The course that Najib must take

By: John Lo 

RECENTLY I had the good fortune of meeting Dato' Mohd Suffian Awang, one of the PM's political secretaries.

Suffian is from Pahang which is the home state of the PM.

Among the many subjects we touched on, we spent a considerable time on the announcement by the PM that he will make changes within the Government. To me, Suffian is the sort of political leader who has the personal capacity to be one of the leaders to take Malaysia into next 10 to 20 years.

He is knowledgeable, open minded, cosmopolitan and most importantly, possesses the genuine desire in wanting to build Malaysia into one of the best countries in the world!

As a Malaysian, I am happy that the PM wants to convince Malaysian voters that he will make changes within the Government.

Already he is trying very hard, as no other PM has done before, to reach out to young Malaysians using his website, twitter, talk-radio Facebook and personalised meetings. Same intensity of efforts for the minority races.

His style of inclusiveness is admirable. In as far as changes within the Government is concerned, I like to say that are already many fantastic economic features in the PM's NEM [New Economic Model] and GTPs [Government Transformation Programmes], which, if implemented more effectively, will herald very positive changes in the whole country.

I have attended the very impressive presentation by Prof Rosmah at the launching of NEM and GTPs and have read through them many times [I have read the Orange Book, too]. I have expressed support for the NEM and GTPs in my writings and other forum, including speaking to some opposition leaders in Sabah. Sad but true that as implementation progresses, gaps between the spirit of the NEM and GTPs and what is happening on the ground have appeared.

This is not surprising as the PM has inherited his cabinet team, which has been rather ineffective in promoting the NEM and GTPs, from the previous PM. Many of them are too old and out of sync with the present generation and current trend.

While the PM is trying his best to reach out, some of his Cabinet ministers are making outlandish, feudalistic, arrogant remarks and, worst of all, exhibiting unacceptable behaviour that can only derail and negate PM's efforts.

A casual search on Google will reveal that most of his cabinet ministers, menteri besar, MPs and Aduns have done little to support and promote the NEM and GTPs. This is a major weakness in the implementation system.

My recommendation is that every one of them must have their own mini NEM/GTPS to implement at their respective levels.

Making positive changes as being envisaged in NEM/GTPs within the Government is a huge task, the success of which will depend on the collaborative efforts of every leader.

As I see it, many BN YBs may not have even read or understand the concept of NEM/GTPs.

Many of them have been merely shouting slogans, attending functions and bluffing the kampong folks with flowery speeches.

It is pretty obvious that the PM needs to have his own cabinet team soonest possible, consisting of younger leaders who share the PM's vision and possess the necessary credibility, skills and political leadership to implement it.

I am confident that once the PM has his own cabinet ministers in place, the spirit and the letter of the NEM and GTPs can be implemented in full.

With the abundance of natural resources and the introduction of more innovative policies, a new and economically stronger Malaysia will emerge from our current "so so" economic performance.

Malaysia will then be truly on the path of becoming a developed and high income country.

To complement the NEM and GTPs, I hope the PM will curtail the level of corruption which has permeated down to the lowest level of Government.

What the top political leaders may not realise is the sufferings of the common and poor Malaysians who have to pay "under counter" money for the most mundane government approvals - It was not like this before.

This has become a serious source of discontentment of many Malaysian voters.

My plea to the PM is to seriously review the current practices of fighting this curse and consider introducing the Singapore or Hong Kong model in full, both of which have very impressive proven track records.

Closely connected to corruption is the amount of red tape which is making life very difficult for ordinary Malaysians. All that needs to be done for every Ministry/department/agency is to adopt the excellent service level of the Immigration Department's passport section! It is second to none and is better than those in Australia, Singapore and other advance countries.

If the Immigration Department has done it, no reason that other departments cannot do the same!

I hope the PM will appoint ministers into his next Cabinet who are imaginative, innovative and corruption-free for 3 very important portfolios, namely Housing, Food production and Transport.

The average, young and poor Malaysians are now going through a very tough time in trying to own a home and making ends meet as the cost of living has spiraled out of control.

The current policies and modus operandi of these three areas are at best suited for the 1950s.

Malaysia is blessed with a huge amount of natural resources and fertile land is plentiful.

With the right ministers, the adverse impact of these problems can be minimised easily.

As Malaysia matches on to be counted as a high income country, we must compare and bench mark all our economic and educational endeavours and performance against the best. We should never justify Malaysia's poor performance by saying every time that we are better off than many poor countries , like some cabinet ministers are fond of saying.

This attitude can only bring economic disasters.

Towards this end, Malaysia must conduct a thorough review on: [1] quality of political leadership.

[2] Delivery service competency. [3] Financial and banking system. I hope the PM will clean up the KLSE where there are more "corporate crooks" than genuine corporate leaders. The KLSE has become a huge casino. [4] Medical facilities. [5] Security and [6] most importantly, the educational system, especially the universities and quality of graduates as these will determine the strength or otherwise of our country in future.

Malaysia cannot achieve high income status if the best and brightest Malaysians are not allowed or encouraged to emerge.

In fact, Malaysia must shift from the current practice of "little appreciation" for them and learn to appreciate and celebrate their talents and successes like what is being done in Singapore and USA.

In the rapidly advancing era of globalisation, we need plenty of talents.

If Malaysia cannot retain our own talents, how can we attract best foreign talents to our shores?

Moreover, home grown talents who have family and cultural ties in the country are more stable and less likely to leave than foreign talents. Closely connected to this is Malaysia's current style of administration that needs to change from "you cannot do anything without legal authorisation" to "you can do anything unless prohibited by law".

Malaysians have to spend an inordinate amount of time to secure all sorts of approvals from the authorities for even minor/mundane things - especially business related stuff. Political leaders and administrators may enjoy the power invested in them in the current system but what it has done is to hamper/kill the initiatives of individual Malaysians and worst, encourages the mushrooming of corruption.

They must realise, as responsible leaders, this is the biggest blockage to national economic greatness.

On the other hand, this seemingly simple philosophical change of approach can give a major boost for Malaysians to become the best in the world!

Malaysia cannot hope to compete effectively with other countries if there is no change in the current monopolies infested economic system.

The owners of these monopolies are growing financial fat at the expense of the average and poor Malaysians.

They are another source of political discontentment and anti Malaysia feeling.

As a Sabahan, I must state here that the Cabotage Policy must go.

I am confident many Sabahans share my strong feeling on this matter.

How can the Malaysia government expect Sabahans to continue subsidising the shipowners for so long in the name of building up the shipping industry? These shipowners are hopelessly incompetent in competing with shipowners from other countries.

I am confident that BN will win a considerable number of votes in Sabah if the Cabotage Policy is cancelled NOW. BN must choose between Sabahan voters and the interests of 9 or 10 ship owners.

I can only hope that the PM will bring substantive changes in Malaysia as some are long overdue and badly needed.

A major injection of good, credible and younger leaders in the Federal Cabinet, as part of national leadership renewal, will give a very clear message to the Malaysian voters that the PM in the business of changing the Malaysian political and economic landscape!