South Asia has been one of the world’s success stories in terms of rapid economic growth. With India leading the way, South Asia’s poverty rate has fallen from 60 percent in 1981 to 40 percent in 2005. However, during the same period, the number of poor people — those living on less than $1.25 per day — actually increased from 549 million to 595 million over the same period. What’s more, social indicators such as gender parity, secondary education enrollment, and health have not improved in line with growth.
So how do we account for this apparent paradox? Conventional wisdom suggests that growth is sufficient for poverty reduction and social progress, but is this the case in South Asia? Perhaps not, says Ejaz Ghani, Economic Advisor in the World Bank’s South Asian region and author of The South Asian Development Paradox: Can Social Outcomes Keep Pace With Growth, the most recent in the Economic Premise research series.
“The paradox of South Asia is that growth has been instrumental in reducing poverty rates, but poverty rates have not fallen enough to reduce the total number of poor people,” explains Ghani. And as the total number of poor people expands, he is quick to warn, “Human development, particularly education and health, has not kept pace with income growth. And growth has not been gender inclusive.”
Resolving this paradox is crucial since South Asia has more poor people than Africa. In fact, the geography of poverty means that more than 70% of the world’s poor live not in low-income countries, but in middle-income countries — a concentration pattern that is likely to continue into the next decade.
we have political leaders swearing blind that corruption is evil. They, by any standard, even if you want to be charitable, cannot in all honesty be described as morally upright where corruption is concerned.
The same applies to corrupt civil servants: They would dearly love you to believe that they are all valiant corruption fighters.So, it seems logical to ask why do we rate so poorly in the Transparency International Corruption Perceptions Index, year in and year out? Corruption is not just about money changing hands. That is common bribery. Corruption is about abusing entrusted power for private gain.
The latest to join the serried ranks of the country’s star-studded corruption fighters’ gallery is Daim Zainuddin, who, in my humble view, is the last person to lecture us about probity and rectitude.
Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, with his oversized baggage of religious credentials and other feel-good paraphernalia, had me fooled completely and the experience was all the more unpalatably galling because I genuinely like him as a person.Whether he likes me or not, I dare not say. His intentions were I am sure very good, but then as we all know, the road to hell and moral damnation is paved with good intentions.
One lesson we should never ever forget is that politicians as a breed are pathological liars. There are naturally one or two who are reliable and decent.
But seriously, you would probably be better off trusting a cat with a plate of fried fish. Opposition politicians are no exception to this universal truth. So keep an eagle eye on them too, including me, just to be on the safe side.
They cannot abuse power because for now they have no power to abuse. Many will find the temptation irresistible. Name me one honest politician; I will name you 10 wayward Yang Berhormat, together with a clutch of even more crooked Yang Amat Berhormat.
Malaysia cannot achieve wholesome, ethical developed nation status by 2020 or 2099 if Barisan Nasionalpolitics remains stuck in the same groove of careless indifference to basic values and value systems that Malaysia desperate lacks and needs.
Knuckle down to basics and the rest will fall in place. At present the transformation plans sound like so much noise and nothing more because it is inconceivable that they will ever be carried out in a prudent and accountable and sustainable way for the benefit of the long-suffering people of Malaysia.
Discerning Malaysians are not blind to the fact that all the public money being so generously doled out on a daily basis in Sarawak and Selangor is nothing less than advance vote buying.
Money cannot buy the nation’s burning desire for change and change there will be. Try another tack, and save the country from bankruptcy.read more
No comments:
Post a Comment