Idris Jala: Pemandu not bothered by racial rhetoric

INTERVIEW When the New Economic Model (NEM) was unveiled in March 2010, possibly the loudest debate was centred around its affirmative action policies.

Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak (left) tried to do away with race-based affirmative action and to replace it with a needs-based one, undoing 40 years of reliance on the New Economic Policy.

Almost immediately, Malay NGOs leapt into action, hurling criticism and potshots at the NEM, with the second part of the model even being labelled as ‘watered down'.

One of the architects of NEM from the National Economic Action Council even claimed that the document was 'hijacked' by Malay-rights pressure group Perkasa. 

Needless to say, all eyes were on the Performance Management and Delivery Unit (Pemandu), with its chief executive officer and Minister in Prime Minister's Department Idris Jala bearing the brunt of the criticisms.

Some said that the needs-based affirmative action would neglect the Malays while some said it was downright ‘unconstitutional' because it would go against the Article 153 which preserves the special position of the Malays.

On the other end of the spectrum, oppositionists reserved their scepticism over the model, raising questions over the Najib administration's sincerity in following through with it.

After all, the Equal Opportunities Commission was dropped from the later parts of the NEM, although it is uncertain if it was due to ‘political pressure'.

While the effects may not be immediately felt, Idris said that race-based affirmative action is already being done away with slowly.

In a recent interview, the former corporate figure who had helmed Malaysia Airlines and Shell Malaysia, said that current government policies are becoming merit-based.

‘GTP does not care about race'

Citing the policies under the Government Transformation Programme, called the National Key Result Areas, he said that none of them have anything to do with the race of the recipient.

"None of our programmes use race. If they are poor, they will get help. We don't look at their skin colour. Like our pre-school programme, they're definitely not race-based,"  continued Idris (right).

Armed with Powerpoint slides in his office in Putrajaya, he said 54,569 children from hardcore poor families have been enrolled in pre-school classes while two million people in the rural poor category have been connected via newly-built roads.

"Like the announcement that anyone who gets 8As will get a Public Service Department (PSD) scholarship.

"If we keep on debating it on the high level, it will never see implementation. We did it and it came out very good," he said.

(Incidentally, on the day this interview was conducted, Deputy Education Minister Wee Ka Siong lamented about civil servants who had ignored a cabinet directive in giving out PSD scholarships to top scorers).

More action, less talk

Being the only cabinet minister who is not a member of a political party, Idris probably has more reason than anyone else in not wanting to dwell on occasional racial rhetoric hurled against him and his team in Pemandu.

In fact, avoiding racial debate and polemics has become somewhat of a deliberate strategy for him in an effort to be non-partisan.

"The issue is not to get bogged down by the debate. Like the prime minister, he just gets on and does it...

"It is just better to do it, rather than just talk about it. Instead of talk, talk, talk, we just want to do, do, do.

"If we just keep on discussing this at policy level, there will just be a lot of agro (slang for ‘aggression')," he said.

"When we help the poor, we help all the hardcore poor. Who can argue with us and say that we didn't help a particular family because they are Chinese or Indian or Dayak?

"We are action-biased, rather than talk-biased," he said.

THE IDRIS JALA INTERVIEW

Part 1: Idris presses his case on cutting subsidies

Part 2: 'Pemandu not bothered by racial rhetoric'

Part 3: How Idris Jala came to be the 'Al Kitab minister'