The DAP today called on the government to seriously address the concerns of poor transparency, labour standards and human rights in the country which prompted one of the largest pension funds in the United States to withdraw its investment from Malaysia.

Party national chairperson Lim Kit Siang said these concerns should be addressed urgently but instead the government seems to derive perverse pleasure from such unexpected international attention.

Lim was commenting on National Economic Action Council executive director Mustapha Mohamed criticism of the California Public Employees Retirement System (Calpers) fund for their lack of insight into the regions potential.

This is as good as telling Calpers that the loss is yours not mine, said Lim.

With such an attitude, why should Malaysia be sending delegation after delegation overseas to attract foreign investments as we might just as well sit tight and wait and see who is stupid enough not to recognise Malaysias investment potential and invest in the country, he added.

Earlier this week, international news agency AFP reported that Calpers had completed a comprehensive review of emerging market countries and would begin to invest in Poland and Hungary while pulling out from four Southeast Asian nations.

Calpers said its withdrawal of public investment from Southeast Asia was linked more to financial risk than social conscience.

Long-term implications

However, it said that Malaysia and Indonesia had scored poorly, namely on the human rights and democracy fronts, while the Philippines failed mostly on financial criteria and Thailand did badly for a mixture of reasons.

The decision by the fund, which manages US$151 billion (RM574 billion) in assets, will affect around one billion dollars (RM3.8 billion) in emerging market holdings, Calpers added.

Lim said there should be no reason for government complacency over Calpers withdrawal, particularly with the recent spate of adverse international media reports about purported terrorist links to Malaysia.

He said there was also the inclement international economic environment in the country as reflected by the 55 percent drop in American investments last year, which slumped to RM3.31 billion from RM7.49 billion the previous year.

He added the Calpers move could have long-term implications in discouraging other major international pension funds from investing in Malaysia.