Salleh Keruak lauds Najib’s efforts for non-Bumis

The former Sabah Chief Minister looks severely upon Mahathir’s criticism of Najib, saying the PM is right to look out for non-Bumis.

KUALA LUMPUR: Salleh Said Keruak took a swipe at former premier Mahathir Mohamad , claiming in his latest blog post the many criticisms aimed at Najib were baseless.

Salleh, who is former Sabah Chief Minister, applauded Prime Minister Najib Razak’s economic and education policies favouring non-Bumiputeras.

He quoted from Mahathir’s blog post today: “Despite all these the Chinese refused to support Najib. They flocked to the opposition and he performed worse than Abdullah in the 13th General Election.”

“That is an unfair statement,” wrote Salleh, “because social reengineering must not be seen just in terms of vote buying but also in terms of social justice.”

He went on to clarify the goal of the NEP, introduced in 1970, as closing the gap between the haves and the have-nots.

“…while in some aspects the NEP is supposed to help the Bumiputeras, at the same time it is also supposed to be colour-blind and to assist the needy non-Bumiputeras.”

But the reality and the rhetoric remain far from the original aim.

Mahathir, whose book The Malay Dilemma provided some of the building blocks of the NEP, has consistently emphasised the policy’s benefits for the Bumiputera community.

Salleh, now Speaker of the Sabah State Legislative Assembly, also quoted Mahathir as writing that with Najib’s economic policy shift, many Bumiputeras were forced to close their businesses.

“But we cannot just talk about the Malays,” said Salleh in his blog today.

“There are about one million Malaysians who have left the country because they feel the NEP is discriminating to the non-Bumiputeras…And the only way this can be addressed is to show the non-Bumiputeras that they are not second-class citizens in Malaysia.”