Personal responsibilities and government obligations

The government has massive resources and administrative powers at its disposal, but still we must keep improving ourselves instead of complaining incessantly.

COMMENT

By Sin Chew Daily

RON95 took the lead on Jan 1 this year by having its price shoot up by a jaw-dropping 20 sen per litre, kicking off yet another year of horrendous price hikes.

Prices of goods in shops and cooked food have banked on this trend to go up, and the latest in the long list of more expensive goods and services in the new year will be sewage treatment fee.

SPAN chairman Liang Teck Meng has indicated that sewage tariffs will be higher, although the actual date of implementation has yet to be decided.

Under the dual pressure from a slowing economy and tightening inflation, the fast rising cost of living has become the focus of attention of the man in the street. Tackling the current economic dilemma is a severe challenge many Malaysians will have to come to terms with.

Prime Minister Najib Razak has advised Malaysians to try to supplement their incomes instead of depending on government intervention in the market.

While this remark has drawn the ire of many on social media, to be honest wholly depending on the government to provide financial assistance is very unhealthy. As independent entities, the rakyat have the responsibility of upgrading their own skills and capabilities while broadening the scope of their incomes for their own good.

Besides grumbling and blaming everything on the government, perhaps we should take a deeper look at ourselves and do our part well. We must keep upgrading ourselves instead of complaining incessantly.

External uncertainties are a big problem indeed. So, we cannot allow ourselves to become a part of the problem. Instead, it is the positive factor that will fix the problem. Even if we are not able to turn the tide, at least we can minimize the impact and not let the problem get worse.

There are plenty of things we can do personally, such as reading more books and taking up online courses instead of burying our heads in Facebook postings. This will deepen our knowledge and abilities in certain areas, and help us gain additional skills and competencies so as to keep ourselves better prepared for the unknown.

As a matter of fact, new changes have been impacting the old knowledge realms at an unprecedented pace. Things that we used to be so familiar and comfortable with in the past may be on the brink of collapse.

All who want to uplift themselves will need to take this bold positive initiative to adapt to the new changes.

We must show some responsibility in the face of economic dilemma, but this does not therefore mean the government can be spared of its obligations.

To be fair, the government has indeed done something to stimulate the economy, implementing certain policies that will help relieve the financial burden of the people. But the thing is, the government has done far from being enough.

The government has massive resources and administrative powers at its disposal, and this makes the government far more capable of tackling the drastic environmental changes compared with the dispersed and resource-scarce individuals. In other words, good governance and planning will more effectively address our economic woes.

If the government can work out more comprehensive and open-minded pro-business policies and encourage business development, this will help kickstart the stagnant economy.

Unfortunately, the government has not gone far enough in this direction, and our policies are often unpredictable or shortlived at best, the foreign worker levy being the most recent example.

The government wants the people to upgrade their skills and supplement their incomes, but has the government provided first-rate educational facilities to the people so that we can better equip ourselves?

While we must do our part and bear our own responsibilities, more importantly the government must also execute its obligations conscientiously by implementing good policies and making available the favourable conditions and infrastructure that will facilitate the upskilling of our workforce.

Sin Chew Daily is a local vernacular publication -FMT