Father Christmas is Coming to Town...

Yes, Father Christmas is coming to town in Malaysia this Yuletide with huge bags of goodies for families earning below RM3000 pm,
cash gifts for schoolchildren, salary increases for all government servants, special Funds for struggling entrepreneurs, for thirtiary-level students in need pf help, for police and army personnel, for needy farmers and fishermen and even for national writers and mosques' officials.

Ho,Ho,Ho,Ho come people and get your goodies. There are some forms to fill in though which require current address, bank account number, and other personal information of applicant to be given. There will certainly be some checking to be done and the possibility that some applications will be rejected. Will that raise more problems and unhappiness than the gifts or handouts distributed? Let Father Christmas and his advisers work on that.

This coming Christmas is certainly a windfall (durian runtuh) for many. Civil servants' salary will increase from 13 - 30% out seems.
The last time there was a raise by some 12% ( I forgot when) the Ministers, their Deputies, Parliamentary Secretaries and the Parliamentarians in general got a hefty increase as well. The real percentage was never disclosed. Will it be the same this time.

And why not? The country's economy is booming and we are racing headlong to become a high income nation. Investments are coming in hopefully as heavy as the monsoon rain and tourist are visiting us in droves. That's the impression I get from following the more than lavish attitude shown and the nature of government spending with hundreds of millions spent on promoting tourism including the billions to be poured to the Langkawi Five Year Development Plan. The Iskandar Regional development plan in Johore sounds like the duck that lays the golden egg. Will the Causeway and the Gelang Patah bridge be sufficient to bring in
the business tycoons and super entreprenuers from our neighboring country, especially since KTM does not go beyond Woodland anymore. May be we have money for another bridge to facilitate the flow of goods and people, a beautiful straight one and not a croocket one anymore.

Well, all the political and economic transformation plans and agenda seem to be rolling on very smoothly with the NKRA measuring the success achieved. Progress on all key result areas seems to be on target as said by the show master YB Idris Jala while the YAB PM himself is renowned for his walk-around supervisory style. Let's hope that he sees what he wants and not just what is shown to him! It really looks like a glorious New Year is awaiting us all and, of course, a promising BN victory in GE13.

Let's be fair and say a few words for the Perikatan - claimed to be at it loosest condition right now. We see the in-fighting and the prominent stars battling each other. Dr Hassan Ali is even suggesting a possible exit, perhaps waiting for a door to open up somewhere. Promises made during GE12 don't seem to be fully met but I hear that some people are very happy in Penang. The welfare state agenda of PAS seems to be an unacceptable alternative to the Islamic State objective for Dr Hassan Ali but when the BN Chief decides to become Father Christmas this Yuletide, I wonder if the welfare idea had not been taken over by him.

Merry Christmas everyone and a cheerful windfall.