National Bankruptcy In The News Again

I’m somewhat bemused by the how this whole thing got brought up again. It started with an innocent question from the floor about last year’s imbroglio over Idris Jala’s prediction that the government would go bankrupt if subsidies were not rolled back. Of course, given the subject matter, it’s no surprise the media went with the story.

Now whole thing has just reared its ugly head again (here’s bro satD’s reaction). Quite frankly it was a dumb idea to sell the public on subsidy rationalisation on the basis of public finances – because all it did was focus the attention on public finances (e.g. this reaction from the FM2), and not on the desirability of reducing subsidies as an argument on its own. Admittedly that’s a tougher sell, but still the correct one.

Honestly, the government’s finances are just fine, thank you. Now can we get back to discussing more important matters, such as what they’re spending the money on?