The NEM has re-emerged from the shadows to hit the headlines over the past 24 hours, says Ipoh Timor MP Lim Kit Siang, begging the question whether the model is ‘myth or reality’.

teoh beng hock memorial night 160710 kit siang “References to NEM appears to have come into vogue again, coming out from the shadows from where it had been banished when the 10th Malaysia Plan (10MP) was unveiled in June in Parliament,” said Lim ( right ) in a statement today.

He was referring to news reports such as AFP’s ' IMF asks Malaysia to take ‘decisive‘ action on reforms' and the prime minister’s response in a local news portal.

                

Noting that the first pillar of Najib’s National Transformation of Malaysia was the NEM and that the fourth was the 10MP adopted by Parliament in July, Lim reminded that one of the 10MP’s aims to “operationalise the NEM in the five years from 2011 to 2015.”

However, says Lim, Najib received “strident objections from right-wing extremist groups  to the NEM, particularly to its biggest idea” that is the replacement of the New Economic Policy (NEP) in favour of a non-ethnic affirmative action with emphasis on the lower income 40 percent of households.

Lim notes the prime minister’s complete about-turn on the NEM.

“Najib made the shocking statement that the NEM is not the government’s ‘final stand’ but merely the ‘trial balloons’ of a group of experts from the global market’s perspective.

Najib must make a stand

“Is this why when the DAP national publicity secretary and MP for PJ Utara, Tony  Pua, made the proposal for the removal of bumiputera discounts for luxury homes ... Najib’s Umno Cabinet Ministers were in the front line among Tony’s critics and detractors?” asked Lim.

NONE He said Pua ( right in photo ) was merely suggesting, in line with the premier’s ‘big idea’, to do away with discounts for high end private and commercial property “to improve competitiveness and restore investor confidence, while retaining the seven percent discounts enjoyed by Malays and other bumiputeras for homes below RM500,000 - which is fully in line with the ‘Biggest Idea’ in the NEM for needs-based affirmative action policies.”

Lim called for Najib to “declare unequivocally” once and for all his stand on the NEM and the original idea to replace race-based affirmative action with a needs-based one

“(Is it) still a myth or reality - whether it is still at the level of ‘trial balloons’ or whether it has the full and commitment of the prime minister and his cabinet.”

The NEM, when it was first mooted, was to be “one of the four critical pillars of Najib’s National Transformation of Malaysia, representing his ambitious Economic Transformation Programme” to propel Malaysia by 2020 into a “developed, competitive and high income economy with inclusivity and sustainability.”