Moreton Bay, Queensland.
I wish I had captured the sun in its full glory.
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Author: Hafiz Noor Shams
For more about me, please read this.
Opponents of the introduction of goods and services tax (GST) in Malaysia have raised a number of points.
Some of the points are valid even if they are disagreeable. Sometimes, the disagreement is ideological and difference is due to premises originating from separate irreconcilable positions. Those points are fine because at least they are logical and honest.
Some, like opposition to GST based on regressiveness, are plainly illogical and wrong however. Some are pure bullshit of gargantuan magnitude, i.e. if the tax rate is 4% and there are four points within a value chain, the total tax rate paid by the end consumer is 16%. One made by Lim Guan Eng at an anti-GST forum some weeks ago is disingenuously irrelevant.
Mr. Lim stated that under GST, everybody will be taxed.[0] It is true that everybody, in a sense that any anybody who consumes a particular taxed good regardless of income levels, will be taxed. But this line of argument presumes that everybody has not already been taxed.
Unfortunately for Mr. Lim, consumers in Malaysia have already been taxed through a consumption tax that is theoretically as flat and as regressive as GST. That tax is the sales and services tax (SST).
Because of the untrue presumption, his argument is irrelevant.
Why is the argument irrelevant?
To evaluate the worth of his argument, a comparison between GST and status quo scenarios has to be made.
Why?
Remember, the proposal is to replace SST with GST. The desirability of one option has to be defined in terms of the desirability of the other and vice versa. In other words, ask the question, “why one option is better than the other?” Absolute statement does not help in decision-making. Relative statement does.
Further, for Mr. Lim’s — and increasingly what is becoming one of Pakatan Rakyat’s as well as others parrot the argument without thinking — argument to be relevant, the status quo must consist of a scenario where not everybody is being taxed. There is no such status quo: the status quo has SST in place.
What is the point of arguing as Mr. Lim has done so when everybody has already been taxed — in fact, taxed at a higher rate? Remember, the current GST is planned to be introduced at 4% while the current SST rate ranges from 5% to 10% and there are goods taxed at even 20%.[1]
Both SST which is currently in place, and GST, will affect everybody. If one opposes GST on the basis of how GST affects everybody, then the person has to oppose SST too. Therefore, that person should be indifferent between having GST and SST. One simply cannot make sense if one bases one’s opposition on how GST will affect everybody.
[0] — Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng said with the old sales and services tax system, only some 1.5 million of the total of 12 million workers are taxed but its replacement with the GST will mean everyone, including poor workers, will be affected. [Pakatan bets on GST to muscle BN out. The Malaysian Insider. February 29 2010]
What a wonderful piece of news. That aptly describes my reaction upon learning the request of the Penang state government to the Election Commission to organize two local elections in the Pearl of the Orient this year. Selangor’s decision to follow suit makes it an all the more brilliant development.
There are obstacles to overcome and there is no guarantee that the return will happen for good. There will be challenges no doubt. The EC is already showing sign of reluctance to do as requested.
It is quite clear that not everybody is convinced of the necessity of local elections. Some fear losing their power. Others are caught up in legalese.
Let them lose their powers. It is not theirs to keep in the first place. Be gone with the legalese. We are in a new time where old threats have long past.
The actual push for it in Malaysia is long overdue. This right of ours has been robbed from us. It is only right to have it returned.
What I am most excited about the prospect of having local elections returned is the devolution of power. It is yet another tool to empower citizens at the expense of the state. For too long has power been concentrated in the hand of the state. The return of the third vote will chip away that focused power by distributing it more evenly across the landscape, as it should have been.
Do you remember how such power distribution felt?
The last time such significant redistribution happened was in March 2008.
Yes, it has been two years since that day. Since then, there have been many disappointments: the lies and hypocrisy regarding freedom of association, more slogans, disloyalty and generally broken promises. Yes, many of these disappointments have began to question the wisdom of many whom gave members or former members of what is now Pakatan Rakyat a chance.
That in no way changes the fact that the 2008 Malaysian general election demonstrated that individual citizens do have the power to change the course of the country. It is a reminder that the kind of confidence in individuals that seemed to exist only in Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged does exist in the real world. It blew away the feeling of helplessness that nothing can be done. It proves that in the face of a titan, individuals can be as fearsome as the titan can.
My feeling as a first time voter in the early morning of March 9 was one of pure exhilaration. After all the disillusionment, the feeling that this country belonged only to the selected few forming a cabal, the election showed that I still do have stake in the country. More importantly, I can act on that ownership.
The devolution will further prove that I, along with many other Malaysians, do have ownership over not just the country, but also the street where I — we — live in. We are the ones that should take care of our own streets.
