Najib’s poor leadership stalling economic reforms, says Pakatan

By Shazwan Mustafa Kamal

February 02, 2012

KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 2 — Pakatan Rakyat (PR) leaders have blamed Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s poor leadership as prime minister and Umno president as the main cause behind stalled economic reforms, saying he lacked the political will to weed out corruption and push for transparency in the awarding of lucrative government contracts.

The PR leaders were commenting on banker Datuk Seri Nazir Razak who had said economic reforms are not moving as fast as was hoped due to distractions from a general election which has to be held by early next year.

Pua said lucrative procurement contracts continue to be dished out without any open tenders. — File pictures

While agreeing with what the CIMB group chief executive officer said about the state of the government’s economic reforms, opposition leaders charged that the impending general election should actually push Najib’s administration to expedite reforms, not stall them.

“Reforms have stalled because Najib lacked the political will to overturn the patronage and gravy train system in BN and particularly in Umno.

“Najib is fearful that the reforms will destroy the very fabric that glues Umno together, that is the opportunity for its leaders and members to secure lucrative contracts with the government and government-linked companies,” DAP national publicity secretary Tony Pua told The Malaysian Insider.

Pua pointed out that despite transparency and accountability being a cornerstone of Najib’s Government Transformation Programme (GTP), lucrative procurement contracts continue to be dished out without any open tenders.

The Petaling Jaya Utara MP has been leading in demanding Najib reveal the details of its direct negotiations with Kumpulan Europlus Bhd (KEuro), a company which, he said, has no experience in building the RM7 billion West Coast Expressway (WCE).

KEuro announced on Thursday that it has been awarded a 60-year concession for the RM7.07 billion WCE, which will connect Banting in south Selangor to Taiping in north Perak. The new highway will serve as an alternative to the North-South Expressway.

“I completely agree that economic reforms are completely stalled and the NEM (New Economic Model) and ETP (Economic Transformation Programme) have now become a programme of continuity and not of the purported transformation,” said Pua.

He charged that the prime minister showed failure in leadership by not expressing or acting against senior Umno ministers involved in financial scandals, citing the National Feedlot Corporation (NFCorp) as an example.

PR parties, mainly PKR, have accused Umno Senator Datuk Seri Shahrizat Abdul Jalil and her family of being involved in financial misappropriations concerning the RM250 million federally-funded project. Shahrizat’s husband is the chairman of NFCorp. 

“Najib’s neither here nor there position gives room for Umno leaders to keep business as usual. His limp approach also strengthened the perception that all the talk of reform is nothing but red herrings to spruce up his image and score easy political points,” said Pua, adding that Malaysians now wanted “real, tangible and substantive changes” before endorsing Najib’s leadership.

PKR strategic director Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad concurred with Pua’s arguments, saying that the PM’s “flip-flop” in policies was the actual setback to economic reforms.

“Yes there is a general election coming. Pakatan is also facing the election, but we have always been pushing for a dismantling of unfair policies. Polls or not, it is not an excuse for stalled reforms.

“The truth is, there is no strength in Najib’s leadership. That’s why economic reforms are stalled, he does not have the will to carry it through,” the Seri Setia state assemblyman toldThe Malaysian Insider.

Nik Nazmi said ‘there is no strength in Najib’s leadership’.

Nazir, who is Najib’s younger brother, told the Wall Street Journal in an interview that Malaysia’s gross domestic product expansion should slow to about 3.8 per cent this year due to weaker demand in Europe and the US, while the ringgit is expected to remain near current levels.

The government has maintained the country’s GDP will touch 5 per cent in 2012.

Nazir’s comments come after the Malaysian Institute of Economic Research (MIER) said earlier this month that it would be better for the government to hold the general election as soon as possible since lingering uncertainty over the nation’s political future will hurt the economy.

MIER executive director Zakariah Abdul Rashid had earlier said that private investors were holding back critical investments on concerns that government policies will change should the current administration fail to hold on to power, and urged the government to call for early polls to dispel investors’ wait-and-see attitude.

The think-tank chief had also urged the government to undertake structural adjustments over both the short and long term to be more vibrant and ready to face the uncertainties in the global economy.

Najib reiterated his commitment to reforms in his New Year message on December 31, saying that the government will not succumb to pressure from any party in pursuing reforms.

He had introduced various government and economic reform measures soon after taking over from Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi in April 2009 in a bid to push the country from its Third-World status into a high-income bracket nation.

Government officials and some economists have pointed to Malaysia’s rise in rankings such as the World Economic Forum’s Competitiveness Index and the World Bank’s Doing Business Index this year as proof that Najib’s reforms are working.

However, pressure from Malay hardliners such as Perkasa and the United Malays National Economic Action Council (MTEM) is widely seen as to have dampened Putrajaya’s efforts, especially the NEM which had touched on meritocracy and a more competitive market.

Critics also say that the apparent lack of radical reforms effectively amounted to policy tinkering that would deliver only lacklustre results.