Billions could have been for real development
Penampang SabahPublished: Feb 8, 2001 6:05 AM | Updated: Jan 29, 2008 6:21 PM
Putrajaya cost RM20 billion, the MAS bailout cost RM1.8 billion and the LRT bailout RM6 billion. And there are still the billions to build the KL International Airport, Petronas Twin Towers, Sepang Race Course, Bakun Dam, and of course, other bailouts. The amount of money involved is staggering, to say the least.
Yet some of our children walk kilometres to the 1960s-styled schools, where computers are unheard of. In some parts of the country, roads are a rarity, let alone other amenities.
Had a quarter of this money been spent on constructing roads, all kampung in Malaysia would have been made comfortably accessible, besides deriving the obvious socioeconomic benefits.
There is much hype about the Multimedia Super Corridor purportedly propelling Malaysia into the league of developed countries by 2020. But this is only the hardware part of it. Where is the software? Has the RM10 billion spent on this mammoth project been allocated to our children to acquire technical qualifications to become biotechnologists, IT specialists, software engineers, engineers, research scientists, etc.? Tens of thousands of workers could have been trained.
Once these people return from their studies overseas, they can provide the software needed for high-tech industries. With easy availability of trained manpower, high-tech industries from developed countries surely would come here as a matter of course. Look at India. She trains her people quietly, and lo and behold, Bangalore has become the Silicon Valley of India. Owing to cheap labour and highly-trained manpower, India could well be an IT and ICT superpower in a short while.
Had that money been kept in the banks or used to buy foreign bonds, or invested in profitable ventures, like what countries such as Hongkong, China, Japan, etc. are doing, the interests alone could have been able to provide scholarships for many of our poor children to pursue higher education. As of now, thousands of our poor kampung kids can't go to universities because they don't have the financial wherewithal to do so. What a pity!
Yet some of our children walk kilometres to the 1960s-styled schools, where computers are unheard of. In some parts of the country, roads are a rarity, let alone other amenities.
Had a quarter of this money been spent on constructing roads, all kampung in Malaysia would have been made comfortably accessible, besides deriving the obvious socioeconomic benefits.
There is much hype about the Multimedia Super Corridor purportedly propelling Malaysia into the league of developed countries by 2020. But this is only the hardware part of it. Where is the software? Has the RM10 billion spent on this mammoth project been allocated to our children to acquire technical qualifications to become biotechnologists, IT specialists, software engineers, engineers, research scientists, etc.? Tens of thousands of workers could have been trained.
Once these people return from their studies overseas, they can provide the software needed for high-tech industries. With easy availability of trained manpower, high-tech industries from developed countries surely would come here as a matter of course. Look at India. She trains her people quietly, and lo and behold, Bangalore has become the Silicon Valley of India. Owing to cheap labour and highly-trained manpower, India could well be an IT and ICT superpower in a short while.
Had that money been kept in the banks or used to buy foreign bonds, or invested in profitable ventures, like what countries such as Hongkong, China, Japan, etc. are doing, the interests alone could have been able to provide scholarships for many of our poor children to pursue higher education. As of now, thousands of our poor kampung kids can't go to universities because they don't have the financial wherewithal to do so. What a pity!
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