Merdeka

51 years of Merdeka celebration coincide with all sorts of sensational news and issues surrounding our beloved country. Fuel price, Permatang Pauh by-election, highly publicised sodomy charges, insinuation of involvement of politician in high places of all sorts of wrongdoings and the list never ends. I hope with all my heart that after all the dust has settled, the country will survive all these ordeals intact. There have been so much been achieved in the last 51 years that, to throw them away now would be pointless and irresponsible. Many parties are just trying to serve their own causes at the expense of the country. The rot has to stop now and I hope the good things that we have developed and achieved in the last 51 years would not be thrown away just because they are deemed obsolete without proper assessment. If things are working please don't fix it.
I came from kampung in the old felda scheme and made it to where I am today with all sorts of government programmes that I strongly believe that despite the current woes surrounding the current government, there must be something that has worked in the past. I admit there are a lot of things that need changes but we must not be overzealous in our quest irrespective of the issues. The removal of subsidy for the fuel is the case in point. It is hard for us normal joes to understand why in the longer term this move is good for the country except the obvious savings for the government coffers. I do not think I could illustrate the benefit any better unfortunately. I will try to illustrate it with an example. Fuel subsidy would make the overall cost of living expensive and at par with other developed countries. If that happens, in the longer term, employers that are looking to employ their staff in Malaysia would have no option but to offer good salaries in order to attract the best talent to their respective companies. Over the longer term there will be no option but to pay salaries for employees according to the market conditions. Of course the short term impact is definitely painful to us who are caught in the transition period. In the days of our children and grandchildren this would not be an issue anymore. Inflation is a concern to all of us I admit but believe me the people who benefit the most from this fuel subsidy is the people who need it less. My father back in kampung does feel the pinch, but he adjusted his lifestyle accordingly. Are we, the urban citizen willing to adjust accordingly? I bet the reason we make so much noise is because we are not willing to adjust our lifestyle accordingly. The government could spend the savings on a more beneficial programmes that create a longer term results.
But I digress, the reason I'm writing this is to celebrate our 51 years of Merdeka. I am from the generation that was born after our merdeka but I do feel that after globetrotting years with my current employer, there's no other place in the world that have been managed so well and the population enjoy so much development and freedom as Malaysia.... I am eternally grateful that I am born a Malaysian despite what people from all over the world say about us and despite what our own people say about us.... be proud I urge all Malaysian bacause there's no other place in the world could be better than what we have here...
My 2 cents worth of thoughts..... jumpa lagi....