A dispassionate analysis of the forty years of implementation of the NEP-NDP provides many lessons. These include:
What the nation needs is not a return to failed and distorted policies, but a shift towards new instruments and approaches that will contribute to improved competitiveness, strengthened institutions that will deliver cost effective services in an efficient manner, eliminate corruption and rent seeking, and promote ethnic harmony via a Malaysian national agenda rather than promote divisiveness via ill- conceived and failed policies.
What the nation needs at this critical stage in its history is not rhetoric but vision. For one brief moment, hopes were raised that the adoption of the NEM would present an opportunity to move to a framework that would offer the means to escape the constraints of the NEP framework.
Alas, that opportunity has not been grasped. A mutating NEP lives on.
Malaysians need to be brought together and made to engage in a united war against divisive forces preaching race and separatism. A step in that direction would be the convening of a national congress to arrive at a consensus about national priorities foremost among which are the elimination of corruption, adoption of an educational system based on excellence, respect for good governance and the rule of law, and last but not least a return to the underlying principles of the Merdeka Constitution.
This critique of the 10th Plan has attempted to question some of the assumptions and assertions contained in the Plan. It has argued the case for a fresh set of policies and a different approach to confronting the many challenges the nation faces both domestically and internationally.
First and foremost, the majority of Malaysians desire a National Agenda that is not ethno-centric that contributes to national unity, prosperity and a future in which we are identified as Malaysians – not divided into Bumiputras and non- Bumiputras.
Second, there is a deep desire to live in an equitable society with absolute poverty eliminated, and income and wealth disparities reduced.
Third, Malaysians yearn for an open society that is just, in which human rights and the rule of law are respected.
Fourth, there is a deep desire for a society in which tolerance and respect for diverse views prevails.
Fifth, there is transparency and accountability in the process of governance.
Reaching these goals is as much part of the vision for Malaysia as a developed nation in income terms by the end of the coming decade. That status goes beyond some magical per capita income level. Sadly, the 10th Plan evades these issues and puts the nation on a path that entraps it further as a mediocre middle income country. Circumstances demand a new mix of policies that embrace:
These proposals should be non- controversial and contribute to the development of a National Agenda that is unifying and not polarizing. It is the deepest wish of all Malaysians that there be a coming together, to confront the obstacles and challenges that lie ahead.