malaysiakini and the RM7bil STIMULUS...I Doubt This Will Be GOOD Enough.....

malaysiakini has this article RM7b stimulus to bolster economy and I doubt if it will solve the slowing economy.
According to the Star some features of the Economic package include:

1) RM1.2bil to be allocated to build more low- and medium-cost houses;

2) Abolishing the 5% import duties on fertilisers, cement and steel;

3) Allowing hypermarkets to close late (weekdays 11pm; weekends 1am);

4) RM500mil for the maintenance of police stations and quarters, as well as Army camps;

5) RM200mil for Chinese, Tamil, religious and mission schools;

6) RM200mil for pre-school education; and

7) Employees can reduce their EPF contributions by 3% on a voluntary basis for up to two years.

Going through each item, the folowing should be noted:

1.Building more low-cost and medium costs homes will not succeed unless unoccupied units are properly allocated and abandoned projects are revived.
2.Abolishing the 5% import duty is good as these items will lead to a slight reduction in food and building costs.
3.Hypermarkets closing later will not improve sales much and may even cause staffing problems. Workers will not be able get public transport. Doubtful as even Malaysia Mega-sales are quite empty these days.
4.This allocation of RM500mil for police and army camps is surprising. Should be a normal budget as maintenance is important on a regular basis. Now it appears a dubious project just to spend RM500mil. This monies would be better spent on improving public transport.
5.Schools should also be receiving this kind of funding on a regular basis. Some of the schools are now death-traps.
6.Pre-school education funds should be granted to all Malaysians who have children on the basis that each pre-school child will be given say RM300 or so to enroll in kindergarten - this should be an individual grant and not used to set up new kindergartens etc.
7.Suggest you do not opt to reduce EPF as it will affect your retirement funds; especially if your employer pays more than the legal requirement. Some companies pay more to EPF with a matching scheme so check it out properly.

The government should have done more to put real money into people's hands:
1.For example, pensioners cannot reduce EPF and are simply struggling to make ends meet. These people would benefit from cash grants and food rations. In Singapore the NTUC has an interesting scheme that gives a 2% discount to the elderly once a week.
2.Public transport should be seriously looked at as it directly affects the lives of ordinary folks. Our public transport is rather inefficient and even upgrading the cash payment scheme will result in better efficiencies and more collections. It is still common for the driver to give you a ticket 10% less than what you pay for.