Najib preaches equality and meritocracy to Malay NGOs

PUTRAJAYA, Jan 18 — Datuk Seri Najib Razak said today that the best way to protect Malay and Bumiputera interest is to expand the economic pie and ensure equal distribution of wealth by merit.

“Our steps to help the Malays and Bumiputeras must be implemented in a smart and precise way. One of the conditions is to ensure the economic pie keeps expanding,” Najib (picture) told a gathering of Malay economic NGOs here.

The prime minister stressed by doing so, wealth can be redistributed to the Malays and Bumiputera without denying or robbing the non-Malays of their rights.

“The non-Malays, they don’t like it if we distribute the wealth to just anyone, including those who don’t deserve it. But if it’s according to merit, they can accept it easily.”

The prime minister also called for a “reality check”, and urged the elimination of rent-seekers as part of his economic transformation pledge.

“Too many people ask the prime minister for letters (of recommendation). I am sad because the people who usually ask me for letters are the faces that I know too well.

“But in my heart, I wonder who are behind them ... because they aren’t known to be corporate-minded or good in business.”

Najib claimed that had the rent-seeking culture never been promoted, the Malays and Bumiputeras would have achieved much better economic success by now.

“If we had never given (the opportunity) to rent-seekers, today we would have reached 30 per cent,” Najib said, referring to Malays and Bumiputeras equity ownership target set under the New Economic Plan (NEP).

According to Najib, since the Bumiputera Agenda Action Council (MTAB) was formed during the Tenth Malaysia Plan, Malay and Bumiputera equity has increased from 21.9 per cent in 2008 to 23.1 per cent in 2010.

Najib was here to distribute funds to the Malay Economic Bodies Alliance (GABEM), a group of Malay NGOs  formed to protect the Malay and Bumiputera economic interest.

In his opening speech, chairman Tan Sri Abdul Rahim Tamby Chik hailed the prime minister with titles like “CEO of Malaysian Economy” and “Bumiputera Economic Transformation Hero”.

A slew of pro-Bumiputera initiatives have been launched by Najib, including MTAB and its Bumiputera Agenda Driving Unit (Teraju) launched on February 2011.

Malay entrepreneurs and critics have bemoaned Teraju’s “tortoise pace” for failing to produce any results such as improving Bumiputera participation in the government’s Economic Transformation Programme (ETP), and accused the prime minister of diluting his New Economic Model (NEM).