The Tajuddin Ramli vs GLCs saga is just a symptom of a broken economy. While we are focusing on the details of the shocking collusion brought about by Nazri’s letter supposedly “advising” GLCs to drop their legitimate legal claims, followed up with Datuk Seri Najib’s “off-site settlement” rationale, this must be seen as an attempt to engineer a closure to what has been BN’s long tradition of economic plundering via NEP and selected bumiputera captains of industry.
We must not forget how Tajuddin Ramli was awarded, “mismanaged”, and bailed out from MAS at an estimated total loss to the economy to the tune of more than RM8 billion.
This is economic plundering at its worst.
Let us not forget the plundering of public finances happening even right now through the so-called Economic Transformation Program. The top 10 biggest projects’ will require a total investment of RM142 billion, 77% of which will be from public financing via GLCs. This proves that the figure of 92% private financing is nothing more than political whitewashing.
This again amplifies my call that Malaysia is a broken economy. And how will we fix this broken economy? Without sounding over-simplistic, it is a matter of competition. Competition will almost always produce the best economic scenario for the rakyat.
To compound this non-competition, we should not turn our gaze away from the MAS-AirAsia share swap. If things subsequently turn awry, will Putrajaya intervene in the MAS boardroom yet again as it has done historically over the past decade?
YB Nurul Izzah Anwar
MP Lembah Pantai
Vice President KEADILAN
