Posted on by Kit

Razaleigh – NEP has expired. Time for New Deal

Speech by Tengku Razaleigh at HELP University College, KL; July 10, 2009

  1. Thank you for inviting me to address you. It’s a pleasure to be here, and to learn from you. You have asked me to talk about Najib’s First 100 Days, and this lecture is in a series called Straight Talk. I shall indeed speak plainly and directly.

  2. Let me begin by disappointing you. I am not going to talk about Najib’s First 100 Days because it makes little sense to do so.

  3. Our governments are brought to power for five year terms through general elections. The present government was constituted after March 8, 2008 and Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak’s tenure as Prime Minister resulted from a so-called “smooth transfer of power” between the previous Prime Minister and himself that took a somewhat unsmooth twelve months to carry out. During those months, Najib took on the de facto leadership role domestically while Abdullah warmed our international ties. The first 100 days of this government went by unremarked sometime in June last year.

  4. Not only is it somewhat meaningless to talk about Najib’s First 100 days, such talk buys into a kind of political silliness that we are already too prone to. It has us imagine that the present government started work on April 2 and forget that it commenced work on March 8 last year and must be accountable for all that has been done or not done since then. It has us forget that in our system of parliamentary, constitutional democracy, governments are brought to power at general elections and must be held accountable for promises made at these elections. It leads us to forget that these promises, set out in election manifestos, are undertaken by political parties, not individuals, and are not trifles to be forgotten when there is a change of individual.

  5. It is important that we remember these things, cultivate a more critical recollection of them, and learn to hold our leaders accountable to them, so that we are not perpetually chasing the slogan of the day, whether this be Vision 2020, Islam Hadhari or 1Malaysia. As PR Professionals, you would see my point immediately. Slogans without substance undermine trust. That substance is made up of policies that have been thought through and are followed through. That substance is concrete and provided by results we can measure.

  6. Whether or not some of our leaders are ready for it, we are maturing as a democracy. We are beginning to evaluate our governments more by the results they deliver over time than by their rhetoric. As our increasingly well-educated and well-travelled citizens apply this standard, they force our politicians to think before they speak, and deliver before they speak again. As thinking Malaysians we should look for the policies, if any, behind the slogans. What policies are still in place and which have we abandoned? What counts as policy and who is consulted when it is made? How is a proposal formulated and specified and approved before it becomes policy, and by whom? What are the roles of party, cabinet, King and Parliament in this process? Must we know what it means before it is instituted or do we have to piece it together with guesswork? Do we even have a policy process?

  7. The mandate Najib has taken up is the one given to Barisan Nasional under Abdullah Badawi’s leadership. BN was returned to power in the 12th General Elections on a manifesto promising Security, Peace and Prosperity. It is this manifesto against which the present administration undertook to be judged. The present government inherits projects and policies such as Islam Hadhari and Vision 2020. If these are still in place, how do they relate to each other and to 1 Malaysia? How do we evaluate the latest slogan against the fact of constitutional failure in Perak, the stench of corruption in the PKFZ project and reports of declining media freedom? What do we make of cynical political plays on racial unity against assurances that national unity is the priority?

  8. It is not amiss to ask about continuity. We were told that the reason why we had to have a yearlong ‘transfer of power’ to replace the previous Prime Minster was so that we could have such policy continuity. The issues before the present BN government are not transformed overnight with a change of the man at the top.

  9. Let me touch on one issue every Malaysian is concerned with: security. The present government made the right move in supporting the establishment of the Royal Commission to Enhance the Operations and Management of the Police in 2004. Responding to the recommendations of the Royal Commission, the government allocated the PDRM RM8 billion to upgrade itself under the 9th Malaysia Plan, a tripling of their allocation under the 8th Malaysia Plan.

  10. Despite the huge extra amounts we are spending on policing, there has been no dent on our crime problem, especially in the Johor Bahru area, where it continues to make a mockery of our attempts to develop Iskandar as a destination for talent and investment. Despite spending all this money, we have just been identified as a major destination for human trafficking by the US State Department’s 2008 Human Rights Watch. We are now in the peer group of Sudan, Saudi Arabia and North Korea for human trafficking. All over the world the organized cross-border activity of human trafficking feeds on the collusion of crime syndicates and corrupt law enforcement and border security officials. Security is about more than just catching the criminals out there. It is also about the integrity of our own people and processes.  It is above all about uprooting corruption and malpractice in government agencies, especially in law enforcement agencies. I wish the government were as eager to face the painful challenge of reform as to spend money. The key recommendation of the Royal Commission was the formation of an Independent Police Complaints and Misconduct Commission. That has been shelved.

