Share to help stimulate good governance, ensure future of people & M’sia
No News Is Bad News
Tiny Singapore continues to shame kleptocrat Malaysia
KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 17, 2024: Remember the time when S$1=RM1? The Singapore dollar remained at par with the Ringgit from Aug 9, 1965 (when she separated from Malaysia to become an independent sovereign state) until 1973.
From nothing and a country with zero natural resources, it took Singapore only eight years to start overtaking the Ringgit (then dollar)’s value.
Today, about two decades (or 20 years) after, it is S$1=RM3.55!!!
As the devastating financial effects of the Coronavirus (Covid-19) fade, Singapore yesterday tabled a “small surplus” (but not to Malaysia) Budget 2024.
But Malaysia is struggling with a RM1.5 trillion national debt economy that features decades of growing corruption by kleptocrats (or financial thieves).
No News Is Bad News reproduces below a news report on Singapore’s Budget 2024:
Singapore tables 2024 budget with small surplus
Friday, 16 Feb 2024
9:32 PM MYT
SINGAPORE: Singapore is budgeting for a "small surplus” of S$0.8 billion (S$1=RM3.55) for the financial year 2024, or 0.1 per cent of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP), which is essentially a balanced fiscal position, said Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Lawrence Wong.
"The overall stance is appropriate, as we are providing targeted support for households and businesses, even as the economy is projected to operate at around potential,” he said when delivering the 2024 Budget Statement today in Parliament.
According to an annex released to the media, the operating revenue for 2024 is estimated at S$108.64 billion.
The estimated total expenditure is S$111.76 billion, made up of operating expenditure of S$88.43 billion and development expenditure of S$23.33 billion.
For the financial year 2023, Wong said the country’s revenue collections were better than expected, mainly due to higher corporate income tax collections.
"Accounting for both our revenue upside and higher spending, we expect to end the financial year 2023 with a deficit of S$3.6 billion, or 0.5 per cent of GDP,” he said.
For 2024, Wong said the outlook is mixed.
"Growth in the major economies is expected to be resilient. But geopolitical risks continue to loom large. Wars are raging in Europe and the Middle East.
"These conflicts can escalate dangerously, leading to disruptions in global energy markets and supply chains,” he warned.
Fortunately, Wong said there are some upsides.
"Global inflationary pressures are expected to recede further. This provides some room for the major central banks to adopt more accommodative stances, which may ease financial conditions and support demand.
"The global electronics industry is projected to recover. This will bolster the growth of many regional economies, including our key trading partners,” he added.
Wong said Asia continues to be a key driver of global growth, with a wider spread of opportunities, not just in China, but also in India and many parts of Southeast Asia.
"On the whole, we are cautiously optimistic that 2024 will be a better year. Besides lower inflation, we expect higher GDP growth at 1.0 to 3.0 per cent,” he said.
According to him, Budget 2024 is about taking five concrete steps to build their shared future together.
They are to tackle immediate challenges for households and businesses; pursue better growth and jobs, equip the workers for life; create more paths for equality and mobility; provide more assurance for families and seniors; and forge a stronger and more united nation.
Under the fifth step, Wong set up a Future Energy Fund with an initial injection of S$5 billion.
"This will give us the confidence to invest in good time, put us in a better position to move quickly on critical infrastructure, and enhance our security in clean energy,” he said.
"We need to address an emerging security challenge - energy and the transition to cleaner fuels.
"In the near to medium term, natural gas, which currently generates almost all of our electricity, will remain critical.
"Our natural gas supplies come through pipelines from Indonesia and Malaysia, and in the form of liquefied natural gas from a range of sources,” said the deputy prime minister.
Wong noted that natural gas is the cleanest of fossil fuels, but "we will not be able to achieve net zero emissions if we continue to rely solely on natural gas.”
"Unfortunately, we do not have many options for clean energy - we have no tidal power, no wind power, and not enough land for the mass deployment of solar,” he said, adding that one way is to import low-carbon electricity.
However, he said, there is a limit to importing electricity without compromising security.
"So we will need other options to decarbonise the rest of our energy supply. That is why we are actively exploring other options,” he said.
Wong also gave notice that "further out in the future, we do not rule out nuclear power.”
According to him, nuclear technologies are advancing rapidly with smaller, safer, and more fuel-efficient designs.
