A Probe Into The Opposition's "Orange Book"

I've spent my Sat morning reading the "Orange Book" while having breakfast and watching CNBC, talk about multi-tasking haha. Why orange book? For those who are not familiar in the realm of PC games, game developer Valve came out with the Orange Box. It was called this way for a couple of reasons and mainly to create curiosity. It did work very well for the gaming company as it rises very high on the google search engine list.

1. It's not something which is similar to a past or present.
2. People who have a preconceived notion of what it is by the name of it.

Unfortunately Malaysia's Orange Book was written in the Malay language only..sigh. Fortunately I'm writing in English for you :) The theme for the book is "Change Now, Save Malaysia" and was drafted by the opposition Pakatan Rakyat or People's Coalition. I shall highlight a few main but important points as well as my point of view:

Country In Crisis

1. For 12 years in a row we have been running a deficit budget.
2. For 10 years in a row we have missed our target of economic growth.
3. In the last 4 years, PETRONAS has been dishing out RM325 billion, RM81.25 billion per year.
4. 2.6% average wage rise in the last decade compared to 3.2% in the world (including poor countries)
5. 40% of Malaysian household earns less than RM1500 per month and 75% of them are Bumis.
6. 4 million or 34% of workers earn less than RM700 per month.
7. 62% of the RM40 billion used for subsidies are for the corporate sector!
8. RM466 billion of personal debts owed by Malaysian to banks is the highest in Asia.
9. RM28 billion loss due to corruption and leakages which is 3x the amount of oil subsidy.
10. Only 68.7% of Malaysians finish high school education, even Brunei is higher at 88.2%.

PR is Poised To Fix This Shit

1. Establishing several council of experts in main national issues such as economy, political and social. 
2. Maintaining a more balanced subsidy structure for the "rakyat" by revising the subsidy structure to the corporate sector.
3. Setting a target to push those with household income level from RM1500 to the minimum RM4000 in the first 5 years. Certain tasks include implementation of min wage level, work from home laws to women and training schemes.
4. Restructure four infrastructure and public utilities that is being monopolized or have great concessionaire advantages: water, electricity, tolls and the internet.
5. Resolve outstanding PTPTN loans currently at RM46 billion by reduction of interest rates and allowing auto deduction of installment after 6 months of full employment. 
6. Open tender policy.
7. National integration of Sabah, Sarawak with Peninsular Malaysia to ensure fair power sharing.

Separation of powers whereby too much power in the executive during Mahathir tenure, back to legislature and judicial. More press freedom. Malaysia needs to have a clean and fair elections and one way is to have automatic enrollment of citizen into the electoral system for 18 years and above. GST to wait until the rakyat is ready for such a tax system, minimum wage system to all workers. Social protection in the form of a pension system to all workers in the private sector, unemployment work fund for those unemployed and retraining of workers. Housing goal as One family, One house, more low cost or medium cost housing development. Transportation: Abolish toll system within 7 years, 1/2 price for young and old citizens for all public transportation mode. Environment: Recycling culture and ensure controlled activity for lumbering, move towards alternative energy source. Social justice: Increase social welfare to the natives and minorities. Education: Fair enrollment to higher national eduction institutions to all races. Women: 30% allocation for women in all political position and government posts. Security: Community policing. Health: To ensure that our national health policy remains and health privatization is shelved.  


What I like to know more is their stand on NEP's 30% equity target, how they plan to attract overseas Malaysians back to our country, certain protectionism policies like our automobile sector and how to fix the race disparity in civil service. BUT it is good to know they have thought that much already, it has to get the ball rolling first.

100-Day Manifesto
Reformation of SPR (election commission), SPRM (anti corruption agency), attorney general's chamber (law & justice) and PDRM (the police).
I don't know how PR is going to reform this in details but I just know something needs to be done and the process of reforming this is going to be long and tedious. Definitely not within the reach in the first 100 days.

