Transcript of RTM Interview with PM
Bernama – 3/4/2006
KUALA LUMPUR - The following is the English language translation of the exclusive interview with Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi on the Ninth Malaysia Plan (9MP) aired over RTM1 tonight. He was interviewed by Datuk Johan Jaafar, former Editor-in-Chief of Utusan Malaysia.

JOHAN: Last Friday Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi had tabled the 9MP in Parliament and it took an hour and 40 minutes based on the fact that the text comprised 9,508 words, which clearly outlined the main policies and strategies towards realising what is regarded as the national mission.

This Plan denotes the crucial starting point of our target of becoming a developed nation by 2020. The 9MP is the first phase of the five-year plans which will be followed by two other development plans in order that we arrive at that special date. Hence, the 9MP is a very important market for our country.

Fifteen years is not a long way for any nation, which in actual fact we have about 180 months, or 720 weeks or 5,475 days before we reach that date.

The target is not small and the path towards it is fraught with twists and turns and will demand not only political strength but the commitment of all, including the rakyat.

According to a Malay proverb -- kalau tidak dipecahkan ruyung masakan dapat sagunya -- if we don't work hard, we won't get the results.

In order to know the 9MP in detail and what has been its secrets and challenges of this major and meaningful plan, we are privileged to have the Prime Minister in RTM's studio in Putrajaya.

JOHAN: What is Datuk Seri's view on the reaction? Are you satisfied with the reaction or response from the rakyat on the tabling of the 9MP?

PM: Alhamdulillah, at this juncture, I feel relieved and thankful that the response from the rakyat appears to be good.

JOHAN: The 9MP is a document which signifies an important starting point to prepare the country in becoming a developed country by 2020. I want to be clear here in that Vision 2020 or the 2020 Target is (often) associated with our former Prime Minister, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad and it is an icon for him. Why have you continued with this, why didn't you choose a new icon so that people will say, "Oh, this is Pak Lah's"?

PM: I am committed towards the aim of Vision 2020, which aspires to make our country a developed nation, especially the fact that our race will be successful and that is one of the things that has to be achieved and the same goes with Tun Mahathir. And it was started when Tun (Mahathir) was with the government and I was one of the members of that government then.

And we have worked in a number of ways over the last 15 years to achieve that aim. We have halfway to go. So there is no reason why...at the halfway mark (now)...I would want to have a new mission just to inscribe my name. As long as I am committed in the struggle to bring dignity to the race and their nation to become developed by 2020. That's my commitment.

JOHAN: That is a part of the process of survival?

PM: Yes, that process must be there, in development there must be a process of survival.

JOHAN: The 9MP is a programme which has big ambitions, big plans and big hopes, and you have offered big expectations for the rakyat. Do you think they really understand the true objectives of the 9MP? Or is the right way or approach to "sell" the idea to the rakyat on a programme as big as this?

PM: I feel that they can understand clearly. That is why I had been thinking what form, what kind of planning, what type of strategies...I feel that in the next 15 years, the challenges will be great, with the uncertainty in the global situation, and many things can happen to our nation. We are open, we want to become a developed nation, we must be prepared to be exposed to various things.

We cannot develop our nation or race in a cocoon or in isolation...we cannot do that.

As such, in view of the difficulties and the massive challenges, the road ahead or to the top is not flat but on an uphill slope...and therefore we must have that feeling of a struggle and that is why we must make that struggle our national mission.

If we say that it is just a plan, then it may not mean anything. But if we say it is a mission, this mission is for us all, for everyone, then it is with that we can instil a new spirit, as spirit and strength are important for this objective, and that is why it is a mission.

JOHAN: What is the difference? Is the (9MP) book that has been published, which is more than 500 pages, regarded as a mission statement by you?

PM: From my experience and I have been long in the government, the previous (Plan) books contained more chapters on the economy, human resource development, welfare, finance. We didn't do it like that this time. If we had such chapters, then it only becomes an ordinary plan, one chapter, one chapter, one chapter. If the people wanted to know, they will look at the chapter on the economy, they will not look at other chapters except the one on economy.

However, in view of the fact that I want to make our plan a movement, a mission that will succeed, therefore it has to be crafted well. As such, I have been given emphasis from the point of view of every chapter or sector, that if this is our mission, then what is our mission, what is our intention, what is our aim to implement and accelerate (our efforts) to achieve the vision, the mission to achieve the vision, that vision of 2020. As such, this is how it has been designed. If we want to state what are the steps, they are contained in the five thrusts. As such, each of the thrust we will have the strategies to achieve that thrust together with the participation of the sectors concerned and the agencies involved. Besides that, I have stated, it is not projects but topics which will help achieve the thrusts like adding value so that what we will implement can be done better.