  11. Royal Commissions and their findings are not to be trifled with and applied selectively. Their findings and recommendations are conveyed in a report submitted to the King, who then transmits them to the Government. Their recommendations have the status of instructions from the King. The recommendations of the Royal Commission on the Police have not been properly implemented. The Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Lingam Video clip might as well not have been conducted, because its findings have been completely ignored. Both Commissions investigated matters fundamental to law and order in this country: the capability and integrity of the police and of the judiciary. No amount of money thrown at the PDRM or on installing CCTV’s can make up for what happens to our security when our law enforcers and our judges are compromised.

  12. Two Royal Commissions undertaken under the present government unearthed deep issues in the police and the judiciary and made recommendations with the King’s authority behind them, and they have been ignored. The public may wonder if the government is committed to peace and security if it cannot or will not address institutional rot in law enforcement and the rule of law.

  13. The reform of the police and the judiciary has been on the present government’s To Do list for more than five years.

  14. I want to reflect now upon where we stand today and how we might move forward. We are truly at a turning point in our history. Our political landscape is marked with unprecedented uncertainty. Nobody knows what the immediate future holds for us politically. This is something very new for Malaysians. The inevitability of a strong BN government figured into all political and economic calculations and provided a kind of stability to our expectations. Now that this is gone, and perhaps gone for good, we need a new basis for long-term confidence. No matter who wins the next General Election, it is likely to be with a slim majority. Whatever uncertainty we now face is likely to persist unless some sort of tiebreaker is found which gathers the overwhelming support of the people.

  15. We need to trust less in personalities and more in policies, look less to politics and more to principle, less to rhetoric and more to tangible outcomes, less to the government of the day and more to enduring institutions, first among which must be the Federal Constitution.

  16. We need an unprecedented degree of openness and honesty about what our issues are and what can be done; about who we are, and where we want to go. We need straight talk rather than slogans. We need to be looking the long horizon rather than occupying ourselves with media-generated milestones.

  17. Those of us who think about the future of Malaysia have never been so restless. The mould of our past is broken, and there is no putting it back together again, but a new mould into which to pour our efforts is not yet cast. This is a time to think new thoughts, and to be courageous in articulating them.

  18. Such is the case not just in politics but also in how the government manages the economy. In a previous speech I argued that for our economy to escape the “middle income trap” we need to make a developmental leap involving transformative improvements in governance and a successful reform of our political system. I said the world recession is a critical opportunity for us to re-gear and re-tool the Malaysian economy because it is a challenge to take bold, imaginative measures. We must make that leap or remain stuck as low achievers who were once promising.

  19. We are in a foundational crisis both of our politics and of our economy. In both dimensions, the set plays of the past have taken us as far as they can, and can take us no further. Politically and economically, we have arrived at the end of the road for an old way of managing things. The next step facing us is not a step but a leap, not an addition to what we have but a shift that changes the very ground we play on.

  20. This is not the first time in our brief history as an independent nation that we have found ourselves at an impasse and come up with a ground-setting policy, a new framework, a leap into the future. The race riots of 1969 ended the political accommodation and style of the first era of our independence. Parliament was suspended and a National Operations Council put in place under the leadership of the late Tun Razak. He formed a National Consultative Council to study what needed to be done. The NCC was a non-partisan body which included everyone. It was the NCC that drafted and recommended the New Economic Policy. This was approved and implemented by the Government.

  21. The NEP was a twenty year programme. It had a national, and not a racial agenda to eradicate poverty and address structural inequality in the form of the identification of race with occupation. It aimed to remove a colonial era distribution of economic roles in our economy. Nowhere in its terms is any race specified, nor does it privilege one race over another. Its aim was unity.

  22. The NEP’s redistributive measures drew on principles of social justice, not claims of racial privilege. This is an important point. The NEP was acceptable to all Malaysians because its justification was universal rather than sectarian, ethical rather than opportunistic. It appealed to Malaysians’ sense of social justice and not to any notion of racial privilege.

  23. We were devising a time-limited policy for the day, in pursuit of a set of measurable outcomes. We were not devising a doctrine for an eternal socio-economic arrangement. Like all policies, it was formulated to solve a finite set of problems, but through an enduring concern with principles such as equity and justice. I happen to think it was the right thing for the time, and it worked in large measure.

