1) Boost government income and reduce the budget deficit by improving the quality of our human capital.
How can one do this? Boosting the earning power of the rakyat hence deriving a larger proportion of government income through income tax contributions. (Singapore, Hong Kong are richer countries based on the quality of their human capital - yet these countries have lower tax rates than Malaysia currently..... it is not higher taxation that helps - it is the earning capacity of the people and this is not achieved by allowing our best brains to leave the country and leaving the bulk of the population in low earning, low productivity jobs - these low income wage earners do not contribute to the taxes that are needed to fund our economic progress.
2) There is talk of removing subsidies so that employers will be forced to raise salaries of workers. Having said that, what makes Malaysia competitive amongst our counterparts in the emerging world? Lower costs and our middle sized population. However, removing subsidies alone is certainly not going to be the driving force that will make foreign companies invest more in our country - what's the attraction for foreign companies when they know that costs are going to rise? What value is in it for employers especially if the quality of the human capital or productivity does not improve?
It is a question that we all try very hard to answer but did certain policies of the government in the past contribute to the state of the poor quality of the human capital currently? The fact is that the one thing that can improve human capital is open competition. What drives each of us to achieve success and what makes a winner a winner? Without that, we will only be subject to more mediocrity.
3) Government expenditure - so far I have talked about increasing government income. (Let's not talk about Petronas, yet, ok). How transparent is the government with regard to spending of taxpayers money? Failed mega projects? Mismanagement of funds (BTW, why is there no longer any news on PKFZ....?).
The key thing is this : How can the government request the public to tighten their belts with the removal of subsidies when they can't even be open and accountable with how they spend our money? The onus is on the government to prove that they are worthy in the management of taxpayers money.
What are the issues that are close to the taxpayers hearts?
1) Quality Education where the best brains are given the most opportunities - true meritocricy (how else do you improve human capital?), access to libraries and information technology .
2) Good public infrastructure (we pay tolls everywhere and yet we pay higher taxes than in Singapore - go figure) in the form of public roads, public transportation
3) Foreign investments and job opportunities - however this area lacks transparency and regulation (the key thing is that there should be some sort of conflict of interest clauses - politicians too often want a piece of the pie and that is not good governance) - if this is addressed, and policies do not get switched over and flip flopped all the time, perhaps the investors would have a better appetite to invest in Malaysia.
4) Rewards for innovation
5) Affordable Healthcare
We certainly do not need high spending on defense......
What value do I get for every dollar of taxes that I pay?
What will it take to make the government realize that the quality of the human capital in Malaysia desperately needs to be improved?
If we continue as a nation to fight amongst ourselves, we will eventually lose out to the competition globally. So should you listen to the fundamentalists (IA - PKS) with their protectionist measures and lose out to the rest of the world or should you listen to some common sense and move the nation forward? Because that will eventually improve the lot of everyone in Malaysia (including IA-PKS though they may be too small minded to see this now)
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