The Information Minister must now quit his job – he is not qualified.
Is there a match between the debater?
It was a total mismatch – BN Shabery pretended to be a debater with high intelligence. It was not to be. Anwar did not do much to put Shabery where he belongs – Shabery was non factual and say hearsay things – a common knowledge to all. He merely stated the obvious that there is a global increase in the world oil price.
The Caliber of the Information Minister is seriously flawed.
If that is the caliber of our politician appointed to become Federal Minister, there is a serious risk potential that Malaysia will become a nation with lost direction and one day go down the drain and still say that everything is fine. The Minister went into history, dwell in the global oil situation plus a little history of YOM KIPPUR war and the Arab oil producing nation action of oil embargo, spent a lot of time attacking Anwar for what he did in 1974 Student’s Demonstration, the debacles of 1997 economic downturn than accused Anwar of bowing to the IMF. What relevance has the above “story” on the topic of the debate “that PR is able to lower petrol prices immediately after it comes into power”. The Minister insisted that Anwar is against or after the blood of PETRONAS which was not the case but on the contrary Anwar stated that PETRONAS is not the issue and actually Petronas did very well. Syabas to Petronas for making it to the top 10 most profitable oil and gas company in the world.
Is BN trying to make PETRONAS the scalp goat because TDM is the adviser? One can never know the intention of BN with the twisted mind of some of BN Ministers.
Anwar’s plan to bring down oil price
Anwar stated that to lower the petrol prices, the Malaysian government need to give out $5 billion subsidy. Where will he gets the money? Anwar stated that the money would come from lowering down the energy reserved from IPP from 40% to 20% and that will give $2 billion saving. Then he continued to say that more saving could be made by not allowing any losses from the diesel subsidy amounting to $700 plus million and by not setting and spent on a super company to control diesel distribution at the cost of slightly above $100 million. That will total up to close to $3 billion. Then Anwar suggested that the government take $1 billion out of $6 billion from the windfall tax from Petronas.Then $3.8 billion would be provided for and the government should be able to find the balance somewhere which he has not stated due to lack of time.
Strategy:
Anwar strategy to manage petrol price increase is to ensure that the poor people are not badly affected economically. As it is now stand it can get worst in the next 3 months to come. Those fisherman, small businesses, the native of Sarawak and Sabah, the urban poor must be protected at all cost using subsidy. Anwar stressed that “subsidy” is not a dirty word when used to help the poor as the rich and the elite were given much more assistance which can be called in various terms: bail out, corporate restructuring, write off, capital injection, incentive enjoyed by big business etc, citing Pewaja was bailed out by the government for $7 billion. That is just one example. We know of many more in bailing out the GLCs.
BN represented by Shabery insisted that if the government did not increase the fuel price as it is now, it will not be able to support other national priorities. One would expect a “cause and effect” argument from BN, it did not. If that has been done, than Shabery would not have looked like a school boy pretending to be a kindergarten teacher. The BN seemed to root their action on situational factors and made country like Venezuela, Iran as model state with very low fuel price but suffers high inflation and then goes to the extreme that country like Norway also suffer from oil price increase and inflation when the per capital income is 10 times more than Malaysia.
Anwar on the other hand suggest that we do not bench mark economy that is lower than Malaysia. We must bench mark against countries that was in the same league as Malaysia eg. Singapore, Taiwan, South Korea etc that has surged ahead of Malaysia in economic progress.
BN remained EGO -CENTRIC in their thinking
The focus is on Malaysia and can PR bring down fuel prices and how? BN debate strategies prepared the Minister will all sort of “true and accurate” information and the Minister is to go out on the debate podium there and explain it to the raayat. It was the most EGO -CENTRIC communication anyone can imagine. The Minister could not relate debate topic well. He is not able to connect to the suffering of the people caused by such drastic jump in fuel prices. The government insist on 3% inflation rate, as consumers we know that not to be true. We know what we are paying for and could feel the pinch of a lesser spending power.
