The Economics of Legal Plunder

Is Mahathirism dead? Not by a long shot. It’s not up to Dr Mahathir to say whether Mahathirism has ended or otherwise. It’s not a simple case of unsaying it. The cancer has spread to stage 4. It’s the SOP that has been institutionalized and the successors are following them. 

I like the way Tony Pua graphically puts it. When you wake up and eat the nasi lemak, you are making Syed Mokhtar richer because he controls the import and distribution of rice. This is the kind a monopoly if ever it’s going to be treated such, must be in the hands of the government. Otherwise, free the market by allowing traders to import rice. 

You drink your coffee with sugar coming out from Syed Mokhtar’s monopoly on sugar. He controls 20% of MSM and 80% of CSR. We will have to tell the imbecilic BN leaders not to suggest the lowering of sugar price by way of lowering personal consumption. Tell them the way to control the price of sugar is to eliminate monopoly in sugar trade. 

You ride the Modenas scooter- it’s built by him with license given by the government. I have always believed that if you licensed the Chinamen in Sungai Besi they can build better motorcycles and cars and sell them cheaper to us. You drive through the smart tunnel; it’s built by MMC-Gamuda, again owned by Syed Mokhtar. MMC is owned by S Mokhtar. You want to cook using Gas Malaysia? Syed Mokhtar. You use electric cooker- the electricity is supplied by Malakoff owned by Syed Mokhtar and previously owned by Mahathir’s son. You upgrade from motorcycle to a Proton car, it’s owned by Syed MOkhtar.  Honda? Syed MOkhtar’s. 

UMNO is Syed-Mokhtaring Malaysia!  You want to embark from the Port of Tanjung Pelepas to go to Indonesia? It’s owned by Syed Mokhtar. Treated water in Johor- owned by Syed Mokhtar.  You want to fly off from Senai Airport? Well Syed Mokhtar bought the airport for RM 580 million and paid RM1.2billion for the surrounding land. S Mokhtar owns MMC and also owns a part of Senai Airport. He was buying Senai from himself and who’s going to tell that maybe he overpaid himself? The RM 1.7billion purchase was mired in controversy over the pricing of the deal. 

The list goes on and on. No, is not a case why can’t a Malay have all this. If UMNO can only come up with Syed MOkhtar to showcase its Bumiputera success story, then its policies on Malay economics have failed. On the other hand, it also proves that if Syed Mokhtar can do it, any average Mamat can do it provided you give the same help and assistance. 

What is the essence of economic Mahathirism? It’s the deliberate use of government to pick and choose winners in an economic race. Through the power of government, you give licenses, exclusive awards, monopolies. You use government to impose regulations that confer advantages to one group over all others. This is why UMNO wants to retain power at all cost. Without the power of government, UMNO is nothing. 

Mahathir didn’t believe in DEB- the Malays better believe that. DEB would have called for the organic growth of Malay economics instead of what Mahathir started in 1981. That way, Malay businessmen and economic agents would have travelled the learning curve, acquired the values and skills needed as economic agents. 

Since 1981, because Mahathir thinks Malay economics would suffer slow growth, he eschewed DEB and replaced it by a policy of creating a select group of Malay elite businessmen. The government is the policy maker.  The Malay economy is to be driven by a select few. It’s the beginning of central command economics. 

That select few he took from a limited pool of acquaintances and crony circle. The result- the emergence of Joseph Mengele’s the Boys from Brazil- blond haired and blue eyed genetically manufactured businessmen elevated as the catalysts of Malay economy. 

Now you see why UMNO must defend its hold on government at all cost? UMNO is using the government to plunder the economy. 

That same kind of thinking- imposing government onto economic development is continued under Najib. What have we done actually? What we have done is to allow the government under Najib to come into our homes, take money and valuables belonging to us at gunpoint while claiming all the wonderful things he’s going to do with our stolen property. He takes our economic rights to be given to a select group of cronies just as Mahathir has done.  Frederic Bastiat- the French economist would easily call it legal plunder. 

What has Najib done? His ETP components, Entry Point Projects, PDPs, - are all bridge-to-nowhere projects that allowed (1) the few to plunder the many and (2) everybody plunders everybody. 

Number 2 above means everyone seeks to use government to enrich himself at his neighbor’s expense. Najib’s government is therefore a fiction through which everyone endeavors to live at the expense of everyone else. Remember when he said, taxi drivers who drive using someone else’s permit operate under an arrangement tantamount to modern slavery. 

Jangan cakap sahaja lah- come out with the list of the slave owners. If taxi drivers are modern day slaves, there must be modern slave owners right? That’s why he says direct permits will start in 2 years’ time allowing his buddies who owned the permits to make adjustments.