‘Mother of all budgets’ from ‘father of all scandals’

PM announces the ‘mother of all budgets’

Anonymous #07988903: These people just don’t get it! What goodies? The reality is that what is given now will eventually come back to haunt those who benefited, in the form of taxes and cutbacks.

Think about GST (goods and services tax), think about university funds cutback, think about hospitals cutback and others. Gullible people tend to get conned, over and over again and never learn.

God Save Us: “Mother of all budgets.” That’s rich, coming from the “father of all scandals”.

Anonymous #44199885: Nothing in Budget 2018 will structurally alter a slowing economy and move the country out of the middle-income trap.

The budget was clearly aimed at the vote bank in civil servants, GLCs (government-linked companies), retirees, senior citizens and farmers, with once again no return on ensuring every dollar spent brings back dividend in terms of increased economic activity.

The country’s debt burden will increase with the East Coast Rail Link (ECRL) and High-Speed Rail (HSR) projects. GST continues to remain and most subsidies are gone. Cost of living will continue to go up.

If Malaysians are fooled by this budget and vote for BN, there is no more hope for change.

Slumdog: No doubt about it, PM Najib Razak, the master of handouts and giveaways, has pulled the rabbit out of the hat with his feel-good 2018 Budget. Can anyone see BN losing GE14 now?

The Analyser: Poor Pakatan Harapan is left floundering because it does not have an overall view of the government of Malaysia. All they could think of was topical items and buying votes.

Harapan’s glaring omissions, like national security, education for disadvantaged children… in fact anything which plans for the future, is totally ignored.

Bad luck, Harapan, it hasn’t been very pleasant knowing of your existence. But from today, you are history.

Just A Malaysian: Analyser, it is not wrong to argue against the opposition but please stick to the arguments and present them intelligently and calmly.

If you think a debate is about slandering and personal attack, especially one that attacks the whole community or a sweeping statement on a whole group, then it is not a debate.

BN has been coming up with impressive budgetary strategies for many, many years, But, we are unable to see results. Why?

It is because in the implementation process, corruption comes in and we see money spent with no results until the next budget, with more money being thrown in again.

What we need are simple strategies that are honestly and diligently implemented. Not grand strategies that eventually find their way into the pockets of Umnoputras. Look at the school laptop programme, what happened to it?

Are our rural students more IT savvy after spending half a billion ringgit on the programme? No. But we have many richer rural Umno leaders.

RakyatNAKkebenaran: Again, projects for building houses for the police and military are awarded directly to inexperience companies, then work stop, then re-awarded to another company, then…

Anonymous 788831449650206: Malaysia has two kinds of official money. Taxes collected to be spent with Parliament approval and money from petroleum resources to be spent as the PM sees fit.

According to the US Department of Justice (DOJ), Malaysia also has unofficial money. Money misappropriated – to be spent at MO1’s pleasure.

The rakyat are in an unenviable dilemma.

Awang Top: Someone sent me this story:

“It is said that Stalin once came to a Politburo meeting with a live chicken. He started to pluck off its feathers one by one. The chicken cried in pain, blood oozing from its pores. It gave out heart-breaking cries but Stalin continued without remorse plucking feather after feather until the chicken was completely naked.

“After that, he threw the chicken on the ground and from his pockets, took out some chicken feed and started to throw it at the poor creature. It started eating and as he walked away, the chicken followed him and sat at his feet feeding off his hand.

“Stalin then told members of his party leadership: “This chicken represents the people, you must dis-empower them, brutalise them, beat them up and leave them. If you do this and then give them peanuts when they are in that helpless and desperate situation, they will blindly follow you for the rest of their life.

“They will think you are a hero forever. They will forget that it is you who brought them to that situation in the first place.”

How familiar…

Shouts of ‘kleptocracy’ ring out as Najib ends speech on fiery note

Politician: Where is the allocation for creating more jobs? For technology, education, medical sectors and investment? This is certainly a popularity-seeking budget, more suited for the kampung folk.

The intellectuals and the wise will sing praises for him but deep down inside them, they know this is a budget that signifies nothing.

Gerard Lourdesamy: Bring on GE14 and let the rakyat decide between endemic corruption and kleptocracy and a fair and just government.

After the 1MDB scandal, this is a government by the rich, for the rich and of the rich. World-class self-preservation – that’s what this joke of a budget is. Najib is playing politics with public funds. The opposition should have walked out.

Rick Teo: How embarrassing for the PM to be faced with a barrage of shouts of “kleptocracy”. Any decent fellow would have resigned in shame, but not this PM.

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