Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Hadi: Why did Najib announce NEM outside Parliament?


Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak’s choice of location in announcing the much- awaited New Economic Model (NEM) has come under fire from opposition leaders.

PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang has questioned Najib’s decision to announce a “significant policy” outside of Parliament when the House was in fact in session.

He said Najib’s action did not reflect the 1Malaysia concept sloganeering “People First, Performance Now”.

“Najib’s announcement seems to contradict the people first concept, because he made the announcement outside the Dewan Rakyat,” he said alluding to Najib announcement of the NEM at the Invest Malaysia Conference on Tuesday.

Echoing Hadi’s views, DAP adviser Lim Kit Siang has described Najib’s actions as an insult to the dignity of the Dewan Rakyat.

“He had every opportunity to make the announcement in Parliament... and he did not,” said Lim

Both party captains along with Opposition Leader Anway Ibrahim were present at a Pakatan Rakyat press conference yesterday on the NEM.

Najib had laid out a slew of broad-based economic reforms aimed at transforming the country into a high-income nation by 2020.

The NEM effectively replaced the current New Economic Policy (NEP) set in place by his father former prime minister Abdul Razak Hussein in the 1969.

Anwar said that the NEM was as a copycat version of Pakatan’s own economic model, the Malaysian Economic Agenda (MEA) , which was its manifesto for the 2008 general election.

“These were ideas that Pakatan had raised in the past. The people who are wise to Pakatan’s economic model will probably be smiling after hearing Najib speak of the NEM because it appears that the principal issues were from our model (MEA),” he said.

Anwar was also of the opinion that the government was not brazen enough and had no political will to implement the necessary reforms to safeguard the country.

by FMT

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