Si bodoh ini tidak tahu apa terjadi di Venezuela, Zimbabwe dan Sri Lanka, seolah olah rakyat mereka bodoh betul sebab tidak mahu tanam atau tangkap makanan.
Fikir betul betul, kalau kau tanam sendiri, kau dapati kos nya 10 atau lebih kali lebih mahal dari yang di jual di pasaran? Mahu kah kamu pelihara ayam sendiri? Bahlul betul lah kau. Lain lah kalau kau boleh jual pakai dollar US. Ada untung juga.
Tanam untuk makan sendiri boleh jimat kah? Tidak. Kos nya lebih mahal. Sebab itu, tanam atau pelihara untuk makan sendiri cuma berbaloi untuk hobi dan senaman sahaja.
Senang saja kalau mahu galakkan orang tanam sendiri. Hapus kan subsidi dan biarkan penternak mengekspot sesuka hati. Harga makanan akan naik, tapi harga yang adil, bukan harga penipu atau pencuri. Memaksa orang menjual dengan harga lebih rendah dari pasaran dengan paksaan, mencuri juga namanya, samaada pengharaman jualan atau subsidi. Subsidi pun dari hak rakyat yang miskin juga, bukan yang mampu beli ayam sahaja.
Hukum mencuri dalam Islam, tertulis dalam quran lagi, adalah berat, potong kedua belah tangan, tapi negara Islam lah pengamal subsidi, pengharaman eksport dan mengurangkan nilai wang. Apa tidak, semua negara Islam jadi mundur dan miskin. Semua negara maju tidak amalkan polisi haram ini sebab mencuri dari rakyat yang miskin lagi. Menggalakkan pembaziran dan outsourcing, iaitu tidak mahu buat sendiri sebab rugi.
low wages caused by devaluing of currencies. high rent, caused by devaluing currencies also. low wages helps employers. high rent helps property owners. employers and property owners are rich people. Rich people get richer as currencies devalue. poor people keep money in currencies, not properties, so currency devalue, means less money for the poor.
Why currencies devalue? Subsidies. Subsidies help the rich more and encourage waste. Why? Because a poor person has no money to buy anything no matter how cheap they are. Only rich can buy even more subsidies items.
Subsidies are expensive and use up treasury savings, in foreign currencies, used to import necessities. With less foreign currencies, government still print a lot of local currencies, for less imported items, thus devaluing currencies.
The solution, well tested in Venezuela and Zimbabwe, and many others, is dollarization. Use foreign currencies for salaries, not local currencies. Then you can pay your rent in dollars.
The fact is, all poor countries have lots of subsidies, thus causing devaluations of local currencies. This includes Malaysia.
Singapore's strategy is simple. Increase salary in world currency, but no subsidy. Singapore dollar is pegged to the US dollars, and salaries are increased. No development target, unlike Malaysia and all other poor countries. Even the former PM, Goh Chok Tong, disagreed with increasing salary, resulting in less development, but fortunately obeyed the wishes of the voters. So it was luck that Singapore became a quasi developed nation.
With a slight change in policy, Singapore will join the poor nations, just by devaluing currencies to increase exports, and using subsidies to control inflation because of higher import prices, which ALL poor nations, especially Malaysia follow. The rich resources of Malaysia, oil palm and petroleum, mostly from Sabah, had not made Malaysia a developed nation, and will never be, if it continues the practises of poor nations, not that of developed nations.
All developed nations have high value currencies and no subsidies on consumer goods. Instead of subsidies, developed nations give direct cash to residents, except Singapore.
That is why Singapore is not considered developed. Singapore's high salaries attract foreign workers, but locals cannot compete for jobs so had to migrate. Without job in Singapore, you die, because no cash support from the government, unlike ALL developed nations.
(She said on October 25 last year, the Singapore government announced that it will import up to four GW of low-carbon RE by 2035.
"This is a potential export market that if captured fully, we will be able to attract RM6 billion in private investment and create around 50,000 jobs in Malaysia.)
A smart move by Singapore. As usual, developed nations thrive by exploiting poor nations that want to be exploited by having subsidies to benefit the rich in these poor countries such as Malaysia.
The fact is very certain and clear, ALL poor countries, including Malaysia, Indonesia, have subsidies. Whereas ALL developed nations, like Singapore and Hong Kong(previous system), have no subsidies.
Another fact, which I dismissed previously, is that ALL poor nations have weak currencies whereas ALL rich nations, Singapore and Hong Kong, have strong currencies, even pegging to the US dollar. I was mistaken because Hong Kong used to have weak currencies but I just found out that Hong Kong actually peg its currency to the US $. So now, I am sure ALL rich nations have strong currencies.
