Economic impact on politic

Last week, I received a phone call – hey my phone works lah - from an “Old” friend, (sorry pun intended) he is now working with a Bumiputra owned construction company with cables attached to political parties. So this is an inside story – anyway not secret anymore politically-linked company will gulung tikar and surrender their license.

Construction companies are feeling the pinch due to the removal of ceiling price for building materials i.e. cement and steel.

Adding salt to the wound, recently PM announced petrol & diesel price hike, as a result it would affect all possible profit margin on all contracted jobs and more likely, capacity to cover costs in the future. The optimistic government last year announced IDR, NCER and ECER with the hope of buying support from the public in the general election and very generously launching billions of ringgit in several mega projects. Unfortunately, the outcome of Malaysian general election is against the Barisan, and subsequently loss two major investment State, Selangor and Penang to the opposition.

Johor is still the stronghold for UMNO and barisan, - OKT is from Perak but “selamat” because he contested in Johor, next time SV and KSK should contest in Johor. But Johor won’t be a stronghold forever. Remember the massive flood in Johor last year, where was the PM.

Penang, Kedah and Perak makes up the largest portion of Northern Economic Region, and all three are now in the hands of Pakatan Rakyat. The other state, Perlis is too small to be reckoned with. Then again recently, PM announced that the projects are being reviewed.

Sabah and Sarawak has the advantage to demand.

Major impact to politically linked construction companies that bloom under Barisan government. The General Public and Pakatan Rakyat are calling for transparency - open tenders instead of current practice of negotiation.

The good times are over. I am not surprise if these companies started to wind up - “gulung tikar”. I can’t wait to see the party’s general assembly, where year after year, they park their flashy Benz and Bimmer haphazardly just to show off and create traffic jams in front of PWTC.