ABSTRACT
The specific stimulus for the nature and style of the privatization policy seems to have come from the UK, and many of the decisions and methods have mirrored contemporaneous moves in the UK program. Two years after Malaysia's privatization policy was first announced in 1983, the Privatization Section of the powerful Economic Planning Unit in the Prime Minister's Department issued its Guidelines on Privatization, which outlined policy aims, modes of privatization, and means for implementation. The emergence of the policy reflected two concerns. The first was growing disillusionment with the performance of the SOE sector. Though this was less prevalent during the public-sector boom of 1981 and 1982, it became particularly important more recently, and has progressed to the fore since the recession in 1985-1986. The second force behind the emergence of the policy was the reassessment of the role of the New Economic Policy.
