The air is heavy with wishes and even trepidation as the nation draws closer to the tabling of Budget 2025 on 18 October.
Will Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim stand out from past prime ministers by announcing a budget that uplifts an entire nation, or will his budget face a flood of critics and naysayers?
This is the challenge confronting him as he seeks to bolster his popularity in the run-up to the next general election.
What the nation truly needs is not philosophical defences but hard, real solutions to a marketplace that has often favoured the elite and rich.
Many in Malaysia hope for the liberation and uplifting of the bottom 40% of society, turning them into a powerhouse of the national economy.
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The struggling middle class need purposeful rungs to help them escape their financial constraints and stay motivated to keep building the infrastructure that sustains our economic grit.
Budget 2025 should encompass several key elements.
It should reform the building industry, moving away from a model driven by profiteering.
Private enterprises should be incentivised to exceed the outdated minimum wage of RM1,500, thus empowering low-income workers with tangible results, ie improvements to their living standards.
The budget must also rein in privatisation incentives and opportunities for the private healthcare system that have undermined the efficiency and effectiveness of public healthcare services.
We need a budget that empowers public education, which has been struggling with ‘charity-like’ allocations for decades. This transformation of public education should take precedence over fuelling the meteoric rise of expensive, lucrative private education.
The budget should aim to steer the country away from the failing privatisation agenda, initiated by the administration of Dr Mahathir Mohamad in the 1980s. This approach will help combat political-corporate corruption and prepare us for the precarious geopolitical future ahead.
Equally important is addressing the pharmaceutical industry, which provides huge benefits to players and owners while leaving the vast majority of the low and middle-income households at their mercy.
Rather than increasing allocations for socio-political religious endeavours, the budget should invest more in skills development. It is time to promote personal responsibility and community efforts in building and sustaining people’s respective faiths.
If these suggestions are taken up in Budget 2025, I believe the nation can reignite with valour, vigour and victory.
AGENDA RAKYAT - Lima perkara utama
- Tegakkan maruah serta kualiti kehidupan rakyat
- Galakkan pembangunan saksama, lestari serta tangani krisis alam sekitar
- Raikan kerencaman dan keterangkuman
- Selamatkan demokrasi dan angkatkan keluhuran undang-undang
- Lawan rasuah dan kronisme