MALAYSIANS’ lack of trust in the nation’s governance must be addressed to regain their confidence in the people running the country, said an economist.

DM Analytics chief economist Dr Muhammed Abdul Khalid, who is also author of The Colour of Inequality: Ethnicity, Class, Income and Wealth in Malaysia, said people were more concerned about how allocations in Budget 2018 would be spent, rather than their size.

“When you talk about economic development, like firms and people’s spending, it has a strong correlation with how people view corporate governance in the country.

“If people are confident in how the country is run, they will usually have more confidence to spend, and investors will have more confidence to invest.

“So, confidence matters. What we should be addressing is how to bring the confidence back, and this, in a way, is to ensure that people are confident in those running the country,” he said after speaking at a forum on Budget 2018 organised by the Malay Economic Action Council.

Previously, author Karim Raslan had also raised the issue in an article titled “The optimism deficit – what’s making Malaysians so unhappy?”.

Muhammed said people must have confidence that policies planned in the country would work, such as the 1Malaysia People’s Aid (BR1M).

“We have spent a lot of money on BR1M, and next year, the total amount will be around RM30 billion, so people want to know whether it works.

“As for the allocation issue, for instance, RM1 billion is allocated for youth and sports. People are not questioning this RM1 billion, but they are questioning whether it will go towards the intended targets.”

Earlier in the forum, he cited examples of graft cases in ministries, including the embezzlement of more than RM100 million in public funds involving a Youth and Sports Ministry senior officer.

“It doesn’t matter what the Budget can do, because like the goods and services tax, we have collected about RM100 billion. But why are people still worried?

“People are working hard. We pay taxes, but we don’t see the results.

“The messenger is the message. If people don’t trust you, whatever you say cannot be trusted.” – November 2, 2017.