YOURSAY | 'No society anywhere in the world has created entrepreneurs through affirmative action.'
David Dass: The fact is that Malays have made much headway in the last 40 years or so. The growth of the Malay middle class has been staggering. Malay professionals from doctors to engineers, to lawyers, to accountants and actuaries, valuers and surveyors, academicians and artistes dominate the scene.
But certain 'problems' in the Malay community persist. And this is the reason for the constant comparison between Malays and Chinese. Chinese are more entrepreneurial as a community. Their culture and traditions support business enterprise. It is in business that the Malay lags behind.
It is in these areas that PM Dr Mahathir Mohamad makes his statements. There are also more poor Malay households than poor Chinese households or poor Indian households. That clearly is a failure of government policy and action.
Government policies that actively exclude and discriminate against non-Malays are wrong. It is unconstitutional. Article 153 is there to help the backward and the disadvantaged Malay.
The New Economic Policy (NEP) was formulated to accelerate the development of the Malays as a community. It was never meant to exclude the non-Malays.
The majority of Malaysians are wage earners. And there are many non-Malay poor. The Indians have been marginalised as a community, and in the past, no one bothered about the Orang Asli or the natives of Sabah and Sarawak.
There are more Chinese in business than Malays or Indians. There are high risks in business and business failures are frequent. Successful business enterprises mean more employment and more taxes.
The real solution to wage disparity is higher worker productivity. And the only way to increase worker productivity is through good education.
That is why a complete overhaul of our education system is necessary. That is why high English language proficiency must be an objective. The young must be trained for the jobs that are there. And with rapidly advancing technology, many of the traditional jobs are disappearing.
Exclusive Malay language education is going to trap all Malaysians into low-paying jobs. So the focus must be on eliminating poverty across the races and on improving standards of education.
Sending thousands of Malay children to religious schools and then complaining that the Malays are not able to compete with Chinese children is ridiculous.
Educate the young for the workplace. Give them skills. They must be able to think critically and creatively. They must be able to communicate effectively. And not just on the political rostrum.
TehTarik: Malays are in decline? Not true. NEP has made tremendous progress as far as Malay professionals are concerned. More than 50 percent of doctors, lawyers, engineers, accountants, nurses, paramedics and technicians are Malays. Many of them are highly qualified and they work hard.
The problem is that Tun M is stuck in the 1960s and is perceiving the Malay community of the 1960s. The issue is a lack of Malay entrepreneurs and no amount of molly-coddling through the NEP is going to create this class of businessmen.
No society anywhere in the world has created entrepreneurs through affirmative action. In fact, the NEP is detrimental to the formation of entrepreneurs.
To be a successful entrepreneur, you need self-discipline and confidence, self-sacrifice, hard work, perseverance, resilience, thrift and risk-taking culture.
Clever Voter: Helping the poor and disadvantaged is necessary as part of social policies. But when the government starts discriminating based on race and religion, then it is universally unacceptable and morally wrong.
Secondly, Mahathir needs no reminder that each successive government has been generous with their careless policies in their zeal to restructure society, to an extent that while it has succeeded in building a sizeable middle-class, but many hold positions in the public sector and government-linked companies (GLCs) where they compete among themselves.
Only a handful of Malay entrepreneurs are willing to stand up where it counts, despite the billions being spent. Wealth creation cannot be created artificially and neither can it can be done with such huge opportunity costs.
The consequences of such failed policies are rent-seekers who add no value to the economic supply chain and an incurable addiction to handouts and entitlement.
In countries where the entrepreneurs thrive, they operate with little government help. But results have been equal treatment and hard work and determination.
Roger 5201: There is no place for racism and bigotry in Malaysia. When you start defining the problem in terms of race and religion, favouring one community at the expense of others, the solution will be unfair, unsustainable and elusive.
The real issue for Malaysia's decline is a misguided sense of entitlement by the self-professed ‘tuans’ of this country. Affirmative actions must be colour blind and inclusive so that every Malaysian can partake in our country's progress and no one is left behind.
Anonymous_1544340881: For there to be peace in this in the long term, we need to ensure that all races prosper. It is not good if a group is seen to be prospering while others are left behind.
However, how do we do it? Perhaps learning from the experience of the past 60 years, we can say what not to do.
First, try not to focus so much on race but on helping the poor, especially the rural poor regardless of race. Since the bumis are the largest constituents in this group, advocating such a policy is not being anti-Malay or anti-bumi and yet it is fairer as it will focus more on need rather than race.
Second, avoid beggar-thy-neighbour policies. Uplifting does not mean pulling down and holding back other races.
Finally, focus on education. With all due respect, this generation is lost with all the overemphasis on religion and does nothing to help prepare for living in the world of tomorrow.
We can still save the future generations if we reform the education system drastically. Focus more on Maths, Science and English.
Cogito Ergo Sum: Yes, helping one’s own people is fine and noble. But don’t do it at the expense of others. Socio-economic policies must address everybody and reach Joe Average of all races, not just a few handpicked cronies who will not share the cake.
Instead of removing the crutches for the Malays, extend it to all who need a helping hand. That will be your lasting legacy.
Don’t go back to people like tycoon Lim Kok Wing and the likes who will spit on you when you are down, and kiss you when you are up.
Drngsc: A very cleverly crafted speech by Mahathir. Not extremely Malay but with a ‘Malay preference’ overtone. I was hoping that it will be more multiracial in tone.
I am not sure if his statement that Malays are still poor is correct. It is true that there are many poor Malays, but there are also some very rich ones.
It is true that there are some very poor non-Malays (partly due to 48 years of affirmative policy), but there are also some very rich ones. Poverty is not race-based. It is in all races.
The government/PM must look after all races. The government must study in-depth why after 48 years of affirmative policies, some Malays are so rich, while others are still so poor.
This study is important so that Pakatan Harapan/Bersatu's effort will not fall into the same trap. Otherwise, after 10 years, they will still be the same.
Let us see how they are going to promote Melayu Baru in the context of Malaysia Baru. - Mkini
Tehtarik says;
ReplyDeleteNo society anywhere in the world has created entrepreneurs through affirmative action. In fact, the NEP is detrimental to the formation of entrepreneurs.
What an idiot. Affirmative action is just another name for protectionism. Hyundai and the other chaebols up north would pleasantly beg to differ.
This is the problem with the internet where there is too much noise made by people who read mostly shit (im looking at you FT) instead of primary sources.