By : DANIEL JOHN JAMBUN
The resolution by the
National Malay Congress (NMC) held on November 24 in Kuala Lumpur that
government projects below RM100 million be given to Malay contractors under
direct negotiation and that GLCs adopt a a more aggressive Malay Agenda is a
dark and shameful spot in the history of Malaysia.
It is unbelievable that
after the billions of ringgits wasted by the government to spoonfeed the Malays
under the NEP and other affirmative programs, the former Prime Minister, Tun
Mahathir, admits the Malays had not had enough, and that Malays are supposed to
be now beggars in their own land!
It is no secret that Mahathir
was making another thinly-veiled swipe against ther Malaysian Chinese for being
economically successful in Malaysia. But he seems to have forgotten that this
Chinese success is actually the root of the Malaysia’s econnomic success.
The Chinese are not the
culprits, but the hero of Malaysia economics. It is the so-called Malays
businessmen, political cronies and leaders like Mahathir who are the culprits.
They awarded projects to themselves, gave the Malays all sorts of privileges
and the Malays still failed, or as Mahathir in his senility says, had becomme
beggars in their own land.
How is this possible? Let me
quote one Bryant (of India) who wrote an open letter to Mahathir online: “As you
are aware, the Malays control the rights to all the lands and natural resources
in this country. They control all government institutions, GLC and state-owned
companies. The Malays also dominate the lawmaking process in Malaysia including
the decision-making processes in the formulation of the country's economy
policies.
“From statistics we also
know now that the Malays not only own the largest national assets but are also
freely – and without conditions – allocated shares in public-listed companies.
The Malays have also been accorded all kind of priorities when it comes to
buying properties, awarding of public contracts, tertiary education
opportunities including the granting of scholarships and even securing jobs in
any of the government departments and agencies.
“Yet with all these
privileges and rights enjoyed by the Malays, you still complain that not enough
is done to help the Malays to catch up with the other ethnic groups,
principally the Chinese? Then what else should Malaysia do to satisfy the
Malays? Did the Chinese seize or rob anything away from the Malays or were
their accomplishments the result of their hard work?”
The fact is the Chinese
never did take anything away from the Malays; it is the Malays who have taken
things away from the other racial groups. The Chinese is a race without any
privilege or rights, and still they progressed!
Some decades ago the
government made it compulsory for students to pass the Bahasa Malaysia in order
to pass the SPM, with the expectation that this would pose a major challenge to
the Chinese students. But to the chagrin of the Malay educationists, the
Chinese scored better in BM compared to their Malay schoolmates!
Mahathir himself is fully
aware of the weakness of the Malays as he had elaborated in The Malay Dilemma,
so now he is proposing that this weakness be overcome by spoonfeeding the
Malays even more.
He is ignoring the fact that
whatever monetary gifts and privileges he gives to the Malays actually comes
from the sweat of the Chinese who keep the trade and commerce in Malaysia alive
and vibrant. It is the Malays who are doing al the wastage with the
spoonfeeding, and most of what they get goes down the economic drain.
A good example is the fate
of the Penang Malays who according to Ibrahim Ali had been sidelined by the
Chinese in development. The reality is, according to an online writer quoted by
Judith A. Nagata in “Heritage as History: Plural Narrative of the Penang
Malays”: the “…Malays have done little to help themselves. Since the implementation
of Malay preferential quotas and opportunities in the original New Economic
Policy… many Malay have… grown too accustomed to their privileges, and have
consequently made less efforts to achieve what others have strived for. Quoting
the Minister of Trade and Industry in Mahathir’s cabinet in the 1980s, Rafidah
Aziz, [who admitted] that‘Malays can achieve but can’t sustain it’: (‘Melayu
mampu daya maju tetapi tak mampu dayan tahan’), the writer goes on to deplore
how lands and preferential stocks and shares (amanah saham) designated for
Malays in the stock exchange, have routinely been sold off for short-term cash…
the Malays [should blame themselves], not outsiders, for their lack of
competitive success today.”
Mahathir also need to remind
himself that the national revenue mostly come from the Chinese who, according
to the MCA, pay 83 percent of the nation’s income tax. Take away the Chinese
businesses and the nation will stumble overnight.
The real cruelty and tyranny
of the resolutions of the NMC is that, by seeking to give even higher
preferential treatments for the Malays through a more concerted Malay Agenda,
it is actually grossly unconstitutional, for the simple reason that Article 153
of the Federal Constitution grants the Yang di-Pertuan Agong (King of Malaysia)
responsibility for “safeguard[ing] the special position of the ‘Malays’ and
natives of any of the States of Sabah and Sarawak…” It’s deplorable that former
leaders like Mahathir have the gall to talk only about Malay interests when the
country doesn’t belong to the Malays only.
This is another proof that
the ultra-Malay nationalists have no feeling whatsoever for the interests of
the other racial groups in Malaysia , and least of all the people of the Borneo
States, without whom there would have been no Malaysia . The Malay nationalists
keeps talking of races in Malaysia as being limited to the Malays, Chinese and
Indians, forgetting that in Sabah and Sarawak there dozens of other Malaysians
races needing attention.
Mahathir too, needs to appreciate
that the people of the Borneo States are contributing a tremendous lot to the
federal coffer, mainly through its oil revenue, and much of these Borneo
resources actually goes into the pockets of Malay Umno cronies. As such, to
forget and sideline the natives of the Borneo States is an act of ingratitude
and plain arrogance.
This is exactly why the
State Reform Party is fighting for the Borneo Agenda, for preservation and
restoration of the rights and autonomy of the Borneo States. We can’t depend on
the leaders in Kuala Lumpur to give us what had been promised to use from the
very beginning because they will always fall back to the Malay Agenda. It is so
ironic that the NMC had resolved to make a stand against corruption, cronyism
and abuse of power and when in fact their call for greater privilege for the
Malay is actually to support corruption, cronyism and abuse of power!
What else do direct
negotiation of project award, promotion of the Malay Agenda among GLCs, and
more preferential treatments for the Malays mean, if not corruption, cronyism
an abuse of power?
How far can direct award of
projects to some selected Malay contractors actually help the Malays. This had
been done a lot in the past, but the benefits had not gone down to the Malay
grassroots. In fact now, there is rebellion among low and middle Malays because
of their hatred for Umno which has been widely known to have failed to help the
common Malay, but instead had only enriched and made billionaires among Umno
cronies through corruption and abuses of power.
What the Malays really need
is not anymore spoonfeeding but empowerment through socio-economic developments
and rigorious mental revolution to make them succeed and be able to sustain and
increase their wealth. What the NMC wants is only to increase privileges for
the selected few, a step which will make the Malay proletariat hate the ruling
elites even more, and join the opposition, including DAP, a Chinese party, to
express their rebellion against the corrupt Umno leaders.
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