Now Everyone Prospers – the NEP Malaysia needs

 

“Malaysia is a country with so much unmet potential.”

This is a uniting sentiment expressed by leaders from business, media, civil society, academic institutions and the civil service – although one they might not utter openly.

With the critically important 15th general election due to take place on Nov 19, the big questions are: Why has Malaysia not met its full potential? Why has its development trajectory not led to the desired economic and social outcomes? And why is there a widely held belief that the country is somehow unable to change course for the better?

These questions are more important than ever. Malaysia has reached a critical juncture in its development: mounting pressures from within its own borders have been further exacerbated by the impact of the Covid-19 global pandemic and challenges associated with existential threats such as climate change, rising geopolitical complexity and economic uncertainty.

These factors are compounded by widely acknowledged recognition of weak political leadership, insensitivity to the needs of the people and active engagement in exploiting the differences between classes and ethnic communities, ultimately eroding national identity and integrity.

Add to that systemic corruption, weakening of the institutions of the state, institutionalised racism and a neglected education system. You then have most of the answers to why we are punching well below our weight.

As Malaysians go to the polls, they can no longer shy away from the root causes of the deep economic and cultural challenges faced by the nation.

As they decide on who will lead the nation, they must face up to how rent-seeking behaviour dominates an economy that is steeped in corruption, that the state lacks the institutional capacity and arguably the political will to tame it — given how enmeshed it is within all arms of the government — and to the fact that a lack of meritocracy is enabled across Malaysia.

This is what the Global Institute For Tomorrow, an independent pan-Asian think tank, aims to explore in the release of its report, entitled Now Everyone Prospers (NEP): The Best of Both Worlds.

The wordplay in the title is of course based on Malaysia’s most defining national policy: the New Economic Policy (NEP) of 1971. The intentions of this policy were noble and just, but the outcomes have been varied, with many critiquing its current use as the root of much of the nation’s ills – despite attempts to modernise it.

The nation needs a new narrative – an NEP that is suited for the challenges of the 21st century. Now is the time for a much-needed national reset, including a rare opportunity to redesign our society.

Thus, across five key pillars, the report provides a fresh and bold national development manifesto to help Malaysia adapt to a new post-Covid-19 world, given the lessons the world should have learnt from pain caused by the pandemic.

These are as follows:

• Reshaping Malaysia’s Economic Fundamentals: Valuing People and Environment – transitioning away from a focus on traditional indicators of development and economic growth based on promoting relentless overconsumption and unsustainable levels of debt creation, enabled by under-pricing resources and externalising true costs onto society and the environment. Instead, forging long-term economic health by revaluing Malaysia’s social and natural capital and building a society in which all citizens are equal, with a high quality of life measured by responsible citizenship, meaningful work for all, as well as wellness and health, not just gross domestic product (GDP) or income per capita.
• Prioritising Self-Sufficiency: Building True Resilience – recognising that the dominant pan-economic practice of exporting Malaysia’s resources (food, water, minerals, oil) and importing resulting deficiencies at high cost is not a sustainable model for Malaysia’s future development. Instead, the nation should nurture self-sufficiency without sacrificing competitiveness or being part of the global community – a hybrid approach – to provide Malaysian citizens with more innovative ways to meet basic needs for food supply, healthcare, human capital development and other areas.
• Creating Shared Prosperity for All: Calling time on rent-seeking and race-based policies – in line with the nation’s aim for shared prosperity, a rigorously planned progression away from rent-seeking models that lead to patronage, corruption, and wastage in the economy will be required. Reinvigorating the government’s goal as providing means for gainful employment (both formal and informal) and quality of life improvements for all – regardless of race, class, gender or religious alignment.
• GLC and GLIC Reform: From the Ashes of Business-as-Usual – altering the role of GLCs by realigning their mandates, including socio-economic objectives for the betterment of all Malaysian citizens. Tackling governance issues related to leadership and political appointees will be a key element.
• Education as a Right, not a Privilege: The Malaysians of Tomorrow – addressing the systemic discrimination that occurs in Malaysia’s education system, particularly at the tertiary level, and the cascading impacts. Reducing educational opportunities for Malaysia’s youths based on racial discrimination will ultimately damage national outcomes.

Now Everyone Prospers seeks to reshape modern Malaysia, helping the nation equip itself for the complexities of the 21st century and to secure its future. It is the bridge between what Malaysia is capable of and where it stands today.

The five pillars serve as an ambitious new manifesto to help political parties and their leaders offer a viable and much-needed pathway to long-overdue reform on how to systematically address Malaysia’s challenges to chart a future that ensures economic prosperity without sacrificing societal and environmental integrity – the best of both worlds. Many of these issues are deeply entrenched in the country’s economic, political, societal and cultural systems, but the need is urgent and the hard work of putting the country on a new trajectory must start now.

To put into action the recommendations of Now Everyone Prospers, the first step is to acknowledge the problems facing the country, no matter how difficult the resulting conversations might be. This is especially important given these conversations will by necessity include sensitive matters – especially on race – that have been an impetus for flashpoints of disharmony in the nation’s recent history.

However, decision-makers can no longer afford to ignore the elephant in the room; the risk of leaving them unaired only perpetuates the status quo and leads to national stagnation.

Second is to unlearn conventional wisdom with regard to the methods used to resolve the country’s crises. This means thinking beyond readymade or in-vogue solutions to economic and social challenges (many of which arise from wholly unsuited Western neoliberal economic theories and even ideologies), and instead start reworking solutions to fit the Malaysian condition and the new era of existential threats and resource constraints.

There are no wholesale models to borrow from elsewhere: the future is for Malaysia and its citizens to build, as will be the case for most nations in the world. Malaysia could lead the charge in Asean if it is able to cut itself free from the crippling effects of its current malaise.

Whichever economic or social approaches are pursued, they must be aligned with the cultural nuances of Malaysian society and should not fall into the trap of seeking to replicate models from elsewhere — typically from the West — on the basis of their past successes for nations with entirely different contexts.

Finally, for everyone to prosper, a genuine commitment to transformation from leaders in government, the institutions of the state, and businesses on the forefront of seeking change. They will work to enact structural reform in Malaysia’s key public and private institutions, buttressed by the work of civil society leaders, who will nurture organic cultural shifts that reshape the mindsets and behaviour of Malaysians and the outcomes they expect, desire and therefore experience.

In coming together this way, the oft-uttered phrase “Malaysia Boleh” will no longer be a trite, throw-away comment, or a self-deprecating joke to describe the deficiencies of the nation. It will be repurposed and reclaimed as a statement of pride, because together, we can forge a Malaysia in which Now Everyone Prospers.

Now Everyone Prospers is a free-to-read report produced by the Global Institute For Tomorrow, and can be found at:

• Full Report
• Reform Agenda (executive summary of solutions)

-FMT

The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of MMKtT.