IT is alarming how involuntary staccato interjections affect the flow of day-to-day activities. In the past few days I have fallen victim to a popular bout of coughing that has been keeping me awake at night: I have taken to placing the kettle by the bed in order to get temporary relief from hot water. A packet of throat lozenges lies next to the computer mouse as I type this, and I shall be seeking the (hopefully more permanent) solution in the form of herbal concoctions that my mother always recommends when I return home. One of the many reasons to admire Margaret Thatcher is that four hours of sleep a night was sufficient for her to govern a country; alas I, like most people, function best with seven, and as a result of the reduced sleep my reaction times are slower, my spelling and grammar is/are suffering and my sense of humour has gone numb (tragic). Most annoyingly, everything is taking longer than usual to complete. Alas some irritations cannot be forcibly ejected – they just need to be continuously attacked until, like waves eroding a craggy coastline, the rough anomalies are smoothened.
It is much the same with a government trying to eliminate distortions in its country’s economy. As the US Senate was busy defeating a Bill targeting oil subsidies, our Prime Minister declared: “Subsidies as a whole are like opium. Once you take opium it’s hard to kick the bad habit (‘how does he know?’ you ask); once you provide subsidies it’s hard to take them away without some political cost.”
It sounds eminently logical: opium destroyed the economy (and more) of China in the 19th century. In fact, my spies tell me that Dato’ Sri Najib Abdul Razak’s speech as a whole was eminent, calling for religious moderation and generally making his country seem like a glorious place to live and work. While the latter is the understandable duty of any head of government, he has been attacked for seeming to take a lackadaisical attitude towards those who apparently don’t believe in religious moderation back home. Until that attitude convincingly changes, it will be an effective attack.
But back to subsidies: the criticism from the opposition is not to deny that subsidies are like an ingredient of heroin, but instead to point out that there are other opiates like corruption and inefficiency, or that subsidies to “corporate giants” should also be ended, or that “this is not the right time” to end subsidies due to the sudden hardship it will cause to people. The nature of the debate is most encouraging, not only because it is politics as it should be – on the issues – but also because the lack of ideological opposition to the principle of subsidy removal suggests cross-party agreement towards a non-interventionist economic model, a consensus already implied when Pakatan Rakyat lawmakers claim that their Buku Jingga is like the New Economic Model (“the difference is that we will actually implement it”): unfortunately there is still lots of government intervention in that document, but never mind, the general spirit seems to be there.
And just last week, the Prime Minister indicated that if and when the Goods and Services Tax is introduced, corporate and income taxes would go down. Indeed, the Finance Ministry had even invited IDEAS to submit a proposal in a consultation ahead of Budget 2012, and so we eagerly wait to see the impact of Wan Saiful Wan Jan’s presentation in Putrajaya in due course. For of all the things that this government says it wants to do to transform the country, it is in the agenda of economic liberalisation that the most potential resides to achieve that transformation.
But with the invocation (plea?) of the issue of “political cost”, it is obvious that we should prepare for modification, amendments and possible reversals.
It might be pertinent to compare and contrast the effect of the sex scandals billowing around Dominique Strauss-Kahn and Arnold Schwarzenegger with those of Malaysian politicians. It might also be pertinent to compare and contrast the levels of trust in the judicial system, and also the reactions of those who supported those politicians.
Alas I have run out of space.
Indeed, we expect to rate our politicians, often and harshly; just as my trachea now demands that I expectorate, often and harshly. I really need those soothing herbs. No, not the opium.