Musa and Ku Li To Speak Again

Tun Musa and Tengku Tan Sri Razaleigh, two friends and past political foes met on stage at the recent Seminar Legasi Tun Abdul Razak and they are expected to speak again this weekend.

Ku Li is expected to speak at the PJ Civic Centre Friday June 22nd today at 8:30 pm in an event organised by a PJ Utara UMNO Branch. While, Musa is due to speak on the issue of Iskandar Development Region at a dinner talk organised by the Persatuan Melayu Anak-Anak Johor at the Wisma Sejarah Saturday tomorrow June 23rd, 2007.

In the recent Seminar Legasi Tun Abdul Razak, it was appropriate that the two deemed as “anak didik” Tun Abdul Razak was invited to speak. It is said that they were both given specific task to master two areas - Musa in Education and Ku Li in Finance. Another “anak didik” Tun Dr Mahathir was said to be assigned the area of Industry.

Ku Li, who was prepared to give a full lecture, had to cut short his presentation to make way for Musa’s 11th hour participation. He managed to speak on the genesis and ideology behind the NEP, National Language and Education policy, and National Cultural policy to seek towards National Unity.

The unpresented portion of his speech is available on line at My Ku Li blog here. Nevertheless, he managed to speak briefly on the factors affecting the Malays poor performance despite the NEP and presented 6 factors contributing to the Malay problems today. Rocky summarised it here.

Musa didn’t come as prepared as Tengku Razaleigh that printed and distributed to the Seminar attendees booklet of his speech. Musa’s presentation was limited to two quite relevant political and social/economics points.

Musa spoke of the need of “wakil rakyat” to be truly representative of the people and a more consultative Government. He recalled Tun Abdul Razak as a bottom up planner who goes on listening campaign to the kampung and rural areas to hear the peoples’ concerns, suggestions, and feedback.

On the NEP, Musa spoke on the significance of education policy of NEP in the creation a Malay/Bumiputera middle class and is the source of political stability for economic and social development. The Malay middle class are identifiable and compliments the Chinese businessmen and Indian professionals. He warned that these classes of people are mature, have similar point of views, and are unafraid to exert pressure on their right.

During the Q&A, Musa was asked about NEP and IDR. He seek that NEP was overemphasizing on figures and percentage target but suggested that it is timely to go for quality and effectiveness. With regard to WPI, he inferred that it is a friendly, and complimentary effort with the Singaporeans and an unavoidable sovereignty transformation from a political nation state to regional state. However, description of copycat economy for WPI economic model didn’t quite jive.

The talk tonight and tomorrow by these two major political players of the past should be of interest to all. With Ku Li already in his early 70s and Musa as he claims a politician “dah pencen”, they are not expected to cross swords again. Ku Li is expected to remain true to defend Tun Abdul Razak's legacy. Musa is clearly now, more pragmatic than Nationalist, defending his protégé Abdullah’s policy on IDR.

I would look forward to hear their responses to EU's ambassador to Malaysia, Thierry Rommel comment on NEP here deemed by blogger Big Dog here as "Al Gore"-ish. Is there an "Anwar" around this time?