  24. Curiously, although the policy was formulated within the broad consensus of the NCC for a finite period, in our political consciousness it has grown into an all-encompassing and permanent framework that defines who we are. We continue to act and talk as if it is still in place. The NEP ended in 1991 when it was terminated and replaced by the New Development Policy, but eighteen years on, we are still in its hangover and speak confusingly about liberalizing it. The NEP was necessary and even visionary in 1971, but it is a crushing indictment of our lack of imagination, of the mediocrity of our leadership, that two decades after its expiry, we talk as if it is the sacrosanct centre of our socio-political arrangement, and that departures from it are big strides. The NEP is over, and we have not had the courage to tell people this. The real issue is not whether the NEP is to be continued or not, but whether we have the imagination to come up with something which better serves our values and objectives, for our own time.

  25. Policies are limited mechanisms for solving problems. They become vehicles for abuse when they stay on past their useful life. Like political or corporate leaders who have stayed too long, policies that overrun their scope or time become entrenched in abuse, and confuse the means that they are with the ends that they were meant to serve. The NEP was formulated to serve the objective of unity. That objective is enduring, but its instrument can come up for renewal or replacement. Any organisation, let alone a country, that fails to renew a key policy over forty years in a fast-moving world is out of touch and in trouble.

  26. There is a broad consensus in our society that while the NEP has had important successes, it has now degenerated into a vehicle for abuse and inefficiency. Neither the Malays nor the non-Malays approve of the way it now works, although there would be multiracial support for the objectives of the NEP, as originally understood. The enthusiasm with which recent reforms have been greeted in the business and international communities suggests that the NEP is viewed as an obstacle to growth. This was not what it was meant to be.

  27. It was designed to promote a more equitable and therefore a more harmonious society. Far from obstructing growth, the stability and harmony envisaged by the NEP would were to be the basis for long term prosperity.

  28. Over the years, however, and alongside its successes, the NEP has been systematically appropriated by a small political and business class to enrich itself and perpetuate its power. This process has corrupted our society and our politics. It has corrupted our political parties. Rent-seeking practices have choked the NEP’s original intention of seeking a more just and equitable society, and have discredited the broad nation-building enterprise which this policy was meant to serve.

  29. Thus, while the NEP itself has expired, we live under the hangover of a policy which has been skewed from its intent. Instead of coming up with better policy tools in pursuit of the aims behind the NEP, a set of vested interests rallies to defend the mere form of the NEP and to extend its bureaucratic sway through a huge apparatus of commissions, agencies, licenses and permits while its spirit has been evacuated. In doing so they have clouded the noble aims of the NEP and racialized its originally national and universal concerns.

  30. We must break the stranglehold of communal politics and racial policy if we want to be a place where an economy driven by ideas and skills can flourish. This is where our daunting economic and political challenges can be addressed in one stroke. We can do much better than cling to the bright ideas of forty years ago as if they were dogma, and forget our duty to come up with the bright ideas for our own time. The NEP, together with the Barisan coalition, was a workable solution for Malaysia forty years ago. But forty years ago, our population was about a third of what it is today, our economy was a fraction the size and complexity that it is now, and structured around the export of tin and rubber rather than around manufacturing, services and oil and gas. Forty years ago we were in the midst of the Cold War, and the Vietnam War raged to the north. Need I say we live in a very different world today. We need to talk to the facebook generation of young Malaysians connected to global styles and currents of thought. We face global epidemics, economic downturns and planetary climate change.

  31. We can do much better than to cling to the outer form of an old policy. Thinking in these terms only gives us the negative policy lever of “relaxing” certain rules, when what we need is a new policy framework, with 21st century policy instruments. We have relaxed some quotas. We have left Approved Permits and our taxi licensing system intact. We have left the apparatus of the NEP, and a divisive mindset that has grown up around it, in place. Wary of well-intentioned statements with no follow-through, the business community has greeted these reforms cautiously, noting that a mountain of other reforms are needed. One banker was quoted in a recent news article as saying: “All the reforms need to go hand in hand..Why is there an exodus of talent and wealth? It is because people do not feel confident with the investment climate, security conditions and the government in Malaysia. Right now, many have lost faith in the system.”

  32. The issues are intertwined. Our problems are systemic and rooted in the capability of the government to deliver, and the integrity of our institutions. It is clear that piecemeal “liberalization” and measure by measure reform on a politicized timetable is not going to do the job.
    33.What we need is a whole new policy framework, based on a comprehensive vision that addresses root problems in security, institutional integrity, education and government capability. What we need to do is address our crisis with the bold statecraft from which the NEP itself originated, not cling to a problematic framework that does little justice to our high aspirations. The challenge of leadership is to tell the truth about our situation, no matter how unpalatable, to bring people together around that solution, and to move them to act together on that solution.

