New Economic Model Brings Good News to Malaysians

The Invest Malaysia 2010 Conference Prime Minister-cum-Finance Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak announced the New Economic Model (NEM) on 30 March to lead Malaysia into an open, free and open economic path. The goal is to enhance national competitiveness and per capital national income. This new NEM is encouraging and exciting for the ultimate goal of the NEM is to improve the national per capita income, regardless of race, in the next 10 years to double from the current $7,000 to $15,000.

In term of Malaysian currency, the current national average annual income of $23,800 ringgit, or $1,983 ringgit per month per citizen, is not very much.

Reducing Reliance on Foreign Workers
We trust the real meaning to improve the national income should be for all Malaysians to upgrade their knowledge, working skills, trade competitiveness and value in the workplace. With the implementation of this NEM, Malaysians and civil workforce can no longer sit around and wait for the government or business to automatically increase the salary. This is not the meaning of NEM. Instead, citizens and workers need to improve productivity in order to achieve the goal to increase revenue. The government can only play the role in the promotion and planning but the ultimate effort to increase income has to come from the citizens.

Once we understand the clear concept of NEM, we hope all citizens can cooperate with the government policy and use own action to demonstrate that all can make efforts to upgrade their knowledge and market value. This is because the NEM will eventually need full cooperation from the people to carry out the implementation.

On policy control, the Government must gradually reduce the reliance on cheap foreign labor, and make effort to bring back the 350,000 Malaysian professionals now working in other countries.

Return of Overseas Malaysian Professionals
Undeniably, brain drain of Malaysian talents to other countries is a serious condition. This is the stumbling block for Malaysia to move toward the high-knowledge-based economy.

Therefore, the government must overcome this problem. The government must create a platform for fair and good employment environment in order to retain Malaysian professionals in Malaysia.

Implementation Process
This NEM is fundamentally a good policy. However, we believe that in order to ensure the smooth implementation of this NEM effectively, the government must remove the obstacles that can pop up during the implementation process.

These include the extremist views recently published in the local media and certain extremist group such as the Malay Right Group PERKASA in making demand for the government to retain all Malay rights. It is only then that the NEM can reach the desired goals.

Need To Distinguish Between Accused, Culprit in Militant Cases

The arrests made in Gujarat and Maharashtra endorse the plea that Kashmir is not the sole target of terrorist organizations. The entire country is on their monitor. Few days ago, renowned scholar of international terrorism and peace, Astle Talice, said that the Lashkar-e-Taiyiba's (LeT) target is not only Kashmir but also the whole of India and the final goal of this militant organization will not be achieved with the resolution of Kashmir problem.

Goal of Militant Organization
The Pakistani military regimes and elected governments nurtured the LeT with a view to keep the Kashmir issue alive and burning. Now, the targets of these terrorist organizations have undergone a change and now it has gone out of control of the Pakistani Government. Its base in Pakistan has been fortified more among the Sunni sect of southern Punjab rather than Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.

The LeT intends to expand its strength in Pakistan. It advocates and supports every possible strike against India. It carries out terrorist activities in Kashmir with the support of non-Kashmiris. Likewise, a change has taken place in the mindset and structure of other militant organizations. The militant organizations once functioning under the patronage of the Pakistani Government have now turned so much arbitrary that they are waging fights simultaneously in Pakistan and outside the same.

As many as 500 explosions took place in Pakistan in 2009, in which were targeted police, military, the intelligence agency, Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), and other government establishments and institutes. In such a state of affairs the arrests made in Gujarat and Maharashtra raise several serious questions.

In the wake of every terror attack the government talks in terms of fortified intelligence, efficient surveillance system and reliable investigation. The need for effective coordination is underlined in order to intensify war on terror from the local to the international level in addition to plugging the loopholes in the security mechanism. The setting up of a strong network is demanded in order to establish the apprehensions of terror strikes or prove them baseless.

Objective of Security Agencies
In the existing scenario the main objective of security agencies is to prevent terrorist attacks. Democratic and human rights organizations pose the question why innocent people become victim on the pretext of war on terror? These organizations often emphasize that the investigation should be transparent and court procedures should be conducted in a transparent manner.

In the existing situation even a minor lapse becomes the cause of fatal attacks. Hence, security agencies are not in a position to run massive risk.

Firm Coordination Required
If a firm coordination is maintained and ensured from the lowest to the highest level and intelligence is shared with the use of modern equipment then the security agencies can achieve success in dealing with the apprehensions of the terrorist attacks. Terrorist strikes can be prevented and innocent people can be saved from the onslaughts of apprehensions.