Subsidies benefit the rich more so the economy suffers so its currency will drop, benefiting the rich even more, but destroying the nation. Why would the rich want to destroy their own nations/home? Because the rich can travel to developed nations to enjoy higher quality of lives. I used to think that the rich invest overseas to escape corruption, but now I may be wrong, because there is limited entertainment, medical and recreational activities among poor people.
Luxury items are viable and much cheaper in rich nations because they can repair, more spare parts, more people own luxury items or even state of the art technology like 8K TV.
Rich nations benefit a lot by these foreign rich people from poor countries but also benefit by importing resources sold for cheap by the poor nations, because of low salaries and prices, in poor nations.
With these double benefits, what incentives do developed nations in educating poor and corrupt nations from removing subsidies? The economists in rich do not elaborate on the need to remove subsidies. If poor people in poor nations wish to be poor and exploited through their own free will, why should the rich people bother?
Is it good for the world? There are lots of conspiracy theories, such as free mason, zionists, that want power to rule the world. What for?
After studying the antivax and anti climate disaster propaganda, I just realise that they are targeting stupid people, corrupt because of greed people, so that these people will die faster, through pandemics, poverty and riots.
The world will be better with less people, just as Thanos has tried in the Avengers movies. I do not think it is for power. It is cheaper and faster to spread falsehood than gain power, to kill the most number of people.
Tulisan SATEES MUNIANDY is the state assemblyperson for Bagan Dalam.
Dia ini seorang Tamil jadi faham faham lah. Rakyat yang paling maju di Sri Lanka adalah Tamil sebelum hak mereka di rampas dengan kejam. Kedua, orang Islam.
Rajapaksa menang sebab dia langsung tidak peduli pengundi bukan Singhalese yang sebanyak 80%. Di Malaysia bumiputra 70% tapi di luar bandar, yang undi lagi banyak menghasilkan MP, jadi sama lah.
BN dulu memang cuba ambil hati bangsa lain tapi oleh sebab kalah juga, saya nampak UMNO sudah mula yakin bahawa UMNO tidak perlu undi dari lain bangsa pun. Ini maklumat dari keputusan pilihanraya baru baru ini. Jadi, lebih kurang lah.
Ada persamaan yang tidak disebut yang lagi bahaya. Ini lah punca utama kejatuhan Sri Lanka dan juga sudah pasti Malaysia. Buktinya, ahli yang di undi rakyat jni lah. Dia langsung tidak peduli masaalah utama negara, untuk menarik undi.
Masaalah besar ialah pengurangan cukai. Walau banyak apa pun hutang negara, kalau cukai tinggi, semua boleh selesai, tapi oleh sebab parti politik di Sri Lanka dan Malaysia di kawal oleh orang kaya, itulah mustahil cukai di naikkan. Sampai sekarang Sri Lanka belum lagi naikkan cukai. Malaysia pun.
Pengundi masih lagi percaya pembohongan bahawa cukai akan membeban kan rakyat, sebab tamak dan pentingkan diri sendiri. Miskin tapi berlagak macam orang kaya. Sebagai bukti, tengok saja semua negara maju, termasuk Singapura, cukai mereka 100% lebih tinggi dari negara mundur macam Malaysia dan Sri Lanka.
Kenapa orang kaya yang lebih banyak bayar cukai? Sebab mereka yang paling banyak pendapatan dan perbelanjaan. Cukai ada lah atas pendapatan atau perbelanjaan. Orang miskin mana ada belanja lebih dari orang kaya kan. Malah, lebih ramai yang langsung tidak bayar cukai pun, tapi ditipu konon bayar cukai yang banyak, pada hal beberapa RM sahaja, kalau ada pun. Itu pun mengomel dan sanggup menghancurkan negara macam Sri Lanka.
Sunsidi pun menghancurkan negara. Sebab menolong orang kaya. Sudah lah untung kurang cukai, tambah untung oleh subsidi lagi. Konon subsidi mengurangkan inflasi. Tengok saja Malaysia. Beribu juta sudah subsidi tapi barang naik juga kan. Sama lah di Sri Lanka dan Venezuela. Sampai bankrupt pun masih ada subsidi. Barang murah lah, tapi tiada.
Tanda utama ialah penurunan nilai matawang. Nilai wang Malaysia sudah turun dengan teruk. Penyelesaian BN ialah menaikkan bunga pinjaman. Memang ini satu carakan meningkat nilai matawang. Nilai dollar US naik sebab US naikkan bunga. Tapi ia cuma berkesan kalau kerajaan jujur. Kalau pembohong dan penipu macam Malaysia dan Sri, Lanka, pasti gagal macam Zimbabwe lah. Kenapa, sebab mereka cetak duit lebih sahaja lah.
