MAY 29 — Our Prime Minister, as Chairman of the National Finance Council, announced two important measures that are most important for assisting states to have a bigger share of national resources, which in my view, will give real meaning to the concept of shared prosperity.
These two measures represent a decentralisation of Federal resources to the states, which will be beneficial in enabling the state and local governments to plan their development programmes with more confidence, without having to worry where the money is going to come from. Further decentralisation of financial and administrative controls should be be considered to reduce the over concentration of power at Putrajaya, which is contrary to the concept of Malaysia as a federation of states.
There should be a constitutional provision to make Federal grants mandatory for states which comply with the environmental protection policies set by the Federal authorities.