Malaysia IT embarrassment -  first country  in the world where its K-economy Master Plan is a secret document classified  under the Official Secrets Act which does not augur well for Malaysia’s IT future or MSC

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Speech
-  joint DAP Johore Bahru/Pelangi Park Branches Dinner
by Lim Kit Siang 

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This is most shocking as Mahathir had in March  last year described  the K-economy Master Plan as  the "Strategic Initiative One" to reinvent Malaysian society to grasp the opportunities of the Information Age. Has the government since then downgraded the importance of the K-economy Master Plan to transform Malaysia from a P-economy (production-economy) to a K-economy (knowledge-economy) so as to remain highly competitive in the global marketplace?

Mahathir had also announced in March  last year that  the K-Economy Master Plan would be "for the entire nation and for every citizen"  and would not be drafted by the best brains behind closed doors because it must be relevant to Malaysians and become a personal master plan for all.

He promised that the formulation of the K-economy Master Plan would  "not be an elitist process but one involving everyone from the teacher to his  pupil, to his fisherman father, to the mechanic, to the secretary, janitor and the chairman of the board" and that there would be a 18-month “process of national consultation, brainstorming, drafting and national mobilisation” for the K-economy Master  Plan.  All these have proved to be empty words.

It was only when reading the Economic Report 2001/2002 which was  tabled in Parliament as part of the official documentation on budget day that I stumbled  on the mention that the K-economy Master Plan was “recently completed” and that it is “holistic in approach and outlines the key strategies to transform the economy to be highly competitive and resilient”.

Why was the K-economy Master Plan which holds the key to Malaysia’s future prosperity in the face of the challenges of globalisation and information and communications technology treated in such a shabby and summary fashion, hidden away in the thicket of verbiage of the Economic Report, when it should be announced with the usual grandiose fanfare typical of the Barisan Nasional style of governance?

Could it be that the government is ashamed of the K-economy Master Plan and it is no more regarded as  “Strategic Initiative One” for the country to face the challenges of the 21st century?

All we know about the K-economy Master Plan from the Economic Report is that it comprise seven strategic thrusts  and 155 recommendations.

The seven strategic thrusts are:
 

• Cultivating and securing the necessary human resources.
• Establishing the institutions to drive the K-based economy.
• Ensuring the necessary infostructure and infrastructure.
• Building S & T capacity.
• Private sector spearheading the K-based economy.
• Developing the K-based civil service.
• Bridging the knowledge and digital divide.

Why haven’t the K-economy Master Plan and its 155 recommendations been made public and made the subject of nation-wide discussion and debate?

There are reasons enough for the government to be rather shy about the K-economy Master Plan and not to trumpet it in the usual Barisan Nasional style, some of which are:
 

• The last of the countries which publicly aspire to be a IT power to formulate a K-economy Master Plan as other IT-sensitive nations had long  completed their K-economy Master Plans, some more than five years ago, and are at the advanced stage of implementing them.
• Taking some three years or  the longest for any country  to complete a K-economy Master Plan  when other countries took  six to eight months for the process.
• Formulating the K-economy Master Plan in total secrecy when other countries fully involve public participation and consultation in every stage of the preparation.
• Violating the Prime Minister’s public pledge for a 18-month process of “national consultation, brainstorming, drafting and national mobilisation" in the formulation of the K-economy Master Plan.
• Classifying the K-economy Master Plan as a secret document under the Official Secrets Act, totally against the the culture and mindset of an information society where information are increasingly accessible and democratic and where citizens are fully engaged in the government decision-making process.

DAP calls on the government to immediate declassify the K-Economy Master Plan to take it out of the Official Secrets Act,  make public and post  the K-economy Master Plan and its 155 recommendations on a special website on  the Internet  to make them  easily available to Malaysians and the world and to invite full nation-wide and even global discussion and debate.

(20/10/2001)