Penyelesaian semua negara bankrap ini dan terbukti berjaya ialah dollarisation. Dollarisation ialah penggunaan US dolar dalam jual beli. Tidak banyak maklumat tentang dollarisation dari wartawan. Maklum lah, dollarisationkan merugikan orang kaya sebab mereka tidak boleh curi duit dan hasil negara sudah.
Satu taktik yang serupa dengan dollarisation ia lah dollar peg. 100% negara maju rupa nya mengamal ini secara resmi atau tidak resmi. Aku baru tahu rupa nya Hong Kong pun pakai peg dolar.
Semua ini tidak di amalkan oleh Sri Lanka walaupun tiada sudah makanan dan minyak. Malaysia pun sama lah tapi kesan belum nampak tapi Bank Negara sudah terang terang tidak mahu menggunakan penyelesaian dan amalan negara maju. Termasuk juga wakil rakyat nya seperti penulis ini. Apa lagi pengundi nya. Yang pelik nya pakar ekonomi nya pun sanggup berbohong tentang fakta menyokong amalan negara mundur yang terbukti sudah gagal berkali kali.
Kalau Malaysia mengamalkan praktis negara mundur dan menolak kesemua amalan negara maju, apa akan jadi dengan Malaysia? Boleh maju kah? Jadi mundur macam Sri Lanka adalah pasti.
Konon Malaysia lain sebab boleh curi minyak dari Sabah. Tapi hutang Malaysia jauh lebih banyak dari Sri Lanka. Semua hasil minyak sudah habis di gadai untuk berhutang. Minyak Sabah tidak boleh selamatkan Malaya kalau subsidi masih di amalkan.
Yang sedih nya semua ini terjadi sebab orang miskin ashik mahu menolong orang kaya saja. Tidak mahu tolong diri sendiri. Ini lah kuasa dajjal yang di terangkan oleh hadis beribu tahun lalu.
https://m.malaysiakini.com/columns/621922
ADUN SPEAKS | Are we en route to end up like Sri Lanka?
ADUN SPEAKS | For the last two weeks, there are debates on social media platforms and off, about the possibility Malaysia end up like Sri Lanka.
Of course, there are two sides to any argument, with one side claiming it is highly likely and the other arguing that it’s unlikely. There are political aspects to the arguments as well.
If we look at the situation, putting aside our political difference, we could relate the case of Sri Lanka with Malaysia reliably.
Crisis explained
Rise and fall of Mahinda Rajapaksa
Sri Lanka, a country which came out of a deadly decades-long civil war in 2009. Since the end of the civil war, Sri Lanka emerged as one of the major tourist destinations in South Asia.
Post civil war, the country was vigorously looking for foreign investments for its infrastructure and service sectors, for it to become a high-income nation in the region. That vision was possible, considering the size of the island nation and relatively smaller population compared to the rest of the region.
However, those visions were not translated into reality, due to various reasons. Those exact same reasons have put the country into bankruptcy today.
After winning the civil war in 2009, former president Mahinda Rajapaksa called for an early election in 2010, two years before his term expires. As expected, he became president with a landslide victory, as the majority Singhalese population regarded him as a demigod, for winning the civil war and crushing the minority Tamils’ quest for self-determination in the north and east of the country.
Winning the election comfortably against former commander of Sri Lankan Army, Sarath Fonsekha, Mahinda Rajapaksa begin to cement his power in the government and appointed his family members and close aides to crucial positions.
After winning the 2010 election, Rajapaksa also favoured the inflow of investment, in particular from China for major infrastructure projects in the country. Rajapaksa family’s totalitarian nature does not only irked the opposition, but also his own party MPs and members.
Rajapaksa’s uncontrolled power resulted in a constitutional amendment that allows him to contest for a third time, despite the earlier two terms limit.
In the 2015 election, Sri Lankan opposition chose Mahinda Rajapaksa’s own party man and Health Minister in his government, Maithiripala Sirisena as the opposition’s sole candidate. Sirisena won the election with a slimmer majority of lesser than four percent vote difference.
Rajapaksa even attempted to stage a coup d’etat while election results were coming out.
After the 2015 election, Rajapaksa family’s abuse of power, mismanagement and corruption came into scrutiny and a forensic audit revealed that Sri Lanka incurred 1.9 trillion rupees (US$8.9 billion) additional liability in the projects spearheaded by Mahinda’s regime.
