KUALA LUMPUR — Economists have expressed their disappointment following the televised debate between PKR deputy president Rafizi Ramli and PAS assistant secretary-general Mohd Syahir Che Sulaiman on the country’s economic policy, saying that the debaters had not presented anything new.
Economist Prof Emeritus Barjoyai Bardai said while the debate started well for both debaters, Rafizi stopped short with concrete solutions after he highlighted issues and problems with the present economic situation in the nation.
“It started well with the fresh analysis of the problems and issue, but the rest are not new.
“He (Rafizi) went and related, for example, the wage problem with the proposed progressive wages system and said the government has to find money to support the industry to pay for the proposed mandatory increase in salary. (But) there is no concrete proposal on the solution to the fundamental economic problem,” he told Scoop today.
Barjoyai also said Syahir did mention several models to solve the current economic problem such as a stable model, economic cycle and others, but the latter failed to elaborate them.
“I was expecting him to propose some Islamic economics model based on al-Qur’an and Hadith that may be really different and unique for Malaysia,” he said.
He further commented that Syahir had tried to make a point by highlighting the close similarity between the Ekonomi Madani with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) report and proposal, inferring that the unity government is now more prominent in following the IMF and World Bank policy and recommendation that may challenge our economic sovereignty.
However, Barjoyai said it was rather disappointing that Rafizi, as the economy minister kept repeating that the government is implementing the Ekonomi Madani measures that have begun to show results, but failed to elaborate on the said measures.
“What are the new things that have been introduced from Ekonomi Madani since the new government took over? Maybe the Menu (Rahmah) and all the Rahmah strategies, but what about the real big agenda?” he said.
Overall, he said, the debate session saw more “bashing sessions” with only some minor issues and points being projected.
“As a voter, I was not able to make any new impression to help me decide which party I am going to vote from listening to the debate.”
Yesterday, Rafizi and Syahir faced off in a televised debate on economics policy in Malaysia, making the Bachok MP the first to accept the former’s challenge for an open debate on the matter.
Meanwhile, Putra Business School economic analyst Associate Prof Ahmed Razman Abdul Latiff shared similar views, saying that he expected the debaters to present something different and new from the current economic model.
“It seemed they were proposing improvements to the existing one (economic model) without actually addressing the fundamental root cause of the problems that put us in a currently difficult situation.
“Root causes of the problem are that we are a debt-based economy and we have an archaic and unsustainable monetary system.
“The debaters should explore alternatives to these structure such as equity-based economy, even sharing or gift economy and propose a reform to the current monetary system based on new economic theory such as Modern Monetary Theory, or at least from Syahir, an Islamic economic model based on Maqasid Al Shariah.
“They presented good ideas but it is more short term in nature,” he said.
However, he commended the way the debate was conducted and said such a debate should be encouraged more so it will become a norm rather than an exclusive event.
“More individuals should be encouraged to participate in this kind of platform, and not necessarily among the politicians,” he added.
Both economists added that they were happy that the debate was held, saying it was a beginning of a new tradition of academic debate on economics policy and implementation in Malaysia. — August 10, 2023.