By not questioning PM on the NEM, Chua may be abetting a lie

Wong Choon Mei, Malaysia Chronicle

As expected, MCA president Chua Soi Lek gave himself backache bending over backwards to show his support for Prime Minister Najib Razak’s New Economic Model and 10th Malaysia Plan.

The Chinese leader is indeed in an unenviable position, due to a personal sex scandal and an unshakable public perception that he would never risk his political position to speak up for the community or for the average Malaysian.

Under so much pressure, it was unsurprising that Soi Lek felt the need to defend his political standing and as such chose to use phrases that he may have thought were hard-hitting in his speech at the Chinese Economic Congress on Saturday, where Najib was the guest of honour.

Soi Lek called on the PM to “do the right thing”, spoke about “liberalization” of the economy and even jabbed at improving the procurement systems of government-linked firms. But he also made sure he steered clear of calling for open tenders.

The MCA president busied himself giving generous helpings of advice and suggestions on what the NEM should embrace, but most of his proposals were general ideas that have been bounced around the economic scene for years.

Most importantly, in the final analysis, Soi Lek ducked the most crucial questions. He did not ask the PM - is the NEM for real, and if so, when is it going to start?

“If he were to ask, he would be seen as putting pressure on Najib – which is taboo. So they will go along … I praise you, you praise me. That has long been their style and this culture of hero-worship and subservience to whoever is in power will never change,” Gopeng MP Lee Boon Chye told Malaysia Chronicle.

Abetting an illusion

Indeed, the feedback is strong that Soi lek may have been silly to “go on and on” about the NEM when its existence is still so much in doubt.

In the run-up to the June unveiling of the 10th Malaysia Plan, Najib got an earful from the Malay Consultative Council who told him in no uncertain terms they were against any attempts to dismantle the New Economic policy.

Not only did Najib agree there and then with the MPM but when the much-touted 10th Malaysia Plan – a blueprint of the country's economic activity for the next five years until 2015 - was announced, there was mention at all of the NEM.

The NEP was introduced in 1971 and it aims to eradicate poverty and distribute wealth fairly but through the decades of Umno political dominance, the plan has been abused to promote special rights for the Malays so that the party could maintain its political dominance.

The abuse of the NEP and the endemic corruption it has spawned has led many foreign investors to call for its repeal. Najib proposed the more inclusive NEM when he came to power in April last year. The new blueprint is supposed to replace many of the protective barriers in the NEP that investors have long complained about.

“It is irresponsible to hype up the NEM when as the second largest party in the BN, the MCA’s duty is to ensure that the plan is rolled out as soon as possible and not to abet in any exaggeration that the plan is good and all is fine, when there may not be any such program at all. If the NEM is already still-born, then it is only lying to itself, the country and most all its own members in Chinese community,” Boon Chye said.