AT the Budget 2025 briefing for local editors in Putrajaya on Tuesday, the prime minister was punctual as usual, shaking hands with everyone, jovial.
And why not? Since retaking the Finance Ministry portfolio two years ago (he was sacked as deputy prime minister and finance minister in 1998), the ringgit has been the region’s best performer, foreign investors have returned in droves, and inflation and unemployment have been kept low.
His war on corruption under the Madani banner is making many piss in their pants and bringing back confidence in his government’s serious reforms. The foreseeable future seems to be looking up.
When it was my turn to shake hands, he quipped: “You’ve done this many times, sudah hafal (you’ve memorised this).”
He meant that I’ve covered the annual budget as a reporter since he was DPM and finance minister back in the 1990s. But so has he. Tomorrow, Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, 77, will be tabling his third budget as prime minister. I’ve had the privilege of being part of this annual, customary pre-budget press briefing by the MoF since the mid-1980s.
Every Anwar Ibrahim budget in the 1990s – as any business reporter in those days would remember – would come attached with a glossary to help us with the BM jargons he so loved to use. Rhetorics and semantics were aplenty, too. And megaprojects.
On Tuesday, however, one came away feeling that the budget to be tabled in Parliament tomorrow will be glossed with not just handouts for the masses but, more importantly, policies and programmes that will help increase the rakyat’s income and lessen their burdens.
One for the marhaen, dare I say? A budget with a conscience?
I am not at liberty to disclose what the PM shared at Tuesday’s briefing (everything is embargoed until tomorrow). But if you think you are one of the common people, or you need some kind of help, or you’re part of the 10% of the population above 60 – there should be something to smile about.
There will be a shake-up of the government-linked corporations (GLCs), a consolidation of overlapping authorities and agencies to reduce wastage and increase efficiency, and perhaps drastic changes in the way subsidies are awarded.
With regards to the GST, for example, the PM has made it clear even before Tuesday’s briefing that the time has not come. It’s an effective and transparent tax regime, he admitted, but “my conscience says no, not now”.
My colleague, Zainul Arifin, who is propagating the return to GST in his column “The state of the nation: the case for GST, again” will be disappointed – but there’s that conscience again: the PM feels the family income threshold for Malaysians must be doubled from today’s RM1500 before he brings back GST.
That same conscience, a Treasury official said, is nudging the PM away from megaprojects such as the High Speed Rail, which many thought (and some hoped) would be announced in the budget.
“The PM wants more schools, hospitals, and universities to be built. The money that would be spent on megaprojects is better spent on these,” an aide said.
If that’s where Budget 2025 is going, I believe it will go down pretty well with the long-suffering rakyat and perhaps set this nation back on track.
Sometimes it’s the little things that we need. Taxes (and tax redemptions), incentives, subsidies, higher pay and better perks – everybody wants them. But quality of life is not defined by material terms only.
I do have a short wish list – all non-monetary – that I shared on Instagram half an hour or so before the PM met us yesterday: be kind to the animals, be generous to the common people, and give plenty back to Mother Nature.
“If I were the Prime Minister, I’d shoot those who ordered stray dogs shot, provide free education and health services to lower-income groups, and launch a campaign to grow a million trees.” – posted on Instagram by @rockybru, October 15, 2024
Which garnered these responses:
“Also, don’t forget the cycling infrastructure please.”
“If you threw in another 3 million trees, I’d help fund your political campaigns.”
“How about a retroactive citizenship amendment + cancel the three regressive amendments? That covers 50% of the vote – WOMEN.”
“Yes, cruelty to animals is a big NO.”
“And make it an offence to those who do not pay back their study loans.”
“Imagine if they shot John Wick’s dog.”
“Justice for Kopi.”
For the uninitiated, “Kopi” is the name of a “popular and friendly stray dog” in Hulu Terengganu recently shot dead by the local municipal officers.
This was not the first time the authorities shot dead stray dogs to resolve the problems of stray dogs.
Perhaps the PM should set aside a small allocation in the Budget 2025 to train and motivate municipalities to build shelters for homeless dogs and to have them neutered, vaccinated and spayed. And encourage people, including the Malay-Muslims, to adopt them. – October 17, 2024
Datuk Ahirudin Attan, better known as Rocky Bru, is the executive director of Big Boom Media which publishes Scoop and president of the National Press Club