SUBSIDIES? IS IT THAT MATTER?

Without prejudice and just for once I suggest the government should lessen its focus on subsidies. Especially in a state like Sabah. By all mean, let go through our planning checklist whether we had sorted out our core problem such as poverty and unemployment.

Not forgetting to mention the continuous migration of our youths to peninsular Malaysia.We were promised since years back that once the BN taking over the management of Sabah, the state will be transformed into a new era so called ‘Beautiful Sabah or Sabah Baru’; a process of overhauling the development of the state.

Major program like ‘ Sabah Super Corridor’ had been mentioned over and over again. Instead, we are confronted with an increase in cost of fuel and commodities.I guess, all the ‘Happy Hours’ days we used to have must be gone forever.According to my friend economist; subsidies matter mainly for two basic reasons.

First, they divert resources to favored activities, industries, or people based on political objectives. These objectives may have to do with political power, needs to "buy-off" particular groups, or unrealistic assessments of available technologies, rather than from any desire to achieve social goals such as welfare or education.

Second, subsidies mask the relative price of different goods and services. In energy, for example, heavily subsidized electrical transmission can mean that the much higher price of electricity in rural areas is obscured. As a result, important entry points for alternative energy sources—such as where off-grid renewable cost less than the combined cost of conventional power generation plus distribution—are lost.

Actually in Malaysia, there are number of subsidy policies that have been implemented incrementally over decades. In combination, these policies make it extremely difficult to see the true underlying market dynamics associated with alternative products or services.
All too often, the existing subsidies also work counter to the goals of other parts of the government, such as protecting the environment.The way it looked, the existing subsidies in Sabah seem to quick fixing the unnecessary. So far it does not really help to help solving the existing problem faced by our youths or young graduates.By right ;Like in Klang Valley ,Sabah should be given enough opportunity to own bigger factories and industries. In order to cater the job deficiency seek by our young one.