The Sri Lankan government at this point revealed that their investigation has found the Rajapaksa family has stashed US$10 billion in foreign countries; some countries like Seychelles openly declared their willingness to assist Sri Lanka in recovering those monies. Many of the Rajapaksa family members have fled the country, fearing imminent arrests and prosecution.
Resurrection of Rajapaksa family
However, Mahinda Rajapaksa is not someone who easily gave up and would go to any extent to grab power. Since losing power in 2015, Mahinda has been constantly working to return to power and even became an MP, the first former President to become a member of the legislature in the history of Sri Lanka.
He knows exactly how to drub populist sentiments to sway the people’s vote. Mahinda is a master in destabilising political alliances and successfully caused discord in the ruling coalition of Sri Lanka, just after three years after his ouster.
Mahinda along with his family members didn’t want to face corruption charges in court. They did everything in their power, from splashing the cash to playing racial, and religious sentiment to achieve their target of removing the government of the day.
When the Rajapaksa family’s desire to become powerful via backdoor was defeated by the court process, they immediately started to play their proven weapon, ‘religious extremism’ to destabilise the nation’s politics.
Mahinda Rajapaksa is a self-proclaimed Singhala-Buddhist ‘champion’ or ‘extremist’ in layman’s words. He became president for the first time, by playing the racial sentiment against the Tamils. He promised to ‘crush’ the liberation movements in Sri Lanka, in particular the Liberation of Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) which was fighting a three-decade-long war for self-rule in the north and east of the country.
He won his second term after unleashing a deadly massacre on Tamil population in the north and east of Sri Lanka, in the name of the ‘war on terror’. Sri Lankan regime was accused of committing numerous crimes against humanity during this period. Hundreds of thousands of Tamil civilians fleeing the war zone were exterminated mercilessly. And the Singhalese nation gave him a victor celeb for his ‘feat’ of defeating the Tamils’ quest for self-determination.
Extremists’ Next Target
After losing power for just three years, Mahinda Rajapaksa realised that he can’t drub the ‘LTTE’ and anti-Tamil sentiment anymore, since the organisation was done and dust in 2009. Since Tamils are a ‘weakened’ force in the country, the Singhala-Buddhist extremist of Sri Lanka diverted their attention toward the Muslims.
The Muslim community, which was excelling in the businesses in the eastern part of the country became the target of this group.
At the beginning of 2018, there were reported incidents of attacks against Muslims, mosques and Muslim businesses. Members of Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP), aligned with Rajapaksa family were involved in the riots. The hate campaign against the Muslims was started by the right-wing elements, during the Sri Lankan local government election in the same year.
SLPP made a large gain in those elections, and the ‘hate campaign’ proven to be helpful for the right-wing elements in the country.
At this instance, the Sri Lankan Easter bombing of 2019 happened. The ‘nationalist’ sentiment was once again played up by the Rajapaksa loyalists. With the race relations between majority and minority deteriorating, the Rajapaksa camp campaigned on the basis that they’re the most credible political force to deal with such threat of extremism or terrorism in Sri Lanka, citing the ‘success’ of their military campaign against LTTE in 2009.
Rajapaksa family saw an opportunity to make a comeback in power with the hate campaign against the minority. Eventually, in 2019, Gotabaya Rajapaksa contested in the presidential election and won with a convincing majority. And Rajapaksa family back into power, sweeping the cases against them under the carpet, and once again controlled the nation island as they wished.
In the parliamentary election that followed suit in August 2020, the Rajapaksa families’ SLPP scored a massive win, winning 145 out of 225 seats in Parliament. Again, the main campaign in the election was about the Easter Attacks.
Rajapaksa family created an illusion amongst the Sri Lankan public, in particular with the Singhalese population, that they’re the saviours of the nation and its Singhala-Buddhist conservative society.
A Muslim woman wwalks through a street near St Anthonys Shrine, days after a string of suicide bomb attacks in Colombo, Sri Lanka, in 2019
Post Presidential and Parliamentary Elections in Sri Lanka, even those who supported Rajapaksa family previously, cast doubt on the Easter Bombings. Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith, Sri Lanka’s Archbishop of Catholic Church, in his address to the 49th UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, openly said ‘Easter massacre was part of a grand political plot’ although the first impression was that, it was the work of Islamic extremists.
