As expected, Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin has announced the second extension of the MCO (movement control order), scheduled to start from April 15 to 28, after the present lockdown’s due date on April 14. The government also announced that certain business sectors will be allowed to operate, including professional services from barber shops, car workshops and laundry.
From the beginning, it was a joke to allow tow service, but not car workshops to operate. Exactly what good of allowing tow truck operators to function if trucks or vans break down while transporting essential goods, but cannot be repaired because workshops and spare part shops had been categorised as non-essential service?
Besides car workshops, automotive parts and components are an important part of the supply chain indirectly affecting the transportation and logistic systems. Without the mechanics and spare parts shop dealers, it will further cripple the current half-functioning transportation service. It’s a miracle that the clueless Muhyiddin government has finally realised its mistake now.
Although the government allows barber shops to resume operations, it would be fun to see how barbers and hair stylists can practise social distancing of staying 1-metre away from customers. The only way a barber can ensure hygiene is to wear a PPE (personal protective equipment) suit and sanitize scissors, combs and chairs before servicing the next customer, not to mention the need to change barber cape.
Other sectors allowed to operate again include machinery and equipment industry, tunneling works, maintenance works, sloping works, hardware shops, electrical and electronic shops, construction projects, professional services related to the construction industry (architects, engineers, quantity surveyors, project managers) and science, professional and technical services (legal service and R&D).
Wait a minute. Would not that open up to thousands more motorists and cars on the road? Would not that make “turtle egg” Senior Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob fuming mad after he moaned, whined and bitched about lockdown violations by stubborn people? Would not that worsen the current road traffic due to police road blocks and make life more miserable for essential workers like medical staffs?
Mr. Sabri, who is also the defence minister, said that police detained 1,095 individuals for violating the lockdown yesterday (April 10), despite 97% compliance rate. Apparently, the authorities have conducted checks on 490,249 vehicles. You don’t need a rocket scientist to tell that there would be more violations as a result of more vehicles on the road after the relaxation of the MCO.
In reality, the government of Muhyiddin is trapped between a rock and a hard place. After more than 61 years under the Barisan Nasional regime, the country was not only almost broke due to rampant corruption and incompetency, but also so backwards that under-equipped medical staff had to make their own “DIY” PPEs like face shields and suits.
As much as the Malaysian government likes to, it can neither copy South Korea nor New Zealand. South Korea didn’t need to lockdown because the competent government and knowledgeable health officials have been well-prepared since the SARS epidemic, while New Zealand offered a generous cash of NZ$585 per week per full-time worker (NZ$350 for part-time workers) for up to 12 weeks.
Muhyiddin’s RM250 billion stimulus package might look awesome, but the one-off cash payments to households and individuals in the lower and middle income group – “National Care Assistance” – would cost the government only RM10 billion. That’s the only real hard massive cash being spent. The actual amount of fiscal spending amounts is merely RM25 billion.
Due to lack of transparency, the big numbers – RM128 billion for the people’s welfare and RM100 billion for businesses and SMEs – may or may not be fully enjoyed by the targeted recipients. The fact that PM Muhyiddin had to rush for another round of RM10 billion stimulus package for SMEs shows that the initial numbers looked sexy but lacked actual substance.
The biggest problem is the lack of information of where do the government plans to fund the mind-boggling RM250 billion package. Anyone can irresponsibly throw a big number to impress the people. But the tricky part is to justify the spending of a quarter of a trillion Ringgit when the national debts were already in excess of RM1 trillion, largely thanks to former PM Najib Razak.
Without having a session in the Parliament to clarify the actual source of the declared RM250 billion stimulus package, nobody knows whether PM Muhyiddin and his trusted lieutenant, Azmin Ali, were quietly digging into EPF (Employees Provident Fund) or other public funds, or planned to borrow from foreign financial institutions at an industrial scale, or a combination of both.
While the government deserves a round of applause for its courage to gradually allow certain industries to operate under an extended lockdown, the move can also be seen as a sign that the country is in financial difficulties so much so that quite a substantial sector have been allowed to operate, especially factories and construction companies.
It’s perplexing to learn that the government allows electronic retail shops and construction workers to resume working but not beer brewery Heineken. Exactly why Heineken and Carlsberg factories were stopped from operating, despite the brewers only ran with 10% of its workforce, but electrical appliance shops and construction sector can run at 100% capacity?
Did Muhyiddin and his racist and extremist buddies UMNO and PAS realise that Heikenen paid close to RM100 million (RM98.2 million) in tax while Carlsberg splashed RM74.5 million in tax for the financial year 2018 to the national coffers? The same tax money will eventually be used to pay the fat salaries, allowances and other perks of the almost 100% “Malay-only” Perikatan Nasional government.
The “sin tax” to be paid by non-Muslims on alcoholic beverages in Malaysia will also be utilised to pay the salaries of the 1.71-million bloated civil servants. If the government cannot see the big picture, but continues to play up racial and religious issues, the country will hit a recession – even depression – before they could get rid of the nasty Coronavirus.
Yes, it appears that while the country was desperate for business and commerce to run again, the backdoor government had decided to win people’s hearts by throwing cash at them, money that it didn’t have. Hilariously, it had to flip-flop with an initial permission to beer makers to operate. Did barbers and hair stylists together with laundry shops pay RM174 million in taxes to the government?
If the country had a mighty financial strength, Muhyiddin government didn’t have to announce the relaxation of the lockdown. It could pay every worker RM2000 for the next 12 weeks and waits for the Coronavirus cases to disappear, or at least wait for the current 3-digit infection cases to drop to 2-digit. New taxes, like GST, could be re-introduced to recoup cash given to the people.
