The score card was red, much like Hari Muafakat which they had in schools last saturday, Pak Lah presented his report card to the cabinet. It always sounds good when you have to report yourself, your own score. You can make yourself sound nice but the rakyat have made their report (of you) very clear.

Reading through the points highlighted in the Malaysiakini report, I cannot stop myself from chuckling at some of the most vague statements ever.

Malaysiakini reported his words:

"Jelaslah bahawa pencapaian dalam tempoh masa pelaksanaan RMK9 setakat ini bukan hanya terbatas kepada perancangan mahupun retorik semata-mata, tetapi terjelma dalam pencapaian yang hakiki," katanya.

Source: Malaysiakini

Menaikkan kualiti hidup rakyat melalui peningkatan pendapatan per kapita daripada RM18,840 pada tahun 2005 kepada RM23,066 pada 2007.

Yup, government servants had a pay rise, 10% of their basic salary in 2007 hence no year-end bonus for that year. Increase earnings per capita should mean that the average salary earner has more buying power. Buying power means that the money would be pump back into the countries economy thus making us wealthier. We saw this in 1997, when Tun Mahathir initiated mega-projects in order to push the economy along. Get the contractors to buy, get the workers to work and money starts flowing within the system. But with the recent fuel price hike (which the BN MPs endorsed) our buying power has drop to zilch. Would I now spend money when the cost of products is high? Would I eat out? Would I (dare) go on vacation ala Cuti-cuti Malaysia? The banks should be reeling in pain because people are keeping their money in their accounts and making money from interest.

LOW PURCHASING POWER + HIGH PRICE GOODS/SERVICE = LOW QUALITY OF LIFE

It may have looked good for 2007 but it's the pits for 2008.

Pengurangan defisit fiskal negara dari 3.6 peratus daripada Keluaran Dalam Negara Kasar (KDNK) pada 2005, kepada 3.2 peratus pada 2007.

Yup, they reduced government spending by killing off subsidies to fuel and terminating mega-projects. Does corruption fall under governmental deficits? Because I believe Pak Lah mentioned the need to eradicate corruption in 2004. Now, that would seriously bring the deficit figure down drastically because the government does not have to SPEND to bail out cronies or family-owned-consortiums.

Meneroka sumber pertumbuhan baru dan meningkatkan produktiviti pekerja.

Really? New growth areas? So Pak Lah reverted the countries push from ICT to Agriculture. New? It's back to the early days of independence or pre-war Malaya, when Malaya was well known for its natural resources. Actually, if we had the drive we could have imitated Taiwan's success in turning itself into one of the worlds biggest exporters of electronics but I think we are more content on planting coconuts.


Hampir 68,000 orang usahawan baru dilatih.

In two (2) years of RMK9 you only manage a number less than 100K? I was expecting more, my bad - wishful thinking goes nowhere.


kadar kemiskinan keseluruhan dikurangkan dari 5.7 peratus pada 2004 kepada 3.6 peratus pada 2007

Expect to see more people joining the poor listing this year.

Memperluas jaringan jalanraya ke kawasan luar bandar.

Tell that to the folks in Sabah and Sarawak. The East Malaysian money is fueling Semenanjung growth and how much of that gets pumped back to East Malaysia?

Looking at his list of "I did good", I also want to know about the failures. Were their any failures? Or are we like the Egyptians of old who only listed down their success stories and blacked out their failures. Under the RMK9 was the judiciary upgraded? Under RMK9, did our police force become better law enforcers? Under RMK9, did our election commission stand independent?

Did Pak Lah report on this? Report Cards are suppose to also list your short-comings and ways to improve them and we do not write our own report cards. So if the rakyat had a chance to write comments in Pak Lah's report card, I wonder what they will say?