PM missed opportunity in demonstrating his leadership

Taken from The Malaysian Insider

Things that side track Najib today

Datuk Seri Najib Razak is betting on his Government Transformation Programme (GTP) and the recovering economy to win his Barisan Nasional (BN) enough votes to win the next general elections.

But commentators and analysts say that such a strategy can work only if he is not sidetracked by race rows and other controversies.

And with yesterday’s racist comments by a senior aide severely embarrassing the prime minister and the ongoing “Allah” row not going away, it remains a “big if.”

“The GTP is a vote winner but the key to it’s success is BN’s ability to avoid another issue such as the ‘Allah’ controversy,” said James Chin, a political science lecturer at Monash University here.

Strategy of bread and butter issue

He noted the prime minister has carefully based the GTP on key bread and butter issues faced by the public and BN’s calculation is that as long as these issues are addressed other factors will have no major impact on the results of the next general elections.

Chin said he expects the GTP to be successful because most of the measures for the transformation programme were already in the pipeline even before the GTP plan was put in place.

His optimism is supported by ING’s recent quarterly Investment Dashboard Survey which was released last week.

The survey reported that the investment scene in Malaysia was stabilising, with investors remaining optimistic over the current economic outlook.

It also indicated stability in the local jobs market and measures to sustain the property sector was boosting investor confidence that Malaysia will be able to achieve a gross domestic product (GDP) growth of three per cent this year.

Malaysian concerned with economic well being

Policy analyst Khoo Kay Peng also agreed that most Malaysians were concerned with economic well being while issues such as democracy and rule of law only concerned a small segment of society.

“Sadly the majority will put the economy ahead of social issues.”

However he said the success of the GTP would depend on a cumbersome civil service and Najib’s leadership, which he said has so far been unconvincing.

Missed opportunity to demonstrate his leadership

Khoo points out that Najib’s handling of a slew of recent controversies such as the Port Klang Free Zone (PKFZ) scandal, the theft of Royal Malaysian Air Force jet engines, Teoh Beng Hock’s death and the recent ‘Allah’ row were missed opportunities for him to demonstrate his leadership.

“These were opportunities for him to show his leadership but instead it hurt his credibility. ‘‘

Government Transformation Program (GTP) lacking inherent mechanism

Prof Shamsul Amri Baharuddin remarked that the GTP has so far been a ‘top down’ effort with limited participation from the public.

He described the GTP as a grand design but said that what was lacking was an inherent mechanism where the public can be consulted.

Public participation is needed

“Yes it can work provided the public can participate.” said the Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) director of the Institute of the Malay World and Civilisation.

His UKM colleague Prof Dr Mohammad Agus Yusoff agreed that the GTP and economy were steps in the right direction to win over the public.

However he said transforming policies into real benefits would be key to the GTP’s success.

“The people must experience real impact,” he said.

Recovering economy is not enough to win voters today

Political scientist Wong Chin Huat said the GTP and a recovering economy may have been enough to win over the public in the past but was unlikely to be enough today.

“It may have worked ten or 20 years ago but ever since the last general elections, Malaysians have woken up.” he said adding that the public was now more demanding.

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February 3, 2010 · Filed Under Economy

Comments

5 Responses to “PM missed opportunity in demonstrating his leadership”

Suntat on February 5th, 2010 7:28 am

Regarding theft of jet engines, the exhibits (jet engines) are yet to be recovered by the police, otherwise the one who retains the stolen properties should be charged in court accordingly.

How to proceed with the case without the main exhibits which are crucial to prove the case? Documentary evidence? Doubtful!!
kpt99 on February 5th, 2010 8:40 am

After the missing of fighter jet engines, now the armed forces personnel is selling secrets to foreigners.Soon they will sell Sukhoi and submarines.What credibility does the civil servant have?.
MERAMAT TAJAK on February 5th, 2010 10:16 am

The GTP is a good idea to the extent that it would attempt to implant common business management technique in government.

The question is whether government “Transformation” program, would equate with Najib being a transformative leader ?

And further, given the slew of scandals, and simmering racial and religious tension, is it sufficient for a Malaysian PM to remain focus on bread and butter issues that the GTP is all about ?

While GTP may feed the local citizenry for more efficient government delivery system, from the politician to the civil service administration, will it improve Malaysia standing in the eyes of the outside world ?

Will GTP be a sufficient basis, to help the country compete with the likes of Indonesia, Vietnam and Thailand, to where many factories from Malaysia have relocated ?

To my mind, the GTP is a management tool, not alien to many MBA students and creatures of the corporate world.

All that GTP does is to define with greater clarity the performance measure of the ministeries and civil service administration.

