— Lucius Goon
The Malaysian Insider
Sep 30, 2011
SEPT 30 — One day soon, I hope a Malaysian leader will emerge who will say what he means and means what he says.
This leader will not tailor his message to his audience, be in love with symbolic acts and depend on image makeovers.
This leader will not be afraid of making unpopular but necessary decisions and policies for the country and will not allow family members or associates to plunder the country at will.
Prime Minister Najib Razak last night spoke at a gathering of Malay business and economic NGOs. He told them not to be too infatuated with protectionism. That was good but in the same speech he also reminded them that the government had reserved more than 40 per cent of the massive MRT project for Bumiputera companies.
That certainly sounds like protectionism to me, and molly-coddling a group of businessmen and creating unnatural business conditions for them.
Najib’s mixed-signal speech last night would be the equivalent of a parent warning a spendthrift son that the days of loans to settle debts were over and then slapped the boy on his back and reminded him that money had been credited into his bank account.
Do you think that the son would be persuaded to change his profligate ways? Similarly, how many of the Malay NGOs last night would actually take to heart that message of cutting the reliance on protectionism, etc?
The more I see it the more I am convinced that Malaysia will only prosper and be a healthy democracy if we have leaders who mean what they say and say what they mean.