Asian Transformations in Action - Api-fellowships.org

12CIRCLES OF POWER AND COUNTERBALANCESemployer, and employee be a “public policy (dasarawam)” (NECC 1991, 366-7).To address the distributive objectives, the reportrecommends that poverty eradication regardless ofethnicity should be emphasized (NECC 1991, 286).Although it acknowledges that a “merit-and-needsapproach may not be used for the groups that are leftbehind because of social and historical factors,” it alsostates that an “ethnic approach be abolished as soon asthe gap between ethnic groups is corrected” (NECC1991, 303). It also suggests that the distributioneffort should be aimed at HRD rather than the directdistribution of wealth (NECC 1991, 293).As a whole, the NECC report recommends liberalization,privatization and deregulation, with temporaryregulation for the purpose of correcting imbalancesamong ethnic groups. It also recommends a merit-andneedsapproach, while admitting the temporary use ofan ethnic approach only in terms of human resourcedevelopment.Outline Perspective PlanOPP II was drafted with the consideration of variousproposals, including the NECC report (OPP II, 1.02).Providing “growth with equity” as its main target, thedocument states that the guidelines for foreign and localinvestment for the promotion of exports will be relaxedand that privatization will proceed to realize export-ledeconomic growth by the private sector (OPP II, 1.59,1.65, 1.76, 3.41, 4.64). The government, accordingto the document, will limit its intervention to areaswhere the “market cannot effectively function” and willimplement two policies, namely, poverty eradicationregardless of ethnicity and the restructuring of society(OPP II, 3.41). The document does not mention therights of laborers or minimum wages.Apparently, the OPP II places more stress on therestructuring of society than on the merit-and-needsapproach (poverty eradication). However, in a drasticchange from the NEP, it does not set a specific timeframe for the restructuring of equity capital so thatthe policy will be implemented in a flexible manner.It emphasizes quality enhancements such as thedevelopment of Bumiputra entrepreneurs, rather thanoutright wealth distribution based on quantitativetargets (OPP II, 4.40).Unlike the NECC report, the OPP II emphasizes socialrestructuring as a target of its distribution policy andlegitimizes government intervention for this purpose.However, the two documents do share such basic ideasas economic growth by liberalization and deregulation,and emphasize quality enhancement and HRD ratherthan quantitative targets and the direct distribution ofwealth.IIMerit-and-Needs ApproachILiberalProgressive/ProtectiveIIIEthnic-based approachIVNECC RecommendationsOPP IIFigure 2: An image of policy preferences / NECC Report / OPP II.Asian Transformations in ActionThe Work of the 2006/2007 API Fellows