JOHAN: Are you looking at the Plan with greater totality?

PM: Yes, I am looking at it in totality. If we open the (9MP) book, we will read the first thrust, and we will see the agencies involved and what are the topics. We have to read all of them, not just one.

With regards to implementation, it is part of the planning.

JOHAN: Throughout the 9MP, it is going to cost RM200 billion or RM30 billion more than the 8MP, do we have that kind of money?

PM: Yes, we do have, if we don't, we won't (undertake the Plan). And there us also additional funds from the private sector.

JOHAN: When you took over the administration, you stressed on prudent spending and had scrapped a number of major projects which you said may not benefit the rakyat. Is prudent spending taken into consideration in the 9MP?

PM: This is continued and it will continue. It will be our approach for a long time.

We have our targets and we cannot have everyone reducing their spending. I am afraid this will (reduction) destroy the economy. At this juncture, we have the money, but we will save. And if we have money from the private sector for this purpose, we can save (some money). If we were to invest, we should reduce a little. We must be prudent.

JOHAN: You mentioned that the country should have a strong and stable economy and a society which DS said should have the right mindset, right attitude, values and social institutions which are stable and growing, why do we need all this?

PM: We need all that. If we have a mission, the people carrying out the mission must be strong, strong because of their knowledge, they need to be strong physically and morally. We all need strength in all this. As such, every chapter I had stressed on human capital development.

Why? Because that is the capital, not just by one factor. Because the entire structure and progress that we want to build rests on human capital.

And the strength of the human capital cannot be complete if it is not strengthened with moral strength and stability.

JOHAN: What do you feel would be the major obstacle. What if we have a paradigm shift and allow all this to happen?

PM: This is something that comes with challenges, we know the environment changes, the climate changes, the world political and social situation changes. So there are times when we need to change our ways of doing things. If the old ways were good and suitable, today there are no longer suitable, we must be prepared to come out with other ideas. We created laws suitable for certain times by taking into account the problems we faced then.

But today things have changed...so the laws must change. You don't cast laws in stone, no laws should remain unchanged except the Quran. So we need to change our ways, our attitude needs to change, so are our views on issues at a particular period. In this era, what we need to do, we must possess a strong mind, be mentally strong to do what needs to be done without sacrificing the caring values in us.

Our elders often remind us, do not deviate from our religious faith, because they say in whatever we do, it must be for the sake of going to heaven. Knowledge is something different, we need knowledge.

So that's why I'm saying, this plan is for 15 years and is not something just for the Ninth Malaysia Plan. This is a 15-year mission. The Ninth Plan comes in phases. It has three phases. We will evaluate, we will evaluate what is lacking, what is right, what is weak, wherever necessary we will improve further during the 10th Malaysia Plan. We will undertake an impact assessment.

What are the effects of us carrying out a certain plan? Are they bad or not so good, where did we go wrong? So we can work towards doing better. We work to improve our efforts.

The 10th Plan ought to be better than its predecessor, and the 11th Plan ought to be the best because this is the Plan that brings us to the year 2020.

I pray to Almighty Allah that by 2020, whoever leads our country then can stand in awe of our achievements.

JOHAN: You have spoken about creating a society with First Class mentality. But if we were to imbue First World values in achieving First Class status, a large proportion of our population is still struggling with the question of survival and so on. Will this not mean that we are talking in two different wave-lengths. One that is prepared to change and the other what you mentioned earlier, on an island and in their own world.

PM: When we talk of survival, what survival? Survival for self-interest? If we mean this kind of survival, we will have conflicts. If all of us think of survival of our people, then there won't be conflict within us because we will have the same aim.

We have to think of survival of our people. Survival can only be ensured if we have the strength. We are building our capability and strength. We do not want to see certain groups having no interests and those given specific tasks are prepared to prevent change that we desire for the survival of our nation. So this is what we need to stress here.

Secondly, we can't remain in isolation in our own world. We can't. We can't plan, think and determine things only within our own environment, as if the outside world doesn't mean anything to us. As if we don't have a stake at all, as if we are contented with being in our own kampungs only. We don't want to be like that.

JOHAN: You mean, we become kampung champions?

PM: We shouldn't be mere kampung champions.

JOHAN: You have spoken on the need for the next 15 years as the period when we will have to do better. For the 10th Plan to be better than the Ninth Plan and so on. We also take into account the uncertainty in the world situation and the economic situation, too. Then there's the threat of terrorism, the rising oil prices, and other things that influence our performance and capability. We see the period of 15 years ahead of us, do we take into account all these external factors?

