11MP has odour of minyak angin

Over the last seven columns, I’ve said the 11MP should (1) reduce government assumptions of racial homogeneity; (2) reduce wealth inequality; (3) reduce human insecurity; (4) reduce the number of elite; (5) stop spin doctoring. Here’s my verdict on the 11MP.

In what follows, I use “11MP,” as an abbreviation for Najib’s May 21, 2015 parliamentary speech proposing the 11th Malaysia Plan.

Racial homogeneity

Despite multiple voter tsunamis since 2008 and the emergence of groups like the G25 to counter groups like Perkasa, the 11MP continues to assume each ethnic group is homogenous.

The 11MP declares that special benefits must be given to the 68% of the population who are classified as Bumiputeras (para 77). It fails to recognise Bumiputeras are heterogeneous along the dimensions of wealth, religion and politics.

Inequality

The 11MP accepts massive wealth and income inequality as a norm. The 11MP treats the 2.7 million (para 44) households in the bottom 40% by household income as perpetual objects of state charity through 1Malaysia bazaars, clinics, menus and stores.

The 11MP says it will raise the wages share of GDP from the current 34% to 40% by 2020 (para 105), but it is vague about how it will do so; the doyen of Malaysian economists, Tan Sri Prof Kamal Salih has noted this.

The 11MP doesn’t recognise that Malaysians mingle daily with more than 6.7 million foreigners because of the low minimum wage and stifling of workers’ rights (in the lower occupations the ratio of foreigners to Malaysian Indians is 8:1).

Insecurity

The 11MP is silent about the enormous debts shouldered by Malaysians – now at 87% of GDP, the highest level in Asia.

The poor borrow to survive. The middle class borrow to educate their children.

The 11MP ignores the fact that if a member of a household loses his or her job or health, that household will be unable to pay its debts.

People who are not home owners wonder if they will ever be able to afford a home. The 11MP speaks of building “affordable housing” but doesn’t define the term (para 91).

The 11MP speaks of expanding private healthcare, but ignores the impact this will have on the already steeply rising cost of public healthcare.

Elites

The 11MP doesn’t propose any measures to reduce the number of elite (Umnoputras). It doesn’t propose death duties; it doesn’t propose taxes on speculative investments; it doesn’t propose higher taxes for the super-rich (Umnoputra).

Spin

The 11MP does much spin doctoring. It talks of productivity, innovation, technical training and mega projects as “game changers,” though these have been the norm for decades.

The 11MP talks about creating jobs and guaranteeing employment, but is vague about how it will do so. It says nothing about reducing the birth rate. The 11MP often sounds like a pasar malam vendor promoting minyak angin as a cure-all.

Dubious statistics, omissions and additions

I’ll just list six dubious statistics, omissions or additions in the 11MP.

1. Household income. The 11MP claims the median household income in 2014 was RM4,585 per month (para 23). How did it grow so much since 2012 when it was RM3,626? (Steven Sim has discussed this.) Gross national income (GNI) per capita for developed nation status is claimed to be “US$15,000” in 2020, when it should be “US$15,000 in 2010 value.” That amounts to about US$16,500 (per Dr Lee Hwok Aun of University Malaya), after accounting for inflation. How will the spin doctors respond?

2. Bumiputera equity. The 11MP says the Bumiputera equity in the corporate sector was 23.5% in 2011. Why use such an old statistic? What about all the equity which has been sold by Bumiputeras?

3. Government-linked corporations (GLC). The 11MP says nothing about fixing GLCs, though the government admitted in 2005 that GLCs are a huge source of wastage and set a goal to fix them by 2015. The 11MP will enrich GLC’s via mega projects, most notably in communications and utilities.

4. TRX. The 11MP doesn’t mention the Tun Razak Financial Exchange (TRX) which is supposed to create massive numbers of jobs in Kuala Lumpur (The 1MDB, Tabung Haji and pension fund transactions involve land in the TRX zone).

5. Boards. The 11MP creates additional boards for productivity, logistics and trade. That means Umnoputras can look forward to board memberships with lucrative emoluments.

6. Verdict. The 11MP propagates state capture, a type of “systemic political corruption in which private interests significantly influence a state's decision-making processes to their own advantage through illicit and unobvious channels” (Wikipedia).

The 11MP increases the perks which the Supreme Leader of Umno can hand out to Umnoputras who are loyal to him and thereby assure their continuing loyalty.

Despite its claim to be a “game changer” to make us a “developed nation” by 2020, the 11MP changes nothing: if you’re not an Umnoputra, your usefulness is limited to confirming rich stooges in office during elections. – May 28, 2015. 

* This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insider.