Najib for the Augean Stables.

The Augean stables a.k.a. MOF

Sakmongkol’s former boss is now made the finance minister. Everyone is elated. The happiest would be his painted jezebel. Its mo money. It’s the money train.

Najib, they say is an economist. He should be a better finance minister than Abdullah, who has a degree in Malay studies/Islamic studies. Who knows. This thing which people associate between having an economics training and being finance minister is over-hyped and mostly balderdash. If this were true, then we would be better off appointing Mustapha Mohammad as finance minister. After all he has a first class honours degree in economics. Sakmongkol believes our best finance minister was Tun Mahathir.

No, Sakmongkol thinks Najib’s appointment has nothing to do with the fact that Najib has some economics training.

1. It is just a political arrangement designed to placate Najib’s gun totting supporters and also diffuse Najib’s own exuberance. You know, when he’s on heat, he cant think properly.
2. Then this could also be a last minute strategy to project some semblance of control over the political situation in the country.
3. Of course one must not discount that all this is a plan to stave off the challenges from TRH and Muhyidin and also from Nana Non.
4. In the end, Sakmongkol thinks, it boils down to the fact that Pak Lah has pushed the panic button.

Some people tell Sakmongkol that when Najib came back in 1976, he hasn’t completed his degree then. That’s why Sakmongkol says, he has some economics training.

When people keep repeating that Najib is most suited to become finance minister, you can almost say it’s a truism. That news was greeted by the plunge in the KLCI. A sign of confidence perhaps?

That Najib should make a better finance minister is just a chorus line spun by his sycophants. But its also a sleight of hand job by Pak lah.

The economy is not doing well and with the world economy in dire straits, the Malaysian economy might well be sucked into an economic whirlpool. The debacle in sub prime mortgages in the US, the worsening economics in OECD countries( Sakmongkol wont go into technicalities here) may actually exposed the MOF as the Augean Stables for Najib. He will be up to his neck in cattle poo-poo. Better let someone else handle it. And if Najib botches it, then he will be blamed. Moreover, there’s no one to C4 at the finance ministry.

Sakmongkol thinks it is just wine in a new bottle. The only thing Najib knows about finance is how to spend it. His almost 2 decades stint at MINDEF were a testament to his profligacy.

What did he spend on? Here’s his laundry list. That will the part two of this essay.