"We will build up our capabilities so that we can critically assess the evolving technologies in this space and decide on the feasibility of nuclear deployment one day in the future,” he added. - Bernama
Thursday 15 February 2024
Investors dumping the Ringgit? Malaysia going bankrupt?
Share to help stimulate good governance, ensure future of people & M’sia
No News Is Bad News
For image info, go to https://cilisos.my/will-malaysia-go-bankrupt-soon-ah-we-con9firmed-with-an-expert/
Investors fleeing, dumping the Ringgit? Malaysia going bankrupt?
KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 16, 2024: Suspected CIA-backed political news portal Malaysia Chronicle has posted a detailed and damning report on Malaysia’s socio-economic woes.
The report, penned by Finance Twitter, dwells in detail why Malaysia is heading towards bankruptcy with a ballooning RM1.5 trillion national debt economy fuelled by a corrupt 1.7 million bloated civil service.
No News Is Bad News reproduces below the report and the Ringgit depreciating against the Singapore Dollar::
DUMP THE RINGGIT - FEARING HIS BLATANT LACK OF POLITICAL WILL TO FIX THE ECONOMY - FOR FEAR OF LOSING HIS JOB & EVEN MORE MALAY VOTES
posted by politics now! on February 15, 2024
LIES & TIME-BOMBS THAT 'WEAKEST PM' ANWAR CAN NO LONGER HIDE - MALAYSIA MOVES ANOTHER STEP CLOSER TO BANKRUPTCY - EVEN MULLS SCRAPPING PENSIONS AS INVESTORS CONTINUE TO DUMP THE RINGGIT - FEARING HIS BLATANT LACK OF POLITICAL WILL TO FIX THE ECONOMY - FOR FEAR OF LOSING HIS JOB & EVEN MORE MALAY VOTES
Scrapping Pension To Avoid Bankruptcy – Paying The Price For 60 Years Of Corruption & Racist Policies
Malaysia is in financial deep shit, but most of its 33 million populations especially the largest ethnic group – Malay – doesn’t realize it. The fact that 80% of the Malay voters chose Perikatan Nasional, a coalition comprising Malay nationalist Bersatu and PAS Islamist parties that subscribe to radicalization and extremism, speaks volumes about the ignorance of the country’s problems.
Look no further than the depreciation of Malaysian Ringgit against not only the U.S. dollar, but also against neighbouring Singapore and even the Philippines and Thailand currencies in the region. The local currency is trading dangerously at RM4.78 against the greenback, and hit a fresh historical low of 3.5518 against the Singapore dollar about a week ago.
It doesn’t matter whether MIDF Research incorrectly projected that the Ringgit will reach RM4.00 against the U.S. dollar by end 2023. It also doesn’t matter whether the central bank – Bank Negara Malaysia – insisted that the weakness in the local currency “does not reflect economic fundamentals”. And it certainly doesn’t matter whether PM Anwar Ibrahim blames external factors or not.
Malaysia Ringgit - Toilet Paper
The more half-past-six analysts and authorities give lame excuses in denial, the more foreign investors will avoid the country like a plague. It’s both amazing and laughable they still think that investors were stupid. Even if Anwar has the political will to reform the ailing country, which he does not, it was too late as the country is plunged into a mountain of RM1.5 trillion national debts.
When the ruling party Barisan Nasional was finally ousted from power in the May 2018 General Election after having ruled for 61 years since independence in 1957, the national coffers were already running dry due to massive corruption. Ironically, Mahathir Mohamad, the “Father of Corruption” who had ruled for 22 years (1981-2003) discovered that Malaysia had raked RM1 trillion when he became premier again in 2018.
But Mahathir would rather hand over the power to his trusted lieutenant Muhyiddin Yassin than to Anwar Ibrahim as promised, leading to the clueless and incompetent backdoor government of Muhyiddin (and subsequently “turtle egg” Ismail Sabri) plundering even more national treasures. By the time Anwar was installed as the 10th Prime Minister, the national debts had ballooned to RM1.5 trillion from RM1 trillion.
Muhyiddin Yassin - London Money Laundering
The sudden jump in debt was largely due to the corruption and money laundering in the RM600 billion Covid scandal during Muhyiddin’s short 17-month regime, where the country was locked down under the pretext of fighting Covid and the Parliament was shut down to prevent expenditure from being scrutinized. It was a dark age of incompetence, corruption, policy flip-flops, Coronavirus mishandling and economic mismanagement.
