06.04.2001
Reading
Prime Minister Mahathir's Third Outline Perspective Plan (2001-2010), dubbed
OPP3, reminds me of my school days. It reminds me of an essay writing
contest, where one attempts to put up the best ideas, phrased in the best
language. In OPP3, Mahathir seems to have struck the right chords,
but at the same time it sounds so unreal, so detached from the real (&
cruel) world of Malaysian politics.The contrast between language and reality cannot be greater. For a start, Mahathir's delivery of his OPP3 speech in Parliament was preceded immediately by a bitter quarrel over Opposition's angry protests that such an important blue print of the Nation for the next ten years was distributed to members of parliament only the day before, giving no time for MPs to digest and participate in meaningful parliamentary debate. Then, in the same breath of presenting his utopia of perfect harmony that is known as OPP3, Mahathir spewed obnoxious filth at the Opposition that guaranteed to add insult to injury.
Mahathir's accusation of the Opposition range from inciting racial clash and street violence to topple the Government, to conspiring with foreign enemies, to Anwar propagandizing his spinal injury, all of which are manifestly untrue and unjust.
The contradiction between words and deeds runs through the entire vein of the OPP3, giving the impression that it is just a long wish list, drafted by the think tank, with no bearing to the political reality. Mahathir's complete lack of sincerity and his miserable track record, coupled with the textbook like, oft repeated but seldom implemented rhetoric, certainly reinforces the impression that it is just another piece of propaganda to bolster Barisan Nasional's flagging popularity, with neither the political will nor the capacity to see it through to fruition.
In OPP3, Mahathir has rightly emphasized national unity and harmony as the precondition to his thrust to take on the unprecedented challenges to the Nation for the next decade, but all his actions so far have been the antithesis to this ideal. Through Mahathir's continuing misdeeds, Malaysia has plunged into its deepest and bitterest divisions. While singing the tune of racial harmony and the creation of Bangsa Malaysia, he is busy reviving faded racial sentiments to pit one race against another. And while exhorting the Country to forge national unity, he continues to crush legitimate political dissent with brute force. His continuing persecution of populist leader Anwar Ibrahim is so cruel, so unjust and so repugnant to the masses that this Country has practically been rifted apart with irreconcilable differences.
The fundamental ills that plaque this Nation today are rampant corruption and cronyism, reckless squandering of public funds, repressive legislation and corrosion of democratic institutions including parliament, judiciary, attorney general's chambers, police, anti-corruption agency, election commission, civil service, statutory bodies, etc. etc. It is these very ills that the Alternative Front (a grand alliance of the opposition parties) has vowed to eliminate through its present political struggles. It is also these same ills that have caused the investors to loose confidence, precipitating the present economic malaise.
Mahathir's complete failure to address any of these fundamental issues in his OPP3 has practically rendered the document unworthy of serious attention. If Mahathir had expected an exhilarating response from his countrymen to his grand plan, which he called National Vision Policy (NVP), then he must have been badly shaken, for the Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange went immediately into a free fall so bad that it was not seen in recent memory. Mahathir must have failed to impress the investing public.
It is now clear that contrary to the basic assumptions of OPP3, the entire plan is found to be built on the shaky pillars of national disunity and corrupt administration. This alone will doom OPP3 to failure.
That aside, in fairness to the writers of OPP3, it has correctly analysed the fundamental changes to the economic environment brought about by globalisation and information and communication technology (ICT) (These are commonly found in modern day economic textbooks). It has also correctly identified the rapid acquisition of knowledge as the key to cope with this new economic environment (This is common knowledge). However, correct theories do not make a successful plan.
The major flaw of OPP3, apart from its naive assumption of achieving unity and harmony, is that it has completely failed to take honest cognizance of the major blunders of the BN Government committed in the past as well as in the present. A good plan begins with a correct assessment of previous faults. For this reason, OPP3 does not hold water.
The major economic blunders of the BN Government in the past, present and the foreseeable future are:
a) Massive misallocation of public funds to economically unviable, over-grandiose, prestige projects, such as the Petronas Twin Towers, Putrajaya Administration City, Kuala Lumpur International Airport, Bakun Dam etc. Over concentration of the national resources on these economically unjustifiable mega projects has not only squandered our wealth, but also adversely affected what should have been our top priority - urgent uplift of the educational level of the people, and the urgent promotion of research and development in our institutions and industries, both of which are now badly wanting in the transformation of our economy to meet imminent challenges arising from the new economic environment.