Malaysians are now at the crossroads and must choose to take the road towards an advanced high-income country in 2020 or a bankrupt nation in 2019.
The New Economic Model (NEM) launched by the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak on March 30 promised a new development path encompassing economic, social and government transformation to catapult Malaysia from two-decade-long middle income trap to become an advanced high-income nation by 2020.
The NEM is however predicated on one basic assumption – the existence of “political will and leadership to break the logjam of resistance by vested interest groups and preparing the rakyat to support deep-seated changes in policy directions”.
One alternative to a high-income advanced nation with inclusiveness and sustainability by 2020 is the spectre of a bankrupt nation by 2019 so vividly spelt out by the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Datuk Seri Idris Jala, last Thursday.
The rejection of the NEM by the Perkasa-led Malay Consultative Council on Saturday signifies that it is more probable that Malaysia will become a bankrupt nation in 2019 than to be a high-income advanced nation with inclusiveness and sustainability in 2020!
Najib created shock waves not only in the country but also internationally when he yielded to the pressures of the Perkasa-led Malay Consultative Council and began distancing himself from the NEM.
For a year since becoming Prime Minister, Najib and his Cabinet Ministers had been telling the nation and the world of his resolve to take the country on a new economic path under the NEM, which will put a premium on innovation, creativity and meritocracy.
Early this year, he even declared that one principle underpinning the success of the NEM is the “courage and judgment to make tough decisions”.
Why then is Najib demonstrating the lack of “courage and judgment to make tough decisions” when confronted with objection and resistance to the NEM, although this will result in Malaysia becoming a bankrupt nation in 2019 rather than a high-income advanced nation in 2020?
In early March, Najib attempted to quash talk of the repeated delays in launching of the NEM, which was originally scheduled to be announced last year.
Najib went on public record after receiving the the 2009 Annual Report of Pemudah on March 11 that the NEM would be launched on time and in two stages – the first stage on March 30 and the second stage of the announcement would be made concurrently with the unveiling of the 10th Malaysia Plan.
The Tenth Malaysia Plan will be presented in Parliament next Thursday on June 10, but without the second part of the NEM.
As Malaysians had been told that the NEM would be the basis of the Tenth Malaysia Plan, but all this have changed with the recent declaration by Najib that the NEM is not the Government’s “final stand” but merely the “trial balloons” of a group of experts making suggestions from the global market’s perspective.
What then is the basis of the Tenth Malaysia Plan which Najib will present to Parliament next Thursday?
[Speech at the Sabah DAP Tadau Kaamatan dinner at Dowish Restaurant, Kota Kinabalu on Monday, 31st May 2010 at 9pm]
Courage and determination? Hell, if he had just anticipated Perkasa shooting him in public, I would have some respect for it. The fact he got bamboozled in public by the likes of Ibrahim Ali? He can’t even outmanouvre an opportunist and idiot like that? What hope does he in outmanouvering those with a lot more skills like Muhiyiddin, Hamidi etc.
Najib has a long consistent record of screwing up. What you see basically is that. Its just that he had his father legacy to fall on and the system he came up in was unbelievably forgiving of the worst idiots.
The root of the problem of his plan was that it was too complicated. He had never successfully executed anything complicated. What chance did he ever had of executing something so complicated like NEM that basically promise everything to everyone with a complicated plan?
The choice for him was a hard one from the start and he did not make it. Its likely he could not even make it because of his own personal political baggage. But even if he did not have the personal baggage, I don’t believe he could ever made the tough choices. He was really the wrong man for the job from the start.
Truth be told, there is no one who can make the right choices in UMNO/BN. All that can be hoped for is those that make the worst choice to take over quickly so that everything falls apart faster and we can move on after that.
There is no choice in the matter. Lets just accelerate the pain and take it on. We really have to fall apart as a country before we can come back together and have a consensus.
Malaysians are now at the crossroads – vote PR for an advanced high-income country in 2020 or BN for a bankrupt nation in 2019.
Is he a “trial balloon” Prime Minister?
What a way to back down from the Malay congress – just like how the government gave in to the cops over IPCMC.
the only difference between NEM and NEP is their spelling…
NEM, realised or not would not bear any significant benefit to ALL tiers of Malaysians..nepotism and cronyism would still persist…it has and will always be the case of “easier talk, than walk the talk”…
Oh dear, I hope PR don’t inherit a near-bankrupt country that eventually become bankrupt when it takes over.
