The public forum’s topic last week at Universiti Sains Malaysia was economic and though the speakers ranged widely the audience would have been better served if the discourse had been guided by a modicum of philosophy.
The subject was the 10th Malaysia Plan and though its subtitle was ‘Policy, Politics and the NEM’, the organisers - Center for Policy Research and International Studies (CenPRIS) of USM - might just as well have titled it ‘10th Malaysia Plan, Period’.
CenPRIS could not have possibly expected the speakers - Finance Minister II Dr Awang Adek Hussin, Sivarasa Rasiah of PKR, Idris Jusoh of Umno, and economist Dr Lim Teck Ghee - to do justice to the topic in the 17-odd minutes allocated to each for initial submissions...