World history bears testimony to the fact that lapses and excesses of security agencies aggravate the problem. The government and security agencies should ensure that the investigation should be transparent and democratic rights of the arrested accused and their human and legal rights are availed of appropriately by them. A distinction should be made between the accused and the culprit.

Malaysia-China Bilateral Agreements

Chinese Ambassador to Malaysia Liu Jian pointed out that one of the important tasks for the Chinese Embassy in Malaysia to do this year is to aggressively work on the implementation of many cooperation agreements signed between China and Malaysia when the Chinese and Malaysia national leaders paid official visit to each other's country in 2009.

Mutual Exchange of Visits
Liu Jian said: "In 2009, the fruitful mutual exchange of visits between Malaysian and Chinese national leaders has resulted in the sealing of several cooperation agreements. We cannot allow these agreements to stay at document or memorandum of understanding stage. We must make effort to implement all the consensus and agreements reached between the two countries."

Liu Jian said that Malaysia and China have made good use of the opportunity of the 35th anniversary celebration of diplomatic ties to realize mutual visits of Malaysian and Chinese national leaders to each other's country. During these exchange visits, both countries have signed many important documents and speed up the Malaysia-China bilateral development.

Trade Volume in 2009
According to Ambassador Liu Jian, the signed cooperation agreements between Malaysia and China have included financial cooperation. He said the bilateral trade volume between Malaysia and China was very high. This trade volume accounted for one fourths of China's total trade volume with ASEAN as a group. He said for 2010, Malaysia and China would ensure such smooth trade between the two countries would continue.

In 2009 during the global financial crisis, the trade between Malaysia and China was still able to reach the target of close to M$ 52 billion. It was the first time the Malaysian Government mentioned that China has become the largest importing country for Malaysia.

Ambassador Liu Jian also disclosed that the Chinese Embassy in Malaysia would continue to make effort to sustain high level visits between Malaysia and China. Among the high level visit will be the visit of Vice Chairperson of China's Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC) Wang Zhaoguo' to Malaysia toward the end of March. He said exchanges in other fields also included political parties, parliamentarians and state counselors, ministers and government department officials. It was hoped that through official exchanges and cooperation, visiting officials from both countries could help to push the Malaysia-China relationship to a higher level and to bring more tangible benefits to both nations.

Ambassador Liu Jian said that another job for him to do was to promote more investment opportunities for both nations. He said since 2009, many Chinese trade delegations have visited Malaysia. They were interested in investing in Malaysia. At this moment some of these trade delegations have already signed some cooperation projects with Malaysian partners.

Domestic Demand of Goods
In 2009, Chinese tourists to Malaysia were 1.04 million. To Ambassador Liu Jian, tourism development between Malaysia and China was a good way to enhance understanding between the two countries. This would also include the exploration of business opportunities. Tourism could play a very good role to promote bilateral market and bilateral domestic demand of goods.
As for the bilateral cooperation in higher education, Chinese Ambassador to Malaysia Liu Jian pointed out that all along, China has maintained a positive attitude in the recognition of Malaysia's university degrees. He hoped that Malaysia could also fully recognize the qualifications of Chinese universities. He added that in 2009, although Malaysia and China have signed a higher education cooperation agreement, but between the two there were still a number of pending problems. These problems have included the mutual recognition of university degrees or issues relating to academic qualifications.

Nevertheless, having a signed agreement on higher education can allow both countries to base on principle and direction to make final decision. The positive meaning of having a bilateral higher education agreement cannot be underestimated.

Ambassador Liu Jian said in 2009, a total of 12,000 Chinese students have come to Malaysia for further study. These students have helped to promote the youth exchange activities between Malaysia and China.

Unilateral Action Island Disputes
As for the dispute over sovereignty right over the Nansha Island (South Spratly Island), Chinese Ambassador to Malaysia Liu Jian pointed out that China has always advocated the use of a peaceful and negotiation method to resolve the island disputes in order to avoid the conflicting issue from affecting the overall situation and relationship between China and concerned countries, including Malaysia.

China and Malaysia have reached a consensus on how to resolve the sovereignty conflicts over the islands. Both countries have agreed that in addition to using peaceful negotiation method to resolve the maritime sovereignty issue over islands along South China Sea, both countries have also requested neither party should take unilateral action on the island conflict to avoid complicating the case.

Assessment
It can be said that the reason why Malaysia and China could attain such good rapport was because the national leaders of both countries have attached great importance to care about the bilateral ties.

In addition to that the good relationship between Malaysia and China could not do without the active participation and support of the Malaysian media and the Malaysian public at large.