Serious Trouble

mycurrentaffairs

As more time passes our country is being run into the tong sampah. The economic management of the country is in a shambles. The Finance Minister is also the Prime Minister who is a first class non-performer.

He does not know anything about what is going on in the economy. He has handed over the management of the economy to the 2nd Finance Minister who is also a non-performer who has somehow convinced the Prime Minister and the ignoramuses who populate the Cabinet that he has exceptional economic management skills.

The 2nd Finance Minister came up with the idea of diesel subsidies for the bumiputra inshore fishermen which has destroyed the inshore fishing industry. Fishermen do not fish any more. They smuggle diesel and earn more money. Now there are serious fights brewing over control of the many 'persatuan nelayan' because the persatuan nelayan has access to the diesel subsidy quotas too. Who would have imagined that even fishermen can be messed up? But this is what is happening now in our country thanks to the incompetent Prime Minister and his equally incompetent 2nd Finance Minister.

Throughout 22 years of Dr Mahathir's rule there rarely or never was any strike, especially by bus drivers, general workers and factory workers. But yesterday almost all the bus drivers on Penang island went on strike, crippling movement on the island. Thousands of people were late for work, causing great economic loss to the island's economy. The strike has still not been resolved. If the strike continues, the government may have no choice but to use the ISA to arrest the strike leaders. Then the BN will lose Penang to the opposition in the coming general elections. This bus strike in Penang has already cost the BN thousands of votes.

The day before that, bus drivers in Kuala Lumpur operating the KL - Shah Alam route also went on strike. They were told to collect more fares or their pay would be cut. This is totally stupid. How are bus drivers going to collect more fares if there are not enough people boarding the buses? How are there going to be enough people boarding the buses when many of the foreign investor-owned factories along the PJ - Shah Alam sector have closed down and moved to China? How are we going to get more foreign investors if the Minister of the MITI says 'the foreign investors can go elsewhere if they don't like our policies'?

The bus drivers in Penang want more pay to meet the sky-rocketing costs of living. But the 2nd Finance Minister has said that the inflation rate in the country is just 2%, there is nothing to worry about. The management of the bus company in Penang is headed by Chinese who are Gerakan party appointees. The striking bus drivers are mostly Malays. The relatively wealthy Chinese on Penang do not take the bus as much as the Malays, so the management has decided to play tough guy. They have told the bus drivers that those who strike will be fired.

If the bus drivers in Penang are given the wage increases which they have demanded, it is possible that other bus drivers, general workers and factory workers in other parts of the country will soon go on strike too. The price increases do not affect Penang island only.

Thousands of retired policemen are also angry with the Government and will not be voting for the BN either. These are the retired policemen who have been forcefully pressed back into service as part of the Prime Minister's idea to fight the escalating crime rates in the country. The Government has performed an illegal act by forcing the retired policemen back to work. One angry retired Policeman said 'Dia kata ini perintah Perdana Menteri' (They say this is an order from the Prime Minister). These retired Policemen will not be voting for the BN either.

And how are foreign investors and tourists going to come to our country with this type of crap happening almost every other day? We have just got over the 60,000 strong Bersih protest and the 25,000 strong Hindraf protest in Kuala Lumpur. The KLCC was completely shut down again last week when another 3,000 people protested over the price increases of food and essential items. Over 150 people were arrested by the police.

The government of Abdullah Badawi is more concerned with winning the elections than managing the country effectively. But even there they are having serious problems. UMNO politics in Perlis are in a shambles. UMNO leaders in Perlis are already telling their supporters to vote for the opposition this time around. The situation is not rosy in Penang either. A few UMNO leaders have said at ceramah that they do not want 2nd Finance Minister Nor Mohd Yakop to contest any seats in Penang. The 2nd Finance Minister is seen as an outsider who cannot speak Malay or mix well with the people on the ground. But the real issue is that there is a major power struggle in UMNO Penang itself.

There is a question mark about who will be the candidate for Putrajaya. The incumbent Tengku Adnan may be taken out. Who will replace him? Again, after being kicked out of Penang, the 2nd Finance Minister is believed to be eyeing this seat too but so is the Prime Minister's son-in-law.

The country is slowly but surely slipping into chaos. The longer the general elections are postponed the better it will be for the opposition because, with each passing day, more and more crap keeps coming to the surface. The Prime Minister has to be replaced. The country can do without an imbecile as a Prime Minister. The leadership of the country also needs to be thoroughly revamped. The present set of morons who sit in Cabinet must be replaced.

But even changing the Prime Minister is not going to save this country. We need a complete overhaul of all our policies. Malaysia has to become part of the real world. Right now we are not rooted in reality. That is the real problem.