Today I receive an illustration from a friend. Have any of you ever wounder how picture speak for itself? You decide. Well, you can find....

Sarawak My Rich State?

1. The federal government has announced the intention to make Malaysia a high income economy. I wonder this concur with other Malaysian state government’s political strategy.
2. What comes with a higher income economy should be financial freedom. If majority of the population are wage earner, would high income economy mean anything to them.
3. If Sarawakian were genuinely encourage joining the fray in achieving a high income economy someday, what happen to the future of the government of the day who have only experience leading wage earner society. Generally, in a high income society, cost of living would increase as the state attains the high income economy standing. The rise in income may not increase the purchasing power of the wage earner.
4. In Sarawak, nearly all bumiputera are either servant to the government or servants in private establishments. Surprisingly many Sarawakians do extremely well outside the state; these include a number of its leaders.
5. This will mean that the people will for the time being lived below their means and stay well behave that way while help is on the way. If there is to be an increase in income, it must be carefully planned so that it would result in increases of purchasing power and not inflation.
6. Among other thing we can consider is to increase sustainable income through increase in efficiencies. We can increase business productivity via efficiencies by acquiring superior techniques and technologies and set up our own companies to produce our very own high technology products. Too bad, we seem to be a contrarian, we adopted the opposite strategy by inviting foreign investors to set up labor intensive industries in SCORE, example, Aluminum smelting, Glass sheets manufacturing, steel milling etc. Obviously these industries will pay low wages, but big money for the foreigners.
7. Beside that, we may also think about inviting successful Sarawak owned companies that had gained the skills and business acumens overseas to help develop their home turf. The Government should persuade these Sarawakian owned enterprises to branch back home and at the same time develop successful local companies to go global. This means better income for our people and better wages for the Sarawak people.

Sarawak Power Monopoly

1. Unchecked high electricity tariffs are partly attributed to the monopoly enjoyed by the electricity generation and supply company Sarawak Energy Berhad (SESCO). SESCO has been the only electricity supply company in Sarawak since independence on September 1963. There has been a monopoly in electricity supply for unknown reasons.
2. In the recent times, Independent Power Producers (IPP) a power generation company known as Sejingkat Coal Power Plant and Sarawak Power Generation in Sarawak was incorporated to generate and supply electricity for distribution by the SESCO. Lack of competition in the electricity generation and supply sector is blamed for inefficiency and high costs of energy in the state. As a result of this, many individuals complain of expensive charges.
3. The cost of electricity generation and supply is made worse by the over-dependence on Diesel as the main source of energy. Diesel is world price dependent and the unpredictable price change has made the use of Diesel unreliable. I foresee, high electricity tariffs of electricity supply as an important factor that may contributes to BN performance for the forthcoming Sarawak state election.
4. As we are well aware, our nation current debt standing at 54% of our GDP or RM362 billion, it is definitely at a risky level. To address this concern, the government we voted in decided to reduce subsidies. Well, this is acceptable; however this has not been the case in the electricity supply sector. Subsidies given to Independent Power Producers (IPP) in Malaysia are worth RM13 billion a year and it is still there. In order to reduce burden to the people, federal governments could consider providing subsidies to SESCO instead to the IPP in order to make the cost of electricity for Sarawakian more affordable particularly for the poor. I believe, the federal government have provided the same subsidy to Sabah and why not Sarawak.
5. Alternatively, removing monopoly on power generation and supply, by allowing many companies to invest in the power sector and diversifying sources of energy could probably remove unchecked high electricity tariffs and hence increase efficiency. This could make the service reliable, accessible and affordable to many people particularly the poor and hence reduce over-dependence on gas as the only source of energy. In order to do this, political will and participation and support from different stakeholders are essential.
6. In sum, we should look at the matter of national debt holistically and not just on subsidies.