Rampant corruption
The powerful Rajapaksa family made a comeback in mainstream politics of Sri Lanka, with the election of Gotabaya. Former president Mahinda was appointed as prime minister; their younger brother Basil Rajapaksa, famously known as ‘Mr Ten Percent’, was the finance minister; Chamal, the eldest of the Rajapaksa Brothers, was irrigation minister, after formerly holding powerful posts of the Speaker of the House and minister of shipping and aviation and Namal Rajapaksa, Mahinda’s eldest son, was the minister of youth and sports.
The Rajapaksa Family was running Sri Lanka, as though it was their inherited Kingdom, thanks to the support of the majority of Singhalese people, who were hoodwinked by the ethnic-religious rhetorics of Rajapaksa and company. In 2015, the then Sri Lankan Govt had revealed that almost US$10 billion, more than Sri Lanka’s reserve, was kept outside the country by the allies of Rajapaksa regime. The cases were either dropped or settled by the ruling family, with their return to power.
Failed Policies
The Sri Lankan government, under the Rajapaksa regime, doesn’t only fail the country with their mismanagement, but they too introduced policies which caused the country’s economy to collapse.
Sri Lanka’s major economic sector that steadily kept the forex inflow was tourism. With Covid-19 caused the tourism industry of the entire world to suffer, Sri Lanka was no exception to it.
During his presidential campaign, Gotabaya promised to turn Lanka’s agriculture sector into a ‘sustainable’ one. In April 2021, he fulfilled the promise by imposing a ban on chemical fertilisers and ordering the farmers to go organic.
Although promoted as a ‘safer, sustainable alternative for the current conventional agriculture methods which relies largely on chemical fertilisers, the effectiveness of such transition was not proven anywhere on large scale. Sri Lanka wanted to be a champion of sustainable agriculture, and paying a heavy price for such a short-sighted policy, without scientific reasoning.
By banning the chemical fertilisers, Gotabaya’s govt thought they would save US$400 million they spend on fertiliser subsidies. But, the short-sighted ban resulted in domestic rise production falling by 20 percent, causing a shortage of rice in the country.
Sri Lanka was forced to import $450 million worth of rice for its people. Not only the rice production, the country’s major export commodity, the famous Ceylon tea production too, fell short and caused further damage to Sri Lanka’s forex inflow. Not just that, all the agriculture-related production was heavily affected and the price of vegetables and fruits began to skyrocket.
With food production falling short, and prices going up, Sri Lanka’s inflation reached a record 30 percent in April. With the debts increased to a record high, the government had to spend the reserves to import essential goods, such as fuel and food. When the reserves dried up, Sri Lanka decided to print more cash bills to pay the salaries of civil servants. The printing of money would only further worsen the inflation, but the island county has no other choice.
Sri Lankans wake up
With the Rajapaksa family’s terrible management of the country, the economy of Sri Lanka suffered its worst and people are suffering for essentials; even food. The Rajapaksa family’s awaited help from China didn’t arrive.
Muslim demonstrators eat Iftar meal inside a protest area, dubbed the Gota-Go village, in Colombo, Sri Lanka, April 11, 2022.
Their allies in the international community, including neighbour India, have distanced themselves from the regime. Sri Lankans, regardless of their race and religion are suffering now, and the majority Sinhalese people coming to their senses, that the minorities, be it Tamils or Muslims, are not their enemies. They didn’t cause these miseries, but it is the political elites of their own kind who led them to the current situation.
The protests over the weeks have forced Mahinda to resign and the entire family has gone into hiding since. People’s anger resulted in the Rajapaksa family and their allies’ houses being burnt down. Rajapaksas luxury car collections were burnt down, and Sri Lankans shared the videos happily on their social media pages.
On May 18, Tamils in Sri Lanka observed the Tamil Genocide Remembrance Day, to pay homage to the victims of Mullivaikal Massacre, which happened 13 years ago, during the end of the bloody civil war. For the first time in the history of Sri Lanka, the Singhalese community also took part in the remembrance events in Colombo.
Is Malaysia going to end up like Sri Lanka?
With the long observation on Sri Lanka above, can one see the similarities our country has with the island nation? I would like to summarise for the easier grasp of the readers.
1. Ethno-religious rhetoric
Are we forgotten how the Perikatan Nasional or BN, came into power in February 2020? Malays were told that their status are challenged, although the Bumiputera rights are enshrined in the Federal Constitution. Umno-PAS-Bersatu formed alliance in the name of Malay Unity, but end up fighting for their power. Their concern was of power and perks of power, not the best interest of the rakyat, be they Malays or non-Malays. Can we see the pattern of the Sri Lankan regime here?
2. Corruption cases
Can’t we see the relentless effort of some Umno politicians to escape from their court cases? Although the trials are progressing, the call for an early general election are repeatedly echoed. Just look at what happened with Rajapaksas case in Sri Lanka, with their return to power. Don’t be surprised if those monies, and properties are returned to them subsequently.