Question by the debater panelist
The BN government is really not grounded on the problems faced by the people. It is continuing on the state of denial that it is not managing the economy very well. The Tan Sri Dr supposedly question turn out to be a summary of the debate and a personal attack on Anwar. The Tan Sri could not relate to the link between IPP and it effects on the impact fuel price increase. How such a person with a blur and sweeping perception could be holding such a high and responsible position in a University, is hard to understand. Maybe in addition to his qualification it is a matter of apple polishing the UMNO leadership and he gets appointed to the post. The Tan Sri post in UUM should be seriously reviewed, if his question is an indicator of his capabilities, the University will not be a high performing institution of higher learning.
Our newspaper man for Anwar asked a simple direct forward question and substantiated his question with measurable data. The question is “by raising .30 cents of fuel prices in February the government managed to save $4 billion in petrol subsidy, to date only $800 plus million has been spent. The money is said to be for the upgrade of transport system in the city. The government do not seemed to know how to use the money. With the recent price increased, the government stand to saved $13 billion in fuel subsidy, what will happen to that money later.
Instead of answering the question Shabery reply went all over the places but not the answer to the question. It is more than just a bit of disappointment, it is disastrous for BN. Anwar could not resist his reaction to Shabery responsed to the question, he shook his head in disbelief in what he just heard from Shabery. It is not lies at all, it is totally not relevant and Anwar must be wondering why is he wasting his time with such a debater, irrespective whether he is a minister or not!
What we can expect
In his summary, Anwar drop a hint that he may be contesting an MP seat soon, barring the trivialities of BN effort to stop him. Shabery red faced, embarrassed or angry we cannot be too sure went on to make personal attack on Anwar like a crazy machine.
Mr. Prime Minister, if you do read this article, please consider replacing Shabery as your information Minister,he is truely not up to it despite his gang ho effort. He is not lacking in trying, he just do not make it. There are some more MPs to choose from. Get one from Sarawak for a change. It works with MAS, ahem!.
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Inspirational word from gkm2020
Tabi Dr JBA,
Aku ukai ka anaylize pasal debate nya.sapa idealistik sapa ke bejaku sampah.sekali ke BN betul tauka PR.aku ngambi points pasal chara ngemaju bansa ngena jalai debat idea.laban aku enda pasti sama ada cara tu kena bansa kitai bejalai ke pengawa pemansang.ari mit nyentuk ngagai universiti kitai diajar ngena cara berasakan idea logik akal kena menyelesaikan mslah ngambi bulih answer ti betul.tang ba luar.ke peda aku skill tu enda dipraktikan kitai.empai kala aku meda tetiap pemansang digaga kitai dibahas secara kritis sampai kitai bulih jawapan ngagai mslh nya.nya alai apabila sesuatu dasar diempliment ia selalu bermasalah.ngambi ke chunto ianya mslh org ke diau ba kwsn pedalaman ianya miskin.nadai penatai pemisi.tang kala enti enda salah ingat aku kena mgatasi mslh tu antara pendekatan perintah ianya ngelepauka ikan ba ai sungai ngambi ke rakyat enda suntuk pemakai ketegal sida suntuk belaja kena meli lauk n etc.sampai saritu cara tu enda ngemunaska penatai pemisi baka lauk ba menua nya.enti sebedau method tu diguna ia dibahas maybe segelintir kitai milih cara muka project pegung ikan tauka sbrg cara bukai ke difikir lebih menguntungkan.kebendar ia amat nadai proses wacana berfikir dia.tak antam aja.asal ia ka.yg penting bantu bisi.nya alai aku ngarap dr ke peda aku setakat tu lebih menojol dalam hal tu ngempung runding kitai bansa sekali ke nya mlalui seminar,bengkel debate pemansang ke patut digaga kitai.ngambi ke proses intelek nya terus ngerembai.pia mega cara pemansang bansa kitai ba alaf tu ianya kena cara akal runding.Tq.