With respect to your news feature No meeting of minds for party Youths on globalisation on the PAS-Keadilan-Umno Youth forum, I don't think it was all fire and brimstone. I think there were some points that were raised by the Keadilan speaker (Adlan Benan Omar) that are worth noting.

One was that the economic improvements that Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad has affected since 1998 have been cosmetic and that there are serious flaws within his economic schemes that need to be addressed. The issue of corruption and cronyism still remains large.

[Keadilan speaker] Adlan mentioned about a recently restructured conglomerate linked to the Malaysian government (not UEM or Renong) which still had to resort to begging from Mahathir's government for a project to help boost its cash-strapped funds.

This is a clear sign that favouritism is in play, although perhaps not with the same actors. If Mahathir is serious in wanting a more transparent system of economic governance, why is he not more serious about open tenders and bidding?

Why for instance are such huge projects like Pelabuhan Tanjung Pelepas and building Johor into a transportation link entrusted to Syed Mokhtar al-Bukhary? Not only that, it seems that Petronas has been asked to come in to help build a new petrochemical centre in Johor. Do not forget as well E-village which again has been entrusted to Syed Mokhtar.

It seems that Mahathir believes that he can handpick his tycoons rather than leave them to competition and market forces to prove their worth. This is raising a serious credibility issue because how can we be sure that people who are not closely linked with the ruling party are able to secure favours for such large and lucrative projects? The system still revolves around the fact that you can only be rich if Mahathir so decides.

Another point that has to be taken note of is that the economic policies as espoused by Mahathir have not done a good job of distribution of wealth. Barisan Nasional has said that it would prefer to distribute the proceeds of Terengganu's oil revenues to the Terengganu people, but instead gave them monkeys and old bicycles (literally).

Is this is what is known as a fair distribution of wealth? If there is also a fair distribution of wealth, then how come the State Economic Development Corporations, which use money taxed from the people have done a poor job of economic management? Corporate arms of Johor SEDC, for instance, is sagging under a debt load of RM1.2 billion, due to improper investments. Is this known as a fair distribution of wealth?

As a spectator to the forum, I was hoping that there would be concrete suggestions from Umno Youth, being members of the ruling party. Having seen none, I am seriously disappointed with the amount of thought that has been given to the issue and can only agree with Keadilan that something needs to be done urgently.