An Afternoon with Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah(7)

TRH on Economics.

Even though I am tempted to write something on the RM60 billion stimulus package( spread over 2 years), I promised myself to complete my talk with YM Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah. But briefly though, if RM30b is slotted to be spent next year, wouldn't it be part of next year's budget?

Tengku please....can I ask you this direct question I have been waiting to ask you for a long time?

Do you not feel it a personal defeat having been sidelined a few times from becoming the PM of this country? To you- a personal defeat, to this country, a great loss. I mean, back in 1987, the whole country knew you had won. At that time in 1987, I was working at Shell Malaysia- I heard that Daim Zainudin was already acting bizarre for he knew Dr. Mahathir had lost.

And then way back you were the most senior VP of the three then. But you made way for Dr Mahathir. Why Tengku?

True I was the youngest among the three. After Tun Razak died, Captain Hussein Onn wanted to appoint Ghazali Shafie as the deputy PM. The three of us went over to see Captain Hussein to discuss the matter. We told him, if none among the three of us VPs is chosen as deputy, we will resign from UMNO.

Hussein Onn accepted the robust stand by the 3 UMNO VPs. He asked who among the three of you are suited to be the deputy. Tengku Razaleigh gave his opinion.

Ghafar Baba was the most senior in age but lacked sufficient education to become a suitable deputy PM. As he himself was younger than Dr Mahathir, he told Hussein Onn Mahathir would be the better choice. So fate intervened to deliver the decision.

It is part of Malay tradition that the elder one is given earlier passage over the younger. I am a firm believer of (Malay) etiquette.

I did a little research on TRH's explanation. The above sounded so simple to me. I felt there must be some other compelling reasons. I would discover the following story.

Days before Tun Razak died, TRH was summoned by Tun Razak at the hospital in London. Tun Razak told TRH that he has made arrangements which he hoped TRH would come to terms with. The so called arrangement was to have Dr Mahathir be the next deputy en route to becoming the PM. The tacit understanding was after Mahathir,TRH was to become the next leader.

After the 3 VPs saw Captain Hussein, TRH doubled back to talk with Captain Hussein. TRH relayed the entrustment which Tun Razak made to him. I can only guess that TRH must have agonised greatly for having to give an unverifiable story. How could he prove that Tun Razak actually said that? A man and a politician at that can either be a complete liar and an opportunist to do that or he can be absolutely truthful. I do not doubt, that for TRH, he is honour bound to tell the truth. Honour and integrity defines the man.

Tengku, let's talk about economics.

I am very surprised to not see any response from our leaders on the speech you gave at the ASLI forum. I believed you have outlined some economic measures to shield us from the economic downturn. I specifically remembered that you cautioned the government from being over optimistic about the rate of economic growth.

But the government is adamant about having growth in excess of 3.5% kan? Just look at the grown in Q4 in 2008. It was 1%? Now do you think that decreasing rate can be pulled back?

I responded. Tengku- the incredulous thing is the government is not forthcoming about the real facts. They have access to figures, they have access to data from all over the world, yet they have chosen to be duplicitous about it. Don't you find it deceitful that the leaders are now asking us to brace ourselves for hard times? From over optimism to a sense of hopelessness, that would suggest that government does not have a plan to tackle the economic downturn.

Tengku- we have had 2 stimulus [packages actually- the first one on Valuecap, the other the RM 7 billion package.

The first thing I want to ask you- stimulus for whom? Or stimulate who?

Well you know, the other finance minister just announced that they had only spent close to RM600 million only...that would suggest what?

Before he could finish, I asked...Tengku, in your estimation, do we have the money to finance our stimulus?

I believed there's NO money. You have to finance your spending. We have borrowed money from EPF and Tabung Haji, or Khazanah. We can't be borrowing from external sources. We most definitely can't tax our way through.

No money. That can be the only plausible explanation why the government has been slow to spend. What are we waiting for? As you know, there's always lag time from government expenditure to fruition of the effects. Implementation takes time so on and so forth.

Where do you find the money? Our income has been hard hit. Our economy is export driven. Look at the earnings from petroleum. It's now USD 50. Look at our palm oil prices. That too has dropped.

We have a combination of two evils now- dropping revenue and income and stubborn consumer prices. It was a mistake to allow consumer prices to rise. You know prices are sticky downwards. Even as the cost of oil is dropping, prices of consumer products are not falling as fast as falling commodity prices.

Next, the government has to look at what type of industry they want to spend on. Look at specifics. Do a proper analysis. Prioritise them.

Tengku: can we cut down on implementation time, if we insist on transparency and open tenders and what not? That would cause inordinate delays. The other alternative is to choose winners. But that would open you up to charges of cronyism..kan?

You know, we can still have open tenders and apply above board selection process. How do you think, this cronyism started? You must begin eliminating cronyism from yourself first. It must begin with the top decision maker. If you yourself have vested interest, then you condone and even support cronyism. What do you get then? You get a system where the top decision makers select those who can in turn feed them. I know this is a harsh term, but that's how it is.

Unless you eliminate vested interests and hidden personal agenda in yourselves, you will have cronyism. FDR's new deal gave rise to worries of corruption and abuses. But the new deal worked because there were oversight apparatuses.