Gov't may review NEP, New Economic Model

PARLIAMENT | The government may review the New Economic Policy (NEP) and the New Economic Model (NEM) to see whether they are still relevant or not.

The Economic Affairs Ministry said this in a parliamentary written reply to William Leong (PKR-Selayang) [above] in the Dewan Rakyat today.

Leong had asked whether the government intended to review such programmes when it undertakes a mid-term review of the 11th Malaysia Plan (RMK11).

According to the reply, the documents on the mid-term study have been re-aligned to suit the direction and the aspirations of the new Pakatan Harapan federal government following the coalition's win at the polls on May 9.

"This realignment is crucial to ensure that the new direction is included in planning and development strategies for the period of 2018-2020.

"The realignment is also important to make the government's efforts benefit the people without wastage, misappropriation and abuse of power," said the reply.

The 12th Malaysia Plan, for the period between 2021 and 2025, will have a new direction which is focused on a more detailed and comprehensive development strategy, added the ministry.

"Therefore, the country's main policies, including the New Economic Policy and New Economic Model, will be reassessed to see whether they are still relevant in ensuring a sustainable economic development which guarantees distributive justice.

"New policies which are more responsive to the aspirations of the rakyat will be drawn up based on the needs and direction of the country's socio-economic development."

Ethnic bias

The NEP was announced in 1970 following the racial riots of May 1969 and was aimed to eradicate poverty and restructure society to eliminate the identification of race with economic function in order to foster national unity.

However, the plan has been riddled with allegations of racial discrimination with the affirmative action lined within the plan mainly attributed to the Malay and bumiputera community.

As for the NEM, it was unveiled by former prime minister Najib Abdul Razak on March 30, 2010, and was intended to double the per capita income in Malaysia by the year 2020.

Its game-plan was to shift affirmative action from being ethnically-based to need-based, thus improving competitiveness, as well as being more market and investor-friendly. - Mkini