Wednesday, December 03, 2008

What Economic Crisis?

So says the Deputy Finance Minister, Datuk Kong Cho Ha.
Malaysia is only feeling the minimum impact of the global economic crisis and financial meltdown, Deputy Finance Minister Datuk Kong Cho Ha told the Dewan Negara today...

“It is only feeling the pinch indirectly from the minimum impact of the sub-prime mortgage crisis cushioned by the strong domestic economy,” he said when replying to a supplementary question from Senator Maijol Mahap during question time.
So guys, don't worry, be happy. ;-)

21 comments:

NEO said...

Malaysia still enjoy the litter 3.5% growth mainly due to export of the commodities like Crude Oil & CPO.

If you look at the Q3 Econ report released by BNM recently, the manufacturing and service sectors already show negative grow....

So, be happy, no worry...

Azurah Anuar said...

Angggap lah kenyataan itu sebagai Juadah Hari Raya Aidil Adha

Shawn Tan said...

It's all about perspectives again! d: One man's crisis is another man's opportunity! d:

Anonymous said...

tony,

has any senior MCA members experienced any recession before?

you dont call MCA "Most Corrupt Association" for nothing.

KoSong Cafe said...

Sime Darby, our largest company by market capitalization, has lost Rm50 billion in value since its highest. Though considered paper loss, it does not look good in the books of government-linked investment funds having Sime shares. Already EPF reported unfavourable returns.

The windfall tax was like counting the chickens before they are hatched. Now the small plantation owners are struggling with low FFB prices and high costs of fertilizers, transportation, etc.

The people still could not understand why our government complained when oil prices skyrocketed as well as when prices dropped! But what is clear is that our oil revenues which account for some 44% of government revenues will be greatly reduced and we will be in dire straits when eventually the oil dries up.

Yet, some people can spend government monies without a thought for accountability as revealed by Nades in The Sun.

Anonymous said...

Datuk Zaid Ibrahim Akan Mengadakan Sidang Media Hari Ini Pada Pukul 10 Pagi! Kemanakah Masa Depan Beliau?

http://gomalaysian.blogspot.com/2008/12/zaid-ibrahim-adakan-sidang-media-khas.html

Anonymous said...

Wat recession? There is no recession in Malaysia. Ask Zeti or our Govt people. Recession is only a game the west played upom us.it is purely lies and propaganda. Why worry? Enjoyyyy...we are a blessed country

Unknown said...

does he know about how much the price of rice has increased??? you can't have a decent mixed rice below RM4.00 today anymore.

government feels nothing. if anything get worse, they can still rob from the rakyat.
isn't they robbing us now RM0.40/liter for the petrol. they still can have great party every night.

MCA can go to fly kite. that ugliest deputy home minister who supports polis brutality, i despise the most.

Anonymous said...

With big houses, lots of cars, everything taken care of by the government using the people's money, these BN buggers will never feel the pain and suffering. Reminds me of the last French King telling his fellow people to eat cake instead of bread when the people are dying of hunger.

Unknown said...

Hi Tony,

Could you write something about our education system? Actually I'm quite agreed with Mukhriz mentioned - "One System for All". But I would prefer all school changed to english medium school, then malay, mandarin and tamil second. What do you think?

Anonymous said...

government feels nothing. if anything get worse, they can still rob from the rakyat.
isn't they robbing us now RM0.40/liter for the petrol. they still can have great party every night.

Rakyat kawan, RM0.40/liter for petrol you complain. You know across causeway is SGD1.80/liter?

Maybe it is time we see things in perspective. Not everything must and can complain. If we want compare UM against world's best like NUS, then we also must compare petrol price right?

Anonymous said...

Silly idea.

Education is not about giving everyone a degree.

Without a job at the end of graduation, that degree is just a piece of thrash paper. That is why NUS is now World top 30 and Asia top 4, while our UM cannot even get into 200!

amoker said...

For people like Cho Ha, he does not feel a pinch since he earns 5 figure , with car etc. all thrown in. What is sickening is the the whole Finance Minister downwards are repeating the same thing & ignoring the reality that this are not dong that well on the ground.

Anonymous said...

Rakyat kawan, RM0.40/liter for petrol you complain. You know across causeway is SGD1.80/liter?

Did you know that, across the Causeway, salaries are higher even on a 1 Singapore dollar to 1 Malaysian ringgit basis so the SGD 1.80 per litre price feels less painful to their pockets than it does to ours?

