The Pakatan Harapan (PH) government is doubling down on its promise to dismantle race-based economic policies.
Currently the parliamentary caucus on reform and governance chairman, Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim said Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad has asked him to draft a new economic policy that isn’t race-based.
Anwar – who was introduced as the next prime minister at a symposium in Parliament – reiterated previous statements that the “obsolete” racial New Economic Policy must be dismantled, but added that it must be done with a firm commitment to needs-based affirmative action to help the poor and those who have been sidelined.
However, he emphasised that the majority of those living in poverty are the Malays.
The Port Dickson MP said he was not questioning the special privileges of the Malays as enshrined in the Federal Constitution, adding that a holistic approach to helping the poor was needed.
“After 60 years of independence, Malaysians should be seen as one community with equal rights and privileges.
“The poor Malay, poor Chinese, or poor Indian are ‘poor people’,” he said.
Anwar was speaking at a press conference after the Malaysian Economic Symposium at the Parliament building on Friday (July 26).
He added that meritocracy sounded good and rational on paper, but was not feasible in practice.
“You cannot compare the best school in Kuala Lumpur with the best school in Kapit, Sarawak,” he said.
He said the Pakatan Harapan government under Dr Mahathir has set the direction for a needs-based economic policy and he will continue the process.
“What I need to do is to accelerate the process but I’m equally, if not more, committed in terms of reducing inequality and elevating the poor and checking on unbridled capitalism,” he said.
“It is not something of ‘Anwar’s programme’, it is of Pakatan Harapan’s, which has now started under Dr Mahathir,” he told the media.
The event which was attended by MPs and diplomats was organised by Parliament, in cooperation with the Backbenchers Council (BBC) and Parliament’s Reforms and Governance Caucus which Anwar leads.