1. National Council of Professors

National Council of Professors
It may sound great that the new administration of Najib is advised by the National Council of Professors.
Is it the first time this is happening and for what reasons?
Before NCP advise the Government, would you like to comment on the proposal of GST at 7% by Idris Jala who always to avoid answering any public questions for fear of being belittled by such off the cuff effort from the floor?   Where do you think Jala had “plagiarized” that GST would bring RM27b in revenue? That is the assumption that the economy would be retained with GST implemented.  So has Jala considered that the local consumption especially in Sabah and Sarawak would likely to shrink in the first year or two and also possibly could crash some sectors of the industries when black market can exist as such black market could be forced on the traders and the consumers especially when the prices of most goods and services including essential items could rise beyond the reach of many people on wages and fixed incomes including many millions of pensioners or senior citizens without pension.
So by whatever basis Jala had considered the RM27b, it is only from the angle of revenue, but the Government on the verge of bankruptcy in 2019 would surely pull forward this bankruptcy in Malaysia as predicted due to the weight of accumulating deterioration of the financial position of many in the low income group that the Government would be forced to provide financial impetus to bring relief to those suffering from the introduction of GST at 7%.
When the traders have excessive stock of taxable goods not sold over extended period or giving extended credit to middlemen with difficulty in collection, such traders would not be able to sustain themselves in business with the associated burden of financing their businesses.
That scenario is exacerbated with many consumers postponing consumption of items of 7% GST and traders would not be in the position to recover the 7% GST paid by the traders earlier. 
When such tough times arise, the Government may have to intervene and RM27b may not be enough to minimize the damage in the business communities.  Anyone can imagine the dire consequences in the political implications.  If illegitimate BN Government wants to implement GST so soon after GE13,  please do not fix the rate at 7% in the Act but subject to review by the Minister concerned over the first few years so that the business communities and the consumers can be  guided by progressive implementation.
Whatever to happen to prices in the context of GST, it is surely the essential controlled items would also go up in prices as the impact of GST is inevitable.  Also wages and salaries would not go up in matching proportions.
Now back to the National Council of Professors.  I would like to see the profile of all these professors to be posted in a public domain especially in the Internet.
Not all professors are good as I have seen some very questionable with known fake qualifications.  I had been asking many questions in public forums, seminars, conferences to test how good and how qualified these doctors and professors are.  Some of them are scared of questions from the floor hence many such Q&A sessions are left to the last of such event with little time to give answers.  Some moderators even try to block difficult or sort of sensitive questions.  I have seen a professor in history/geography also a doctor who claimed she came from Kudat and yet when it come to point to Kudat in the Sabah map, her fingers pointed to the wrong place.  There was a professor / doctor who went to the toilet after I asked some questions hence no replies.  There may be a few good professors around but these good ones do not ‘carry foot’ and I hope this National Council of Professors are truly men of integrity and not scurrying favour to be vice chancellors of some higher institutions.  Also how practical are these professors to be appointed to the NCP?
Also I hope the NCP is transparent in such public affairs.  I hope to meet some of them in their circuits around Malaysia to gather the required feedback to give value to their recommendations.
The system of Governance of Malaysia had not worked well and therefore need a total revamp.  We need a new system to bring focus n the important sectors so that we can measure the performance of the massive fund expended over 55 years with questionable results and not to burden the people with profligacy.  We have seen the critical views of the Auditor General for decades and little improvement or corrective measures have been effective to do damage control.
I know I have in mind of a very good system of Good Governance for Malaysia to be emulated by other countries.
In a nut shell, Malaysia is like many organisations where increasing costs are pushing revenue to be increased artificially unjustified leaving a very big gap of the wealth disparity in society.  Such scenario can only be sustained when there is genuine growth of productivity and not printing the currency,  Better we cut the shirt with the cloth we have.
So NCP and Jala start cracking on this approach in good and bad cycles of times.
Joshua Y. C. Kong
PM of IGGG Malaysia (Designate)