PM: Wherever we can, we take them into account. The reason being one thing I notice for quite sometime, since early last year. I thought about what could be done. We have to face the world situation, the unfolding world developments. I won't be able to tell what would happen in the coming years. The situation in Europe, Japan, China, India, the Middle East. There are those who spoke of issues relating to the energy resources, water resources.

I have called a number of think-tanks, the available experts, from Europe, Asia and the United States. They talked of the world of the future, about America, Europe, about all countries, how would they fare. The new industries that would emerge. How to overcome the depleting energy resources.

So we discussed over two and half days. All the time I was with them. I think they have read 10 books on new trends and developments. They came out with arguments and views that are scary.

After discussing, then we plan and act. I didn't call them like as if they were taking part in a boat race. I didn't call them in order to hand over the task of the Ninth Plan to them. I didn't hand over the responsibility of the Ninth Plan to them.

I won't abdicate my responsibility. But before I plan something to bring us forward, to achieve the Vision 2020, we have to know our environment, we need to plan, so these are some of the things that we need to focus our attention on, to think together.

In our country, we have groups that are very active, about 200 people in all, who search for the necessary information, making analysis, making forecasts, comprising of academicians, professionals from the private sector, experienced serving government officers as well as those who have retired. They all chipped in. They feel that they have a stake, they feel they all have a role to play in the Ninth Plan and they want to help implement it. They gave this message to me: Paklah, we want to be involved in this implementation, we want to be involved in the planning. That is what I feel there is a sense of ownership.That is what I require. This is not the government mission alone. Not the private sector mission. This is the national mission, the people's mission. Including those who are still studying, for them to excel in their studies. Teachers need to educate them to become good and responsible people. Mothers must have the parenting skills.

JOHAN: In the Ninth Malaysia Plan, you talked about the need for racial unity. Racial polarisation is still visible in schools and workplaces and in society in general. Without racial unity all that we have planned will come to nought.

PM: Right, I agree. Without racial unity, there tends to be friction. Prejudices will be abound. And in this situation anything can happen. Because of this our efforts will be stunted, derailed and destroyed since there will be no political stability. That's why although it is not easy to forge real racial unity, I still strongly believe that education is the main solution to bring about major new changes.

So we to empower education like I have said many times and long ago. I am sorry because it is taking a long time. We intend to hasten it...to make the national school becomes a school of choice. I hear people are not confident with the school, even with the teachers. Maybe also for other reasons. I notice other schools which are international in nature face no problem at all. We see the students are of various races because the parents do not make their choice based on racial sentiments. They chose the schools based on the belief that they are the best for their children.

JOHAN: Quality schools...

PM: This could only be a perception. But what I've said just now was what I heard. There are things that I heard saddened me, but whatever is the opinion, the important thing is the national school must be the first choice.

JOHAN: There is a perception that national school is regarded as Malay school because majority of the students are Malays.

PM: No...don't think that way.. even some Malays do think that way. This issue is a difficult one because everyone thinks he is an expert in education.

JOHAN: And maybe because everyone has his own interests...

PM: Because of their interests, they are giving great emphasis on education as it would determine a better future...

JOHAN: In that respect it is a plus point... we are going to touch on the third thrust that is to reduce socio-economic imbalance and so forth. We have the New Economic Policy but we did not achieve the target of 30 percent equity ownership by bumiputeras. But in the 9MP we have strategised the equity will be achieved by 2020. What is the real difference between the old and the new policy and its expectation...

PM: Do you mean the approach? We do not question the target. But the current approach differs from the last. Thus if we talk of distribution of economic wealth, it should be done fairly.

So the question is how to do it? We cannot generate the economy just focusing on one sector. Instead, we should expand further whatever areas that are developing. But there are plenty. What about areas which are not yet developed? If we talked about today, we say there are gaps. The gaps are not only between the Malays and the non-Malays, bumiputera and non-bumiputeras but also between sectors. There are sectors that are well developed and not. The gap also exists between urban and rural areas. There is also a gap between the haves and the have-nots. Today, even the Malay middle class brings a difference to the corporate Malays. So if we are able to address all these it will be easier for us...like I said earlier, from the sectoral point of view, such as agriculture.

We see agriculture is lagging compared to the industrial and manufacturing and the services sectors. That is one.

Secondly, agriculture is situated in less developed areas in the north of the Peninsula and in the east coast.

Thirdly, the people in these areas are co-incidentally Malays. It is regarded the Malays, even compared among themselves, they have improved their lot from before. But in this matter everyone like to compare between themselves. We don't want to have in this country people who like to assume the successful bumiputeras as still being left behind. This has haunted us all. That's why we quarrel, bicker and so on.

There are also growth centres which are dynamic like the Klang Valley in the Peninsula. Because of this development there are spills over onto other surrounding areas which benefit south Perak, Negeri Sembilan and Melaka. That's the development in Klang Valley that we could rely upon. For that reason, we have borderless and boundariless development corridor. There are no boundaries in Kedah, Perlis, Seberang Prai and Northern Perak which mainly have agro-based industries.

That is why we have the Ministry of Agriculture and Agro-based Industries. The agro-based industry is huge because it includes pharmaceutical, biotechnology, medicines and so forth.Northern Penang will play a role like the Klang Valley. Penang has an international airport, ports, strong economic infrastructures, thus giving confidence to investors. There's a lot of examples like the petrochemical plant in Kemaman. But we do not want to focus on only one field, we want more than that. We have to create the spills over. That is why the state governments have to work together to make their areas into a dynamic urban ones. This will make our development more integrated and more infrastructural development will take place.

JOHAN: You are very passionate on agriculture. With the current situation where agriculture being heavily subsidised, is it a realistic to uplift the status of the agriculture sector of the country?

PM: Agriculture is not something which cannot be developed and not dynamic. Even Holland which is the size of Pahang but they are the second largest food producer in the world. But agriculture is not about producing food only. I am thinking of other aspects which are connected to agro-based industries. Today, there are a lot of agricultural products originating from agriculture which can be used for other industries. With biotechnology and nanotechnology and others including pharmaceutical, herbal medicine, it runs into trillions. We are rich in all these plants, but what is our share?.
We mostly buy a lot of imported goods, including from America. These are all agriculture related.

JOHAN: One of the interesting aspects of your government is your willingness to lead and have an open and transparent administration. Are you committed on the agenda?

PM: We will do just that, but there is a limit to the freedom. It has to be. Whatever freedom, even press freedom, freedom of speech, there must be limits under the law.

If we fight for our rights in the name of freedom and disregarding the law, then it is difficult. This will give rise to chaos. If there is chaos, anarchy will set in, giving rise to more troubles. Only then we will know...

JOHAN: What about the fight against corruption?

PM: Yes, of course. I am very concerned. But it is not easy, in the government everything is difficult. Firstly they want to see blood. They want to see how many get slaughtered, how many get prosecuted.

But the most important is prevention. If your leg has gangrene and if it is painful, you cut it off. Why don't we try to strengthen the body, energise it and make it healthy? This is the reason for the existence of the Integrity Institute of Malaysia. We have set up various bodies. We shouldn’t give up. That is the reason we introduced Islam Hadhari in this development. This is the basis for inculcating universal values.

JOHAN: Datuk Seri, you gave so much attention to such an important plan. But you yourself faced a personal family tragedy. Please tell us, Datuk, please tell us about the motivation for you to continue the agenda after losing people you love.

PM: Yes, that is a reality I have to face. I cannot, as people say, forget about everything that has happened. Of course, at the beginning, there were difficulties. A year before that, my mother was no more. A year later, (Datuk Seri) Endon was no more. Two women who were most influential in my life. As I have said, that I need to continue. I think that if they are still around, they would want me to carry on my work. I work for all people. I have responsibilities. I cannot ignore my responsibilities only because of a personal loss.

JOHAN: But it summoned an immense strength from you to ensure that you had the strong guiding light and torch to continue such a great effort.

PM: Pray to God. I pray, Discharging my responsibilities. My way might not be the same as other people. My level of patience might also not be the same. All of us are not the same. But there are similarities. Our faith to Allah s.w.t is the same. The objectives of our work. The aims we have. So each with our respective abilities. By understanding the environment, changing from time to time. By understanding various people, what drives them, what drives the economy in South-east Asia, Vietnam, India, our neighbours are not exempted. We have to take all into account. But don't miss fulfilling the objectives.

JOHAN: Thank You Datuk Seri for sharing with us. The Ninth Malaysia Plan is a program that is of much significance to us today. And we pray so that what Datuk Seri has planned, what Datuk Seri is aspiring for, with the support from all sectors especially the people, God Willing, we will make it succeed.

And our aim is to ensure that our country becomes a developed country by 2020 but based on our own mould and not that of others. On behalf of RTM, I would like to say thank you to Datuk Seri for making time to be with us. Hopefully, we will benefit from this meeting with Datuk Seri which has been so meaningful. I end by wishing all Assalamualaikum and salam sejahtera.
Source: Bernama | www.bernama.com