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There Must Be Genuine Attempts To Deal With Political Patronage And Wanton Waste To Ensure Malaysian Economy Thrive In The Atmosphere Of WTO Liberalisations Statement by Dr Tan Seng Giaw, DAP National Vice-Chairman and MP for Kepong on the announcement of the first quarter performance of the Malaysian economy by the Bank Negara (Central Bank) Governor Datuk Zeti Akhtar Aziz on 24.5.2000. 25 May,2000 | |||||||
| Malaysia does not want aid from the International Monetary Fund, IMF, to overcome the economic crisis since July 1997. Yesterday, Bank Negara governor Datuk Zeti announced the Gross Domestic Product, GDP, growth of 11.7 per cent, compared to 10.8 per cent for that of last year. The GDP is RM49.9 billion. Zeti said that the forecast growth rate of 5.8 per cent this year would not be revised. The Consumer Price Index is 1.5 per cent and the interest rate would not be raised in the near future. She pointed out that for this first quarter, the manufacturing sector grew at 27.3 per cent, agriculture 2.9 per cent, services 6.3 per cent, mining 0.8 per cent and building 1.2 per cent. Do these mean that the economy has recovered fully? On the other hand, certain sectors such as the retailed trade are still suffering. Allowing for the lag period, we expect better time for all. The Government has to look into the general trend of the economy, not just the corporate sector. Malaysians wish that the economy recover fully. The Government's rhetorics may not reflect the truth. We can see that manufacturing and other export-oriented trade are doing better. With the capital control, it is expected that there are trade surplus and increase in the foreign reserves. How much are these artificial? Malaysians should make full use of the fixed exchange rate to boost the export further. The Government must announce the strategy to deal with the capital control in the face of globalisation and the liberalisations of the World Trade Organisation, WTO. How long can we keep the capital control? Would it lead to speculative bubble? We have the resources and if we can develop the fundamentals, we shall be in a relatively strong position. What are the factors which erode | |
the resources and the fundamentals? Early this month, the Prime Minister Dato' Seri Dr Mahathir Mohamad vowed to fight money politics, even to the extent of making UMNO, the dominant ruling party, candidates for party elections to swear that they would not indulge in money politics, corruption politics and corrupt practices. If this promise can be fulfilled, we may hope to get rid of business politics and party political patronage in our economy. This will take years. For instance, in 1987 the Government awarded United Engineers Malaysia Berhad, UEM, the North South Highway project, the company being PLUS. This is a subsidiary company of Renong that is connected with UMNO. PLUS is scheduled to be listed in the Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange this year. If there were no party political patronage and if the tender were open to fair competition, would UEM have got the billion-dollar highway concession? How much wastage has there been? While we are waiting for the UMNO rhetorics against money politics to bear fruit, on 21 May 2000, Malaysian Chinese Association, MCA, a component party of the ruling coalition, unfolds a drama: its president Dato' Seri Dr Ling Leong Sik decided to resign as Minister of Transport. On 24 may 2000, he took a two-week holiday, going overseas to reconsider the decision. This drama provides front page news in the media. Let us hope that it would not affect the economy and the welfare of the people. If UMNO rhetorics and MCA dramas can help to eradicate money politics, business politics, political patronage and wanton waste, then Malaysian society will benefit. Without these scourges, we may be forging towards a more democratic and healthy society. We can help Bank Negara to handle the nation's finance on purely economic terms.
Dr Tan Seng Giaw | |||||
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