Malaysia will never develop a knowledge-based economy and society without encouraging the contestation of ideas, an economics professor said today.

Universiti Malaya's Prof KS Jomo said if this had been the case before the last financial crisis, fewer Malaysians would have swallowed "the policies which flowed from such orthodoxy."

"We in developing countries need to look at ideas far more critically to ensure that they are appropriate and serve our interests," he told malaysiakini .

Jomo reasoned that ideas and views become robust through challenge and competition, and not from the blind endorsement of flatterers.

He was responding to Universiti Sains Malaysia's lecturer Prof Amir H Baharuddin who recently commented that the term 'Mahathirnomics' be introduced in economic studies in recognition of the premier's efforts in saving the nation during the regional financial crisis a few years ago.

Amir said Dr Mahathir Mohamad had "innovated enormously in economy" as he had taken unconventional steps that even theoretical economists had never imagined.

He was also quoted as saying that in the United States, terms such as 'Reagonomics' and 'Clintonomics' had been introduced and in India there was 'Ghandinomics'.

Amir described the premier's innovative measures such as imposing capital control and bailing out banks as admirable because they helped to check the economic downturn.

'Heterodox learning'

In regard to this, Jomo said there is much to learn from history and there are different approaches to economics and globalisation.

"Malaysian economics curricula tend to reflect conventional neo-classical orthodoxy, now popularly referred to as the Washington Consensus," he revealed.

"There is a long overdue need for heterodox learning in economics as well as other social sciences," he said, adding that policy makers and the public can only benefit from competing perspectives.

Jomo suspects that Mahathir was "not terribly impressed by manifestations of neo-feudal academic culture or of competitive sycophancy".

According to the economist, this is the reason behind the mainstream media's "great disservice with their 'whateverism' - what the bosses say must be right, even if it diametrically contradicts what was said a month before."

Meanwhile, another economist said history books may want to term this period as one governed by 'Mahathirnomics' and journalists may find this term useful.

"As much as Mahathir contributed to leading the nation into the doldrums he also contributed and tremendously at that, in rescuing the nation," said the economist who declined to be named.

Commenting further, he said: "I think there is no doubt that Malaysia's success in handling the crisis should be studied. It has indeed been studied and has raised questions about the universal applicability of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) prescriptions."

However, the economist said that it was equally necessary to study why Malaysia fell into the crisis, and learn to avoid the problems associated with a "C-economy" or Crony economy.

Courageous actions

He agreed that Mahathir's methods such as imposing capital controls and bailing out banks were admirable and served to check the economic downturn.

"These actions were courageous but they may have also been prompted by desperation," he said.

If Malaysia had accepted IMF aid, the latter would have insisted on a more competitive economic and business structure, he added.

"This would have spelt death to Malaysia's policy of supporting inefficient businessmen like former Malaysian Airlines (MAS) chief executive officer Tajudin Ramli and former Renong chief Halim Saad," stressed the economist.

According to the economist , a greater repercussion of IMF aid would have been the end to the policy of encouraging bumiputra entrepreneurship

In March, Mahathir's political secretary Dusuki Ahmad said institutions of higher learning in Malaysia should introduce a specific course on the former's thoughts.

He said if institutions could rely on Islamic thinkers of the past as a source of reference, they must also consider referring to Mahathir's thoughts, especially when the latter wanted to make Muslims in the country a model for the global Muslim community.