Maybe reality could be or should be

“Ringgggggggg”, the alarm signalled the start of a brand new day.

After a good stretch, you head towards the bathroom. It’s a big bathroom, with hotel-like big mirrors and above average quality fixture. After washing-up, you made your way to a walk-in wardrobe to select your outfit for the day. Yes, a big bathroom and a walk-in wardrobe, you can afford one.

You then made your way downstairs for a good breakfast, prepared by your housekeeper. Sipping the last drop of coffee, you made your way to your car.

Car selection was a dilemma. Besides the BMW 3-series that you have, the brand new Proton Mega was delivered last Saturday. Mega is the 2.8 litre engine luxury model under Proton which won the Asian Car-Of-The-Year award, beating the likes of Honda and Toyota. You bought it for RM48,888. You decided to try your new toy today.

The roads were relatively clear, as usual. On the way, you saw the latest model of high-speed train being put to service. If not because you wanted to try out your new car, you might have taken the train too. After all, the local train system is now one of the best in South East Asia.

There were also no motorbikes on the road. Almost all Malaysians can afford a car now. Riding bikes is now a weekend activity. Mat-rempit is a thing of the past.

Coming out of the highway, you drove past the barrier-less e-tag lane. Toll charges were automatically deducted from your e-tag, which you placed near the windscreen. You don’t have to worry about e-tag theft. In fact, it has been months since the last crime was reported.

As you got into your office, you checked your latest payslip as you just got promoted to the role of manager. RM33,000… that’s accurate, your latest salary. That’s a fair increase from your previous role as a senior executive of RM25,000.

Oh yes, ever since the massive clean-up in national governance, liberalisation of the economy and accountable spending of national expenditure, there have been a massive inflow of foreign direct investments and economic development. Malaysia is now ahead of Hong Kong and Singapore in terms of professional and financial services. This led to a huge boost to income-per-capita of all Malaysians. Hence, an executive earning RM25,000 a month is a norm.

As a reward to yourself for this hard earned promotion, you planned to go for a holiday. You paused to ponder which of your friends overseas could accommodate you. Unfortunately, you couldn’t think of anyone. Ever since the economic revelation, all of your friends have returned from abroad.

And so you started to check out some of the hotels’ rate. You have not been to Hawaii and so, you checked out this resort in that wonderful beach paradise. It cost USD200 a night, which translated to be about RM280 a night. With proper utilisation of resource, better governance and improvement to practically everything, the exchange rate is now RM1.40 to 1 USD. Ohh… it was also RM0.77 to 1 SGD. How about that!

Having finalised your accommodation, you went on to book your flight. The price in the website showed RM3,500 and that was what you have to pay. Airport tax is no longer relevant because the govt has exempted all Malaysians from paying airport tax.

After all the logistics were settled… you then commenced your day at work with a big smile, looking forward to your wonderful holiday…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…

Sounds like a fairytale, isn’t it?

The Malaysian Mirror made reference to the Global Corruption Report which states that Malaysia bribe money amounts to USD40b a year. That’s USD40,000,000,000 or RM140,000,000,000 a year!

Assuming corruption started 15 years ago (which is an understatement), simple mathematics without taking into consideration time value of money means RM2.1 trillion, or more specifically RM2,100,000,000,000 was wasted as corruption money.

Imagine that amount of money together with wastages from things like PKFZ or teh-tarik-space-tourist or whatever not being put to good use. Imagine that. Oh, ya’ know what? You don’t have to imagine much. Because the fairytale story above is exactly what will happen if all those money have been put to good use.


1 year ago… And you think they have no life

2 years go…. Metamorphosis of slaves… An erotic lunch and a traumatic locker experience