achieve more than 3% growth.

Obviously there is no danger of that, as the country looks set for double-digit growth this year.

“Unfortunately, some of the rep­orts about Pemandu’s bankruptcy projections did not state these assumptions and therefore can be taken out of context,” he noted.

Idris has since explained the provisos.

Many in his team also thought the economic crisis in Greece, Ireland, Portugal and Spain in the weeks, leading up to the Subsidy Laboratory and Open Day at the end of last month, was a perfect timing for their boss to win over the stakeholders.

They were wrong.

They were expecting to get the same kind of reception they had for the Open Day for the Government Transformation Programme.

Getting civil servants to improve their service and delivery is a cinch because everyone will benefit; asking people to pay more (by cutting subsidies) is something else.

This is where Dr Koh and Idris must take their fight to the Cabinet, to get the support of their colleagues, and it seems they did so on Wednesday.

It is not known if the pair got the support of their colleagues, but they made sure every minister got a copy of the report from the Subsidy Lab.

But this is not enough.

The two must get Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak to agree to unveil the entire plan he has for the country and to do it quickly.

Najib is scheduled to launch the outline of the 10th Malaysia Plan on Thursday.

I have been fortunate to have attended enough briefings and to have talked with many of the planners.

Without wanting to spoil Najib’s fun, the following is my understanding of what he has in mind.

He can fill in the details on Thursday and insert what I have missed out.

He has always said that the basis of his plan is his clarion call-cum-vision of 1Malaysia, People First Performance Now.

A good analogy of the entire plan is to imagine the entire concept as a two-dimension stick home, what we drew when we were kids.

> The 1Malaysia, People First Per­for­­mance Now is the “roof” of the house offering protection to all Malaysians;

> The Government Transformation Programme (GTP) forms the right wall, to protect the people by reducing wastage, fighting corruption, preventing leakages and providing excellent service to the people.

To do this Najib wants to:

MEET and surpass all the National Key Result Areas to protect the people, especially the poor;

CUT subsidies – especially for power and fuel – to reduce waste and protect the Government’s coffers; and,

INTRODUCE greater anti-corruption measures by protecting whistle blowers, and through greater statutory accountability;

> The Economic Transformation Programme (ETP), which will form the left wall, is the most complex of all, as it will be the one to take the country and the people to a high-income nation with developed status, as envisaged in Vision 2020.

To build this wall, Najib is proposing:

THE New Economic Model to ensure an equitable distribution of wealth in an economy driven by the private sector;

A GOODs and Service Tax to ensure a more equitable taxation policy where levy is based on consumption.

Essential goods like rice, sugar and most other foodstuff will not be subject to GST;

A REDUCTION in income tax to ensure that the middle income group is not overburdened by a double taxation regime with the introduction of GST.

> Finally the house is held together by a solid foundation built on the 10th and 11th Malaysia plans where infrastructure projects and specific economic programmes ensure the success of the GTP and ETP.

This, in a nutshell, is Najib’s dream; and for now its my mine too.

Why not.

The only way it can be a Malaysian dream is for Najib, Idris, et al to quickly do the full monty on their plans. So sirs, please do it quickly.