3. Nepotism
The appointment of Pasir Salak MP Tajuddin Abdul Rahman as ambassador to Indonesia is the latest example of how this government rewards the allies. Credibility, and capability aside, such positions are a reward for one’s loyalty now. Can’t see the similarity with Sri Lanka?
4. Inflation
Sri Lanka’s worst-ever inflation started with their food inflation. Malaysia’s inflation is expected to be around 2.2 percent to 3.2 percent, according to the Bank Negara Malaysia report released a few weeks ago. But the report doesn’t specify the food inflation. Common people are already feeling the pinch of rising of goods prices. The government may be in denial or don’t even care about the uncontrolled price hikes, but it is a fact before our eyes.
5. Lack of Food Security
Malaysia is among one of the few countries that have a dedicated ministry for the food industry, with food security insight. But, are our food supply is really secured? We are still importing many of our food products.
From dairy products to vegetables, rice to wheat, we are still relying on imports. With the Ringgit weakening against US Dollar, the price of these food products is steadily increasing. Sri Lanka imposed the food shortage and food inflation on itself, with the short-sighted sustainable agriculture policy.
Our food security is in danger and food inflation is increasing, because we don’t have a policy at all. The cabinet decision to liberalise food products approved permit is exactly because of this looming danger. With India’s ban on wheat export, the prices will increase another round soon.
Unlike Sri Lanka, Malaysia can produce its own food products with the number of resources we are having. But, somehow we are not doing it. We don’t have self-sustaining food security policies to encourage and enhance the local food production industry. And such a lack of policies is harming us, even now.
Conclusion
If we analyse and compare the case of Sri Lanka with Malaysia, we can conclude that we are not far from becoming the next Sri Lanka. We don’t have visionary leadership to set this country in the right direction. We are easily swayed by issues and controversies being played up (by some quarters) with the intent of diverting our attention. We are discussing trivial issues, while the country is heading to become the next Sri Lanka.
SATEES MUNIANDY is the state assemblyperson for Bagan Dalam.
The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysiakini.
There are so many stupid comments by this person, allowed by the editor of this news portal. My comments are italised.
PETALING JAYA (May 18): Retail Group Malaysia (RGM) managing director Tan Hai Hsin said on Wednesday (May 18) there is no direct answer on the impact of the ringgit weakening against the US dollar because the current inflation scenario is “unique” at a time when rising consumer prices are due to the increase in raw material, import and transportation costs.
Raw materials and others increase in price because demand exceeds supply. These indirectly increases prices of products. But evidences from all retail products indicated that demand exceed supplies in all things that I am interested in, cars and electronics.
“The problem today is not just happening in Malaysia, but also in Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, [the] United States, Europe, and around the world. How can we stop inflation?
Because US suffers from inflation so nations that peg currencies to the US also suffer inflation. Try pegging the currency to gold or better still to oil, then there will be no inflation.
"At this moment, no country in the world is able to control the rise of inflation.
Because these countries are not interested to stop inflation which they can do by pegging their currencies to raw materials such as gold, but they are not interested. It is more profitable to the rich to steal from the poor by devaluing currencies and thus robbing from savers and workers, as well as local resources such as water.
“Traditionally, prices went up because of demand, but prices now do not go up because of demand. It is because of the cost increase from raw materials, import and transportation costs. That is very unique,” Tan laments as he fielded reporters’ questions at RGM’s briefing here on the rejuvenation of Malaysia's retail sector post Covid-19 pandemic.
Elaborating on RGM’s view that the current rise in consumer prices is not demand-led, he said RGM, which conducts research on the Malaysian retail sector, does not perceive the current rise in the country’s retail sales as due to revenge spending post pandemic because consumers are returning to their normal spending patterns.
Show your data and we can prove they are all wrong. Malaysia had already started normal spending even during the peak of the pandemic with stores open even with known sick workers. Only after so many of these idiots died then strict checking were carried out but spending was normal, even dine in. Of course many customers were not stupid to risk their lives during the peak of the pandemic so there appeared to the perception of abnormal spending, but online purchased were still carried out. Even now, we are still in restictions, so technically not back to normal spending.
According to him, RGM defines the phrase revenge spending as "buying everything you have not bought in the past".
“Media has said that it is revenge spending, but we have to define revenge spending, which is buying everything you have not bought in the past. We are not experiencing [the situation] that way, people are back to normal spending.