  33. If the problem is really that we face a foundational crisis, then it is not liberalization of the NEP, or even liberalization per se that we need. From the depths of the global economic slowdown it is abundantly clear that the autonomous free market is neither equitable nor even sustainable. There is no substitute for putting our heads together and coming up with wise policy. We need a Malaysian New Deal based on the same universal concerns on which the NEP was originally formulated but designed for a new era: we must continue to eradicate poverty without regard for race or religion, and ensure that markets serve the people rather than the other way around.

  34. Building on the desire for unity based social justice that motivated the NEP in 1971, let us assist 100% of Malaysians who need help in improving their livelihoods and educating their children. We want the full participation of all stakeholders in our economy. A fair and equitable political and economic order, founded on equal citizenship as guaranteed in our Constitution, is the only possible basis for a united Malaysia and a prerequisite of the competitive, talent-driven economy we must create if we are to make our economic leap.

  35. If we could do this, we would restore national confidence, we would bring Malaysians together in common cause to build a country that all feel a deep sense of belonging to. We would unleash the kind of investment we need, not just of foreign capital but of the loyalty, effort and commitment  of all Malaysians.

  36. I don’t know about you. I am embarrassed that after fifty years of independence we are still talking about bringing Malaysians together. I would have wished that by now, and here tonight, we could be talking about how we can conquer new challenges together.

37 Replies to “Razaleigh – NEP has expired. Time for New Deal”

  2. Ku Li:

    You have tried to make a difference from within for over 20 years, and it hasn’t worked. You should just join Anwar and Zaid at PKR, and start working towards a new federal government in 2013.

    The current regime is too corrupt to know anything else other than to continue stealing.

  3. Right. Got it mate. Lets abandon nep. (ploop! flush flush followed by the noise of rushing water) We now have something new. Lets call it MND. Yeah ladies and gentlement. Introducing the malaysian new deal!

    (umnoputra clapping away in the background)

  5. Yeah,I agreed with Godfather,now that Ku Li has differentiated himself away from NR/Umno politics and policies,why not now join hands with Anwar and Zaid ! Ku LI is a sure asset to PR.He should leave this Umno baru as it does not fit him since he belongs to the original/old Umno. He should also contact Tun Musa Hitan to join hands and help PR to win this 13 GE to save Malaysia from becoming backward and bankrupt.

  7. so many dis-satifaction comments by the wise Ku Li which most of us feel its true. all the mumbo-jumbos of bn rule for 50years and we are not as advanced as japan,korea or even india for heaven’s sake.

    i really admire singapore’s progress for being so successful though it has inadequate resources unlike malaysia which has aplenty not to mentioned vast lands. if malaysia is better than singapore, i’m sure our ringgit with be RM1 = S$2.50 but its not.

    maybe its the approach of bn playing sweet talks with us. only a limited version of people ( mostly bn politicians ) becomes rich through corruptions overnights leaving us to accepting only ‘peanuts’ given by the government.

    the other thing that amazed me is Ku Li is STILL PART OF BN!!! why didn’t he want to join pk or form a new political party ( indians are in REAL NEED bcs MIC & Hindraf ) has FAILED THEM!!! is Ku Li waiting around bcs hoping BN will drop him some CASH??? he didn’t join pk bcs they can’t give him cash because they are in short of it too !!!

    So Ku LI, what’s your hidden agenda?anybody knows, enlighten me please.

  8. Beautiful.
    Two speeches in two days that should enter the history books: Zaid Ibrahim in Manek Urai; and now TRH in HELP.
    Razaleigh was blunt before, but this is the first time that he dumped the ‘race based’ policy altogether. Impossible for him to remain in UMNO. If they finally kick him out or not, he cannot and must not be an UMNO member in future. Think it over: UMNO is the incarnation of a race-based party; with the concept of representing the members of the Malay ethnicity solely as mission statement. In principle, TRH has catapulted himself out of that vehicle. Now he should have the guts to actively follow up on his own words.

