DAP parliamentarian Tony Pua has urged Second Finance Minister Ahmad Husni Mohamad Hanadzlah to enable a public debate on his recent speech on the 'real state' of the economy.

dap 2010 budget rocket cafe 071009 tony pua 01 "We call upon to minister to move a ministerial statement and allow for debate in Parliament so both sides of the House can unite on urgent, wide-ranging reforms needed to restart the country's engine of economic growth," Pua (right) told a press conference today.

The Petaling Jaya Utara MP was referring to Ahmad Husni's speech at the National Economic Outlook Conference 2010-2011 organised by the Malaysian Institute of Economic Research yesterday.

In the speech reported by AFP , the minister stated the obvious with regard to the country's economic growth, said Pua.

Although the contents of the speech were not "new or shocking", he is "ecstatic that the minister is finally listening to the opposition".

According to the news report, Ahmad Husni said Malaysia is trapped in a low-value-added, low-wage and low-productivity structure, adding that economic growth over the past three years was second-lowest among China, India, Vietnam, Indonesia, Philippines and Thailand.

"Our economy has been stagnating in the last decade. We have lost our competitive edge to remain the leader of the pack in many sectors of the economy. Our private investment has been steadily in decline," Ahmad Husni had said

ahmad husni hanadzlah The minister added that the services sector is underdeveloped, private investment is at half the levels before the 1997-98 East Asian financial crisis, and the manufacturing sector is suffering from lack of investment.

"The (need for) transformation is particularly urgent when we take the external environment into account," he said.

"The global environment is changing. We can no longer rely on our traditional trading partners and we need to address the competitive pressure from other emerging markets on our existing exports.

Ahmad Husni ( above ) then called for sweeping measures including an emphasis on meritocracy and ensuring that all Malaysians are given "equal opportunity to participate in the economy".

' Stop being unrealistic'

"The earth-shattering speech would be a sheer waste of time and effort if it is not put into concrete action," said Pua.

He also urged ministers to stop singing "unbelievable and unrealistic" praises of the economy in Parliament and to discard their "knee-jerk denial syndrome", in order to heal the malaise.

Klang MP Charles Santiago, who was at the press conference, said foreign direct investment in Malaysia had dropped 23 percent in the first six months of the year, while local investment dropped by 44 percent.

Saying this represents low investor confidence, he noted: "We are the only Asian country that has not come out of the economic crisis. This tells us that our economic management has failed."

He added that Ahmad Husni's speech should be taken as a wake-up call.