The DAP parliamentary leader Lim Kit Siang today said that the New Economic Model (NEM) is a recycled by-product of former Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s Knowledge-based Economy Master Plan.
Lim said that country would have achieved its high income status if the government had followed the K-economy concept.
“We now have the NEM recycling some of the proposals that were made in the Knowledge-based Economy Master Plan. If all those proposals were seriously implemented, there wouldn’t be any need for the NEM because Malaysia would have been a high income country by now.
The veteran lawmaker said that he was concerned that the NEM may share the same fate as the K-economy.
“It’s the failure of all these plans and reports. Now the book has gone to the museum. Will the NEM end up there? If the government is not serious, then yes. We want to make sure that the NEM will not fail like the Knowledge-based Economy Master Plan which was the first initiative by the government to launch the country into the 21st century but it is now completely forgotten.
“I now have great difficulty finding the report even in the Parliament library. I have searched all over the place.
This was supposed to induct Malaysia to the 21st century but it is completely forgotten,” he said.
The Knowledge-Based Economy Master Plan was launched by Dr Mahathir in 2003. It was an initiative to generate stronger economic growth without being overly dependent on capital and labour through knowledge, creativity and innovation.
Lim also criticized the government for failing to table the NEM in Parliament.
“It has been more than a week since the Prime Minister announced part one of the NEM and why is the report is not yet ready? This shows that the government is not serious about the NEM. Why is the full report in Bahasa Malaysia and English not tabled in the house for the MPs?
“The NEAC, which drafted the report, stressed the importance to get, what it called, the involvement of all stakeholders so that the NEM would not be a failure. And the government is not prepared to engage Parliament and submit a report to Parliament,” he said.
He added that government has failed its first test of engaging the stakeholders because the most important stakeholder is Parliament.
“This shows the government is not serious. I call the Prime Minister to give attention to this issue. He may be very busy hopping all over the world. At least he must ensure that this is not a one man show since he talks about 1 Malaysia,” he said.
courtesy of Malaysian Insider
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