Malaysians are now at the crossroads and must choose to take the road towards an advanced high-income country in 2020 or a bankrupt nation in 2019.
The New Economic Model (NEM) launched by the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak on March 30 promised a new development path encompassing economic, social and government transformation to catapult Malaysia from two-decade-long middle income trap to become an advanced high-income nation by 2020.
The NEM is however predicated on one basic assumption – the existence of “political will and leadership to break the logjam of resistance by vested interest groups and preparing the rakyat to support deep-seated changes in policy directions”.
One alternative to a high-income advanced nation with inclusiveness and sustainability by 2020 is the spectre of a bankrupt nation by 2019 so vividly spelt out by the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Datuk Seri Idris Jala, last Thursday. The rejection of the NEM by the Perkasa-led Malay Consultative Council on Saturday signifies that it is more probable that Malaysia will become a bankrupt nation in 2019 than to be a high-income advanced nation with inclusiveness and sustainability in 2020!
Najib created shock waves not only in the country but also internationally when he yielded to the pressures of the Perkasa-led Malay Consultative Council and began distancing himself from the NEM.
For a year since becoming Prime Minister, Najib and his Cabinet Ministers had been telling the nation and the world of his resolve to take the country on a new economic path under the NEM, which will put a premium on innovation, creativity and meritocracy.
Early this year, he even declared that one principle underpinning the success of the NEM is the “courage and judgment to make tough decisions”.
Why then is Najib demonstrating the lack of “courage and judgment to make tough decisions” when confronted with objection and resistance to the NEM, although this will result in Malaysia becoming a bankrupt nation in 2019 rather than a high-income advanced nation in 2020?
In early March, Najib attempted to quash talk of the repeated delays in launching of the NEM, which was originally scheduled to be announced last year.
Najib went on public record after receiving the the 2009 Annual Report of Pemudah on March 11 that the NEM would be launched on time and in two stages – the first stage on March 30 and the second stage of the announcement would be made concurrently with the unveiling of the 10th Malaysia Plan.
The Tenth Malaysia Plan will be presented in Parliament next Thursday on June 10, but without the second part of the NEM.
As Malaysians had been told that the NEM would be the basis of the Tenth Malaysia Plan, but all this have changed with the recent declaration by Najib 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.
What then is the basis of the Tenth Malaysia Plan which Najib will present to Parliament next Thursday?
[Speech at the Sabah DAP Tadau Kaamatan dinner at Dowish Restaurant, Kota Kinabalu on Monday, 31st May 2010 at 9pm]