Its not too late if PR is given the chance to turn around the country by holding an early election. On the other hand they are likely to suck out all to the last cent before exiting .
So it seems to me ibrahim bin perkasa with his band of wild wild bums (led by the all time great destroyer of all things good and orderly, dr mamak) are determined to drive the whole country to bankruptcy. Should we let them? Of course NO. We should not. But I can sense chengho cheering and clapping away. “Yeah Yeah we will be bankrupt soon! We will become a bankrupt nation.” Fellas. 9-yr is a short time. That also means we have no time to lose. Come GE13 vote umno out. Throw those bums out with one decisive hurl. And make sure they can never come back.
i really hope that PR especially PKR is not just all talks IF they are in power come GE13…
Remove the subsidies and there will not only be a GAS, but also a GAN, not only among the Indians but also encompassing all the ethnic groups
QUOTE: “Early this year, [Najib] even declared that one principle underpinning the success of the NEM is the “courage and judgment to make tough decisions”. Why then is Najib demonstrating the lack of “courage and judgment to make tough decisions” when confronted with objection and resistance to the NEM, although this will result in Malaysia becoming a bankrupt nation in 2019 rather than a high-income advanced nation in 2020?”
Talking is easier than doing. So people only talk. Chui kong lampa song, that’s what the Hokkein will say.
forget about high income nation, forget about vision 2020 may be it should vision buta 2020.
Look at our local graduate. they can not perform they can not communicate well and how to earn a high income.
We are losing to our neighbors.
education in Malaysia is in a mess and all these while none of education ministers has done anything .
forget about high income we should be happy if we can just maintain present level and not go burst in 9 years may be nearer
Vote BN is seen as one way street toward bankruptcy! People like Changehole, an UMNOputra disguised himself as Chinese with sporty Chinese name for cheating & sucking around for many “duit”…. They, BN & Changehole, will suck you up than not….
“Ooh.. They come… They’re suckers….”
It seems that Najib is working with some party on planning to open up a factory manufacturing Armour vehicles for Malaysia.
Apparently, it is almost a done deal.
Another nail in the coffin for Malaysia.
I have a relative who just complete his ‘MATRICULATION” and was offer a place in a LOCAL U. He scored 4 of of the possible grading of 4. Wonderful ? But no only him many of his friends also scored 4 out of 4. In future the grading system should use a maximum of 3 instead of 4 as 4 mean dead in Chinese. So this relative of mine is “si liao liao “ when he coming out from local U
He also told me that English was not taking into account in the grading. Wonderful so that no need to learn too much English.
I was also told that, his lecturer ask him not to used high power English word during the English oral test. I ask why. The answer was certain lecturer or teachers in Matriculation do not understand high power words. So better of to use Malglish and never use proper English.
I pity him as he was bright but end up with the matriculation for 18 moths. It was a curse and not blessing because he will not be competitive even he can graduate easily from a local U but it will be tough for him when he is working later on. He has to retrain when he is out of the local U. Can he become high income earner? Doubtful.
For those who think and fight for matriculation and think this was an easy route to Local U must have to think first. But if you have an offer that so many fight for it you may never resist it. This was the new dilemma of today pre U student.
I also know many who have been educated all the way in overseas since very young age will never come back to Malaysia. Even they come back they will chose to a tourist and remain works in Singapore.
These are facts of life in Malaysia today. Malaysian education has been kaput for many years. It will not be subsidies that will kaput Malaysia , but education will kaput-kan Malaysia.
Someone here remarked that hopefully pakatan does not take over a bankrupt country. I say pakatan must take over the country whether bankrupt or not bankrupt. Already we are near bankruptcy and this was due solely and purely to umno’s mismanagement, abuse and corruption. Imagine if we still have umno in control when the country is already bankrupt. Imagine what ibrahim bin perkasa would do to the country and to the rest of us non-umnoputras. And what dr mamak would do. Unthinkable. Simply unthinkable.
PM dare not offend the people. He wants to be the PM forever. Unfortunately, the political climate is not conducive, and he will succumb to the pressure. The ghost of altantuya must be haunting him. God is also waiting for him. However, a desperate man can do wonders, and it will interesting to watch the show … “The Rise and Fall of Najib”.
