by Razak Ahmad
KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - Malaysia's influential former premier Mahathir Mohamad said on Wednesday the country's current prime minister had yet to live up to promises, and urged him to forge ahead with pledged reforms.
A vocal government critic who led the push to oust his immediate successor and usher in Najib Razak as premier in 2009, Mahathir also defended an affirmative action policy that favours the country's Malay majority. Najib has pledged to roll back Malay privileges in a new economic model he released on Tuesday.
"One year is not enough (for an assessment), you are just learning to be a prime minister really," Mahathir, 84, said in an interview on the sidelines of an investor conference.
"Najib has just released his economic policy, we need to see whether the performance is as good as promised."
Najib took office in April last year pledging reforms to rejuvenate investment and reverse 2008 election losses suffered by the coalition that has ruled Malaysia for 52 years.
But his government has delayed the introduction of petrol and electricity price rises, road toll increases and a goods and services tax in a series of decisions that has undermined market confidence in his ability to deliver economic reforms.
That, Mahathir said, was no way to oversee change.
"I think that is a very bad way of doing things," he said. "You make a decision, then you have to implement it, but before making a decision, you should think very carefully about it."
No comments:
Post a Comment