Najibnomics-2

The most popular film stars now should be Shia Labeouf and Megan Fox. They are stars in the box office film Transformers. They should be, because the whole nation is now transfixed over the idea of transforming into a high income country. Transform is the key word these days.

We want to become autobots. The thousands of pasar malam traders will be selling their wares directly off the 15 ton, 10 ton, 5 ton lorries parked in giant fields I suppose. After selling, no littering please, they can go back to their homes, park their travelling mini markets in some community parking areas, built, managed and operated of course by some business facilitators. We are gripped by the idea of becoming autobots.

To spice things a bit, let's use GNI- gross national income instead of our usual GDP. GDP is only for UMNOniks who swallow the concept hook , line and sinker at the UMNO General Assemblies. They probably don't know the difference anyway. GNI is GDP plus income earned by nationals abroad. That's why we want to build malls in China and Vietnam. Good morning Vietnaaam!.

Maybe the idea of building malls come from the Lion Group which has been successful in malls in China. William Cheng saved his business by setting up Parkson in China. Not forgetting the government lent him money to save his business. Many other chinamen have done the same. Malaysia should do the same. Never mind if the profits cannot be repatriated. The profits and value of the investments will count as GNI and will help raise te income to USD 15k.

I am just warming up on this issue. I will write first from a philosophical view point first. Please don't read if this is hard reading. I am not responsible for failed hearts and feeble minds. I will come to the details later when I get more information. I am now receiving material on the ETP open day. Some people say, detractors are writing as mere arm chair critics. So, ignore them. They are of no consequence. They are jealous of Jala. So on and so forth.

Some people have mistakenly treated our criticisms ( I am not the only one writing on this topic) as Jala Bashing. No this is isn't Jala Bashing. My articles have frequently appeared on Malaysian Insider- I am not aware if they are giving me a lot of promotion. I don't even know if the articles I wrote will appear in TMI. I read one commentator said, who am I to write anything about Jala when he has succeeded in Shell and became chairman of SMDS and all that- that's Shell Middle Distillates I think, based in Bintulu. The project was about to come off the ground as I was leaving Shell. Of course that particular commentator has not heard of me- he was flying in a low tech helicopter and his HAIR is low level. For his information, I got into Shell through SIPC and if he is from Shell he will know where it is. And let me be blunter since he has brought up the subject- if in the late 70s a Bumi only gets into USM then, we ALL know his entry level qualifications!. So don't pull academic ranks here.

The point is this. Many of my generations have gone through so many fanfare-ish spectacles about grandiose plans and have gone through the history of so many GLCs. The only outcome that has occurred with such regularity, is FAILURE. Just to tell readers, when I was a state assemblyman from the government of the day, I wasn't shy asking the state government to close down the premier SEDC because it has incurred losses after losses and can't compete in the market.

That being the case, no one can blame any of us, if we approach the subject of ETP, EPPs and all that acronymed entities with a little bit of cynicism and sarcasm. Show us one success story and there are 10 horror stories to tell.

Transforming the PASAR TANIS.

We refined fellows are revolted at the sight of rubbish strewn about after pasar malam traders do their business. Let's do a business model for them. Why not ask them to buy special purpose lorries complete with shelving, air-conditioned space, maybe an in-house Flat TV Screen. We will built for them it's easy to influence the government right now. then we build special purpose Karavan premises. Lorries can only go there. They will pay some minimal fees structured according to the size of their caravans. Then, we won't see dirty places anymore. This will create spill-over ecological multiplier effects.

So, after looking at the Karavan business model- I am telling my lorry owner friends here- lu orang jangan jual lori lama ok. Sebab nanti lu orang boleh modify became travelling supermarket. Lu tengok itu stadium Darul Makmur- nanti saya kasi proposal sama itu Pahang MB, kasi bukak itu stadium, sebab saya mahu bikin Pasar Tani gergasi. Nanti itu semua lori, 30 ton, 20 ton atau 10 semua dengan itu shelving serupa itu Giant punya shelves, serupa itu Tesco, serupa itu Carrefour , serupa itu One Utama, kita bikin cantik ada tangga, orang boleh naik atas itu lori. Kasi semua peniaga pasar tani dapat wang lebih. Kita mahu kick out itu tesco, itu Pakson, itu apa apa lah. Kita mahu seribu jebat si anak tani, take matters into their own hands and sell direct. Tidak perlu kita bincang peranan orang tengah lagi. Ungki Aziz punya ekonomik tiori sudah lapuk.

Of course there will be proposals by people to design and build special carawans for our petanis. The vendor would have been named already. Perhaps it is one of those government losing concerns which, if not for government projects would have gone under a long time ago. These will be sold on preferential terms I hope, financed by CIMB or any other Islamic finance outfits. HSBC and Public Bank are all more Islamic than other banks in dishing our Islamic financial services.

People mocked me when I say these are all business plans from the elite, by the elite and for the elite. Idris Jala says people staying in PD can stay there , enjoy their same lifestyle and ride the bullet train to KL to work. The lines will be built by an already identified vendor and supplier. The coaches will be supplied by Mumtaz Jaafar. The spill over effects( maybe this is the multiplier effects he was talking about) will be reaped by those big guns who have large land banks to the south of Kuala Lumpur. People in Negeri Sembilan like DR Gan Kong Seng who was was given a few thousand acres by Isa Samad, the big GLCs such as Slime Sime Darby,to maybe people like Tony Fernandez.

My own theory is, the fanfare show is actually an amalgamation of the various plans submitted by private companies each furthering their own business plans. Hence Gamuda probably sent in the proposal on the RM 43 billion MRT, SP Setia because they are setia to the Agung and the people of Malaysia after that, will build a liveable KL with houses costing 5 million apiece and exclude all the riffraff and all that.

How do we know, there aren't cheaper alternatives? There aren't simply because only selected vendors and contractors were invited to submit plans. The other unknown entities are disqualified because they have no track records or their proposals do not meet the guidelines of PMCs. We know it was a PMC that disqualified China Railways from building the double tracking line from Gemas to JB.