The meek and timid response of the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak to the ferocious and incendiary rejection of the New Economic Model by the Perkasa-led Malay Consultative Council raises the question whether Najib is backing off from the NEM to become an even bigger Flip-Flop PM than his predecessor Tun Abdullah.

Najib’s statement that the NEM is not the Government’s “final stand” but merely the “trial balloons” of a group of experts making suggestions from the global market’s perspective is a greater commentary on Najib’s leadership qualities than on the NEM proposals.

The NEM was launched by Najib two months ago with great fanfare as a defining moment in the nation’s development path, to take the quantum leap from the nation’s decade-long economic stagnation and escape from the two-decade middle-income trap to become a developed high-income country – but it appears that it may end up more as a defining moment in the grave failings of the year-old Najib premiership.

Right from the very beginning, the NEM courageouslty admitted that Vision 2020 is not possible without economic, social and government transformation – and the NEM was presented as one of the four key pillars to unleash Malaysia’s growth potential, drive change, propel Malaysia to become a high income advanced nation with inclusiveness and sustainability and achieve Vision 2020.
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