This morning, I woke up to the news that PMX is off to Thailand on a state visit!
Sunday: January 8th Jakarta
Tuesday: January 24 Brunei
Monday: January 30th Singapore.
Tuesday: February 9th Thailand.
That leaves Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday still available for state visits. Maybe the UK, Japan, and leave the best for last: the United States of America!
State visit takes weeks to arrange - for the host and the visiting head of state. Time, effort, and lots and lots of protocol...all go into making state visits successful. And so far, if all the hype is to be believed, the state visits have been a roaring success!
But really the Mak Chik selling goreng pisang, the Chinese hawker selling fried kueh teow, and the Mamak at the rojak and cendol stall could not be bothered about the roaring success of these state visits.
Is there a need to visit four countries in a space of less than a month? We are not yet 100 days into your tenure as PM. Poverty is still at the doorsteps of many Malaysians. Many Ministers are floundering trying to find themselves in their new jobs and assuming responsibilities that may be beyond their ability to comprehend. Plenty of advisors have been appointed. Let me put that in another way...plenty of pro bono senior advisors have been appointed. And if truth be told, I have my doubts that anyone working for nothing is prepared to make sacrifices and commit themselves totally to the work to be done.
And the work they have to do is worrying!
The country's debts from IMDb and god knows what else runs in the billions. The deep state that has been part and parcel of the corruption is still in place. Education of the young is in a mess, and it seems with the present Minister in the MOE, their education will continue to deteriorate. The Minister of Health is off to London to resolve problems she has in Malaysia. Food prices melambong...oh yes there is a glimmer of hope with the RM5 Menu Rahmah ...but really, these are not long-term solutions to the country's ills. There are merely stop-gap measures. I can go on, but I think the rakyat knows what ails them. Does PMX?
No.... this will not do. Anwar hears, but he does not listen. When will he start listening?
with 100 days coming and so many big and worrying things to still address and overcome, people are beginning to doubt that anything substantive can be accomplish by PMX and his team of ministers and advisors esp in economy, financial, education and healthcare.. so far it looks like everything remained status quo when reformation promises was suppose to be the trust fwd - not conformation.. soon the good feel factor will evaporate and we are back to political priorities and excuses with state elections .. looks like nothing will likely happen to those 4 key areas till at least year end.. hope I m wrong but let’s see
Gd aftn..
In two weeks the budget is coming. our belanjawan in october 2022 shows a rgt100bil deficit. Maybe pmx will amend this and try reduce at least by rgt 50bil.
Actually, that can be done by producing more oil n gas up to give extra income of rgt 50bil this year and forward contracts on some of our in demand commodities of another rgt10b.
Many b40s pensioners are worried too. Theres 700,000 of them costing the government emolument of about rgt1bil a month. Hopefully pmx/fm will not target them.
In reality, theres space to borrow another rgt50b this year at a friendly rate. we have been good borrowers and very credit worthy.
My two sons sell coffee by the…