Datuk Dr Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar
See Chee How
KUCHING: The country’s main economic agenda to become a high income society come 2020 should be ensuring fair distribution of wealth and addressing the economic gap between the rural-urban community, as opposed to carrying out more market-oriented reforms.
Deputy Dewan Rakyat Speaker Datuk Dr Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar said this yesterday in response to an online news portal report where CIMB group chief Datuk Seri Nazir Tun Razak said the country must overcome corruption and carry out more market-oriented reforms if it was to move up from being a middle-income economy.
He said carrying out such reforms would not make much difference if it only benefited high profile companies while the lower economic groups continue to miss out.
Wan Junaidi highlighted the need to focus on providing equal opportunities under the new economic reform, not just focusing on high performance companies that already have the edge and ability to compete in the global market.
“It is not just about achieving the national average but achieving fair distribution of wealth as well. Urban and rural gap must be addressed just as the gap between the rich and poor. This action must transcend racial and ethnic barriers.
“Bumiputeras must rise to the occasion, get involved and participate. In the era of meritocracy, one cannot wait to be served and attended to all the time. At the same time, not only the government teach the people to fish, it must ensure that the sources are sufficient,” the Santubong MP told The Borneo Post when contacted.
With regards to combating corruption, he said the government must not leave any stone unturned. Everyone must support the government’s effort by assisting relevant agencies in legitimate ways should be conducted to achieve the acceptable level of corruption index.
“We should not create negative perception of the country’s level of corruption. Politicising this would create a wrong perception which would affect the country’s economic performance.”
Touching on reforms that will give more free rein to market forces and roll back government ownership of business through privatisation, state Parti Keadilan Rakyat vice-chairman See Chee How said the wastage of public funds linked to government procurement projects was dragging the country down.
“It has now gone too far and the country could no longer sustain such losses, wastage and deficits. The fact that it was highlighted by Nazir showed the seriousness of the economic crisis in our country and the need to stem the tide,” said the Batu Lintang assemblyman.
Nazir who is the younger brother of Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak, added that the country’s sixth prime minister had ‘a hell of a task’ spearheading a slew of governmental, economic and social reforms to transform the country. This was because of the belief that ‘worldwide, no one has really been able to reform from incumbency’.
He suggested this was still not enough, highlighting the need to strengthen market forces in general which is about rolling back the government in business, both in terms of bureaucracy and its direct involvement.
“Corruption remains a problem and it is something that needs to be combated,” he was quoted as saying.
The country’s score in Transparency International’s corruption perception index has slipped for the fourth year running. On a 10-point scale, where 10 represents no corruption, Malaysia has dropped from 5.1 in 2008 to 4.5 in 2009, 4.4 in 2010 and 4.3 in 2011.
The country’s ranking also fell to 60 out of 183 countries from 56 out of 178 countries last year.
Malaysia remained the third least corrupt nation in Asean after Singapore (9.2) and Brunei (5.2), with Thailand at 3.4 and Indonesia (3.0) following in fourth and fifth places respectively.