When you are so stupid in not knowing to do the analysis, of course you do not see any revenge spending even if they are right in front of you. With so many high spenders dead, the older people, total spending therefore suffer. Production capacities are still limited because physical distancing is still carried out.
“For example, in the food and beverage line, eating has its capacity and you cannot make up for what you have missed previously.
This idiot must think that people eat luxury food every meal time.
“And for the retail side, if you have missed [purchasing gifts] for the past two Christmases, will you buy three [gifts] at once?” Tan said.
Most people will buy more gifts either in number or value, simply because they have more money, except this stingy idiotic Tan.
At the time of writing on Wednesday, the ringgit weakened to 4.3955 against the US dollar as the greenback strengthened in anticipation of US interest rate hikes to fight inflation.
The exchange rate was between 4.3850 and 4.3955 so far on Wednesday.
Over the last one year, the ringgit was traded at between 4.1070 and 4.3987 against the US dollar.
Last Friday, Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) said in a statement in conjunction with the central bank’s announcement on Malaysia’s economic performance for the first quarter of 2022 that for 2022, in an environment of high input costs and improving demand, the country’s headline inflation as measured by the consumer price index is projected to average between 2.2% and 3.2%.
It does not take into account the devaluing of the RM of 10%. The impact is not immediate but sooner or later, it will catch up on total inflation.
"Underlying inflation, as measured by core inflation, is also expected to trend higher during the year, averaging between 2% [and] 3%. Several key factors are expected to partly contain upward pressure on prices, namely the existing price control measures and the continued spare capacity in the economy.
"Nonetheless, the inflation outlook remains subject to commodity price developments, arising mainly from the military conflict in Ukraine and prolonged supply-related disruptions. The outlook is also contingent on domestic policy measures on administered prices,” BNM said.
Globally, major economies such as the UK and the US have reported substantial inflation compared with a year earlier.
CNBC, quoting the UK's Office for National Statistics, reported on Wednesday (May 18) that the UK's inflation soared to a 40-year high of 9% in April 2022 from a year earlier as food and energy prices spiralled.
Because of revenge spending. Despite the shift to more ecofriendly practises, the shift is not sufficient to overcome revenge spending, so it appeared like normal spending.
"The 9% rise in the consumer price index is the highest since records began in their current form in 1989, outstripping the 8.4% annual rise posted in March 1992 and well ahead of the 7% seen in March of this year (2022)," CNBC reported.
On May 11, 2022, it was reported that the US' consumer prices grew 8.3% year-on-year (y-o-y) in April 2022 compared with the 8.5% y-o-y rise in March 2022.
"Consumer prices jumped 8.3% last month (April 2022) from 12 months earlier, the US Department of Labor said on Wednesday (May 11, 2022). That was below the 8.5% y-o-y surge in March [2022], which was the highest rate since 1981," AP reported.
At the RGM press conference on Wednesday (May 18, 2022), Tan said the weaker ringgit against the US dollar has not affected the rate of consumer spending yet.
"Retailers are enjoying better sales. Some retailers even have better sales than before the Covid-19 pandemic [which began in early 2020].
"The trend says it is good now. My only concern is how long will it last?" he said.
According to RGM's March 2022 report on the Malaysian retail sector, RGM had revised upward its 2022 Malaysia retail sales growth forecast to 6.3% from the 6% growth projection made in November 2021.
These type of people were responsible for the reckless Covid policies in the early days that led to unnecessary deaths and sufferings of their most valued customers and workers. Fortunately, mass vaccinations saved Malaysia.
Zero Covid in China and Taiwan may not be wise against Omicron, but they are proven to save lives while allowing full daily activities without any restrictions for a much longer time. Unfortunately, they had ignored mass vaccinations, which had caused more hardships during the true full lockdown, unlike the Malaysian fake lockdown.
At least, revenge spending will still be possible in China and visible because there are less deaths. Malaysians still want to deny universal economics of demand and supply.
Malaysia's retail industry sales contracted 16.3% and 2.3% in 2020 and 2021, respectively, according to RGM.
Lebih kepada kawasan di Afrika tapi Malaysia pun dalam bahaya. Puncanya pakar ekonomi rasuah. Pentingkan 9rang kaya dari yang miskin, iaitu subsidi.
Contohnya, minyak. Harga petroleum sudah naik lebih 3 kali, tapi harga petrol di Malaysia, macam masih sama saja. Baru aku balik ka Sandakan. Ertinya subsidi.
Jimat juga aku tapi ini menghancurkan ekonomi negara. Lebih baik duit subsidi di beri kepada semua rakyat seperti zaman Abdullah Badawi. Di bantah oleh orang kaya terutama sekali orang China. Mereka yang paling ramai memakai kereta mewah.