  10. What does Razaleigh want? Surely, he doesn’t need money. He is rich, and he is no show off.
    What he wants, is the PMship. Now UMNO is out, and he knows it. He ought to resign, and he knows it. But if he resigned, he’d lose some assets, potential, and image. As far as I am concerned, he wants to be kicked out, and then offer himself as potential PM to PKR (any next PM outside of UMNO would have to come from the ranks of PKR; these days DAP and PAS are out – which is why those traitors in PAS now hook up with UMNO; to make it at least into the government, minimally on the level of DPM).
    And Razaleigh needs to amass value; it won’t be easy to convince Anwar to wait yet another round. TRH does not care much about being DPM. If Anwar were as generous and humble as he professes, he’d only have to sit down with Razaleigh and convince him of his own freeze of ambitions. (Which I doubt Anwar would ever do: scaling down his ambition.)
    To me, Razaleigh has put himself on the market, and now waits for shoppers to pick him up for a good price. Because he is of value as candidate:he is perceived as clean; professional, with a background in finance (he was the first CEO of Petronas). Comparatively, the other contenders have some more or less heavy baggage: from a Mongolian backpack to a somewhat shady past as staunch Malay racist to the contrary; that is: a chameleon. TRH is the most trustworthy candidate in all of Malaysia. And he tries to play this out.

  11. After 1 year, RM18 million complex is fit for garbage dump

    The RM18 million Aquatic Centre in Batu Burok here was ordered by the Works Ministry to close indefinitely yesterday. Works Minister Datuk Shaziman Abu Mansor said too many flaws had been detected in the year-old centre, making it unsafe for public use.

    The state of the art centre, which has separate facilities for swimming and diving events, was completed in May last year, just in time for the Malaysia Games.

  12. THIS IS THE MAN WHO SHOULD BE GIVEN 100% SUPPORT AS PM AND LEADER OF A FUTURE MALAYSIA.

    HE HAS THE MIND OF LEE KUAN YEW OF GREAT SINGAPORE.

    IF HE WAS THE PM THEN MALAYSIA IS ALREADY A FULLY DEVELOPED NATION TODAY.

    LONG LIVE TR! DOWN WITH UMNO and NEP!

  15. /// 20. The race riots of 1969 ended the political accommodation and style of the first era of our independence. Parliament was suspended and a National Operations Council put in place under the leadership of the late Tun Razak. He formed a National Consultative Council to study what needed to be done. The NCC was a non-partisan body which included everyone. It was the NCC that drafted and recommended the New Economic Policy. This was approved and implemented by the Government.///–Tengku Razaleigh

    The objective of communism was to take what you need and give what you can to make sharing possible. That was a noble objective, and the system went a step further from socialism in that distribution was to be undertaken directly by the government. Everybody is equal where there is no discrimination against individuals based on race creed or religion. But only those who are in control of state apparatus are more equal among others. More equal translate into doubling up or more of others’ right.
    Communism has a great ideal, and the few countries that implemented it have now only the ideology written in their constitution, and nothing else.

    NEP was a new found ideal in 1969, and it had the policy bull eye to dissociate race from economic functions. Consequently race was the only criterion used in NEP spawned projects to restructure society. Had they decided to dissolve all race-based political parties, such as merging the constituent raced based UMNO, MCA and MIC into one Alliance party, and continued with political accommodation and style of the first era of independence, we will now be an economic power in Asia, next only to Japan.

    It has been said that a committee has the capability of designing a horse to end up as a camel. The NCC has recommended a plan to make the country race-blind into race- conscious and race-sensitive.

    ///21.The NEP was a twenty year programme. It had a national, and not a racial agenda to eradicate poverty and address structural inequality in the form of the identification of race with occupation. It aimed to remove a colonial era distribution of economic roles in our economy. Nowhere in its terms is any race specified, nor does it privilege one race over another. Its aim was unity.///– Tengku Razaleigh

    Tengku Razaleigh knows it and says it as it should be said. But do the present UMNO supreme council members know about them and agree to the original objective of NEP, rather than NEP Bahru as TDM had mutated it. Would the delegates who attend UMNO general assembly accept them? The son-in-law of AAB wanted to increase the 30% target of NEP on corporate share for Malays to 60%, and promote Malay agenda to further advance NEP.
    NEP was implemented as a racial agenda at its very inception. Malay civil servants were getting accelerated promotion in government departments where it was common since 1970s to see that the non-Malay boss became the subordinates of their Malays subordinate who understudied him. That was how the non-Malay civil servants suffered since the advent of NEP, and the reason why we have only Malays as heads of departments. Though Malays had a higher proportion in the government service before May 13, the ratio increased when over zealous Malays officers exercised their discretion in their own perverted standard of judging merit, with obvious support from their political masters. If NEP had been accepted as a non-racial agenda, meritocracy should be a norm in all selections, such as scholarship awards, recruitments in university teaching posts, in government services, in the judiciary, and the enforcement agencies including the police force. The government pretends the non-Malays were not interested in applying for jobs in government. If the statistics were true, then the government should review its racist policy in recruitment, promotion and assignment within the services.

