Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Malaysia's NEM ..... Good Enough to WIN the NEXT General Elections?

The clock has started......
With the announcement of the NEM, the voters in Malaysia now have a written document that is more than 200 pages long.
At first glance it seems to be a better plan than the "Super Corridors" that became an embarrassment less than 2 years after the corridors were launched with no specific targets just simply throwing mega-projects at whatever corners took their fancy.

This NEM addresses some important issues like retaining local talents and the need to upgrade of skills.
You can read the document from the Star here.

The document also mentions the rule of law and giving states more powers to decide on local matters.

A document such as the NEM will require much more input to flesh out the programs but I suggest the following can be done quite easily NOW:

1.Cooperate better with state governments that are ruled by the opposition and just pay Kelantan the oil royalty. Stop trying to destabilise the state governments.
2.For the "lean" government, stop extending contracts after retirement and stop recruiting staff to replace those who resign or are dismissed. Also reduce new recruits by at least 20% and all new recruits to follow EPF scheme - ie no more pension scheme.

The rule of law is perceived by most people to be flawed by many court cases and deaths in police custody. The Judiciary is still tarnished and the NFA for the Lingam Commission plus the chickening out over the IPCMC shows that the Judiciary and PDRM systems are still broken and need fixing.

OK enough from me. Overall the NEM looks like a good piece of work and if the government can really address some basic needs of the people within 2 years, the Najib government may yet survive the next General Elections.
If not, this work can still be used by the next government.

No comments: