WE WANT OUR SHARE FROM THE MALAYS BUT WE CHINESE WILL NEVER SHARE WITH THE MALAYS BUT Do the right thing, Soi Lek tells PM

Chua, speaking at the congress, wants to the government to do ‘the right thing’. — Picture by Jack Ooi

KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 14 — MCA president Datuk Seri Dr Chua Soi Lek said the government must “do the right thing” when calling for “execution” of the New Economic Model (NEM) and the 10th Malaysia Plan (10MP).

He dissected the 10MP with criticisms and suggested tweaks, peppering his speech at the Chinese Economic Congress here today with “sir’s” to Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak.

“Our immediate priority is to jointly grow the economic pie, instead of noisily debating over which slice we deserve. Make no mistake, failure is not an option,” Dr Chua stressed.

He called for the prime minister’s support for government-linked companies (GLCs) to include more non-Bumiputeras and international expertise on their board of directors.

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“It is important also that GLCs open up their procurement system to include SMEs based the quality of their service and products... rather than based on race or equity requirement,” he said.

He also called for the “liberalisation” of the economy.

Dr Chua acknowledged that the oil and gas sector had already helped the country establish itself as a player in the global scene.

However, he added that the opportunities for SMEs are still relatively limited compared to non-oil-producing nations like Singapore.

“Therefore, given the maturity of the sector, the opening up of the sector will boost the country’s GDP many folds,” he said.

Dr Chua highlighted such openness would increase competitiveness and productivity.

“Rather than enforcing the 30 per cent Bumi equity requirement across the board, a more flexible system in the form of a margin of preference system should be implemented on a sector-by-sector basis,” he said.

The MCA president added that a merit-based and needs-based system would contribute to the path for Malaysia to be globally competitive.

“It is clear that preferential treatment must be given according to needs rather than race,” he said, citing NEM’s numbers that 40 per cent of households earn less than RM1,500 per month.

Another long debated reform brought up was the implementation of a minimum wage policy and its correlation to subsidy cuts.

“Implementation of subsidy reduction cannot stand alone as it needs to be complemented with a minimal wage system to offset negative impact of the reduction in subsidy,” he said.

He pointed out that a World Bank study recorded an annual growth of only 2.6 per cent on wages over the last 10 years.

Suggestions and criticisms aside, Dr Chua was quick to praise the prime minister in other areas.

He lauded the prime minister’s announcement recently on offering Public Service Department scholarships to students who scored 9A+s in the SPM regardless of race.

“This is truly in the 1 Malaysia spirit... ensure that 1 Malaysia is not just a political slogan,” he said, pointing out that such a decision would help retain and attract talent.

Dr Chua emphasised that the NEM and the 10MP are national plans, “not Najib’s plan” calling the nation to “come together” to ensure success of such grand reforms.