WHAT GOES AROUND COMES AROUND

The US is experiencing another economy turmoil with massive bailouts of Lehman Brothers and AIG after both companies mismanaged their finances in business dealings. This came right after the subprime crisis a few months ago that will make millions of Americans lose their homes. The feelings on the streets are of anger and loathing of the Wall Streets and the government headed by George Bush for failing to protect the man on the streets. The bailing out of all these hugh companies by using the federal money is actually transferring the burden to the government which actually using the taxpayer money. Throughout this episode, very few top executives got their head chopped off which says a lot about accountability and personal responsibility among the group of elite businessmen. The US government is busy in trying to pass a few policies to save all these companies which can drag the US economy back to Stone Age.

Funny, when i look at the whole situation, no matter what they preached others not to do in the last 1997 worldwide financial crisis, they are actually go against their principle when their neck is at stake. What goes around comes around people say. Now, it looks like Malaysia is vindicated when she took her own unorthodox style of solving the financial crisis in 1997 against the screaming of IMF led by the US. We have our ex-PM Tun Mahathir to thank for his bold and brave policy to resuscitate the economy despite all the objections within the country and from international economy experts.

The funny part about the current economy situation is the perception of the people in the US and Malaysia that their governments are not doing enough to elevate their suffering and are more concerned about the health of the business elites. In the US, the people are facing the prospects of losing the foreclosure of their homes due to the subprime crisis, inflation is up with the increase of petrol and food prices, and losing jobs as the big corporations are closing down. The same thing is happening in Malaysia where we can see the people are screaming for heads to roll due to the government's decision to reduce the subsidy of the petrol which leads to the increase of inflation from 4% to 8.2%. In their frustration, they turned to the Opposition party believing all the sweet promises that the whole thing can be turned around instantly if the Opposition is in power. However, nobody is commenting on the policies of the US government which is now showing its true colors eventhough they said should be the standards the Malaysian government should emulate. The truth is, there is not much difference in the style of governing of both countries, the only problem is that the people have different needs and priorities compare to the government. The people are looking at their survival and comfort level and daily problems while the government has to balance between the people's needs and the management of the economy at the macro level, foreign investments, GDP, budget balancing and so on. When the two are not the same then there will be a lot of dissatisfaction among the people which is made worse by the manipulation by certain group of people to achieve their own agendas.

It is not a good position to be in as the President of the US and PM of Malaysia right now, as the pressure is building up to save the economy on one hand and to please their peoples on the other. As the economy of the countries in the world are intertwined due to the globalisation, we cannot help that economical turmoil in one country like the US will affect smaller countries like Malaysia. We can see now the tumble in the Malaysian stock market in response to the jitters relating to the Wall Streets crisis. It is important that the crisis faced by one country be solved their own ways without the preaching by other countries as what goes around comes around.