The Unsettling Case of NEC Chairman
A Kadir Jasin
WHEN I started penning my column “Other Thots” in the New Sunday Times newspaper back in 1991, I disagreed often with then Prime Minister, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad.
I often predicated my disagreement with the phrase “with due respect to the Prime Minister” to which he took a slight exception and asked if I could do away with it, which I did.
We now have a new Prime Minister and I have openly promised that I would give him six months before I do a KPI assessment on him because that’s the length of time he has given his ministers and senior civil servants to fulfill their KPI requirements before he assesses them.
But in the mean time, life goes on and things continue to happen. We cannot overlook them just because we’ve given Mohd Najib Abdul Razak six months before being assessed.
So my Kopitiam old timers and I, and the oracle sincerely hope that the Prime Minister will not take offence if I say something about the National Economic Council (NEC).
Really it’s not about “apa lagi Kadir mau?” (what else does Kadir want?). I can’t remember asking anything from the PM except to help in an ongoing project to publish the speeches of Umno Presidents from Datuk Onn Jaafar to Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, which he agreed and I thank him sincerely for it.
Of course I pleaded with him repeatedly over the years not to give up on the NEP objectives of eradicating poverty and the restructuring of society.
When he announced his cabinet, he also announced his intention to establish the National Economic Council (NEC) to be headed by someone with ministerial rank.
People waited anxiously and rightly expected an exceptional and very special person to occupy the post. After all the economy is facing a very serious crisis globally, although initially the Ministry of Finance predicted we are immune and there would be growth.
