Pahang Bujet 2009.

On Friday, the Pahang MB submitted the 2009 budget before the Dewan Undangan Negeri. Sakmongkol hopes the Pahang ADUNs will debate the budget seriously. Otherwise, people will say, like Mukhriz did during Pak Lah’s speech- nothing new.

Nothing new about the debates, that is. Once again, the budget is a deficit budget. It means, we spend more than we earn. If we look at the reasons, they will become obvious. Our earning are low have something to do with the reduction in commodity prices and so on. Also cost in increasing.

There is nothing new, if ADUNs come out to say the same thing over and over again. The favorite is, oh we need to spend because the government’s effort to eradicate poverty, help the poor, OKU, single mothers and less fortunate must go on. Ini semua betul. No one is denying that we cannot spend. But please apply a little bit of sense, what is the proportion of the budget that is used for this welfare purposes? Welfare expenses are just that- transfers of income without corresponding increase of productivity. All transfer of incomes must be treated with circumspect.

The point is, the transfer of income for the less fortunate is so minuscule such that it cannot be the reason for Pahang to have a deficit budget. This is what sakmongkol says, nothing new. Indeed contrarian views of the deficit in the budget are often met with sarcasm. Goodness of the heart is not the monopoly of those who say, we need to spend because we want to help poor people. They say this and repeat the same mantra because they don’t read the budget and make attempts to understand what a budget is all about.

But sakmongkol wants to touch only on one particular aspect of the Budget Speech at the moment. Pahang’s attempt to secure a business in providing High Speed Broad Band( HSBB) internet services. It is done to Pahang Technology Resources. The PTR has roped in the MB to lead its charge to secure the business. But please don’t embarrass the MB if you are not ready.

Sakmongkol congratulates the PTR for wanting to widen the sources of income for Pahang state. To Sakmongkol it is not just an attempt by Pahang to widen its revenue sources but also represent an attempt to break up the MONOPOLY by Telekom Malaysia.

But before you go into the fight, get your arsenals ready. Equip the MB so that he enters the ring not naked. Has PTR secured a technology partner to offer the BB? Just don’t go in for the sake of going in but without the necessary promise of firepower. Who shall provide the capital? Your partner? The technical expertise? Don’t go in because you are advised by the ragtag army of passable technical friends the PTR has, operating laptops here and there at Starbucks and kopi tiams. Jangan kasi jatuh MB punya kemaluan.

And so perhaps this forced the Pahang MB to lament in hapless tones thus:-

Marilah sama-sama kita berdoa ke hadrat Allah supaya usaha ini berjaya. Jika usaha ini tidak berjaya kita boleh ucapkan Selamat Tinggal kepada usaha mencari punca hasil baru untuk negeri.

Now, will Pahang kiss this project good bye because TELEKOM MALAYSIA HAS BEEN awarded the contract to develop Malaysia's nationwide high-speed broadband (HSBB) network, a project that would cost RM11.31 billion to be built over 10 years.

Under the agreement between the Malaysian government and Telekom Malaysia, the government will invest RM2.4 billion over three years while TM will invest up to RM8.9 billion over 10 years in the project.

The HSBB project will see the deployment of the access, domestic core and international networks to deliver an end-to-end broadband infrastructure. It will have a speed of 10 megabits per second (mbps) and one gbps (gigabit per second) and broadband for general population (BBGP) with a speed of up to two mbps.

But is interesting to note that, under the project, Malaysia will be divided into three zones. Zone One will be covered by HSBB and BBGP, which involves high impact or major economic areas such as Kuala Lumpur, Johor Bahru and Penang, while Zone Two will be covered by BBGP. Zone Three refers to the rural areas where the digital divide needs to be addressed with financing from the Universal Service Provision (USP) fund under the Malaysian Communications & Multimedia Commission (MCMC).

Why doesn’t Pahang push for this idea; Instead of conferring a monopoly to Telekom Malaysia, ask the government to divide the whole country into 4 zones. Like USA did on Papa Bell, Mama Bell. For the east coast region for example, PTR could be the provider of a uniform HSBB( not varied like the one proposed by Telekoms). PTR can even invite state investments from Terengganu and Kelantan.

Pahang must attack the idea of this differentiated quality of HSBB proposed by Telekom. Don’t tell sakmongkol that those in the rural areas are not discerning when using internet? The fact they are using internet would suggest that users of the internet, albeit being in rural areas are as progressive of those layabouts in Starbucks in the cities.