'PM, meet real people who lead lives of quiet desperation each day and you will know what your priorities should be.'
Anti-mega tower Facebook page hits 200k milestone
Swipenter: Everyone knows that the backbone of any economy - developed or developing - are the small and medium enterprises (SMEs) who support the big boys.
Instead of spending RM5 billion building the mega-tower, the government should provide additional incentives to our SMEs to upgrade their operations and manpower requirement to become more efficient and productive in order to compete internationally instead of just going about building and building and building.
After all the frenzied land and building development, who's going to occupy all these completed mega-towers and mega-financial hubs? It looks like the Economic Transformation Programme is mostly about transforming the land into buildings and not transforming the economy holistically.
Abasir: Najib, stop listening to your circle of self-serving and grossly incompetent advisors who made you put your foot in your mouth by including 100-storey towers in the national budget. Meet real people who lead lives of quiet desperation each day and you will know what your priorities should be.
In thoughts, words and deeds, break free from the evil clutches of Dr Mahathir Mohamad and his 'Malays are handicapped for life' paradigm, and you will receive the unstinting support of millions of Malaysians.
Balasi: PM Najib Razak, forget about this stupid tower. First, reduce the country's deficit. Then go drive along this project site without your escort - on your own - and you will know what people like me face on a daily basis. We have enough development, what we need is a sense of national unity, where we are Malaysians first before our own races.
Work on this and forget about the rest - we are sick of stupid developments in Kuala Lumpur, let KL rest in peace. If you really want to develop something, develop Kampung Baru. If not, keep your plans to yourself and your cronies.
Cala: The PM we have is another "me, too" politician devoid of any sound economic principle in governance. He has the mentality of a typical Third World leader not capable of putting people's interests above himself.
At the rate we're going, we may need another 25 years beyond 2020 to join the league of high-income nations.
Wan Norafli Wan Razali: Most people in the 'Kami Sokong Menara Warisan' have posted racist remarks. I, as a Malay, am very sad. To whoever its administrator, the page does not reflect the ‘Malaysian' spirit.
Allan Kong: It is regrettable that the PM does not hear the people's voice. He has forgotten his ‘People First' proclamation. Perhaps it should be "loot the people first".
The 100-storey tower serves to boost his flagging ego. With the big baggage he lugs around, perhaps he sorely needs it. The monetary gain from this project will be enormous. Hence it will take a miracle to abort this very lucrative goldmine The filthy rich will only get filthier rich.
G Annamalai: The PM must set his priorities correct: he wants the building to be the pride of this nation. But there is no pride in a concrete building which does not signify any development in the real sense.
Instead of seeing the jobs it is going to create, do you see the chaos it is going to create? The number of cars on the road, the traffic jam? Do we need so much office space in KL?
Bobby Cheng: The higher the building, the higher the construction and operation costs. There is a breakeven point. The breakeven point is related to the land cost in a country. The cost of land is still relatively cheap in this country compared to around the globe, say neighbouring Singapore. So why do we need 100-storey towers?
If you want to talk about green technology, mega-towers consume the highest amount of energy.
If we can spend RM5 billion to build up our human resources (education and technical training for future generation) and improve on productivity (for example, public transportation), this RM5 billion expenditure has the potential to bring in tens or hundreds of billions of ringgit in the near future.
It's pure human pride and arrogance to construct another mega-tower and it makes no zero economic sense.
Rakyat Malaysia: How do you get high-income jobs when our nation does not produce high-calibre people but a bunch of lazy workers waiting to get into public services or waiting to become a BN/MCA crony?
How do you get high-income jobs when thousands are leaving Malaysia and going overseas to other countries? How do you get high-income jobs when you discriminate against talented people, chase them away from the country and import Third World calibre, low and cheap labour and talent?
How do you plan to achieve high-income status nation besides just engaging in marketing/propaganda talk only?
Freemsia: True, all Najib wants is that the tower be a pride of the nation. But what is so proud about a tall tower that does not benefit the man on the street but create traffic jams, causes a glut in office space in KL and only enriches the cronies in Umno? No Malaysian will want to be proud of that.
Just like Proton - it was supposed to be the pride of the nation. But in the end, Proton is seen as a manufacturer of overpriced low-quality cars that till today still depends on government protection.
And just like Proton, if the mega-tower project fails, whose money will it be to bail out the project? Yes, it's the rakyat's money. Like what happened to Proton, Perwaja, MAS, etc.
The above is a selection of comments posted by Malaysiakini subscribers. Only Malaysiakini 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 .
