by Dr Chen Man Hin, DAP life adviser
PM NAJIB MUST INSTITUTE GOOD GOVERNANCE BEFORE THE COUNTRY CAN ACHIEVE HIGH ECONOMY FOR THE PEOPLE.
Dr. Zakaria, executive director of MIER at an economic conference on 26th January, stated that for Malaysia to become a high income country, it must liberalise the economy to attract both foreign direct investments as well as domestic investments. This is a hopeful statement, from a dedicated public servant, who wants to see his country prosper.
Unfortunately, he is going to be disappointed, not for lack of trying, but because the political and economic realities do not encourage both foreign and domestic investors to put money in this country.
Widespread corruption, racial prejudices and over regulation of the economy are unfriendly and deter investors to invest. Under an unstable cloud, the investors will not deem the climate here favourable to investors. In fact, this has led to a huge outflow of capital from the country.
DISASTROUS CAPITAL FLIGHT UBS investment bank reported that in 2009 there was a disastrous capital flight from the country amounting to 50% of the GDP, and the nation’s foreign reserves fell close to 25%
The capital flight was due to ‘political instability, massive official corruption and discrimination against non-Malays.’ There is also a massive flight of human capital. The government admitted that over 300,000 citizens emigrated last year, and these are people with talent and skills.
THIS IS AN IMPOSSIBLE SITUATION. Here you have a diligent, conscientious government official, earnestly making a plea to liberalise the economy, but he is thwarted and obstructed in doing his duty because of bad governance, injustices and lack of transparency.
PM Najib must first put his house/government in order, and get rid of corruption before he can expect his government and civil servants to perform their duties and serve the people.