Power Towards High Income Nation....How la?

Our beloved Prime Minister of Malaysia had finally delivered his much anticipated 2010 budget. It was claimed to be a peoples' budget, with the stated aim of elevating the people of this country to high income status....

Sure, a number of positive incentives were tabled, such as:
- reduction of personal income tax from 27% to 26% effective 2010;
- an increase of RM1,000 for personal tax rebate
- an additional RM1,000 for personal tax relief on pension fund and life insurance
- people who are self-employed are given the option to contribute to the pension fund savings at any amount monthly starting 2010, with the Government contributing further 5% to the amount of contribution;

However, the positives are mitigated by the following negatives:
- introduction of RM50 service tax on each principal credit card holder and RM25 for each supplementary credit card holder
- reintroduction of real property gains tax (RPGT) for real estate disposal, starting from 2010, with a minimum of 5% tax regardless of the duration of holding period (Again, a common Government flip-flop policy sickness has reemerged!)
- realigning the fuel subsidy scheme to make sure that it benefits the lower income group....Whatever that means!

Is there really much to shout about? Hang on a second....how are these supposed to elevate the people to become high-income nation? To make things worse, the Government has also slashed next year's targeted GDP growth to around 3%! On the other hand, Malaysia is barely a decade away from its Vision 2020 target and there's certainly little sign that the developed status objective can be achieved by then! As per my understanding, the nation will need to grow something like 7-8% per annum on average for the next decade in order to achieve that and that's a very tall order indeed!

I am sorry, I just don't see how the "high income" word can be associated in this context! It certainly won't work unless there is a radical change in the governing approach and mindset, and with principal focus on meritocracy, liberalization and enhancing competitiveness as the priority.

What's your thought on the recent national budget for 2010? I look forward to your sharing.