NKRA : Najib Kerja Rosmah Arah - Rueters

Dasar Pembaharuan Najib Hanya Kaya Dengan Akronim

Rakyat Malaysia masih tidak dapat memahami pembaharuan ekonomi secara radikal yang mahu dilaksanakan Perdana Menteri, Datuk Seri Najib Razak meskipun beliau bersungguh-sungguh memperkenalkan pelbagai dasar sejak memegang jawatan sebagai pemimpin nombor satu negara.

Menurut laporan agensi berita antarabangsa Reuters, apa yang membimbangkan Perdana Menteri terhadap usaha reformasi yang dilakukannya ialah apabila rakyat Malaysia sendiri mempersendakan akronim setiap dasar yang diperkenalkan beliau.

Ini kerana ada di kalangan rakyat Malaysia yang menggelarkan dasar NKRA sebagai "Najib Kerja, Rosmah Arah" - yang merujuk kepada peranan isteri Najib, Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor yang dilihat terlalu menonjol melebihi imej suaminya.

Artikel Reuters bertajuk 'Acronym Soup Swamps Malaysia Refrom Drive' bertarikh 25 Ogos itu menyentuh kepimpinan Najib sebagai Perdana Menteri yang memperkenalkan begitu banyak akronim dalam dasar pentadbiran beliau seperti- Model Ekonomi Baru (MEB), Bidang Keberhasilan Utama Kementerian (NKRA), Program Transformasi Kerajaan (GTP), Special Implementation Task Force (SITF), Bidang Ekonomi Utama Negara (NKEA), Program Transformasi Ekonomi (ETP), dan Indeks Prestasi utama (KPI).

Reuters menyebut, tanggungjawab bagi pembaharuan ekonomi Malaysia dengan pantas diserahkan Najib kepada Unit Pengurusan Prestasi Dan Pelaksanaan (Pemandu) yang bertanggungjawab merumus serta melaksana dasar seperti NKRA dan MKRA (Ministerial Key Result Area).

Meskipun begitu, Pemandu, yang juga membantu memformulasikan Rancangan Malaysia ke-10, bagi mengangkat negara berpendapatan sederhana kepada negara maju menjelang 2020, gagal melakukan rombakan radikal terhadap dasar penarikan balik subsidi kepada rakyat Malaysia.

"Pemandu ialah sebahagian daripada GTP, Program Transformasi Kerajaan, yang juga melibatkan SITF (Special Implementation Task Force).

"Ditambah dengan NKEA (National Key Economic Areas), satu lagi kumpulan pemikir dikenali sebagai EPU (Unit Perancang Ekonomi) dan tidak terhenti di situ bagi kakitangan awam Malaysia, terdapat lagi Program Transformasi Ekonomi (ETP). DEB dan Model Ekonomi Baru (MEB)," ujar artikel berkenaan.

Menurut Reuters lagi, adalah adil bagi menyoal apa yang diperolehi rakyat Malaysia daripada semua dasar yang dilaksanakan kerajaan di bawah pimpinan Najib.

"Sementara Malaysia mengalami kesan kemerosotan global dengan pertumbuhan ekonomi 10.1 peratus pada suku pertama 2010 dan 8.9 peratus dalam suku kedua, hakikatnya Najib tidak berjaya membawa perubahan pada Malaysia sepertimana yang beliau janjikan.

Menurut Reuters, Najib sendiri mengakui ekonomi Malaysia berhadapan dengan masalah tenaga mahir dan kos buruh yang semakin ketinggalan kepada China, Indonesia dan Vietnam dari segi perlumbaan untuk membawa masuk pelaburan dan pertumbuhan.

"Pelaburan swasta adalah 12 peratus dalam Keluaran Dalam Negara Kasar dibandingkan dengan 30 peratus sebelum krisis Asia dan ialah antara terendah di Asia, menurut Bank Dunia. Pertumbuhan produktiviti telah dikurangkan separuh kepada 3 peratus sejak krisis Asia 1998 dan Bank Dunia berkata firma-firma Malaysia kurang inovasi daripada di Thailand, Filipina dan Vietnam," ujar artikel itu.

Menurut laporan itu lagi, pelaburan langsung asing (FDI) jauh ketinggalan berbanding zaman kegemilangan awal 1990 apabila Malaysia mewakili 39.8 peratus kemasukan FDI ke Asia Tenggara.

