Ku Li: 11MP is good, but are we ready?

The former finance minister says some of the development plans appear to favour foreigners.

KUALA LUMPUR: Veteran MP Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah has given a cautious welcome to the 11th Malaysia Plan, which Prime Minister Najib Razak tabled in Parliament today.

Speaking to reporters covering Parliament, he said he agreed with the plan but expressed some doubt that the nation as a whole was ready for it.

Razaleigh was once Finance Minister.

He voiced his concerns over the current economic woes faced by Malaysians and said some of the development plans proposed might not benefit Malaysians as much as they would benefit foreigners.

He said, “There has to be a united, concerted effort in order to be productive, and the manpower needed has to be trained with proper skills to push these things.

“But a lot of these things benefit foreigners, not our people.”

He added that the focus should be on the basic need of increasing productivity, which should lead to an increase in wages.

Referring to the increasing cost of living, he voiced his scepticism of the government’s measure of poverty, pointing out that according to United Nations data, Malaysia is at a deeper poverty level than acknowledged by the government.

“Are we being realistic?” he asked. “I want to see us becoming a developed country. Are we moving forward with the kind of value system that we are proud of?

“We need the basic values, honesty and responsibility, which I think are important ingredients.”

He also spoke about the need to change the “thinking in politics”.

“We cannot be using the politics of before independence,” he said. “We want to be united, we want to be one, so we can make one big push towards becoming a high-income nation.”