Even though ex-Prime Minister Najib Razak had been toppled and jailed, the crook has done so much damage that not only the country had accumulated RM1 trillion in debt, but his 1MDB scandal saw US$4.5 billion stolen and the Malaysian government has to assume US$7.8 billion (RM37 billion) in outstanding debts – including 30-year bonds due in 2039.
Yet, in what appeared to be elites protecting crooks, the previous King Sultan Abdullah of Pahang had awarded Najib with a 50% discount of his original 12-year jail term and slashed his fine of RM210 million by 75%. The despicable royal pardon, which PM Anwar cowardly and shamelessly defended as fair, has spooked investors, leading to the Ringgit dumping.
If you think Malaysia isn’t on the right track to bankruptcy, think again. Adding fuel to the bankruptcy factors is the pension scheme, which is a sensitive issue where the majority of the country’s 1.7 million civil servants are Malay. While 71% of pensioners currently are Malay, 13% are Chinese and 7.8% Indians. The fact that Anwar government is even discussing it is the clearest proof that the country is in a dire state.
The country has one of the most bloated civil services in the world – one out of every 19 Malaysians is a civil servant. That’s 3 times more than Singapore in terms of the civil servants ratio to the population. Crucially, pension payouts have spiked in the last 15 years and are projected to grow. Pension payments amounted to RM11.5 billion in 2010, but nearly tripled to RM31 billion last year.
In 2040, the government would have to spend a jaw-dropping RM120 billion on pension alone. In the Budget 2024, the government spending on emoluments – wages for civil servants – would be a staggering RM95.64 billion, representing 24.29% of total budget of RM394 billion. It is the largest expenses. The combined expenditure of wages and pension would be a whopping RM128 billion – 32.5% of the total budget.
Malaysia Pensioner
Infamous for inefficiency, incompetence, unproductive and arrogance, the huge pool of government servants contribute to another problem. In 2010, Cuepacs president Omar Osman revealed that a total of 418,200 or 41% of the total number of civil servants in the country was suspected of being involved in corruption. Yet, the government continues to reward them with cash to appease the vote bank.
Yes, the whole purpose of the hiring civil servants, even though they were not needed, was to guarantee the survival of the previous Barisan Nasional ruling government. The civil service workforce has increased from 1.24 million in 2010 to current 1.7 million, leading to 590,000 retirees in 2010, before jumping to 853,000 in 2020 and is projected to skyrocket to 936,000 this year.
From the beginning, the ethnic Malays have been brainwashed and tricked that only the United Malays National Organization (UMNO), of which Mahathir had ruled one-third of the 60 years since the independence, could protect them from “non-existence” threat of non-Malays. It was part of “Ketuanan Melayu”, an ideology of Malay supremacy espoused by UMNO to cling to power.
Malaysia General Election - Malay Voters
Of course, it was nothing but a scam to enrich Malay elites like Mahathir, Najib, Muhyiddin, Sabri and their cronies and families. The same racist and discrimination policy that gave birth to NEP (New Economic Policy) and Vision 2020, which were never meant to be achieved, was also responsible for brain drain in the form of hundreds of thousands of technical skills went through a large scale migration to other countries.
To prove that the Malay nationalist party was the protector of the Malays, the government had to employ unemployable Malay graduates, who were produced at industrial scale by rigging the education system. For example, at least 90,000 of the 373,974 candidates who sat for the Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) examination in 2022 – equivalent to “O” Level – had failed the Mathematics paper.
According to some teachers who used to mark SPM exam papers, the passing score could be as low as 20%, especially for subjects like Mathematics and Science in order to make students of certain ethnic happy. Even then, some 30,000 candidates who were registered did not sit for the SPM. It’s not surprising that the system produces unemployable graduates, and graduates with poor command in English.
To paint a picture of Malay dominance in civil services, and to discourage non-Malay from the sector, the government prioritizes Malays in terms of recognition and promotion. The racial discrimination has become so bad that the Chinese community made up less than 2% of the government service employees today. It’s not entirely true that Chinese despise civil servants due to lower salary.
