Feb 21 2007
From the moment Malaysian Government released some feel-good economic figures to public (from record breaking billions in stock-market volume to trillions of ringgit in so-called trade value), there were numerous doubtful opinions circling around the internet on the actual reason for such releases and all of them pointed to a single conclusion – the snap-election is around the corner and possibility will be called this year, 2007. I’ve to admit FinanceTwitter is equally pessimistic of the great economic scenario painted by the non-transparent government.
There’re equal numbers of professional analysts who felt the same – that current economic situation is not that rosy as claimed and the stock market is not as bullish as what retail investors are hoping for, mainly due to the fact that only index-linked stocks were being pushed up.
Last week, Feb-18-2007, probably sensing that retail investors who formed the majority of the voters are not taking the bait the deputy premier Najib Razak came out to proclaim that there’s “No way for government to cook up economic figures”. Why would the Malaysia government (some claimed to be arrogant lot) so eager to take the extra miles and patience to clarify the much doubtful economic situation? If the people doubt the figures released, so be it. Who cares about this bunch of pessimistic people who always criticize and question every statement the government made? Not that the Malaysian government have not hide any figure before – remember the much debated Malay-ethnic achievement in NEP or New Economic Policy (or rather Never Ending Policy)?
You do not need to be a rocket scientist to know that in the event of a true good economic, everyone living in a nation will be affected by it as it simply creates a chain reaction. You just need to have a sector to enjoy good business for it to spills over to other sector which in turn will transform another sector and the subsequent chain reaction will speaks for itself. But is this happening now? You should know the real answer.
Some critics even question (which I think is with merit) why the Malaysian Education Ministry hastily scrapped a plan on book loans for primary and secondary school students claiming it was too expensive. Does it sound right why the government couldn’t afford RM100 million compare to multi-billions of new wealth being generated due to the so-called good economic? And what about the RM200 million new jet ordered for the Malaysian Prime Minister (though prime minister Badawi tried very hard to justify that the government lease the jet from Penerbangan Malaysia Berhad minus the clarification the PMB is actually a wholly-own subsidiary of Khazanah Malaysia Berhad of which he is the chairman)?
Not wanting to sound too political, I believe there’re sufficient reasons why western and developed countries always emphasize the importance of transparency because without it, whatever the government will tell in the future will only invite more questions and doubtfulness. And there’s nothing great about trillion of dollars in trade value when the difference after minus the import-figure from export-figure is merely 100 millions plus ringgit. Why do I have a feeling the government is initiating some plans to boast the penny stocks (second and third liners stocks) in their next subsequent strategy after fail miserably in baiting the retail investors?
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February 21st, 2007 by financetwitter
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