Malay Special Rights and the NEP

For those who are not clued-in as to what is the NEP, the NEP stands for New Economic Policy that was meant to put in place programs and policies to redistribute wealth so that the majority people which is the Malays will control and own the larger slice of the overall economic pie of Malaysia. Which I would think in a socialist perspective would be noble. However, the NEP has abused and used to oppress (for want of a better word) the non-Malays.

To my mind, as a Chinese Malaysian as I am so classified, the Malay Special Rights is to ensure non-discriminative actions in the legal, and commerce arena - to ensure that the Malay have a right to education, a right to conduct business, and access to public facilities and government representation, a right to worship and practice their religion.

All these are fine, until its used to oppress the rest. The BN government appears to have a ZERO sum thought on this. Take from the non-Malays and keep on taking, to the extent that I ask myself where's my right and my children's right. We are prevented from having Chinese Schools, we cant even use "Allah" in our Malay language bibles, places in local universities where a quota of maybe 5% is given to all non-Malays. No scholarships unless we go to our "Chinese" MP to beg for one.

But then when I look at the Malay Majority, when I go into their kampungs and I look at the standard of living. I can truly understand their hardships. They are poor, and their education level is low.

I can understand that their leaders from UMNO tell them that the non-Malays are taking all their rights and wealth, and they believe; simply because the average non-Malay makes more money then them. Perhaps is to question why?

I can only surmise in the grand scheme of things, the UMNO elites and ultras want the Malays to continue in their present condition and to keep them there. This will ensure that the need for "NEP" will always be there. With the NEP is a license and excuse for UMNO and its cronies to print money.

What I can say and advise our opposition politicians (if only if they care to read my blog) is to desconstruct the NEP and improve it. Why say Abolish the NEP? It has to be improved to ensure the wealth really gets to the Malay middle class and poor, not to the rich and wealthy. The rich dont need more help. We dont need more Zakarias and their palaces. The NEP should be expanded to be more inclusive we should include the non-Malays especially the poor and needy. We should add more transparency in dealings and accountability.

Promote meritocracy among the Malays, show them how to compete. Especially for places in Universities. It counter-productive to the Malays where everything is handed down a silver plater; the result is the local university graduates cannot compete in the real world and they end up working in the public sector, where the government having to create more jobs to absorb them. How long can these go on? In the age of globalization, they need to learn to compete on merit, if not they will be trapped in a 3rd world economy and a low standard of living. Its a catch 22 situation. To break the cycle, meritocracy must be introduced; NEP given transparency to ensure there's no abuse of the system for the rich to get richer.

I would challenge the Malays to think! You can't go on in the zero sum game, in the end the biggest losers will be the Malays. You might make the non-Malays suffer and live in a highly discriminated society. Its apartheid no matter how you picture it. You can't be asking us to leave the country if we don't like it. Just imagine, if the non-Malays really did a major exodus and leave the country. You the Malays will be left to your own devices, do you think the foreign investors will stay on? Do you all have the skill set the MNCs need? It will be a step backward into 3rd world economy for whats left of the country.

The NEP in its current form is a dirty word to the non-Malays, not because we are jealous and envious of the special priviledges. It is because it is used to discriminate the non-Malays and used as a devise to enriched the politically connected. The rich get richer, the poor gets poorer. This has to stop; indeed the Malays need an affirmative program to help them, in fact all middle-class and poor people irregardless of race needs the affirmative program to help them. If there's any discrimination needed, it would be the rich versus the poor. As the rich dont need any help; need I say more?

I rest my case.

Urban Sensibilities versus Rural Perspectives

I had the opportunity to get away for a week in the east cost to the beautiful island of Redang off the coast of Trengganu; after enjoying a lovely 3 days of bliss away from all the politics and talks about politics helped me gain a better insight when I spent 1 full day touring the city of Kuala Trengganu interacting with the locals there.

Going to a Malay heartland, where 95% of the population consist of Malays, and 4% Chinese. It does strike me in a realization that in the eyes of these folks; how important the perceived Malay Special Rights are to them. It also dawn on me that it would be very difficult for an Urban Chinese from the big city of Kuala Lumpur to understand their needs and challenges they are facing. Indeed perhaps to lead them as a Prime Minister or Menteri Besar that you will have to understand their customs and religious needs a little more indepth than at the cursory level.

Speaking to these folks, its easy to understand their confusion on the so called "New Economic Policy" has helped them or rather not helped them. Most of them see the daily survival and economic issues as key priorities. They are concerned about getting jobs, able to conduct business and low inflation. All which as I see it, the NEP does not address these important issues. The people are fed up with the politicians who are playing the race card, and declaring that the Malays need NEP. But really, who really needs and benefit from the NEP. It is the politically connected, and cronies of those in power who help themselves to the benefits to extend of taking the poor peoples land and building for themselves private palaces and fiefdoms.

I had a wonderful time in Kuala Terengganu with an elderly taxi driver named Pak Uda who was so kind to be my tour guide for the day Terengganu who showed me around town and to the various beautiful Mosques such as the Crystal Palace, and the Floating Mosque.

And also I had an interesting chat with the Malay taxi driver who took the travel time to send me home to give me his two cents about how corrupted the BN-UMNO government; and he mentioned that he was happy that the Selangor state government is now led by the opposition and he and a bunch of his Malay friends voted for DAP and that some chinese in areas where PAS was contesting the chinese voted for PAS. Truly, this came from a Malay then time for racial politics is indeed over.