    Without NEP unity could be assumed. With NEP unity is undermined.

    /// 22. The NEP’s redistributive measures drew on principles of social justice, not claims of racial privilege. This is an important point. The NEP was acceptable to all Malaysians because its justification was universal rather than sectarian, ethical rather than opportunistic. It appealed to Malaysians’ sense of social justice and not to any notion of racial privilege.///-Tengku Razaleigh

    Communism was appealing particularly to the young because they were naïve. NEP was appealing in the write up. But when Tun Razak declared that he would not reconvene Parliament unless he could amend the constitution, non-Malays who had the prescient of what were to come over the past 40 years left Malaysia shores in drove. Malaysia have lost two generations of hard working and highly trained personnel after NEP. To the current crop of UMNO leaders, Tun Razak’s remark that it was a good riddance was their guiding light. Indeed had they stayed, some might be making a challenge to their political power. That might be good for the country, but bad for them, the UMNOputras. But they have no concept of a country: it was a corporation for them to milk, like CEOs of the failed corporations caring only for themselves.

  17. //Building on the desire for unity based social justice that motivated the NEP in 1971, let us assist 100% of Malaysians who need help in improving their livelihoods and educating their children. We want the full participation of all stakeholders in our economy. A fair and equitable political and economic order, founded on equal citizenship as guaranteed in our Constitution, is the only possible basis for a united Malaysia and a prerequisite of the competitive, talent-driven economy we must create if we are to make our economic leap.//TR

    You see, this is where I get a little apprehensive! Wasn’t what you said is quite similar to the original intent of 1971 NEP. The proof of the pudding is in the eating. The 1971 NEP has seriously gone wrong because the government thought it can do wonder. The government intervened too excessively and into too many facets of our economy. Rightly, the government should only concentrate on social programmes, education, health and providing public infrastructure. But no, the government was greedy. It wanted to run commercial and development banks and GLCs, setting up Car Company, cement and steel plants. It wanted to support stock prices, control market prices, and excessively regulate the award of licences and permits.

    Yes, we know recently there was a massive market failure around the world. But we also know that the government is least capable of doing all these kinds of things. The demise of communism is enough indication of that. I mean doing business using state money, what can be more idiotic than that. Just look at the squandering and the corruption that happened in Malaysia during the last thirty years or so. They are hardly related to traditional government roles in providing education, health, social programmes and public infrastructure. Instead, the bulk of the squandering was related to ill-conceived privatization, government involvement in businesses, currency and tin trading, losses in government owned commercial and development banks, excessive price control and regulation over licences and permits.

    The cost of NEP would have been much lower if the government just concentrated on social engineering. It was government getting too greedy and wanting to do too many things that sucked this country dry and saddled this country with colossal inefficiency.

  18. 1. The Rot of Malaysia started with the Bias Constitution siding the Power of People with Freedom of MP or Senators NOT to do their Monitoring Work. How many Bills had got to make the PM more Powerful than even a King?
    Did Ku Li utter anything to give these strict?

    2. So WHY NEP he is talking so much?

    3. “A Wise man should choose the Right House of Justice to Stay”, Anything he experienced in UMNO had been in line with what he Preached and Does he believe with the Flock of Crones in UNMO, can any change be there and he should go elsewhere?

    4. Will staying in the Shameful party without hammering the Ethnics of those who had betrayed the People draw the believe of People that he will act for the People? Nothing UMNO but the People?

    THE BASIC PROBLEM IS THOSE IN POWER HAD LOST THEIR HEART AND ETHNICS EVEN TO PERFORM THE BASIS OF WHAT THEY SHOULD BE?

    5. How often Ku Li had been against those BIAS BILLS & LAWS and the non-performing Parliament or Cabinet? What did he say on the Bully of UMNO in the Perak probe?

    6. Any New Economical Plans will rots without a proper Monitoring Systems with a fair Constitution with Human Rights. A lot of those BIAS laws have to be ended before Malaysia can put ONE STEP FORWARDS!!

