KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 9: DAP's Petaling Jaya Utara member of parliament Tony Pua (pic) said prime minister Najib Razak had "confirmed the death and irrelevance" of the New Economic Model (NEM) by resurrecting the race-based New Economic Policy through the formation of a new unit.
“Najib is now proving to be a failed reformer, with his much vaunted 'Najibnomics' turning out to be nothing more than an endorsement of the controversial NEP which favours the influential elite and a copycat of Mahathir’s mega-projects and privatisation policies of the 1990s,” said Pua in response to the government's announcement of a new unit called TERAJU, or Unit Peneraju Agenda Bumiputera.
Pua said on the same day Najib announced the setting up of TERAJU, a 'Bumiputera Agenda Supreme Council' meeting was held, confirming suspicions that Najib places the race agenda above the original intention of the NEM.
Pointing to remarks by Zainal Aznam Yusof, a member of the National Economic Advisory Council (NEAC), who said the government had no political will to implement reforms through NEM citing its decision to drop a proposed Equal Opportunities Commission from NEM, Pua said it proved that Part 2 of the NEM had been intentionally ‘watered down’ with the re-introduction of NEP’s 30 percent bumiputera equity target, originally rescinded in NEM's first part.
“Instead the NEM Part I had proposed the ‘deliberate shifting of affirmative action towards moving down to the bottom 40 per cent'," said Pua.
At a recent forum, Zainal said the government appeared to have bowed to pressure from right wing demands from groups such as UMNO and Perkasa, and said the appointment of former Negri Sembilan Menteri Besar Isa Samad as chairman of FELDA had raised alarm bells.
Forum attended by former minister
Besides Zainal, Pua said former Tourism, Arts and Culture minister Abdul Kadir Sheikh Fadzir had also lamented the country’s state of corruption at the same event.
L-R: Zainal Aznam and Kadir Sheikh Fadzir
“If the founding fathers could see what is happening now, they will turn in their graves. Corruption is everywhere, you have to bribe people to get things done. Cronyism is everywhere,” Pua quoted Kadir as saying.
Pua said Kadir had criticised NEM, the Economic Transformation Programme (ETP) and Government Transformation Programme (GTP), describing them as "beautiful statements".
Pua also referred to an article by the former US ambassador to Malaysia, John Mallot, which was reprinted in Harakahdaily yesterday, in which he said Najib had failed to implement reforms to treat all citizens as equals.
“What is perhaps most damning for the NEM is Mr Mallot’s prognosis that Malaysians 'will continue to vote with their feet and take their money and talents with them. And foreign investors, concerned about racial instability and the absence of meaningful economic reform, will continue to look elsewhere to do business'”, Pua recalled.
Pua also warned that Najib’s current spending spree would lead to short term stimulation of the economy as happened during former premier Dr Mahathir’s era, causing "income stagnation" in the next few years which followed.
“History will only repeat itself as we suffered a decade of real income stagnation and falling competitiveness in the 2000s,” he warned.
Related:
The price of Malaysia's racism by John Mallot
http://en.harakahdaily.net/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2241:new-unit-final-nail-on-nems-coffin-says-pua&catid=34:primary&Itemid=56
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