Najib, you'll be trouble soon

First sign of rife. Najib has come out in the open to support Mahathir's policy. Is Najib serving his first public warning to Pak Lah that he is prepared to jump ship if affirmative actions are not taken against certain cadres who are maneuvering behind the scene to bring him down. There clearly is dissent in his statement and it is observed to have been intended to serve as a warning sign to the present leader to indicate his discontent with certain acts and backstage drama that is currently going on.

In his statement Najib said: "The government’s decision to privatise several of its agencies many years ago has been proven right." It's clear message to Malaysians that Mahathir had done right. Pak Lah, when he came to power on November 2003 had scrapped many projects approved by Mahathir that was classified by him as Mega Projects and deemed a waste of public funds. Pak Lah offered Batik projects and agriculture projects as the alternative. 3 years down the road, the economy was turned upside down. The agricultural projects did not take off and the Batik Projects and the Becha Projects died a natural death. Batik could not be turned into an economic drive. The Halal food projects were also a failure as it was discovered that only the non-muslims were interested to produce the halal food and that the manufacturing plants were based in China and owned by Chinese non-Muslims.

3 years later, Pak Lah had no choice and had to relaunch and approved the very same projects he had rejected of which Mahathir had approved. Mahathir had always professed that economic pump priming was the key to drive the economic engine; that borrowing was a necessity in order to finance development that would create employment and drive economic growth. To Mahathir, ultimately, the government would gain when the private sector becomes robust and reap huge profits whereby the government will derive revenue through increase taxes.

Over the last few months, Pak Lah had in fact launch hundreds of billions worth of projects - the South Johor Economic Regional development plan (RM60bil devlopment), the Northern Corridor projects that include the Penang 2nd Bridge (RM3bil), Penang Monorail (RM2bil), Eastern Corridor projects that include new railway linking KL-Kuantan (RM2bil), Pahang-Selangor water project worth RM4bil and Petronas-directed projects (worth more than 10 bil; Petronas had been tasked with the development of the corridor).

The RM14.5bil Double-tracked Railway projects that was the previously awarded to MMC-Gamuda and was the first to be scrapped by Pak Lah's government had now been given approval to go ahead. The RM3.1bil West Coast Highway project linking Taiping and Banting, which had been postponed for 10 years, will be implemented by Konsortium LPB Sdn Bhd, Works Minister Datuk Seri S. Samy Vellu said. Samy Vellu said the Cabinet had given the go-ahead for work on the 215.8km expressway project to start. A development Corridor for Sabah was also launched by Pak Lah.
The Bakun dam project was reshaped/repackaged and expected to cost more than RM9bil. The RM15bil Undersea Cable project was also given the go ahead. A new RM600mil highway project linking the Kesas Kota Kemuning Interchange with the Federal Highway was signed between the Government and concessionaire Projek Lintasan Shah Alam Sdn Bhd (PLSA) and witnessed by Works Minister Samy Vellu.

Many other projects were also launched such as the New Istana Negara costing RM400mil, the new and world biggest Court Complex in KL costing RM300mil, a Disney Park in Johor that is involved more than RM1bil investments, Rehabilitation of river projects that is worth billions, the new speed train from KL-Singapore that is worth RM8bil, and many other projects that are worth hundreds of millions. In total, it far exceed one trillion worth of projects.

The man who claimed that he was only frugal was no more frugal. His mission and objective of parring down national debts had now been archived/abandoned and in place is the new drive to boost economic activities.

Each UMNO MPs were given RM3mil to spent on development projects, billions were given to Education Minister to spent, hundreds of millions were also given to stage the Monsoon Cup, the Brickendonbury projects is worth RM400mil, Billion dollars had to be allocated for Flood mitigation projects, and more billions on the way.

Did we had the money? Yes and No. Petronas had to forked out most of it (Mahathir wasn't wrong when he made that suggestion earlier which was rejected outright by the present regime but had now being converted and baptised). The Customs and IRB were given instruction to plow the public funds. Foreign consultants were engaged to plow-in FDIs and Khazanah had been mandated to spearhead the foreign borrowings. EPF funds were to be used as PFIs (Provate Sector Financing Initiatives).

Even cozens were employed to borrow. There's also plenty of unclaimed monies to be utilised as most of it had been vested in the crown by default (beyond 6 years - Limitation Act 1953).