  19. Ku Li,
    As you ride into the sunset of your political life, you have written a fine article.

    Make it a defining moment of your life to amend for those years you chose to languish in the hell-hole of UMNO.

    Make this your final curtain call as your last opportunity to atone yourself by joining Anwar Ibrahim and throw those beyond redemption and the Mahathir institutionalized corruption out.

    If you choose to do the talk, you will have to walk the talk.

    It’s your call to make this final moment a lasting legacy and to be remembered as the man who dared to make a difference.

    Otherwise, you will just be another UMNO man with a well written article!

  20. It is amusing to see how a major beneficiary of the NEP, who spent time at a community college on an adult education course in the U.S. at the expense of Malaysian taxpayers, came back to serve the UMNO government, retires and now uses a handle ‘limkamput’ pretending to be who he is not so he could bash his former employer on an opposition blog.

  21. If Najib Razak really has the true intention to tackle the Corruption Problems within Umno and without Umno, then a corruption-free Umno will surely elect a clean candidate like Tengku Razaleigh to replace Najib as the Umno President three years later. The big question now is “Does Najib really have the true intention of wanting to tackle the Corruption Problems when corruption practices will remain as the only way out for a candidate to win the contest for top party post in Umno?”

    Corruption is like Drug Addiction — once a person gets addicted, it is almost impossible for him to have successfully quit the bad habit if he does not come with a strong determination! Najib will not have such a strong determination! Why don’t Ku Li just give it a serious thought for staying far away from the addiction problem and try to get much closer to the drug-free peer group in Pakatan Rakyat, for the sake of a better future for all Malaysian people?

  23. If the new PM is serious about eradicating corruption, he should replace all the HP6 ministers and departmental heads, starting with himself.
    First and foremost, he must apologise to the people of Perak, and admit all his mistakes, including the 500 million submarine deal.

  24. he can only give penny things to us,like reducing TOL rates,infact,talking about priority,abolish the APs,the prices of motor vehicles have been one of the most expensive in the world in terms of PCI.

    yes,we have created a few millionaires by APs,but the 8 million vehicle owners are suffering high price,high loan,lengthy term loan,high insurance premiums…………..and so on.

    Ku Li,wat say you about this?

  25. btw,your 46 ex-compatriot yatim rais is doing very ‘well’ in UMNO,he likes ‘babi’ very much,to the extend that he supports the quoting of ‘influenza-A H1N1’ to be ‘influenza babi’ by the gomen controlled medias!

  27. I suspect that if he still had a shot at top job, he would not be talking like this. Frankly he sounds like a man trying to leave a lasting legacy at the end of his life when his life achievement was pretty much mostly in the beginning.

    For all his criticims of NEP, he does not touch on the fact, a lot of just ordinary and middle class people support NEP and that those leaders who champion the NEP can do so because many people (likely for selfish reasons) support them. He does not examine while the continuatin of NEP is a failure of leadership, he does not ask why failed leadership is supported since the days of Malay sultanate?. Why does he have no idea how to prevent/eliminate or reduce failed leadership rather than criticise basicallty a long history of failed leadership..

  28. KU Li can talk but he cannot act. It is more of academic speech.

    If he knows that the ship is sinking, why stay on. He should abandon the ship and use a life saver and join those that have escaped long time ago.

    If he really cares?

  29. Whether new deal or old deal, the KETUANAN stuff has to go in order to UNITE the people of Malaysia. How do you expect the people to be united when some claim they are above others???? Is this what Najis’ ONE MALAYSIA is all about? The NEP has been proven to be a total failure after nearly 4 decades! Does the BN government still want to insist it be implemented to time infinite??

  30. As a Malaysia citizen, I love my country and there is no doubt that national unity is very important. We can never achieve anything if the nation is divided. However, let’s not blame everything on the NEP. It is the backbone of the policies that have been driving Malaysia to where it is today – a modern and industrialised country. The Constitution has provided very clearly that there are certain special rights accorded to the Malays and these rights are unchallengeable. Let’s not play this down and it is time to accept it without doubt. We have to respect what is provided in the Constitution. If other races can fully understand that respect the importance of this provision, then the nation will be united. NEP is just part of it. If NEP is removed, it must be replaced by another similar policy to safeguard the interest of the Malays as provided under the Constitution. Without this policy, the consequences will be a very serious one. I hope all Malaysia can have a mutual understanding and do not keep arguing on the special rights given to our race. This is very unfair to us.

  32. It is a matter of time Ku Li leave Umno.

    The time would probably on the eve of next GE in 2013.

