THIS BOOK BY Tony Pua, an Oxford-trained economist who currently is a Member of Parliament from the Democratic Action Party (DAP), is a collection of articles that were earlier carried largely in his blog. These focus primarily on the Barisan Nasional (BN) government’s mismanagement of the Malaysian economy and the country’s public finances.
Pua cites various examples including privatization, the Port Klang Free Zone (PKFZ), the misallocation of subsidies, the misuse of petrodollars, the gap between policy intent and outcomes as seen in the New Economic Policy and its later variants, and the declining standard of education, among others. Spanning over 20 chapters, this book is well written in a language that is almost bereft of economic jargon and can hence be easily understood by the layman. There is persuasiveness in his arguments, largely because these have been based on sound economic principles and good ethics. Pua has gone to great lengths to show how mismanagement caused by the lack of transparency, competence and accountability in the award of contracts, both for building social capital and in public procurements, have led to high opportunity costs.