Did you know that, across the Causeway, public transportation is so excellent that it is perfectly reasonable to take the MRT or the bus instead of driving while over here you pretty much have to drive to get anywhere?

If you want to compare, make a fair comparison!

Anonymous said...

Deputy ministers' pay abt RM50 000 plus free electricity, water, petrol...how to understand the suffering of the poor? To them what they say is true...but only to themselves

Anonymous said...

Did you know that, across the Causeway, salaries are higher even on a 1 Singapore dollar to 1 Malaysian ringgit basis so the SGD 1.80 per litre price feels less painful to their pockets than it does to ours?

Did you know that, across the Causeway, public transportation is so excellent that it is perfectly reasonable to take the MRT or the bus instead of driving while over here you pretty much have to drive to get anywhere?

If you want to compare, make a fair comparison!


Rakyat kawan, you mean to tell me for all that you have cited, those people down south are not paying the market price for per bareel or crude oil?

You mean to tell me because Malaysians make less salary means Arabs sell us crude oil cheaper? We are so good terms with Arabs?

You know this mentality is exactly why Malaysia is not moving forward? Because everyone wants subsidies from the Government, but not willing to pay taxes! Like this how to balance the books?!

This is exactly the same mentality behind all the Bumi policies and our wonderful politicians practising for so long! just give rakyat more money!

Isn't that what the Rakyat Party is against and wants reformasi for?

Anonymous said...

seriously speaking... i do not understand Economics.. at least not for Malaysian economics...

for years i hv been educated in US educations, and in current global situation, i do understand how recession in US affecting global economics.. as exporter for US, Japan, China, we Malaysian will definitely effected by the recession, its domino effects, its chain effects... even China and Japan's exports get affected with the lower demands, increase of bad debts of businesses..
well..to put it simple.. if i m paying RM 5 for a bowl of noodle today, and yet i am not full and still hungry for another.. that's consider recession.. becoz our RM is going worthless, becoz we can't earn more, becoz we spent even more now days just to survive..now, that's wat i consider simple economics

Anonymous said...

Can all ppl focus less on whether malaysia will have recession or not? This kind of negative attitude do not help at all. We should focus on the common fundamental issue of daily life such as how to spend prudently how to be more effective... Tony please dont keep on nagging on the negative sentiment facing the whole world u of all ppl a wakil rakyat should be more positive and show ppl on how to move forward on difficult time instead to keep telling ppl the worst is yet to come. Being optimistic and find way to be more effective, productive are the only way to create a better future.

Anonymous said...

Because everyone wants subsidies from the Government, but not willing to pay taxes! Like this how to balance the books?!

Rakyat kawan, you should know that what we are complaining about is not the price of petrol per se. It's about having power over where our money goes. The fact is we have already been taxed enough!

We are taxed every time we buy a car, whether or not it is a Malaysian car. Did you know that it costs more to buy a Proton in Malaysia than it does in many other countries?

We are taxed every time we pay tolls on the highway even though much of the highway construction costs were built with public funds! Did you know that I can drive from Germany to Spain and pay not a single cent in tolls?

We pay and we pay and what do we get in return?

- Investment in public transportation so that the rakyat have a real alternative to driving their cars? Hardly!

- High quality roads? I do not need to remind you how many potholes there are in KL's highways.

Show us some tangible results and we might not complain so much about paying more taxes.

Anonymous said...

It's about having power over where our money goes.
Ah Rakyat kawan, now we are on the same wavelength.

Are we willing to give up petrol subsidies to invest in infrastructure? Or do we go up in arms everytime the government reduce subsidies?

In economics (Tony should know), subsidies encourage consumption of the item being subsidised. In Malaysia, we are subsidising so many things! Petrol, sugar, etc

What good comes out of consuming more of these things? Subsidising petrol makes us, a oil producing country, into a net importer of oil!

Investing in infrastructure however, improves standard of living. It is a form of indirect subsidy, and provides an alternative for consuming (private transportation) the direct goods.

Why don't our Rakyat party table a proper plan for reducing oil subsidies gradually and rechannelling these into developing a metro system like the (this one don't copy down south, their MRT are crap compared to international standards) Europe or American ones.

Probably our Rakyat party also afraid if they say reduce petrol subsidy, rakyat will start desserting them.

Takes guts, and a lot of communication skills.

Anonymous said...

not sure how/where to highlight this - is it possible Malaysia government start consider medical plan similar to this - http://www.cnn.com/2008/HEALTH/12/11/health.insurance.bad.economy/index.html