Somehow, along the way, the NEP was interpreted as being a Malay-only policy. No, it is not and was never intended to be so. Although it was meant to address the problems faced by the Malays, this does not mean it does not also cover those who are not Malays who equally need assistance.
NO HOLDS BARRED
Raja Petra Kamarudin
Did you read the comments by mainly the Chinese readers in my last three articles of this week?
I admit that I was being naughty and that I wanted to provoke the non-Malays to see what they would say. And the non-Malays reacted exactly how I expected them to. Hence it is not really that difficult to understand the very narrow and very predictable mind of these non-Malays. Hence, also, it is so easy to manipulate the non-Malays.
Those who have been following what I have been writing over the last 20 years or so since the 1990s when the Internet first appeared in Malaysia can probably remember that in those days I used the analogy of domesticated cats versus wild cats (kucing hutan). And having owned more than 40 cats in my lifetime -- and at the height of it 17 cats at one time -- I know what I am talking about (I actually read a book on cat psychology).
Anyway, the analogy I used was as follows.
A wild cat is a survivor. It hunts for its food and knows how to stay alive (surprisingly, it can even leap into the air and capture a bird in flight because I have seen it happen). However, when you domesticate a cat and feed it regularly twice or three times a day (with snacks in between), the cat loses the ability to survive. It depends on you to feed it and to keep it alive. It also becomes very susceptible to diseases, which wild cats are pretty immune from.
If you abandon a domesticated cat it hardly knows how to survive any more and most likely will die out there in the wilds. It gets attacked by other animals, gets run over by cars, becomes thin and weak, and will very soon become riddled with various diseases.
And this is what the New Economic Policy (NEP) has done to the Malays, I argued, back in the 1990s. It has domesticated the Malays and the Malays who 400 or 500 years ago were feared seafaring people (a.k.a pirates at the time when piracy was a noble and honourable professional, as it was in Europe as well) have now become a tame and docile race.
No doubt Malays have this uncanny ability to lose their tame and docile streak and mengamuk (‘run amok’, as the English would say, because there is no such word in the English language since mengamuk is unique to the Malay race) if their maruah (dignity) is challenged. Then, suddenly, the Malays change from a domesticated cat to a kucing hutan -- not unlike Bruce Lee in ‘The First of Fury’ (and the whole reason why I took up Taekwondo and Karate).
Even in the days when I was active in the Malay Chamber of Commerce I was opposed to certain aspects of the NEP (and this brought me into conflict with the Umno chaps in the Chamber who thought I was a traitor to the Malay race). I was not opposed to the concept of the NEP. I thought the concept was rather good and the intentions pretty noble. I was opposed to the abuse of the NEP, which I said had been hijacked by the Umnoputeras.
Yes, I was the one who invented the term ‘Umnoputera’ 30 years ago back in the 1980s, much to the chagrin of an Umno Member of Parliament from Terengganu who stood up to whack me for that comment.
Anyway, that word ‘Umnoputera’ has survived until today and I can proudly claim to be the inventor of that word (my Uncle, Raja Datuk Arshad bin Raja Sir Tun Uda, Anwar Ibrahim’s classmate in MCKK, can confirm this because he was also a participant in that Congress and was sitting beside me when I stood up to utter that comment).
I felt that as far as opening up college and tertiary education to the Malays, the NEP has seen some success although I still criticise the quality of that education. It is no point aiming for quantity if we lack quality. And I have always been a critic of the quality of that education until today.
Nevertheless, the NEP has been able to take the Malay out of the kampung (village). However, as I have said many times before, the NEP has not succeeded in taking the kampung out of the Malay. And that is my beef with the NEP.
No, I am not trying to insult the Malays or run down those Malays who still live in the kampung. In fact, the Malays from the kampung are very decent people, more decent than many Malays who live in the towns and cities. I am merely lamenting about the fate of ‘my people’ -- and showing concern for the Malays does not make me a racist or else Mandela and Gandhi would be racists as well.
The NEP is a good policy. It is supposed to be about reducing the gap between the haves and the haves-not and reducing the disparity between the different races. This would mean that the NEP is not just for the Malays. It is also for the Chinese, Indians, and natives of East Malaysia plus the Orang Asal who require help.
Somehow, along the way, the NEP was interpreted as being a Malay-only policy. No, it is not and was never intended to be so. Although it was meant to address the problems faced by the Malays, this does not mean it does not also cover those who are not Malays who equally need assistance.
Tun Razak Hussein, Malaysia’s Second Prime Minister, was the architect of the NEP. He was also the architect of the most successful land settlement in the world, FELDA. The United Nations FAO actually sent teams to Malaysia to study the success of the FELDA scheme to see how the same can be implemented in Africa and Latin America. That is how highly regarded FELDA is.
But why did MCA and MIC not propose that certain FELDA schemes also be set up for the poor Chinese and Indians? Is it that the Chinese and Indians did not want to become land settlers? Is it that FELDA refused to allow the Chinese and Indians to participate in these land schemes? Or it is that MCA and MIC did not bother to pursue this matter with FELDA or the government?
I do not know the answer to those questions so maybe those from MCA and MIC can enlighten us.
If 30 or 40 years ago the poor Chinese and Indians had become FELDA settlers, today, many of them would be millionaires and P. Waytha Moorthy would not need to go on his hunger strike (READ MORE HERE).
Okay, Moorthy is now about to complete the second week of his hunger strike. Many Chinese and some Indians have posted comments in my three articles regarding the NEP mentioned above. From your comments you give the impression that you are opposed to the NEP. You say that the NEP is unfair, racist and discriminatory.
Why are you so angry with the NEP? Do you think that the NEP is unfair? Do you think that the NEP only helps the Malays and not the poor Indians and Chinese as well?
Okay, let us say for arguments sake I agree with you. There are many poor Chinese and even more poor Indians as well. But the NEP does not help these people. You want a fairer NEP where all races that deserve help receive help.
Are you sincere about this? Or are you just looking for an excuse to oppose the NEP so that the Malays remain backward?
Moorthy of Hindraf is fighting for the lot of the Indians. And he is doing this by going on a hunger strike. How many of you support him and agree with his hunger strike? I have read many nasty comments over the last two weeks disparaging and vilifying Moorthy. You are mocking him. You do not support him.
Why do you not support him since you are supposedly fighting for social justice and you oppose the NEP because you feel it is an unjust policy? I do not see too many Indians and even lesser Chinese rallying to Moorthy’s side. Instead, you make fun of him.
The Indians, Chinese -- and maybe the Malays as well -- should support Moorthy. You should join him in his hunger strike. If you can’t stand not eating then you should show solidarity by launching civil disobedience. There are many ways you can do this. Boycott crony businesses. Go to the doctor and complain about a stomach ailment or migraine and get two days off from work. Switch off your lights for one hour every night. Stay home so that you do not need to drive and therefore do not need to buy any petrol for your car. Stop buying newspapers. Stop watching the news on TV. Stay away from shopping complexes and shopping malls. Don’t eat fish, meat and chicken for a whole week.
There are so many things you can do as a sign of solidarity to protest the plight of the Indians in Malaysia. Instead, you make fun of them and mock them. You are not concerned about what happens to the Indians. You also oppose the NEP on the excuse that you seek social justice and fairness for all races. But you do not translate this rhetoric into action when it comes to the Indians.
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