The declaration of independence of the Federation of Malaya by Tunku Abdul Rahman Putra Al-Haj (1957)
Talking to the media on “The Malaysian economic agenda’s response to the global economic crisis” event yesterday, Opposition leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim was not short of comments and opinions on the government economic budget package and DPM Najib at the helm as Finance Minister.
Anwar also commented on his PKR’s alternative Malaysian Economic Agenda (MEA) to the current budget plans, which promises a “better economic future”. The backbone of PKR’s MEA policy is to practice open tender and abolish the NEP or Malaysian New Economic Policy which was formed in 1971.
Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim
“I wish him (Najib) luck because he’s going to need it. No one will be immune from the financial crisis sweeping the world. Let us not delude ourselves with the government’s line that we will be spared somehow or that the worst is behind us. Following the sub-prime crisis, the US alone is facing the prospect of a US$3 trillion credit crunch which will emerge soon, according to experts, to dwarf the present financial turmoil.
I don’t want to be accused of painting too gloomy an economic picture but we are in fact looking at an extended period of slow growth, high inflation and high unemployment. A small coterie continuing to rob the nation blind isn’t making our current and worsening economic plight any easier. We need a national consensus on the NEP which is contributing to our economic malaise and we need to dismantle it and replace it with one based on needs and not on race.
Other nations have bridged the gap between the haves and have-nots more successfully than us without being perceived to be discriminatory to those who have struggled hard. Any talk of dismantling the NEP breeds resentment immediately but only among a handful of Umno leaders have long benefitted at the expense of all of us.
Yet many Malays have been deluded into thinking the NEP is somehow intended to benefit them, which is not the same as enjoying the benefits, but how many notice the difference? When government leaders talk about the Bumiputera, what they actually mean is themselves, their wives, son and in-laws. It’s corruption, according to government leaders, when a policeman takes RM50 in bribes but commission when a minister collects RM500 million for himself”
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