True, the civil service’s pay was considered low compared to the private sector. However, government employees enjoy pension, which entitles spouses and children under the age of 21 to benefits should a civil servant on the scheme die while in service. In actuality, civil servants currently have a choice between the pension scheme and the EPF (Employers Provident Fund ).
Introduced in 1951, the EPF compulsory retirement savings scheme for private sector workers requires employees to contribute 11% of their salaries to their EPF accounts. Employers, on the other hand, contribute the equivalent of 13% of the salaries of employees earning RM5,000 and below, and 12% if wages are above RM5,000. Workers may fully withdraw from the EPF from the age of 55.
EPF KWSP - Retirement Savings Scheme - Building
For obvious reason, the pension option is more attractive and lucrative, especially when the life expectancy of Malaysians has increased from an average of 71.2 years in 1991 to 74.8 years in 2023. Unlike the private sector, civil servants do not need to chip in to the pension fund as the government contributes 5% while statutory bodies, local authorities and agencies contribute 17.5% to KWAP monthly.
The KWAP (Retirement Fund Inc.) is the same pension fund which ex-PM Najib and his partner-in-crime Jho Low had stolen from when Najib abused his power as finance minister to instruct KWAP to loan RM4 billion to SRC International Sdn Bhd (a subsidiary of 1MDB). After the loan was disbursed in 2011 and 2012, the money was siphoned out to Switzerland instead.
To add salt to injury, the KWAP has been badly managed. Its gross investment income in 2021 was merely RM6.33 billion – insufficient to pay the total pensions and gratuities that year which amounted to RM29.1 billion. Meaning taxpayers, including those working in the private sector, were subsidizing the pensioners. And some extremist would-be Malay pensioners have the cheek to mock Chinese taxpayers as second-class citizens.
1MDB Scandal - Money Trail From SRC Into Ex-PM Najib Razak Accounts - April 30, 2019
There’s a catch though. Civil servants need to serve at least 10 years to qualify for the pension, upon which they would get a pension of 20% of their last-drawn salary. The lowest monthly pension amount for at least 25 years’ service is RM1,000, while the highest amount is 60% of last-drawn salary for civil servants who have served for 30 years. The best part is the pension scheme also provides a gratuity payment.
The government is trapped in a Catch-22 situation as the old game to buy Malay votes through discrimination government jobs has come back to haunt it. It can’t abolish the pension schemes without increasing salaries substantially to entice civil servants to choose EPF as their retirement fund. However, by doing so, the government will be burning a bigger hole in the RM1.5 trillion debts as it needs to borrow more to finance its budget.
On the other hand, if it does not start trimming the bloated civil service, the explosive combined expenditure of pension and wages will continue to climb till the government eventually goes bust. It didn’t help that the salary schemes of civil servants have been revised on several occasions to pacify the critical Malay voters as inflation and cost of living hit the roof.
The government can start by halting new recruitment. However, the community that has been indoctrinated with the belief that the civil service was their birthright would find it tough to seek employment in the competitive private sector after decades of pampering them with a deplorable education system, leaving them to require a lifelong crutches to get by.
Regardless whether the government will choose to borrow more or to impose higher taxes to fund the pension scheme, a time bomb which it built in the first place, investors were not optimistic that the government could defuse the problem. After all, Anwar Ibrahim admits that since the time when he was the deputy prime minister in the 1990s, the government has chosen to kick the can down the road over the issue of pensions.
Written by Finance Twitter
Politics Now!
S$1 to RM3.5507: S'pore dollar appreciates further against M'sia ringgit
The previous record was set on Feb. 2, 2024.
Khine Zin Htet | 
February 15, 2024, 05:28 PM
24 Feb 24, 09:30AM - 25 Feb 24, 05:00PM
The Singapore dollar hit a historic high of S$1 to RM3.5507 against the Malaysia ringgit on Wednesday, Feb. 14, 2024.
It also hit RM3.5505 on the same day.
The previous record was S$1 to RM3.5418 on Feb. 2.
The Singapore dollar has been appreciating against the ringgit for the past year and around 3.97 per cent in the past six months alone.
.png)
Photo from Google
Holders of ringgit, who exchanged the currency for Singapore dollars six months ago and held it since, would have achieved a better yield than fixed deposit rates in Malaysia.
The Singapore dollar has appreciated about 60 per cent in the last 20 years when S$1 was equivalent to RM2.24.
Top photo from Google
No comments:
Post a Comment