IT DOES NOT, AND WILL NOT CHANGE FLAWED POLICIES, BY GOVERNMENT THAT HAD LOST TOUCH WITH THE ASPIRATION OF CITIZEN.

By admission of some senior ministers,the GTP would be designed to neutralise NGOs participation in civil society. By having sets of performance measure for their programme, the government of the day, can be more dismissive of criticism by NGOs.It would muffle the NGOs.

SO WHILE, OTHER COUNTRIES ADVANCE FORWARD TO TRANSITION TO A HEALTHY PARTICIPATION BY CIVIL SOCIETY IN CHARTING THE COUNTRY’s DIRECTION, THE GTP WILL STIFLE TRUE REFORM.

Already, if the reader had been alert to James Masing statement in the Borneo Post, that effectively,insofar as his ministry is concerned, the large scale commercialisation of land for kelap sawit will continue because “the government has target” to meet.

DO NOT, THEREFORE EXPECT GTP TO MAKE ANY STRUCTURAL CHANGES TO THE WAY GOVERNMENT MAKE POLICY.

GTP can have a downside, worst than you can imagine. Instead of chowing down 1 million hectar of NCR land per year, it may accelerate it as much faster rate. Driven by the performance measures at all levels of government and civil administration,the GTP may obliterate the 200+ court case, at the expense of the Dayak.

On a different note, this GTP programme is somewhat akin to 1MALAYSIA. Rais Yatim, said don’t expect any structural changes in race and religious relations.In another word, to him – Malaysians are expected to be united using existing rules, that had proven to be polarising.

If the rules do not change i.e the Constitution and racial policies supported by the Constitution, do not change – would the citizenry change mindset by songs and dance routine alone ?
If the social contract is not reviewed, would the gullible continue to be pliant ?

If the East Malaysians do not get redress, in the constitutional sense (Malaysian Agreement, Native Court etc), and the socio-economic imbalance between East and West Malaysia, do not get proper redress as a matter of government policy, would there continue to be Negaraku ?

On the point of leadership, at this juncture in Malaysian history – I think scholars would agree that the country need a true transformative leadership.One that doesn’t do GTP, to act as palliative, to keep the rakyat content – to fish for vote – and to note look into the long term.

The country need transformation. Not same mo, same mo. Its a bit early in his administration, but judging by the few initiative so far, Najib has not inspired.

He seem to have misread the reason for the Opposition (with popular vote reputedly to be more than 50%) to have won the hearts of many rakyat.

I believe the rakyat – far from satisfied with the so-called bread and butter issues, wants real change – to move Malaysian forward. People across racial and religious divide wants to be able to genuinely appreciate each other differences by ACKNOWLEDGING, YOU ARE MY EQUAL. I’m not your TUAN. Your are not my inferior brothers from Borneo.The rakyat may actually wants to say “our children and descendants will have equal opportunity to be business tycoon, and to be political leaders, or heck – to be the next PM”.

And when they disagree, the rakyat must surely want the same rights as those that have been enjoyed by citizens of other countries, and signed off into varius treaties and charter of the UN.

After decades of independence, and with a sizeable middle class, one would expect Malaysians across the board, would appreciate the finer things in life besides nasi, garam and MSG (bread and butter).I would be surprise if Malaysians would surrender their Freedom from oppression for a more efficient mail! Even the minority Dayaks of East Malaysia, must surely be courageous enough to stand up for the rights of Indigenous People, in respect of their land and culture.

Most importantly, to my mind: Malaysians need leadership who would want Malaysian to have the mental faculty to be critical thinkers. We want Malaysians to be able to speak their mind. To be critical when necessary, and to give credit where it is due.We want the government to allow dissenting arguments to be heard. We want Malaysians to have functioning and fully participative democracy.

And so on, and so forth.

Malaysians won’t survive into the future on bread and butter alone.But if the next election prove thats all Malaysian is capable of being inspired by, God help us all.
Suntat on February 6th, 2010 7:54 am

A.G said, the stolen jet engines were in Uruguay and the government was going to bring back the jet engines with the assistance of Uruguay government.

Congratulations to the police, A.G and government agencies for the recovery. It is painstaking investigation by the police.

I think the court case in respect of this case will cost our government a lot of money, because in a normal practice the police has to call all the witnesses in the transaction (chain of evidence) which may involve foreigners to come to testify in court and their trips are surely borne by the government.
Panjai Runding Panjai Ruai on February 6th, 2010 9:21 pm

Suntat:

That is exactly how and why there are so much money wasted as ‘pilferages’here and there and often unaccounted for or swept under the carpet.

We must remember the money belongs to the rakyat, people like you and me.