Abolishment of ISA (internal security act).
For the love of god, please abolish this GESTAPO crap. Would you like to have the SWAT team banging your door down without needing any reason when you making love with your wife at home?

Asking Khazanah, KWSP (epf) and other govt bodies to take over tolls with the sole purpose of abolishing toll.
Actually EPF is not as transparent as it should be with meager returns like 5.8%, even I can earn 3x that returns given the chance not to put my money into EPF. I also think it will not be abolish but like Singapore MRT it will be run by a company that charges reasonable price. With 19 concessionaires it will cost a lot of money like RM50-60 bil to take them over. Will see how it goes.

Restructure national subsidy to reduce subsidies given to the private sector.
This is actually a double edge sword, you have a problem of balancing socialism and capitalism but I will agree that the current subsidy structure is heavily skewed to corporate sector and must be restructured by all means as the first and right step.

Immediate pay rise of RM500 to teachers and gradual revision of other civil servant salary.
I do not agree on the first portion, you don't fix our education system simply by giving more money. It should be done on merit basis, in China they fixed the exams to be difficult and give incentives via bonuses to teachers who made sure students get good grades.

Nationalize water management in the country.
Fully behind this. It is better to rely on a system that has greater direct accountability.

Free WIFI service to all citizens in major cities and semi-urban areas.
Unless you can get public-private partnerships, getting this done within the first 100 days is difficult and not to say prohibitively expensive. This should be your first 1-3 years goal.

Cancellation of FELDA plantations and open current fields to 2nd and 3rd generation Felda settlers.
FELDA was meant to benefit the people more than the company but it seems that the administration treats them more like cheap labour and slaves. Cancellations of the plantations is the right direction to move from profit optimization to poverty alleviation.

Increase oil royalty by 20% to Sabah, Sarawak, Terengganu and Kelantan.
Agree. These states should enjoy some share of the profit of their natural resources. The current 5% is too low. Heck even the 6% govt tax is higher.

Establishing a RCI (royal commission inquiry) to solve the influx of illegal immigrants and citizenship in East Malaysia. 
This is real and a serious problem. Why?

If you cross the North Korean border illegally                           
You get 12 years hard labour.                                             
                                                                           
If you cross the Iranian border illegally                                 
You are detained indefinitely.                                           
                                                                           
If you cross the Afghan border illegally                                 
You get shot.                                          
                  
If you cross the Saudi Arabian border illegally                           
You will be jailed.                              
                        
If you cross the Chinese border illegally                                 
You may never be heard again.              
                              
If you cross the Venezuelan border illegally                             
You will be branded a spy and your fate will be sealed.      
            
If you cross the Cuban border illegally                                   
You will be thrown into political prison to rot.               
         
If you cross the British border illegally                                 
You will be arrested, prosecuted and sent to prison and deported         

If you are an Indonesian and cross the Malaysian border illegally         
You will get:                                                             
  -  PR (Permanent Residence)                                             
  -  A driving license                                                   
  -  Voting rights                                                       
  -  Job reservation                                                     
  -  Special privilege to be consider as a bumiputera                     
  -  Credit cards                                                         
  -  Subsidized rent or a loan to buy a house                             
  -  Free education                                                       
  -  Free healthcare                                                     
Oh Malaysia ! What a great country!

Conclusion

There is a great amount of work to be done or rather fix in our country and I am extremely glad that most of them have been pinpointed by the opposition. It is not surprising those most of the items in the manifesto are socialist in nature rather than capitalism. Both DAP and PAS are very socialist and I am 100% sure that they will uphold "Rakyat Didahulukan, Pencapaian Diutamakan". This spell good news for the "rakyat" but I am willing to bet some corporate players will surely make some noise particular those GLCs. The purported cost for these implementation is RM19 billion as estimated by the coalition. Frankly if you ask me I do not think it is going to cost that little but the cost for such fixes in our country's damaged structure is worth more than our poor GTP.