YOURSAY 'This madness of using taxpayers' money so as to retain power must stop, and only the voters can stop Najib.'

Buying support - Najib's 'commercialisation' of GE13

Kim Quek: For the first time, someone has undertaken the monumental task of tallying Najib's mammoth election-targeted expenses over the past four years, which is by far the longest electioneering period in the world.

Thanks, Bridget Welsh, for this contribution. Yes, BN chief Najib Razak has transformed the country all right - though not to uplift the quality of life, but to devalue our democratic governance.

Instead of tackling the root causes of our economic malaise and political regression, he has been squandering our huge resources on ad hoc and short-term relievers, always aimed at fishing votes from the electorate.

As a result, the government has not only plunged rapidly into a precarious debt level, but our economy has further slipped against our neighbours with no solution in sight. I dread to imagine what it's going to be like for the country, if BN is returned to power again.

Anonymous_4031: Thanks for the write-up on spending spree syndrome. But how much is Najib going to spend before the nation goes bankrupt? Or is the nation already on the Greek road to bankruptcy?

This madness of using taxpayers' money so as to retain power must stop, and only the voters can stop him.

Tehachapi: BN's approach to development creates dependency and serious market distortions; it is unsustainable. There is no escaping from dealing with the fundamental issues facing the country, that of correct market incentives, corruption and shortage of qualified and trained human capital resources.

By squandering the national wealth on instant gratification instead of on investments in quality education, corruption eradication, public safety and security, training, R&D (research and development) and innovation, it is difficult to break free from the middle-income trap.

The granting of subsidies, protection of monopolistic powers, and anti-competition measures will weaken our capabilities to compete and turn the national focus inwards.

BN's policies to protect monopolies from open competition have resulted in a weak currency and declining export capabilities.

Swipenter: In simple terms, Najib doesn't understand the cliche that you cannot buy loyalty and respect. They have to be earned through words and by deeds. Band-aid measures are only good for a very short period of time.

We see the Umno-BN government robbing us, our children and future generations of Malaysians of their potential and the chance to make good in life in this borderless world.

Eskay: In Penang, I witnessed a 1Malaysia team openly persuading the public to give them their names, IC numbers and telephone contacts promising these people they will receive RM200 if BN wins the election. What a shameful way of winning an election.

Ksn: Nobody can miss noticing the thousands and thousands of BN flags, posters of Najib and other election posters, only a foot apart each in each constituency. This alone with the labour to put them up would have cost BN millions, if not billions of ringgit.

Is not the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) interested to find out where all the money came from? This wastage, regardless of whose money it is and where it came from, will have the exact opposite effect on the voters for its lack of prudence.

But it seems this extravagance is nothing but a panic reaction. However the real panic will come when the shockwaves hit them on May 5.

FellowMalaysian : Let's just consider only what Najib has spent in 1Malaysian programmes, which costs a whopping RM11 billon.

Since these 'aid and benefits' are targeted at the poor using a household income of RM3,000 as the cut-off point, each poor household stands to gain RM4,075 from the programmes.

Indeed, these are substantial amounts to the poor and may well buy their votes, especially those living in the outskirt kampungs and the interiors of Sabah and Sarawak.

THVX : It is painful to see billboards of BN and Najib every two kilometres on the North-South highway from Johor to Perlis - how many billions would it have cost the taxpayers?

Imagine how many poor you could feed with that money. This is only the tip of the iceberg. Think about all this and vote wisely.

Chandran Sukumaran: If this is not called the 'mother of all corruption' then what do you call this?

LittleGiant: Money surely is a powerful tool. Politicians must know that as much as money can make anything, it can also break and destroy their political career and their future.

Any government that 'buys' support from its people and believes that it has won the trust of the people through money power is bound to become fragile over time. It will lack the conviction to stand on its own merits and will ultimately collapse.

The BN government, under Najib's premiership since 2009, has been too ambitious to remain popular. Its excessive 'publicity stunts' costing billions of ringgit to garner support could eventually put a huge strain on the nation's coffers.

If BN wins GE13 with its money power and Najib is reappointed PM, then Malaysians have probably elected the 'most expensive' PM ever.

Cantabrigian: One interesting thing about Najib's pitch towards the Malaysian voters is that it is labelled more as ‘I Love PM' instead of ‘I Love BN'.

This theme has inevitably alienated many top BN leaders from supporting this marketing strategy as it is seen more as Najib's exclusive roadshow rather than a BN campaign, thus upsetting many of the BN hardcore supporters.

From the information that I have received, many BN top leaders are sharpening their knives waiting to stab Caesar as soon as the green light is given.

Jesse: This is the mother of elections as it revolves around spending taxpayers' money like never before. The ‘you help me, I help you' modus operandi is a disgusting and shallow strategy, a shameless wastage of public funds.

If Malaysians are sucked into money politics which has been the hallmark of Umno elections, then we deserve the type of government we get.

Being seduced by temporary payouts would be a sad reflection of the shallowness of the citizens. The end result is permanent damage to the economy, not to mention racial harmony.

Blackberry: It's amazing - BN had 56 years and time was always in its favour. Why come up with proposals, ideas and plans only now?

BR1M and KR1M would have never popped up if there hadn't been a strong opposition coalition to challenge BN's power. It's time we gave someone else to prove their worth.

Abasir: As if we needed more reasons to throw the rascals out of Putrajaya, we now have a RM58 billion reason to do so.

Unspin: If BN wins GE13, there are two possible behavioural scenarios:

a) BN will view it as the second chance to redeem themselves by instituting the necessary reforms - since they were caught flat-footed in GE12 and really did not have enough time to react due to internal resistance to change.

b) BN will think that their special concoction of political bribery of the people, institutionalised racism and religious bigotry, character assassination via smut, and wholesale abuse of government machinery and media, is the "winning formula" and thus ought to be repeated in a perpetual campaign to retain power.

The most likely scenario is (b) and when that happened, we will be headed down a long dark vicious tunnel where there is no escape.

The above is a selection of comments posted by Malaysiakini subscribers. Only paying subscribers can post comments. Over the past one year, Malaysiakinians have posted over 100,000 comments. Join the Malaysiakini community and help set the news agenda. Subscribe now . 

Free PRU13 app - GE updates at your fingertips