Sepatutnya menggalakkan micromobility untuk jimat wang petrol tapi terbalik pula, haramkan micromobility. Palui betul.
Hasilnya, matawang sudah jatuh, ertinya inflasi teruk. Konon, buang subsidi akan tambah inflasi, baru aku baca article dari pakar ekonomi rasuah. Pakar ekonomi jujur tidak akan membenarkan subsidi untuk mengawal inflasi, dan sudah terbukti banyak kali sudah. Kalau engkar, jadilah macam Sri Lanka, Venezuela dan Zimbabwe. Penyelesaian nya senang saja, buang wang tempatan, pakai wang asing.
Aku perhatikan, sudah habis minyak masak subsidi. Yang masih banyak, minyak makan impot. Ini sudah simptom Sri Lanka. Duit ada, barang tiada. Sama lad di Venezuela.
Berbaris berhari hari untuk dapatkan subsidi bahan makan, tapi orang tidak mahu tanam makanan sendiri, sebab barang subsidi lagi murah. Yang pelik nya, rakyat marah kerajaan kerana tidak bekal kan makanan, tapi diri sendiri tidak mahu tanam. Walaupun ubi kayu.
Bukan tiada makanan, tapi perlu bayar harga sebenar dipasaran dunia. Jadi, pekerja dan peniaga mula mencaj pakai matawang US. Sama lah dengan Pakistan rupanya.
Saya sudah terangkan cara mengatasi kenaikan harga kelapa sawit tapi itu sikit saja berbanding petrol yang sampai 300% sudah. Boleh kan atasi inflasi tanpa subsidi? Bolehkah kalau jujur dan pentingkan rakyat.
Taktik deflation ekonomi. Rakyat untung betul. 300% kali untung tapi harga petrol masih rm2 se litre. Tapi rm2 ini bernilai 1us = rm1.5, iaitu kenaikan nilai matawang rm 300%.
Malaysia mampu sebab is pengeluar petrol dan gas, tapi kesan nya besar, tapi merugikan tycoon dan orang kaya sekarang sebab itu di tolak mentah mentah.
Apa tidak, rumah akan turun nilai. Barang ekspot menjadi mahal termasuk pelancungan, sebab pelancung terpaksa bayar 3 kali ganda lebih. Konon kurang lah pelancung, tapi ini langsung tiada bukti, dan terbukti pula langsung salah di Singapura. Pelancungan Singapura lagi maju dari Malaysia, sebab nilai tinggi. Begitu juga Jepun.
Dengan kenaikan nilai RM, harga impot dan harga bunga hutang menjadi amat rendah, kurang 300%, dalam RM lah, sebab banyak hutang luar negara pakai US.
Sebab barang impot jadi murah, dalam RM lah, peralatan semua naik taraf. Hotel pun semua naik bintang dan menjadi bersih dan canggih, sebab spare part murah. Pekerja pun jadi mahir, sebab ramai dari luar negara sanggup kerja di Malaysia, bukan macam sekarang. Pekerja buruh kasar sahaja mahu kerja. Yang jadi mahir, semua lari ka Singapura.
Kos nya tinggi. Habis foreign reserve Malaysia dan pembangunan bangunan tidak boleh di buat. Habis duit negara bayar gaji pekerja dan beri wang tambahan kepada penyimpan duit RM secara tunai.
Yang rugi, yang banyak hutang. Nilai hutang di dalam negara bertambah. Nilai emas turun. Nilai kereta turun. 2nd hand lagi lah turun. Dulu beli rm60,000, sekarang jadi rm20,000 dalam sekelip mata.
Sebab itu amat membebankan ramai orang kalau nilai RM naik mendadak. Tapi yang merana, cuma orang yang suka spekulatif. Beli dan jual. Kalau kita beli untuk guna, apa rugi nya? Kereta masih boleh pakai.
Yang jujur tidak akan rugi. Yang rasuah dan penipu yang akan rugi, kalau nilai RM naik, walaupun mendadak.
Saya jujur konon tapi berhutang 9 tahun beli kereta. Rugi banyak lah kalau harga barang jatuh 300%. Sebenarnya, sesiapa yang berhutang untuk membeli barang, kurang jujur sebab belanja lebih dari kemampuan. Kalau pun konon mampu sebab gaji besar, masih tidak boleh kata mampu sebab boleh hilang kerja.
Termasuk aku lah, tapi aku buat ini sebab ekonomi Malaysia, ekonomi inflasi. Kita rugi kalau tidak berhutang.
