A PETRONAS FOUNDATION, ANYONE?

Last night, I caught up with an iron works proprietor-friend, semi-retired as he has passed the baton to his eldest son, and our conversation turned to the state of te country’s economy. Not only he was complaining of difficulty of advancing his business, he conveyed the news that many of his business associates reported that “things are slowing down” a lot the past six months.

This recalls for Desiderata another work colleague who runs a financial portal (klsetracker.com) who just returned from a business trip from up north. Even to close one contract o about RM20,000 with a listed company who definitely has need for his company’s data and information-based services, it was so difficult to progress the deal after several rounds of meetings.

Further bad news reported by this mGf who constantly updates me on business and economy matters, said a large company in Ipoh had just retrenched one-third of its workforce.

“I’m afraid to report the forecast for the economy is not good. It appears we are heading for a downturn worse off than the 1997/98 financial crisis.”


I don’t want to sound “alarmist”, but has the Government been adopting the right economic measures to meet a fast globalising world?

It’s sad, and alarming, to witness the recent PWTC stage crowded for a few days with UMNO politicians pushing issues of the 1970s and 80s, and 90s – and self-serving interests. How then do outsiders like me watching the acts on stage of delegates proposing that the APs be handed out to each UMNO division, plucking out from the present “concentrated in a few hands” to political branches. How do you reconcile TWO WRONGS -- does it ake it any RIGHT?

How do the rest of Malaysians watching as spectators have any confidence when the so-called domiant party of the ruling coalition that It’s Okay to continue the acts of Robber-Baronry, moving rent-collection from some tycoons’ coffers to pmore politicians’ pockets? Are they totalling blind or deaf to the cries of helplessness and laments of the common folks outof the Great Hall?

I don’t have confidence when there was hardly mention of any speakers touching on the effects of globalization, how it affects the nation’s automotive policy; of the threats from new giants like China and India,or even the removal of the Ringgit-USD peg, and also the Chinese yuan-USD peg at the same time. With these ill-informed actors on the PWTC stage seeing no further than their two-inch noses and the AP dollars, an NEP or re-defined one spells doom for a country now caught up with challenging times and external forces, but the majority of politicians' eyes are still focused around Putrajaya.

Nobody debated the continuing consumer goods'-price-in tandem with-petrol price increases – two rounds preceding the UMNO General Assembly – how the poor hawkers, rubber tappers or small-and-medium enterprises are hit badly, again and again, and the lower end market consumers, which must mean about 90 per cent of the public. (We can forget the upper market consumers who can afford to take annual family holidays overseas, but the trouble is that likely this segment of people are also pulling a lot of puppet strings of the power-brokers present on the PWTC stage.)

Back to mGf the iron works contractor – he wondered aloud how those rural folks are able to cope with each round of price increases that never fail to follow every petrol price increase. Yes, now the lorry and bus transport operators are already shouting for price adjustments upwards – so what Voice has the depressed PublicJoe?

MGf recalled seeing pitiful pictures carried in the media, especially from Sabah and Sarawak, showing schoolchildren braving the rickety bridges to reach school, every day risking their young lives.

Does any of the politicians care? Yes, Pak Lah does, I read daily of his assurances, but does his exhortations translate into actionable programmes?

MGF suggest maybe PETRONAS – the national oil corporation – can do more. One idea which he proposed – and Desiderata has similarly written via this Blog – is that it should be behaving as a trust organisation holding the national resource in trust on the Rakyat’s behalf, and using the riches and benefits accruing to really help the ordinary man-in-the-kampong and village.

It’s what I have been shouting here: THINK NEEDS, NOT RACE.

Maybe Petronas need not think of raising its oil subsidies. It can set up a PETRONAS FOUNDATION to do real, meaningful philantrophy.

Amazing Grace

The richest man in the world, BILL GATES, And his wife, have set up a Gates Foundation through which they plough back BILLIONS of the company’s earnings to help the peoples throughout the global village. That’s what is called CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY.

