MALAYSIA’S ECONOMIC VISION: Issues &
Challenges by Teh Hoe Yoke & Goh Kim
Leng, (ed)
Featuring eminent writ-
ers such as Tan Sri Dr Ali
Abul Hassan Sulaiman,
Tan Sri Dr Lin See Yan,
Datuk Malek Merican,
Datuk Paul Low Seng
Kuan and (the late) Datuk
Zainal Aznam Yusuf, this
book is a collection of
papers presented at the
Eleventh Economic Con-
vention held in 1991 that
analysed the Sixth Ma-
laysia Plan. The chapters
in this book are sector-
based, with the first giv-
ing a useful 10,000-foot
view of the plan and the
Malaysian economy. With plenty of charts and numbers, this
is a useful reference book for researchers requiring in-depth
analyses of the time period 1980-1991.
The New Economic Policy in Malaysia: Af-
firmative Action, Ethnic Inequalities and
Social Justice by Edmund Terence Gomez
and Johan Saravanamuttu, (ed)
No examination of the
Malaysian economy is
complete without scru-
tiny of the New Economic
Policy and its offspring,
the National Development
Policy. In this collection
of papers on the New
Economic Policy, there
are plenty of critiques of
the policy with the writers
dissecting the effects of
the policy on different
socio-economic groups,
geographical areas, as well
as the country’s governing
structure and institutions.
“(Tun) Ismail Abdul Rahman once famously likened the
NEP’s implementation to the handicap system in the game
of golf...“Therefore, like a golfer, it should not be the aim
of the Malays to perpetuate this handicap but to strive to
improve his game, and thereby reducing, and finally re-
moving their handicap completely.”” (“The New Economic
Policy and the Centralisation of Power”, p.328)
Managing the Malaysian Economy: Selected
Speeches by Dr Mahathir Mohamad, Prime
Minister of Malaysia
Direct from the fourth
Prime Minister himself, this
volume is a collection of
Tun Mahathir’s speeches
post-1998 currency crisis.
The collection kicks off
with a speech delivered to
the US Council on For-
eign Relations in the US in
1999 entitled, “Malaysia’s
Economic and Political
Priorities”, and goes back
in time, chronologically, to
end with a speech deliv-
ered in Malaysia, “Towards
Zero Inflation: A New
National Agenda” in 1995.
The fourth Prime Minister, who personally crafts his own
speeches, manages to simplify complex subjects while add-
ing historical and social context that enable a better under-
standing of the Malaysian economy.
“The single and only reason why we adopted the Septem-
ber 1, 1998 selective measures was to stabilise the ringgit.
It was not to buttress the ringgit. It was not to hold the
ringgit at some unsustainable level. It was not to strength-
en the ringgit exchange rate.” (“Malaysia’s Economic and
Political Priorities”, p.19)
Managing the Malaysian Economy: Chal-
lenges & Prospects by Ramon V Navaratnam
Published in 1997, this book contains the views of a distin-
guished former civil servant and corporate director, Tan Sri
Dato’ Ramon V Navaratnam, on the Malaysian economy.
Written from the perspective of a former policymaker (Tan Sri
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