Jomo: CEP didn’t produce report on country’s economy

The members of the Council of Eminent Persons (CEP) under the previous Pakatan Harapan administration did not produce a report on the economic and financial policies, Jomo Kwame Sundaram revealed.

Jomo (above), who is a former member of the CEP, said the council did not collaborate on such a report.

“We were given 100 days. The report was prepared by a secretariat under Daim (Zainuddin). But there was no report (by) the entire CEP.

“There is another report by the committee (made up of) mainly five lawyers on legal reforms. That was perhaps an interesting report,” he said.

The prominent economist said this in an online forum titled “Malaysia’s future in a fractured world” organised by The Oxford and Cambridge Society Malaysia on YouTube last night.

He was responding to a viewer’s request for him to reveal the gist of the said report that was never released.

During its 100 days mandate, the CEP interviewed some 350 people from 200 organisations - many of whom are from the government or GLCs - to help formulate a report on economic and financial policies for former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

The said report was then submitted at the end of CEP’s term.

Push for reforms

The formation of the CEP on May 12, 2018, was among Mahathir’s first tasks as the then-prime minister.

Apart from Jomo and Daim, the five-member council comprised former Bank Negara governor Zeti Akhtar Aziz, former Petronas president Mohd Hassan Marican, and tycoon Robert Kuok.

Jomo said during his time in the CEP, he attempted to push for several reforms, especially in the Goods and Services Tax (GST).

Instead of abolishing the GST at that time, he said he mooted an integrated tax authority, rather than a segmented tax authority.

“It is to reduce the regressive character of the GST, through some specific reforms.

“Head of Customs at that time was very open to these reforms.

“Unfortunately, the minister at that time, and perhaps the prime minister never considered these reforms, to my knowledge,” he said, adding that there was no discussion on the matter.

Aside from that, he also pushed for health reforms to improve the health financing sector.

He revealed that he was delighted when former health minister Khairy Jamaluddin last year announced that the nation’s public healthcare expenditure would be increased to five percent of the gross domestic product by the end of 2022.

“But as we know, nothing happened. It was not reflected in the budget that was tabled before the Parliament’s dissolution.

“Even now, we don’t see any commitment from the government to increase health financing,” said Jomo.

EPF made into ‘political football’

Asked about the future of the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) when so many contributors are left with so little for their retirement, Jomo said the pension fund has become a “political football”.

“The Umno leadership and others have basically been pushing very hard for some years now to allow the people to withdraw as much money as possible…

“I fear that the old people would have very little choice but to continue to work as they can, which may not necessarily be a bad thing for us to have a longer working life.

“But considering the poor health that everyone is in, I am really concerned,” Jomo said.

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