Mahathir missed opportunity to remove NEP, says Razak Baginda

Saying Malay leaders are afraid to speak up against the NEP, the Icon think tank president adds Dr Mahathir Mohamad was the only one with enough political strength to get rid of the New Economic Policy.

PETALING JAYA: Centre for Global Affairs Malaysia (Icon) president Abdul Razak Baginda has accused politicians of refusing to speak up on the need to remove the New Economic Policy (NEP) even though they know it is detrimental to the Malays.

He said this was because they would be committing political suicide if they did.

Speaking to FMT, Razak said the only person who ever had the political strength do so was Dr Mahathir Mohamad back during his tenure as prime minister.

“The only person I thought who could have done that was Dr Mahathir back when he was talking about how the Malays are not grateful,” he said.

“He was the strongest and he could have dismantled affirmative action in the country. If Prime Minister Najib Razak does it, he’ll lose the next election.”

Earlier this month, Singapore daily The Straits Times said that abolishing affirmative action for Bumiputeras was politically impossible as many Umno leaders and Malays still felt they needed it.

It also said that the Chinese community had continued to enjoy better salaries and more personal wealth despite the success of the NEP, which had helped grow the Malay middle class.

Razak echoed the statement, saying the unfortunate thing about the NEP was that it had widened a divide between the Malays and the Chinese and, ironically, it was the Malays who were losing out.

He said the reason for this was because wealth had provided the Chinese the opportunity to go into private universities, while not enough focus had been given to ensuring that the public universities in the country were of good quality.

“We are caught in the NEP trap and it’s more psychological than real because there is no benefit at all.

“On the one hand, you have mediocre students learning in mediocre institutions. On the other, you have students going to private universities which receive more funding.

“At the end of the exercise, the Chinese will fare much better because they are taught in English, are more open, and are more exposed.

“The majority of Malays can’t get into private universities because: firstly, they can’t afford it and, secondly, the private universities are run by non-Malays.”

He said it was the same case when it came to getting jobs as the world continued to become more globalised.

He said with globalisation, there were more global companies here, and Malaysian companies were also operating abroad.

“What do they need? They need competent people and people who are able to converse in English. The system does not provide this.

“Everyone knows Malays are doing far worse today.” - FMT