VIDEO l 1:06 mins

Former deputy minister Saifuddin Abdullah has urged the government to relaunch the needs-based New Economic Model (NEM) as the policy appears to have fallen off the radar.

A relaunch was particularly relevant, Saifuddin said, following the announcement of the race-based Bumiputera Economic Empowerment (BEE) agenda.

“The NEM is a good piece of work... It is worth relaunching simply because it was launched before the 13th general election and some people did not pay attention.

“Then, after that was the BEE announcement on Sept 14, which all the more means that the NEM should be relaunched,” he told a dialogue session on ‘Current political trends and their impact on the economic and social direction of Malaysia’ in Putrajaya today.

The NEM, launched by Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak in 2010, seeks to move affirmative action from race-based to needs-based.

“I’m not saying we put a stop immediately to race-based policies, but we need a series of migrations to a needs-based policy framework.  

“I am making an unpopular proposal in Umno but for the sake of Malaysia, we need to do it and we need to be fair,” said Saifuddin, who is chief executive officer of the Global Movement of Moderates.

Saifuddin added that moderates in the country also must speak up in order not to allow extremists to dominate.

“The moderates must speak up and try to drown out the voices of the extremists, this is what Malaysians have to do,” he said.

Other speakers at the dialogue were Asian Strategy and Leadership Institute CEO Michael Yeoh and Malay Economic Action Council CEO Nizam Mahshar, who were moderated by Razak School of Government CEO Hamidin Abdul Hamid.

‘Knee-jerk reaction’

Nizam acknowledged that the country should move toward non-racial policies but said the country’s economic disparity was still racial in nature.

As such, Nizam said he supported the BEE but questioned if it was a genuine effort to overcome economic disparity or it was merely a reaction from political pressure.

Nizam pointed out that the government had gone through painstaking number of labs before announcing the Government Transformation Programme.

“But when you come up with the BEE, suddenly there was no lab.

“Is it just a knee-jerk reaction to political pressure or is it really coming up with a sustainable solution?” he said.

He added that the people around Najib were giving the prime minister a sense of comfort which may not necessarily be true.

“I was supposed to go to an event where the prime minister was to launch it but because I could not make it, I went a day before and it was empty.

“But on the day the prime minister came, there were no less than 300,000 people. Things like this give the prime minister a comfort zone that he is doing a good job in addressing issues.

“But is it really providing sustainable solutions?” he said.