Lost in the mix of attention this month to Tunisia and Egypt, another part of the Muslim world which has a slightly more peaceful way of doing things was focusing on the proper method of achieving economic growth. The Malaysian opposition released a 100-day reform plan which is meant to push back against the ruling party's New Economic Model and Prime Minister Najib Razak's Economic Transformation Plan. It's little surprise that Najib has dismissed the plan along with other political analysts as an unrealistic aim, but I found one branch of criticism from the prime minister to be particularly interesting:
'"If we want to buy a new car or a new house, we must first ask ourselves whether we are capable. Where would we get the money from? But what I find surprising and strange is, when they tabled all those measures which are populist in nature, not a single word was mentioned about the financial sources. So, how could they deliver all those they promised to the people?â? Najib said addressing his staff during the Prime Ministerâ??s Departmentâ??s monthly assembly here this morning...Describing the oppositionâ??s plan as being "too good to be true", he said it was dangerous to be too populist to the extent of putting the countryâ??s future at stake.
"We cannot so irresponsible until our children and grandchildren suffer. In fact, we do not have to wait that long. According to our calculations, in two years time the country will become like Greece if the promises (in the 100-day programme) were implemented without considering the countryâ??s actual capacity," he said.
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The explicit comparison of the reform's plan to a dangerous upsurge of the kind of populism which led to Greece's economic disaster are certainly fighting words, and Najib foe Anwar Ibrahim responded by demanding a debate on the proposal. That smacks of more posturing - but of course, all politicians posture.