Of Najib, Obama and Protectionism

ARCHIVES 2009

By admin-s On Nov 17, 2009

By Simon Templar

Malaysia must be forced into an economic reform or she never will. We have already missed a boat for an economic reform when Mahathir rejected IMF’s reform in 1998. That would have opened up the economy and removed all the political nonsense.

Look at South Korea who took up the offer. Take a hard look at South Korea today. Where are they now? And where are we? And why did Mahathir reject the IMF? Because they would have killed off UMNO’s power in the country and the wealth of its politicians and cronies. Everything else mentioned about us being colonised by the west via IMF is bullshit.

Bloomberg on 13 November 2009 reported in their article ‘Obama Must Be Like Bush in Free-Trade Commitment, Malaysia Says’ that:

“Najib Razak urged President Barack Obama to show the same commitment to free trade that his predecessor, George W. Bush, expressed at a meeting of Asia-Pacific leaders last year… “

“APEC in Singapore is a wonderful opportunity for us to make a very strong political statement that we will resist protectionism,” Najib said.

What a whole load of cow dung! Look who’s talking here.

Who is Najib to talk about free trade? Who is Najib to talk about open market? Malaysia under the dictatorship of Barisan Nasional is possibly one of the most protected economy in the world. And mind you, protection not to the interests of the ordinary farmers or fishermen or white collared salaried workers but that of the interests of BN politicians and their beneficiary cronies.