7 - The New Malaysian Economic Agenda: Some Preliminary Observations

Summary

INTRODUCTION

This chapter attempts to compare and contrast the much vaunted New Economic Policy (NEP) and its later variants, viz. the National Development Policy (NDP) and the National Vision Policy (NVP) with the New Economic Agenda (NEA) propounded by Anwar Ibrahim, the former deputy prime minister of Malaysia and de facto leader of Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) (Peoples’ Justice Party in English). This is, however, not an easy task. While much research and writing have been done on the NEP, the same cannot be said about the NEA, which is still very much at an early stage of conceptualization. Its detailed contents await further strengthening and finetuning. Be that as it may, the broad objectives and the underlying spirit and underpinnings of these two policies can be compared and contrasted. No one is sure as to whether the NEA will see the light of day, and if so, when. Should it be implemented sometime in the future, it will be done in a specific social formation that has its contradictions, competing interests, values, and institutions. Some of these may pose severe constraints and challenges to the successful realization of Anwar's, and by extension, PKR's new economic agenda.

STRUCTURE OF THE CHAPTER

In line with the above stated objectives, the structure of this chapter will be as follows:

1. (i) First, we will describe briefly the rationale behind the NEP; its tools of implementation; and the social contradictions that this policy has engendered.

2. (ii) This provides the context for the contestation against the NEP via the articulation of the NEA. The differences between these two policies will be looked at.

3. (iii) The constraints inhibiting the successful implementation of the NEA and the social contradictions that it may potentially engender will then be discussed.

THE NEW ECONOMIC POLICY — ITS OBJECTIVES AND TOOLS OF IMPLEMENTATION

The NEP has been implemented for close to four decades now. It was first launched in 1971, with the overriding objective of bringing unity to a nation that was badly shaken by a major racial conflict that occurred two years before its launch. This was to be achieved through:

1. (i) reducing and eventually eradicating poverty among all Malaysians, irrespective of race; and

2. (ii) accelerating the process of restructuring Malaysian society to correct economic imbalances so as to reduce and eventually eliminate the identification of economic function with race.