Bagaimanapun, pada 2009, mengikut data Pertubuhan Bangsa-bangsa Bersatu, Malaysia hanya mewakili hanya 3.8 jumlah kemasukan FDI yang masuk ke rantau itu.

"Momentum pembaharuan Najib yang muncul dengan liberalisasi diserang oleh kumpulan Melayu konservatif yang bimbang hak keistimewaan ekonomi, sosial dan politik mereka di bawah ancaman.

"Rakyat Malaysia dan komuniti pelaburan seluruh dunia sekarang menunggu untuk satu lagi akronim apabila perincian-perincian akhir MEB dan RMK-10 akan diperkenalkan pada September ini serta perundingan awam oleh Pemandu," jelas artikel itu. -SK

Acronym soup swamps Malaysia reform drive

Malaysia’s Prime Minister Najib Razak says he has embarked on a series of radical economic reforms. In reality it feels as if he has unleashed a barrage of incomprehensible acronyms on the unsuspecting public of this Southeast Asian nation.

The charge for economic reform is being led by the snappily named PEMANDU. As well as being the Malay word for “driver” it stands for the government’s Performance Management and Delivery Unit.

PEMANDU is in charge of formulating and implementing NKRAs (National Key Result Areas), MKRAs (Ministerial Key Result Areas) and getting “Big Results Fast”, according to its website, although it singularly failed to win political backing for a radical revamp of Malaysia’s costly subsidy regime.

It is also helping to formulate the 10th Malaysia Plan, 10MP for those in the know, a communist-era sounding 5-year plan that aims to help lift this middle income country to developed nation status by 2020.

PEMANDU is part of the GTP, the Government Transformation Programme, which also involves the SITF (Special Implementation Task Force). Throw in the NKEAs (National Key Economic Areas), another thinktank known as the EPU (Economic Planning Unit) and you haven’t reached the end of the alphabet spaghetti dreamed up by Malaysia’s civil servants…. There’s still the ETP. the NEP (sometimes good, sometimes bad) and the NEM (New Economic Model).

To be fair to Malaysia, it is not the only country in the world that is wallowing in economic acronyms, the U.S. gave the world TARP, a $700 billion bank bailout programme, and the even more mind-numbing ABCP MMMFLF (don’t ask), but it is fair to ask what Malaysians have got from all of this.

While it is true that Malaysia has had a “good” global downturn with economic growth of 10.1 percent in the first quarter of 2010 and 8.9 percent in the second quarter, it is also true that Najib hasn’t quite managed to transform Malaysia in the way he promised.

Najib told a conference run by investment bank Credit Suisse earlier this year that he “must execute or be executed”. He has also spoken of Malaysia’s economy being a “burning platform” based on low skill and low cost labour that is increasingly losing out to the likes of China, Indonesia and Vietnam in the race for investment and growth.

For all the rhetoric and the welcome mat being laid out for foreign banks and insurers by Najib, Malaysia still looks sickly compared with its peers.

Private investment is 12 percent of gross domestic product compared with 30 percent prior to the Asian crisis and is among the lowest in Asia, according to the World Bank. Productivity growth has halved to 3 percent since the 1998 Asian crisis and the World Bank says Malaysian firms innovate less than those in Thailand, the Philippines and Vietnam.

Foreign direct investment has fallen off a cliff since the glory days of the early 1990s when Malaysia accounted for 39.8 percent of Southeast Asia’s total, in part reflecting Malaysian companies investing overseas in faster growing economies like Indonesia. In 2009, according to UN data, Malaysia accounted for just 3.8 percent of the region’s total.

Najib’s reform momentum appears to be stalled, with liberalisation being attacked by conservative Malay groups who fear their special economic, social and political privileges are under threat.

Malaysians and the global investment community are now waiting for another stir of the acronym soup when the final details of the NEM and 10MP are unveiled in September as well as a public consultation run by PEMANDU.

Worryingly for the prime minister and his reform drive, local wags have started to mock his acronyms, dubbing NKRA “Najib Kerja, Rosmah Arah” (Najib works, Rosmah directs) in a pointed reference to Najib’s highly visible wife Rosmah Mansor.