From
my understanding, to apply to Malaysia fiscal policy, Malaysia is indeed
practicing is welfare capitalism state. Malaysia have been subsidizing the need
of the people on the basis of welfare example, in sugar, petrol, rice and
other. The motions were strengthened by the Prime Minister , by mentioning that
“Barisan Nasional have long applied
the concept of the welfare state. Why Pas just think about it now?”[i].
The issues arose in the time where PAS are shifting their mission of forming an
Islamic state to form a welfare state. However the statement was denied by
Najib itself that Malaysia is going to implement welfare state policy because
according to him, Malaysia will be into economic disaster. However, by ignoring
the political flip flopping, I strongly believe that Malaysia is already in the
phase of transition of welfare reform.
Currently,
the government was subsidizing and controlling 20 crucial items on market in
ensuring the price is affordable to the people such as sugar, flour, petrol Ron
97, cooking gas, cooking oil and other. Government also subsidise 97 percent of
operating health care service in the country.
Welfare of Malaysia
Education
According
to UNDP 92.5 % of Malaysian are educated citizen. With only 29 million of people Malaysia share
0.56% of total GDP of the world by
comparison that Indonesia with 244.2 million people only share 1.43% of world
total GDP. By ratio human capital in
Malaysia are 3.17 times more productive than Indonesia. It indicates that our
human capitals are efficient and outstanding. All of these facts signify that
Malaysia has a strong economic foundation and ready for free trade gradually
for the years to come. Currently, the education from primary school to
secondary is free. In fact, the current allocation of government towards
education is 21% of the GDP. The amount was approximately RM 38. 7 billion,
which is among the highest in national budget 2012. Furthermore RM 12. 7 billion of that were allocated for
Minister of higher education. The allocations were planning to transform
Malaysia education. Furthermore, one of the National Key Result Area (NKRA) of
Malaysia is education improvement. However,
in university level, half of the fees are supported by government, the other
half were paid by the student or through education loan PTPTN with 1% interest.
However, for those who get a first class degree, they were exempted from paying
the fees. Some of the welfare benefit enjoyed by Malaysian people in term of
education is:
1. A free text book for all school students which
involve 5.7 million students
2. Allocation
air on student uniform school for curricular activities for family income below
RM 1,000 per month.
3. Each
year they will be allocated for scholarship, namely Biasiswa Kecil Persekutuan, Biasiswa Kelas Persedian Universiti &
Skim Biasiswa sukan.
4.
Abolition of fees for primary and
secondary school.
5.
No fees for taking the examination
of PMR, SPM, SPM and STPM.
6. The
amount of scholarship for JPA were increased in 2008 from 5,000 a year to
10,000 a year.
7.
Addition food Program were enlarged.
(Program Rancangan Makanan Tambahan)[ii]
PTPTN issues as a Class
Struggle.
Before
1997, the tertiary education was supported by the government in term of
scholarship. PTPTN had been introduced for the first time in 1998/1998 by Dato
Najib Tun Razak Minister of Education during that moment, were intent to reduce
the burden of the government to support in term of scholarship for the student
admitted to university. At the beginning of the introduction, almost 13,000
students benefited from the PTPN with interest of 4% and were required to pay
back within 10 to 15 years. Since the PTPTN were introduce, dozens of private
higher institution were established and open up opportunity for those who were
not fortunate enough or prefer not to study in the public university.
Only
recently those students were protesting on the issues of PTPTN loan. In 14
April 2012 hundred of student began to
march from Masjid Jamek , LRT to Dataran Merdeka. According to their anti-PTPTN
protest, the abolishes of PTPTN will and everyone would have the right to
access free education. The group was supported by opposition party,
particularly PKR because during the protest , vice President Nurul Izzah and
Tian Chua also gave a short speech. While the opposition leaders claim that the
country need RM 25 billion to wipe out the PTPTN debt. However, the government
denies that the real cost of eliminating the debt was RM 43.6 billion. In my
opinion, the reason why the protest was not largely supported by the student is
because the reason is not strong enough. The government never “took back” the
gift so the spinning plate is stable. Furthermore, the interest was at 4 % were
reduced by 1 %. It is not impossible in the future that the interest will be
abolished.
The
figure also suggests that the demand for PTPTN is increasing each year. It
exemplifies the need of the people on the government aid in education. The
increase of demand of the PTPN can also show that the scholarship is limited
and not widely available.
[i]
Najib Hairan Pas Hendak Wujud Negara Kebajikan, Date: 10-06-2011 Author:
/ Ere Mai, Bernama. [accessed on 22 November 2012]
[ii]
Unit Perancangan ekonomi , EPU,
http://www.epu.gov.my/html/themes/epu/images/common/pdf/UPE_Ekonomi%20Malaysia_Fakta%20dan%20Maklumat%20Isi%20final_.pdf
[accessed on 22 November 2012]
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