Staying cool about NEP

Posted by Raja Petra

Saturday, 15 March 2008

THE STRAITS TIMES AN INTRIGUING element introduced into Malaysian public administration after the election upsets is the question of the New Economic Policy (NEP) and its fate in opposition-controlled states. To the Barisan Nasional federal government this is virtually a sanctified process by which the Malays can gain not only material parity with the non-Malays but also their self-respect. To most of the political opposition and the public interest lobby - not to mention the non-Malays - it has been the height of iniquity as it entrenched discrimination in every aspect of life. The state governments of Selangor and Penang, now respectively under the PKR (Justice Party) and the Democratic Action Party, have given notice NEP practices will be abandoned. Their Islamic electoral partner PAS is ambivalent. PAS has control of Kelantan and Kedah and possibly will have titular headship of the Perak government. The inevitable has happened: A warning from Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi to the opposition to not inflame passions by disregarding NEP provisions. His message was that bumiputeras will not stand for it. Little has changed. The NEP has always been a visceral matter. At this stage of the shifting power realignment between the federal centre and the states in opposition hands, it is anybody's guess to what extent these states can diverge from Putrajaya in NEP implementation. Penang's chief minister has only said so far that there will be open tenders in government procurement. The question of conflicting jurisdictions and federal pre-eminence has not been addressed. This is going to get messy. There is a dispassionate, non-partisan way by which the NEP issue can be handled in this day and age - five decades after independence, four decades after the policy took effect. That is, test the NEP's stated goals against the aims of liberalisation of the nation's economy, and of Malaysia's treaty obligations towards the World Trade Organisation and its partner-nations in future trade agreements. If government-sanctioned as well as independent studies establish that a continuance of the NEP is a drag on the economy and Malaysia's economic competitiveness - as experts say unequivocally it is - then a case can be made for repeal without causing too much animosity among bumiputeras. The nation is cast as the beneficiary, so every Malaysian wins. There has to be willingness from all sides, Umno's leadership most of all, to move the issue from its race construct to the new paradigm of how much progress the NEP will cost Malaysia in a toughening environment. It is a delicate undertaking. This is an opportune time for candour. The vote shareout in the election, with BN winning only about half of the vote, shows a need to adjust to changing realities. http://www.malaysia-today.net/2008/content/view/4414/84/