Oh dear something is just not right here. The cross-road. Yeah. That between being a high-income earning country and a bankrupt country. How is that possible? I mean the proximity of the two. One of them must be wrong. Perhaps a pure figment of a certain mamak’s imagination. And which therefore should not have been placed before the nation and packaged as an economic target for that now clearly blur 2020 vision.
If we were to achieve our goal by 2020, then by any extension of logic we ought to be standing at the threshold of our goal by 2019. Bankruptcy ought to be far, far away from us.
So something clearly is not right. And I say the 2020 vision was a trick by mamak. And the high income earning nation was an extension of that trick by jib.
Oh dear. Oh dear. Fortunately, GE13 is not too far away.
None of the BN/UMNO ministers know what d hell they r talking.
Maybe there is a 3rd option – any 3rd option is better than being bankrupted by Bn.
our dear 4th PM has great vision (Vision 2020)…
however, his greed and lust is much greater (Bankruptcy 2019?)…
he did brought development to the country BUT he is also the main culprit of all these bankruptcy issue…
wonder what will become of this country today without him as PM…
The Tenth Malaysia Plan will be presented in Parliament next Thursday on June 10, but without the second part of the NEM.// kit
Aiyoo yo yo, smple lah. Jib tried lah many things, 1Malaysia, NEM, made KTK minister, asked Jala to set up labs and incubators etc, but all no effect lah. Look at Hulu Selangor and Sibu, instead of gaining non Malays (Chinese) support, the result opposite lah. So, no choice loh, go back the jingoistic, nationalistic and right wing strategy lah, at least better bet. Most important thing – stay in power lah. With power everything also possible. Why worry the country rich or poor, developed or not developed, bankrupt or not bankrupt. Ask the junta in Myanmar lah, they know better. Soon they can start exporting consultants to rest of Asia lah – how to rule a country forever without people’s support.
nep or nem will die a sudden death with mamak literally. no more selling or buying.
No problem even if Malaysia bankrupt tomorrow, because Idris can easily turn it around, like what he did for MAS.
Even if the country is not bankrupt, if PR were to take over, nothing will be left in the coffers, funds will be transferred to temporary storage before election results is announced….
Dato Idris Jala does not belong to any political party.He speak his mind and is telling the nation especially BN government indirectly that if we keep these leakages(corruption) ongoing we will be bankrupt.Anyway BN won’t listen.Just the poor Malaysian will be suffering.BN politician will be filthy rich.Anyway how to be bankrupt and then the following year attain financial freedom?Can BN please explain?
The Perkasa frog has his share from the sports betting, who’s he to reject NEM. He’s a disgrace to his own community that sells his values for ‘haram’ money. Such idiots shouldn’t have the rights to represent any Malay community or any political party.
Najib is flap flop on the NEM, he will lost his position and support from the UMNO cronies if he supports the other communities. 1Malaysia looks good for the other communities on Part 1 of the NEM but discarded by the UMNO cronies and Perkasa. Part 2 is yet to be seen and should be the other way round.
Are our NEM, novels that can be changed overnight or a realistic ‘courage and judgement in making tough decisions’ or a ‘trial & error,’ like the development of our national cars.
High income or bankrupted depends on the governance or maybe a changed of government.
“………Malaysians are now at the crossroads and must choose to take the road towards an advanced high-income country in 2020 or a bankrupt nation in 2019……..” – Kit
Maybe for Barisan Nasianal/UMNO it will be like this :
Malaysia will become bankrupt in 2019…. the take the quantum leap within a year to become a high-income advanced nation by 2020,… achieving Vision 2020 ??
Or now vision 2020 would become ANGAN-ANGAN MAT JENIN 2020?
Now with Mahathir even support the continuity of Economic Parasitism and ‘culture of mediocrity’ by supporting PERKASA….so do Malaysia under the government of Barisan Nasional have what it take to become a developed nation by 2020?
The sooner Malaysia become bankrupt the better, because it is easier to build from scratch.
“No pain no gain” …. go back to the farm or the fishing village, and work hard, and forget about NEP, NEM, AP, Ketuanan, and free this and free that. This will help to produce a new generation of hard-working and highly productive people who are able to compete openly, no more using tongkat, can even run very fast with own legs, like those in Singapore. Simple formula. Truth can really hurt a lot.