The MCA Chinese Economic Congress-2

 

MCA Economic Congress- Part 2.

Ibrahim Ali did what was expected of him. My article preceded his statements. Nothing extraordinary. Ibrahim Ali is predictable. He was indeed in the game- he was watching the MCA closely after all. He has said he will teach the MCA a lesson at the next general elections. His people has made a police report even.

He called the MCA extremist for asking the abolition for the special privileges accorded to the Malays. These he asserted are in accordance with the constitution. He called everybody names he could muster. He denounced Nazir the banker. Bank Bumiputera, before it metamorphosed into CIMB had to be rescued so many times by the government's private kitty- PETRONAS said Ibrahim Ali. Ibrahim Ali didn't mention that it was under Nazir 's business leadership and capabilities, the bank became what it is today.

But he has stopped short from criticising the PM. But when he lambasted Nazir and the MCA, it was as good as if he blasted the PM. I wouldn't dismiss outright the methods and ways Nazir described how he turned CIMB into a competitive player now. have a good leadership, good management style and clear quantifiable goals. Leadership with a single minded purpose. Plus get paid more than RM 14 million a year.

The PM himself asked Chinese community to take the lead in making the NEM a reality. Surely this is a clear acknowledgement that Malays and Perkasa cannot be counted upon to deliver the NEM. Or that the views espoused by Ibrahim Ali and Perkasa were not relevant at all. The policies that drove the NEP and vision 2020 were not working. The country needs business leadership of a different kind- different players de-moulded from the old ways. That will bring the present PM into collision course with old style political and business leadership.

The NEM is simply a model to catapult this country into a high income country by 2020. Since it has the same intended aims of 2020, why doesn't it just adopt the same policies on which 2020 depended?

By switching to a different gear, that suggests, the current administration thinks, the old method by which 2020 is to be achieved is faulty. The economy wasn't geared right to drive fast. Can the economy be driven fast if its driven remotely? Certainly, the previous administration thought it could do better by replicating as many Putrajaya clones as it could in this country. Therefore it went on a spending binge and created the corridor –driven economy.

Did the new strategy work? It wasn't successful because the material on which the corridors were built were the same- same policy makers, same leadership thinking style, similar thinking players, all making and creating one excuse after another to make money. The gear was wrong, the drivers were not in the seats, you have drivers accustomed to driving old Land Rovers now asked to drive one of those cars with heavily computerised dashboards.

It meant we didn't have the right political and business leadership, we didn't have the management material and management quality, we forfeited clear goals, we don't have the right players.

If we want to achieve vision 2020 or NEM- a high income economy, the fundamentals of how we play the economic game must change. The economy mustn't be slowed down by pockets of clogging up policies that hold back our drive. Where does it say that the 30% of whatever must be held by mediocre Malays? We can still have a Bumiputera first policy- the mediocre ones can be replaced by the more abler and dedicated.

So, there are many things wrong with the older strategies such that Malaysia finds itself caught in a middle income trap incapable of breaking into the high income country bracket. Faulty policies must have caught up with people and their thinking who thought their ways can drive Malaysia into the high income bracket.

What do we need now? we need competitiveness mentality, competitiveness driven players, we need players with the acquisitive mental mode, different business policies, free market driven rules, level playing field, de clogging the economy from monopolistic entities. The last being an excuse for cornering the market and crowding out competitive players. The government must begin by downsizing and divesting all the GLCs in this country except those of strategic importance. Even PETRONAS must be re-constituted on free market fundamentals. It must be made accountable to Parliament. Any elements that can potentially clog the free market system such as quotas, restrictions, unfair trade practices must go. Gradually or instantly. They must go. And the government must also insist that Chinese business enclaves open up for Bumiputera participation and sharing.

Otherwise, politically, the PM is in dangerous waters. He wants to carry out economic policies and reforms that are more welcomed by the Chinese political and business leadership. That would make it appear that his NEM which is more supported by the Chinese, is at odds with the larger Malay political and economic leadership.

The Malay political leadership will see the PM's policies as marginalising and trivialising Malay interests. Those Malay economic players who succeeded on account of cronyistic policies and were lucky enough to be the anointed ones are suspicious of the PM's intentions to free the market. This apprehension arises principally perhaps because the selected players didn't develop sufficient talent to play a new game.