BANYAKNYA ARAHAN DOKTOR

Mahathir asyik komplen terhadap negara luar termasuk Amerika padahal Amerika menyerap ekspot sehingga mencecah 23% GDP Malaysia. Kadar ini antara yang tertinggi di dunia. Malah ia telah menyelamatkan Malaysia ketika krisis 1998, di saat Mahathir mengherdik keburukkan globalisasi. Ini bukan sifat seorang yang bersyukur seperti yang sering diucapnya sendiri.

Mahathir kerap berkelakuan anih sebegini. Cakapnya tidak serupa bikin. Asyik menyalahkan orang lain bila tidak menjadi padahal orang itulah yang selama ini memberi tanpa mengharap balasan walaupun sehalus jari. Dia bising memanggil pelabur datang tetapi dia tidak mampu mendiamkan diri dari menuduh bukan-bukan sebegitu lantang. Patutlah MSC kini masih lengang dan gagal memainkan peranan berkesan.

Pakej rangsangan tidak akan dapat membantu keadaan selagi kroni ditolong dengan dana awam. Ia mencederakan sendiri popularitinya dan minat pelabur. Malaysia lebih mesra kroni dari rakyat sendiri, walaupun pribumi. Polisi pula asyik bertukar sehingga sukar pelabur mencari pasti. Kini mereka tertumpu ke negara Cina kerana lebih terjamin dan tidak banyak masalah atau risiko di sana. Ini akan mencederakan Malaysia, tetapi apakah Mahathir terasa?

KOMEN

Pembangunan mega dan rekod 'semua boleh' negara bukan penentu kemajuan negara - sebaliknya rekod bersih dan pembangunan insan dalam dirilah penentu pelabur terpesona. Kini kita terpaksa memujuk rayu pelabur sehingga Rafidah Aziz begitu kerap terbang keluar negara pergi menjaja. Tetapi negara Cina asyik dikunjungi pelabur luar sehingga ia berhasrat untuk menyertai WTO tanpa perlu banyak terbang atau berbicara.

Jelaslah jika kita baik, akan terpancarlah kebaikkan kita di mana-mana sehingga dikunjungi oleh pelabur di seluruh dunia. Tetapi jika kita asyik bermain 'kayu tiga', pelabur pun tidak sudi menjejakkan kaki, apatah lagi mendengar kita berbicara.

-TJr Kapal Berita-

Rencana Rujukkan:

The Economist

Malaysia

Doctor's orders

Mar 29th 2001

From The Economist print edition

FOR all Mahathir Mohamad's complaining, the United States has helped his country's economy far more than it has helped most others over the past few years. Malaysia exports 23% of its GDP to America, much of it in electronics. That is one of the highest ratios in the world. Those exports, along with shipments to the rest of the world, have helped to prop up the economy during the tough times since 1998, even as Dr Mahathir has railed against the evils of globalisation. Now, however, the American economy is slowing, taking the world economy with it. Across East Asia, analysts are slashing export-growth forecasts to half of last year's rates, in some cases to less. The slowdown will deal Malaysia an especially stiff blow, and this week Dr Mahathir said what he was planning to do about it.

Unsurprisingly, he intends to dish out a large helping of self-sufficiency. On March 27th, he announced measures worth 3 billion ringgit ($789m) to help boost demand. They come on top of a 28.8 billion ringgit spending plan announced in October. The prime minister thinks the combined fiscal kick will add more than a percentage point to GDP growth. But will all the money be well spent? And what, in these worrying days, is Dr Mahathir's prescription for Malaysia's economic links with the outside world?

The first question is asked often, and the prime minister's answers have never been convincing. Although he will channel some of the new money into sensible projects, such as schools and social services, he will also keep financing misguided infrastructure projects, such as the Bakun dam in Borneo. His government is also under fire for bailing out several well-connected companies. Three government-linked funds, including the main social-security fund, took stakes this month in a telcoms company after a feeble public offering. The company's owner had friends in high places. Decisions like this continue to hurt Dr Mahathir's popularity, hold back his country and disappoint foreign investors.

Dr Mahathir's approach to those investors remains contradictory. This week, along with the measures to stimulate the economy, he announced a loosening of the regulations on foreign equity ownership. He also said he would make it easier for foreigners to buy property and other assets. Though these are welcome changes, their effect will be muted by foreign wariness of Malaysia.

It is not that Malaysia shuns investment. Indeed, Dr Mahathir goes out of his way to lure foreign companies to his sprawling IT park, which is still largely vacant. He has also boasted of Malaysia's attractiveness to direct investors, even as he has excoriated speculators and western economic imperialism. His calculation has always been that he can lambast the West, and its globalising ways, while winking at its emissaries and helping them to set up shop. This provides a useful distraction at home, without forestalling the growth Dr Mahathir needs to feed the government's patronage machine. That is how things used to work, anyway. Most foreign direct investment, however, is now going to China, as Malaysia is seen to be too similar to its corrupt neighbours. That will hurt Malaysians; but will Dr Mahathir feel it?