Malay congress proposes direct negotiation for Malays for projects below RM100m
Lee Wei Lian, The Malaysian Insider
The Malay Economic Congress passed a resolution today proposing that government tenders worth less than RM100 million be directly negotiated with Malay companies.
The congress also called for GLCs to have a strong Malay agenda and that they be monitored with key performance indicators (KPIs).
“The new economic policy has not achieved its objectives,” said Datuk Syed Ali Alattas, president of the Malay Chambers of Commerce Malaysia (DPMM).
“The gap between Malays who are the majority race and heritage of this country and other races is growing and increasingly worrying.”
He also said that government agencies have “lost their spirit” to help Malay entrepreneurs.
Other resolutions include a stand against corruption, cronyism and abuse of power and a call for the revamp of Teraju, a bumiputera economic development agency.
The congress said that “weak leadership” in Teraju was the main reason for the failure of several Malay agenda initiatives.
These include failures to allocate economic opportunities to Malay entrepreneurs, the failure to allocate funds for business viability studies and lack of clear direction and communication.
The congress said that the head of Teraju needed to be changed to someone who had high aspirations for Malays and ministerial powers.
The congress also wanted special courses for government staff and politicians to educate them on the Malay agenda.
It also called for priority for local companies and bumiputeras in government tenders.
Another resolution proposed the establishment of an audit firm run by Malays to audit GLCs and government agencies.