Last week, EU’s Ambassador to Malaysia Thierry Rommel openly criticized the New Economic Policy (NEP) in which he described the NEP as discriminatory and amounts to protectionism.
Rommel said the government is using the NEP as an excuse to practice "significant protectionism of its own market," including the automotive sector, steel, consumer goods, agricultural products, services and government contracts.Malaysia claims these are "infant" industries that need to be protected but "in reality .. it is the Malay-centered Bumiputra policy that drives protectionist policies," Rommel said.
"We cannot be as flexible as we want to be and chances that corruption comes into play is higher. It is an interruption to the free market."
Then what? Deputy Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak expressed his regret. Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar said the comments were tantamount to meddling in the country’s internal affairs and policies. Education Minister Hishamuddin Hussein described the remark as arrogant and excessive. Expect more echo chambers to create more havoc soon.
Meanwhile, Screenshots’s Jeff Ooi has an indepth analysis of the statement from his economic point of view, where Malaysia records a regular trade surplus with the EU, in favor of Malaysia.
I wonder the goons have read the original AP story, but one after another have jumped on the Rommel-bashing bandwagon to drown the core issue that the EU raised — the menace of the NEP from the global perspective. [...]
There is a fundamental difference in adjusting an archaic economic policy and safeguarding sovereignty in an ever changing global economy environment. Ignore it at your own peril as ASEAN’s Vietnam and Indonesia — who generate similar product clusters as Malaysia’s with improving quality at relatively lower cost — may one day eat your lunch.
That’s my advice to the Syed Hamid and Hisham wannabes out there.
While some may argue that the reason Rommel saying that is to cover his own ass with some jumping on him with the racial factor rather than looking into the economic perspective, let’s not even dream about globalization and get ready to starve few years down the road.
Some say seeing is believing. I witnessed some of them and read about the rest. Well, it’s your call before it’s late.
Related posts:
All the call for National Unity in the 50th year of Merdeka will be FALSE, FALSE, FALSE right from every Malaysians’ heart if the GOVERNMENT LEADERS themself are preaching Policies of IN-EQUALITY.
Hey! Hey! Hey!, The Honourable MINISTERS of Malaysia,tell me, Tell me PLEASE……….CAN MALAYSIANS REALLY UNITE IN THE CURRENT ENVIRONMENT????
The MINISTERS must be FOOLING themselves.
People won’t open their mouth and talk about something out of the blue. Someone, something must have prompted them to say those things.
‘Meddling in our country’s internal affairs’ he may have been, but I see he has a point. Remember Michael Backman?
What a shame we always need a foreigner to create real impact.
[...] with Petronas as the landing cushion, this country still can afford to talk c**k like sing songs. A few more years down the road, when the Government coffers is out of supply, that’s when [...]