Federal govt must recognise opposition states — Professor
Abdul Hakim Bujang, reporters@theborneopost.com
Prof Woo Wing Thye
This was stated by Jeffrey Cheah Institute on South East Asia president Prof Woo Wing Thye, when speaking as a panellist at ‘Keeping the Promise Reform’ forum at Sunway University on Monday.
“What it means is, we need to have a revenue system that recognises that each of the states could be held by a different party; and an efficient solution to that is fiscal and administrative decentralisation,” he stressed.
The biggest harm of centralisation, he pointed out, is that all money are now collected by the central government, which decides which state to give and which not to give – that normally discriminates against the opposition states.
“Federal government should not collect so much money, but the states should be collecting some of the money,” he said, stressing that local problems are best solved by the local people.
He explained that Malaysia was born during the Emergency – a time when the government needed to focus attention on fighting the enemy. As such, every decision-making was centralised, but this is no longer relevant to the current scenario.
Woo believed that the deficit faced by the government after abolishing GST is likely to be a short-term problem, if the new ruling party introduces a pro-growth tax system – a systemic reform based on bold new approaches proven successful in other countries.
“It is important that the centre of policy initiatives is spread all over the country, in each of the state capitals, rather than just the EPU (Economic Planning Unit) in Putrajaya.”
He said in China and the US, the governors of the provinces and states are competing to be the best to climb their party hierarchy or win election based on merits.
He said Malaysia too could task the local state universities to develop local economy by giving them due funds to harness the varsities toward technological advancements that would be suitable for local conditions – as what is being widely practised in the US.
This, he said, did not happen in Malaysia, whereas the chief ministers of the states had to depend on funds and resources from the federal government.
“Basically, our chief ministers do not have financial resources to realise whatever good initiative that they may have – this has to change.”
Woo stressed that the change of government involving a long-established party like Barisan Nasional (BN), which had been in power for over 60 years, to Pakatan Harapan (PH) – should not be an excuse to delay reform in Malaysia.
Malaysian leaders, be they from PH or BN, could learn from other countries as it had happened before in Mexico and Taiwan, he pointed out.
“It had happened elsewhere before. I think there are many things that can be done immediately and easily because we know how to do them.”
Mexico’s Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) won every presidential election from 1929 to 1994; the Kuomintang (KMT) Party dominated Taiwan for decades but lost the presidency in 2016 and, for the first time, its control of parliament.
“PRI in Mexico and KMT in Taiwan reformed themselves and got re-elected,” he said, stressing that BN too could make a comeback by offering good governance and better economic policy.
The forum was a platform for PH members and analysts to deliberate on the key reforms that the new administration must undertake within its first 100 days in power.
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