By Ranjit Singh
PAKATAN Harapan’s presidential council meeting today (Feb 21) is expected to remove all lingering concerns about Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s position as the incoming prime minister after the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting in November.
Anwar has been on the long and winding road to the premiership including an 11-year incarceration and many Malaysians are hoping that he will provide the panacea to Malaysia’s many woes.
In a symposium on Feb 20 where he delivered a speech titled “Construct Of A Nation: As I See It”, he said unequivocally that his utmost priority when he takes office will be tackling the economy.
He bemoaned the fact that despite official figures which estimate poverty in the country at 0.4%, UN studies had shown that poverty affects 20% of the population. Anwar said bread-and-butter issues were the prime reasons for the ruling coalition’s defeats in a few by-elections held after GE14.
Anwar reiterated that he would be a leader for all Malaysians and in that spirit, he would dismantle race-based affirmative action and replace it with a needs-based approach. This would be a seismic shift in the country’s New Economic Policy (NEP) which was introduced in 1971 by former prime minister Tun Abdul Razak to eradicate poverty and restructure society.
However, the NEP was utilised to provide preferential privileges to the Bumiputeras as it was claimed that they remained backward and had small ownership of the economic pie. The NEP, which was introduced after the racial riots of May 13, 1969, was originally planned for a 20-year period, but it has been continued indefinitely and has resulted in many leakages.
Anwar said that he is prepared to face the backlash from the Bumiputera community due to his needs-based affirmative action, and he should be credited for his stand. It is something that requires to be done and previous leaders lacked the conviction to revamp the policy despite severe abuses and leakages of the NEP.
Anwar said that Malays need not fear the revamp in the NEP as their special privileges as enshrined in the Constitution will always be safeguarded.
He also highlighted that corrective action needs to be taken immediately to address the weaknesses in our education system. The Malaysian education system which was once the envy of the neighbouring countries had fallen from its elevated position due to weak policies and poor execution.
Anwar said teachers must be adequately trained as the future of education depended on them. Students must be equipped with the necessary IT skills to face the digital age.
He also reiterated his strong stand against corruption. It was a malaise that had resulted in massive economic loss in the country. He said the people must be constantly reminded about the ills of corruption and how it robs them of their future.
There is a lot of hope placed on Anwar. To recap, he was anointed as one of the best finance ministers in the world by Euromoney in 1996. The country needs solutions to the many obstacles it faces and it’s rooting on Anwar to deliver.
But to have his chance to deliver, he has to become prime minister first. Perhaps we will know by the end of the day what his chances are and whether we can have a firm belief that he will be prime minister by the end of November at the latest. – Feb 21, 2020