In the last financial year ended March 2005, Petronas reported an after-tax profit of RM35.5BILLION. How about for a start, take out 10 percent – ie. RM3.55BILLION - to kickstart the Petronas Foundation?

Emulating the once-functioning Sabah Foundation, the Petronas Foundation can give out an annual dividend of RM2,000 to “poor” households – perhaps, those earning less than RM1,00 per month with one or two breadwinners? – and raising it to RM3,000 for those with less than RM700 per month, and RM4,000 for those earning less than RM500 per month?

Even the Government civil servants whose take-home salary is less than RM1,000 per months should be similarly entitled, this in the form of an annual bonus on top of the normal bonus declared occasionally.

Adopting this modus operandi, the nation’s oil resources are used to help those the maimum who need it most, and in a declining scale those slightly better off, with no financial assistance to those who are “deemed to have arrived” in the Malaysian society. (This is broadly defined as those whose earnings per month exceed RM5,000 who can afford an annual local holiday; well, for those eraing RM10,000 and above, they can take care of themselves…)

Let’s not squander our nation’s resources creating BILLIONAIRES or INSTANT MILLIONAIRES. (Digresssing a little, an "instant billionaire" of the 1997/98 era who got into trouble is now aspiring to become a second echelon leader in one major BN component party -- no prize for guessing right! I mention this because Desi suffers more than just PWTC stage fright!):( The trouble our economy is in danger is because many of these ill-gotten Billions have found their way to Swiss bank unnumbered accounts. It’s only my guess, an educated guess.If only these Billions could be circulated within the country, then there won't be this malaise befalling the roadside hawker, and the average businessmen trying hard to earn an honest living -- through blood, sweat and tears, not via rent-collection!


One proposal to the government which it should immediately implement is to do away with the divisive highly practice of DIFFERENTIATED HOUSE PRICING. Why do you still need to offer 6-15 per cent discounts to people – Bumiputera or non-Bumiputeara who can afford to buy houses above RM150,000?

Surely if you can buy a RM300,000 bungalow, you should NOT receive any financial advantage anymore, because you are DEEMED TO HAVE MADE IT, fellow Malaysians? And that’s a rhetorical question – because I had at an earlier occasuion received a rebuttal that as his pay is only RM10,000 a month, he should still receive that 10per cent discount. To go to the United States or Europe for a vacation? Hey, there are some Malaysian brother snd sisters out there in the kampong or village just living on RM500 a month, sacrificing electrity for oil lamps, or even their children’s schooling so the child can controibute an extra RM3 a day to put food on the table.

It’s better to plough back these “discounted” amounts to subsidise low-cost or free housing. Regardless of race, creed, gender or region. Remember, Malaysia does not comprise Peninsular Malaysia alone, there’s Sabah and Sarawak too!


Malaysia has been described as a "Lucky Country" -- blessed with many valuable natural resources, with new petroleum discoveries buffering many of the nation's economic downturns. But we must also utilise these resources properly and meaningly.
Pak Lah may not want to iuncrease the oil subsidies, but how do you expect transport opearors not to raise prices when the pum prices are raised so often -- three times within the last 12 months! Who is there to lend the less well-off, now already struggling to get three square meals a day -- to cope with the inevitable price inflation.

Yes, by GOD'sGRACE, we are truly blessed. But do we have gracefully responsible stewardship of the nation's riches? That's the question -- to be accountable, or not to be, THat's not just Pak Lah's dilemma. It is every responsible Malaysian's dilemma.


PS: As I write this, I keep listening to THE AMAZING GRACE to keep my ranting in low keys, and low decibels, and of course, the spirits up, despite the haze and the kopi-o which just went up by another 10sen this morning at the central market.

Anyone supporting Desi with this suggestion to Petronas to initiate a Truly Malaysian Charity Act at our own doorstep to benefit All Malaysians in need, regardless of race, gender and creed?