Other Articles That May Interest You …
- PM Muhyiddin May Extend Lockdown Until May Because The Unstable Government Can’t Take Any Political Risk
- Ready To Lift The Lockdown – How New Zealand Appears To Be Winning The War Against Coronavirus In 14-Days
- From Doraemon To Finding Coronavirus In Sewage – The Government’s Top-6 Screw Ups Within 14-Day Of Lockdown
- One Person Per Car – One Of The Silliest Rules Hatched By The Clueless Muhyiddin Backdoor Government
- Country On Autopilot – The Panicked Muhyiddin Government Is Running Around Like A Headless Chicken
- The Hunt For 3,800 Tabligh Religious Members – Where Are Hadi Awang & Zakir Naik When We Need Them The Most?
- Shooting His Mouth Off – 10 Deaths After Clueless Health Minister Declared Signs Of A Plateau In Covid-19 Cases
- Movement Control Gets Out Of Control – After His Own Screw-Up, PM Muhyiddin Warns Of Extended Lockdown
- A Disgraceful PM – Despite First Death From Coronavirus, Muhyiddin Discriminated Opposition States From A Covid-19 Meeting
- Malaysia Appears On Track To Become The New Epicenter Of Coronavirus After 16,000 People Attended A Mosque Event
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April 11th, 2020 by financetwitter
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Comments
“… the government deserves a round of applause for its courage to gradually allow certain industries to operate under an extended lockdown”
What’s the point if I can’t drink to that with the gomen preventing the goose from laying the golden eggs, keep Heineken making its awful beer to keep the “religious” and those who pay fcuk all in tax alive and well-fed to suck the life out of others?
Why barber shops?
The truly religious need their long hair and especially long beards.
The longer a beard, the more holy one is.
And already many aspiring faithful can hardly get a stubble going, and some only manage to look sick goat with their few awkward hairs on chin. No barber should be around to touch their only three hairs.
You can be totally stupid but you still need that long beard or few hairs on that dumb face.
What’s the further point of having barbers around? Few can give a decent shave, nearly none can handle a real razor. That’s why you find all over Malaysia, our men fiddling all the time with their chins trying to locate that elusive odd hair here or there.
If there’s no barber around at any time, you can cut your own hair. Just take a cooking pot that half fits your head, wear it, then trim around the edge.
If you are fussy about style, go to YouTube, you can (or maybe not?) copy any step by step instruction, do a DIY job, save your money, no need to catch any virus from your favourite barber who thinks you still look sh*t after his hard work, anyway.
I may not like their beer but Heineken should be left in peace, continue to bring lots of money to the country. I won’t get much of that – or anything at all, but encouraging enterprise is the way of the world even for the religious. Unless you want to live in a cave or a desert, the best environment for any faith.
Preventing Heineken from operating is entirely like cutting the nose to spite the face. You want lots of money, especially if having a long beard doesn’t do the trick of making any money, you need keep Heineken (and others) going. That’s the only way if you are useless at making any lovely money but you still want to be lazy and have lots of free money from others doing the hard work, to splash around.
The time of the coronavirus is a good time to reflect on things. By that I don’t mean admire your haircut in the mirror. I mean think hard – however unused to thinking you are, and how painful thinking can be to your midget head.
Think about where your food comes from. Think about how the money for your food and everything else for the country comes from. Think about how your easy life comes about. Think about how your easy money comes from.
All that comes from the hard work of others. And others do all sorts of things so that you can survive, own your mobile phones, television sets, your motorbike, your AMG Merc, etc etc all Satan’s toys and temptations.
Now is the time to think hard, stop lording it over others, stop posturing to look ridiculously “religious”, stop the bullying and bitching. Now is the time to make sure those who put in genuine and useful work can get their good work done without being hampered. Without that, you are not going to get money, and very definitely not lots and lots of money.
Many good folks have to make sacrifices of one kind or another to make the money for your easy life. Respect them.
And if the gomen cannot think hard or think properly, let those who have genuine experience and real experience putting food and money on your table think for you all, don’t be ashamed of that.
If you are not ashamed and very ashamed there are hardworking and enormously capable folks feeding you, you should not be ashamed they think for you too, run a better show than you, keep the country and everything else going like you can’t.
If you fail, fail again, and fail again, like all our useless, clueless and worthless gomens do, just give up, that would save the country (eg. think Mahathir’s mega projects and flops). Let and leave that to those able to run the show, quit the awful dumb posturing and the headless chicken act.
It is like a comedy central out there… everyday you have different minister to entertain you with their stupidity. Well at least we get entertained during this MCO period.
“Well at least we get entertained during this MCO period.”
The “entertainment” ain’t free.
It’s very expensive.
And we are the ones paying lots of money and even paying with our lives too for the moronic clowning of our shithouse standard politicians always guaranteed to fail at everything.
I am always a fair person, so I should give the gomen due credit for being thoughtful.
Especially when the gomen is totally incapable of thinking of anything without disasters as a result.
It is therefore wonderful in such tough and terrible time of the coronavirus the gomen can specially think of barbers.
I don’t think it nice the barbers, in return, told the gomen to fcuk off.
Is it any coincidence our national coffer will be getting lots of haircuts, funds we hardly got will be trimmed botak till the scalp comes off.
No wonder barbers are immediately and specially thought of.
What would be left after the haircuts will be only a country with a head that can’t think.
Not that it was ever capable of thinking, anyway.
You forgot to count the free money given to undeserving govt servants who while enjoying their full salary to shake legs for a few months, also got an additional RM1,600 for no reason, plus RM500 for no reason, and pensioners who while receiving their full pension, also got RM1,600 for no reason, plus RM500 for no reason at all. All this totals RM2.6 billion to buy their allegiance, money that could have been better put in the pockets of the B20.