KUALA LUMPUR, May 31 — MCA Youth chief Datuk Wee Ka Siong took up the cudgels for the New Economic Model (NEM), calling the Malay Consultative Council’s (MPM) rejection of the proposals as a “primitive understanding” of the global economic climate.
The Najib administration plans to table the NEM with the 10th Malaysia Plan this June 10 and has asked for public feedback to the proposals.
“It is disappointing that the MPM had rejected the NEM. Such thinking is primitive which has not caught up with the pace of globalisation. National wealth should be allocated as per needs and merit.
“This is in tandem with national development and progress,” Wee said in a statement today.
The MPM congress on Saturday passed a 31-point resolution essentially demanding the preservation of race-based affirmative action as expounded by the New Economic Policy (NEP), under the new economic regime.
The umbrella body, comprising 76 Malay NGOs and led by Malay rights group Perkasa, deliberated for hours before unanimously agreeing that the Najib administration’s move would dismantle what they see as inherent Malay rights.
Many of the participants at the congress slammed the NEM and its framers, the National Economic Advisory Council (NEAC), for betraying the social contract which they claimed recognises the special economic rights of the Malays.
Wee (picture) said the “conservative thinking of distribution according to race” will only retard Malaysia’s growth in a world that is growing fiercely competitive.
“Malaysia’s economic development is not a matter of dividing the cake as per ethnic population but rather to expand the cake by jointly working for the wealth to be enjoyed by all.
“I fail to understand why despite living in the 21st century, there are people who have completely ignored the challenges of globalisation and are still living within their parochial closeted frames,” said the MCA Youth chief.
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak has been left with no choice but to go ahead with the unpopular decision of dismantling the NEP amid pressure to resuscitate the nation’s softening economy.
Much of the fattening Malay largesse, economists say, was NEP-induced and has caused investments to wane, the stagnation of wages, and an overall decrease in Malaysia’s global competitiveness.
Wee defended the prime minister, saying his new model “holds a far-sighted macro vision”.
“The proposed NEM and the liberalisation of the economy are decisions which the country has to take towards reaching developed nation status. However, some narrow-minded people have balked at this idea,” he said.
The MCA Youth does not oppose the government funding the poor, but the related funding should not be race-based, said Wee.
“We also need to ensure that the funding is delivered to such individuals or groups who really need it,” he added.