We pay for it after all.
With the third vote, we can stop pretending that those representatives we send to national and state assemblies are taking care of our local interests.
We do not need an MP or state assemblypersons to take care of our streets and everything else in our immediate neighborhood. We can do it ourselves.
Such absurd pretentions have caused Members of Parliament and state assemblies having to deal with local problems while they are supposed to debate on nation and statewide issues respectively. It is not the jobs of these representatives to worry about sewage and trash. Those are the responsibilities of local councilors.
Local elections will enhance the division of tasks and with the division of tasks comes the division of power. Less power in the hand of the few means less opportunity for abuse. If this is what those who oppose the reintroduction fear, then let them fear it.
This article was first published in The Malaysian Insider on March 9 2010.
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[2174] Of time for refueling
When was the last time you stopped at a gas station with a pump like this; old, analog and dusty too?
Me?
Slightly over a month ago.
I saw one in Port Campbell, probably over 100 miles to the southwest of Melbourne.
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[2173] Of this is Brisbane
The city’s skyline.
The meandering river gives the city its charm.
When there is a river, there are bridges and I like bridges. The Story Bridge is the most famous of all but my favorite is a footbridge connecting Queensland University of Technology to the other bank.
The way QUT merges with the city’s botanic garden that sits on a convex bank is another factor that makes the city likable. Yes, I particularly like the settings of QUT. The trees make the campus beautiful. And somehow, while the buildings on its campus are close to each other, it does not give out crampy feeling. The size of open space there is just nice that it is neither crowded nor empty.
Talking about being crowded, the Queen Street Mall is crowded. It is a magnificent pedestrian-only street that is full of activities at night, signaling that the city is no cowboy town. It has nightlife. There are stalls in the middle of the street so full of people, making the atmosphere livelier. The sound of people laughing, of forks and knives hitting the plates, of music, everything. Here and there, performers were lighting up the night, as if streetlights were not enough.
There are a number of old colonial buildings across the city but modern skyscrapers outnumbered old ones. The Mall is one of few places in the city where that statement in untrue.
At the end of the Mall, there is a plaza flanked by a colonial-style structure called the Treasury Building and what I believe is the state library.
Treasury Building
If I am not mistaken, the plaza is called Brisbane Square. During my last night in the city, the plaza came to life. People were just dancing merrily. Some were just happy standing watching people there until late night. I have a feeling that they were university students, given that many universities in Australia start their semester in either late February or early March.There are two universities nearby that I know of that are within walking distance from the Square. They are QUT and Griffith University.
This is a direct contrast of how the day looks like.
The city appears empty and does not exhibit the kind of traffic large and dense cities have. Having experienced living and visiting a number of world cities, I can say that Brisbane does not have a real rush hour. Nevertheless, on the way to Moreton Island to the northeast, the highway was clogged-up for several kilometers.
The fact that the city lacks intracity system probably strengthens the notion that Brisbane is small. There is a rail system but it is only as part of bigger intercity system. Buses and cabs have monopoly over public transportation here. Oh, and there are water taxis too.
Its transportation hub blends into the city. Another way to put it is that it does not stand out. The only reason I know that the city has a transportation hub is due to the fact that my train from Gold Coast dropped me there. Let me say this frankly. It is an ugly gray cube-like building. I am unimpressed with it.
And like Sydney and Melbourne, Brisbane has a war memorial of its own. Less impressive but a memorial it is.
Brisbane’s memorial with a torch in the middle keeping the Eternal Flame alive.
Would I live and work here?
I rather be in Kuala Lumpur. I do not see big names in its central business district. That suggests employment opportunities here might be limited and not diversified. It seems less diverse too in terms of people. I might be wrong here but this does not look like a multiracial city.
Brisbane is a good city for vacationing though. It is a good base to go to multiple places outside of the city. I myself made it my base with Gold Coast and Moreton Island in mind. There are other places to visit but a week is insufficient to visit everything. Hundreds of kilometers separate those various attractions.
But if you want to visit the just the city, two days would probably be enough. There is really nothing in Brisbane. It is just yet another city. Without the river and natural attractions outside of the city, Brisbane would not have been on tourists’ radar.
That might be an unfair statement, given that I spent my most of my time in the central business district and in the Southbank only.
The riverside walk along Southbank is nice. The Southbank is located opposite to the row of buildings across the river. The many bridges and water taxis make it accessible without the need to invest too much effort. It is walkable. A saltwater pool with an artificial beach is the cherry on top for the riverside walk. It is also a great place to take a shot of the city.
A shot from a boat.