Pua tells Najib to heed World Bank

He also said Najib faced two major blocks to achieving that dream in the form of his deputy, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, and his mentor and former prime minister, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

KUALA LUMPUR, May 1 — The DAP’s Tony Pua encouraged Datuk Seri Najib Razak today to stand firm and carry out his economic reform policies if he wanted to transform Malaysia into a high-income nation in the next nine years.

The opposition lawmaker said the prime minister had an ambitious but noble goal to build a US$15,000 (RM44,430) per capita nation by 2020, with a blueprint ready.

The Petaling Jaya Utara MP said Najib had taken steps towards greater inclusiveness through his Government Transformation Plan (GTP) as the goal where every Malaysian sees themselves as Malaysians first and their race, religion, class and geography second.

He also said the “original” New Economic Model (NEM) Najib had introduced to replace the long-expired New Economic Policy (NEP) and which has proved unpopular with overseas Malaysians had called for a needs-based affirmative action.

He also said Najib faced two major blocks to achieving that dream in the form of his deputy, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, and his mentor and former prime minister, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

He accused the two influential leaders of having “killed”off Najib’s inclusive initiatives with their “strident racial supremacy agenda”.

Muhyiddin, Pua noted, has consistently run counter to Najib’s 1 Malaysia campaign by stoking up racial tensions between Malay-Muslims and the others, with the deputy prime minister’s open endorsement of the 1Melayu, 1Bumi movement a week ago a clear example.

The pro-Malay movement was mooted by Umno-owned newspaper, Utusan Malaysia, after the opposition made major inroads in the recent Sarawak state polls.

The state has long been treated as the ruling Barisan Nasional’s “fixed deposit” during elections.

Pua said Dr Mahathir, who was prime minister for 22 years, has been encouraging Malay militancy with his patronage of Perkasa, “hell-bent on institutionalising a Malay-dominant society”.

“It was Perkasa rapid rise which had caused Najib to roll back the most critical reforms in NEM needed to achieve a high income nation status,” he said.

 By Debra Chong, The Malaysian Insider