    His stand on various national issues makes him compatible with PR policies.

    It is strategically good for PR is Ku Li is still in Umno playing the role he is playing now. Perhaps he needs to work harder.

  34. 36.I don’t know about you. I am embarrassed that after fifty years of independence we are still talking about bringing Malaysians together. I would have wished that by now, and here tonight, we could be talking about how we can conquer new challenges together.

    I was already feeling embarrassed 20-30 yrs ago sir.

  35. Taiking,as long as Umno remains in power,your embarrasement will continue.One remedy I can prescribe is you carry your own load,help others to carry their own loads so that they don’t depend on Umno/Bn.Once that done,Umno will be left with tons and tons of loads to carry,so heavy ,it will wear out all its energy,becomes exhausted,dehydrated,and deteriorated into thin air.That’s all it takes.

  36. There is no agreement among Malay leaders whether there was a social contract. Since there was no written and signed agreement by the three major party leaders representing UMNO, MCA and MIC, the only written document which could be said to record the agreements of the Community is the constitution of Malaya of 1957.

    TDM said that Malay leaders on pre-independence Malaya allowed up to two million non-Malays the right to apply for Malayan citizenship, though citizenship was not automatically granted on application. In return the non-Malays agreed that Article 153 be included into the constitution. {TDM did not or forgot to mention that Article 153 was subject to review after 15 years, from Independence Day} So the raison d’etre for the inclusion of that Article was because the situation of Malays at that time would require government assistance through the method of issuing quota in some specific areas for 15 years. After that, depending on the situation of Malays at the review anticipated for 1972, variation or repeal of the Article might take place. So, it was not a case of Malays being granted the special assistance because of the existence the institution of Malay Rulers in the country. That institutions were and are accepted by all citizens, and their position was not a matter for negotiation. The fact that the Rulers are ethnic Malays did not confer people of the community any special right, though current UMNO leaders coined the term of Ketuanan Melayu to indicate the ethnicity of the Rulers. Interestingly, the Rulers do not depend on Article 160 on how to classify Malay.

    As TDM said that the offer of citizenships to non-Malays was the trade off for the Article 153. Obviously non-Malays who were citizens on their own right did not require UMNO’s ‘gift’ of citizenships should not be asked to commit the obligation. The subjects of Penang and Malacca states were automatic citizens of Malaya so the Malays in these two states are either not entitled to Article 153, or the people of Penang and Malacca are entitled to quota established under Article 153.

    Similarly, since the people of f Sabah and Sarawak were themselves citizens of their states when their ‘countries’ joined together with Singapore and Malaya to form Malaysia, they should not be penalised for having to bear the burden of supporting Article 153. It would be unfair to the non-natives of Sabah and Sarawak not only to ‘subsidize’ the natives of these two states, and worse when they have to bear the burden of supporting bumiputras in Peninsular Malaysia.

    NEP was not a social contract. It was a ‘research project’ of NCC, and it was meant to be non-racist and had a fixed term of 20 years for its implementation. The twenty years were up 18 years ago. NEP should be removed. Since the intention of NEP was not to benefit any particular race, its removal should not be viewed in the perspective of race.

    The social contract even if accepted to be so was the agreement reached by the ruling parties. It was not binding on the opposition.

    If the initial founding political parties of Alliance, namely UMNO, MCA and MIC cannot honour the contract in the spirit that it was formulated, MCA and MIC should consider leaving BN. Let UMNO carry on with his own schemes. The poll appearing on Ong Tee Keat’s blog might be viewed as Najib as academic, just like he would on the results of TDM blog on PPSMI, but the voters in Ong Tee Keat’s blog have said enough is enough.

    MCA and MIC should either get the present UMNO leaders to implement what Tengku Razaleigh has indicated. They can choose to work with reasonable leaders in UMNO. Or they should just leave BN.

  37. /// #30 by Kasim Amat on July 12th, 2009 18:38

    As a Malaysia citizen, I love my country and there is no doubt that national unity is very important. We can never achieve anything if the nation is divided. However, let’s not blame everything on the NEP. It is the backbone of the policies that have been driving Malaysia to where it is today – a modern and industrialised country. ///

    Kasim Amat – you don’t need NEP to be a modern industrialised country. Hong Kong, Taiwan, Korea, China, Japan, Singapore, you name it – they don’t need NEP to become developed.

    One thing you are right though – the NEP is the backbone of the policies that have been driving Malaysia to where it is today – a broken-back country that is fast becoming a failed state…

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