October 13, 2010
KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 13 — Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah has joined analysts who are pessimistic that the Economic Transformation Programme (ETP) can be achieved by 2020, and pushed for an open debate about the proposed projects.
He said that a special council was needed, comprising political representatives from both coalitions, leaders from workers’ unions as well as NGOs, as the projects had not been debated “exhaustively”.
“I share the same view, in the sense that the task is monumental, so naturally you are going to bring changes that are not readily acceptable to a lot of people,” Tengku Razaleigh told The Malaysian Insider ahead of the Budget 2010 this Friday.
The Najib administration has set a 10-year timeline for the ETP, through a slew of mega projects to transform Malaysia towards a high-income economy by the year 2020.
The ETP which places a heavy reliance on the private sector, is said to underline Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s desire that the “days where the government knew best” is over.
But analysts and politicians remain doubtful as to whether the ETP, which is under Najib’s New Economic Model (NEM) would be able to spur the RM1.38 trillion in investments needed for the country’s economic transformation.
Among many of the complaints was the fact that there have been no proper debates to address the merits as well as the weaknesses of the ETP.
In an exclusive interview with The Malaysian Insider, the former finance minister said that an open debate was needed on the fine-tuning of the ETP, as well as the NEM.
He claimed that the ETP had not been debated “exhaustively” enough, saying that a special council which comprised of political representatives from both coalitions, leaders from workers’ unions as well as NGOs.
“We need a proper open public debate (on the matter), when we had NEP decades ago it was exhaustively debated at the Goodwill Council (Majlis Muhibbah Negara).
“Back then, when Parliament was not in session the Goodwill Council — which included representatives from unions, political parties debated policies, thrashes out ideas in true democratic fashion. They were the ones who would see whether new ideas would replace old policies,” the Kelantan prince said.
The PM, ministers and Idris Jala looking at ETP plans for the city during the open day.
The politician popularly known as Ku Li noted that the New Economic Policy (NEP)’s downfall was due to plain abuse.
“It (the NEP) did work until people started abusing it..using race. Ethnic grouping was somewhat the thing that spoiled it,” said the Gua Musang MP.
Ku Li said that the open day labs held by Pemandu’s Datuk Seri Idris Jala was not good enough for a proper formulation of the projects within the ETP.
“I don’t think so (that the labs would suffice.) Idris Jala’s labs are meant for specific groupings of people, experts. But the Goodwill Council formed by Mageran(National Action Council) back in the day were made up of grouping of influential people who could move the thinking.
“I think the government needs to call every group discuss on a national policy,” said Tengku Razaleigh.
The various projects in the ETP include the MRT system, the “River of Life” Klang River beautification project in the Greater KL region as well as future 1 Malaysia malls in China and Vietnam.
Other plans include building a huge oil storage facility next to Singapore to form a regional oil products trading hub.
The Performance Management and Delivery Unit (Pemandu) said it had identified investments worth RM1.38 trillion over 10 years, of which 60 per cent would come from the private sector, 32 per cent from government-linked companies and eight per cent from the government.
The investment aims to double per capita income and push Malaysia into the ranks of “developed” nations by 2020, rebalancing Asia’s third-most export-driven economy towards domestic demand and the service sector.
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