EXACTLY! DR M & JOMO HIT THE NAIL ON THE HEAD – CEP REPORT SHOULD REMAIN CLASSIFIED: WHY HAND AMMUNITION TO ‘BUSYBODY’ UMNO, PAS OF ALL PEOPLE

The report by Council of Eminent Persons (CEP) should remain classified due to the sensitive nature of its contents, said economist Jomo Kwame Sundaram.

Jomo, who is a former member of the council, told reporters today that information in the report they prepared for Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad, should it be made public, could also be abused by “people with all kinds of motive”.

“We never wrote it with the intention to get it published. Our intention was to advise the prime minister, which we expect him to share (the report) with relevant ministers, for them to make decisions,” he told reporters after giving a talk at Securities Commission in Kuala Lumpur this evening.

Jomo said the report had contents which are “very delicate” and “sensitive”.

“There are very delicate things. Information can be abused. It’s very important because for example, many things that I talked about (in the report) there are details which obviously would affect certain businesses and we have to be very careful about them (the information).

“So likewise things that affect other countries. We have to be very careful about them.

“It is very important for the people to realise that while this government must be more transparent, more accountable, it does not mean that every step of the way must be (told about),” he said.

Jomo was commenting on Mahathir’s recent statement, where the premier said the CEP report submitted last week may not be made public.

This came after Umno secretary-general Annuar Musa had said the report should be made public and presented in the next Parliament sitting to address the suspicionsurrounding the scope of its powers.

However, the economic professor added, there were parts in the report that are not sensitive to be published, but may open for abuse to criticise the government’s decisions.

Jomo gave the sales and services tax (SST) that was reintroduced by the Pakatan Harapan administration as an example.

“Now, say SST has already been announced. What is the relevance of having an alternative published right now? Because it will be abused by people with all kind of motives, who would say – oh you shouldn’t have done this, done that,” he said.

– M’kini