Unnecessary and utterly irresponsible spendings

I fear for the future of this country. This is where I was born and in all probability, where I'll die too. Why I'm voicing my fear is that the politicians in the federal government are hell-bent on bankrupting this country. Precious funds are being used or wasted on unnecessary projects. The beneficiaries? As laymen, I wouldn't know who are there but it doesn't take a moron to deduce that they are going into the pockets of people or corporations who are close to the people in power at Putrajaya.

And what may be these unnecessary - and, may I add, irresponsibile and scandalous - projects and spendings? Well, my memory's not so good nowadays but here are a few recent ones that comes to my mind:

A RM5 billion 100-storey mega-tower project that was proposed by Najib Razak in his 2011 budget. Wht would he want to build this tower is beyond me, when the money could be better spent on providing better education, health care and transportation for the people.

Then there is that stupid, highly publicised 1Malaysia email account that's supposed to improve on digital security and aid in communication between the government and the masses. But get this: the project is going to cost RM50 million to implement. But mind you, insisted the federal government, it is now a private sector initiative. But what was it before the backtracking began? And why do the government departments have to use this delivery channel subsequently and pay 50 sen per transaction to this private sector company? Waste of money to sustain what many believe to be a crony-related company!

And recently, the federal government held a party for "one million" youth in Putrajaya with the bill coming round to RM27 million. One million? I've been hearing that the number was closer to 20,000 youth. Then they said the funding came from private sector sponsorship. Who cares? If this is not an open, blatant attempt to fish their votes in the next general election, I don't know what is. Again, this is wasted money. Can we get the federal government to convince the private sector to spend their helping the coomon people in so many other concrete ways?

Finally, just two days ago, we learnt that the Ministry of Tourism spent RM1.8 million to create six facebook pages. Gosh, golly wow! I didn't know that it costs so much to create a facebook page. I thought it was free! Funny, despite having spent so much - and I wonder who helped the Ministry on this project - I am still in the dark about what has been achieved so far, apart from people's indignation.

[An update: From what I've read, the advertising agency behind the facebook pages is Impact Creations (M) Sdn Bhd which was established on 22 Apr 2011. Within a month, it bidded and was awarded this RM1.8 million project from the Ministry of Tourism.]

All these are the recent news stories that have come to light. Projects here, projects there; money flowing out here, money flowing out there; but who are the beneficiaries? Certainly not me. I don't need a 100-storey building anymore than I need a 1Malaysia email account or a RM27 million party. I don't need all these projects while I remain grappling with an increasing daily cost of living. RON95 petrol prices may not have gone up yet but I detest the fact that the federal government allowed the cost of electricity to increase. Stupid if they expect us to believe that this will have no impact on the common folks. Already, the cost of foodstuff has gone up. It's affecting my bottom line and I only wish all these show of extravagant spendings can be stopped and the money channelled to proper use, that is, to benefit we common folks!