Yoursay: Helping the poor will also help the Malay community

YOURSAY | ‘It is time to stop race-based poverty eradication programmes. Just help the poor.’

Poor Malays won't get mad if you cut aid to rich Malays, says PSM

Iphonezours: Well said, PSM central committee member Dr Jeyakumar Devaraj.

The majority of poor Malays and Indians are from the B40 (bottom 40 percent) group. Removing assistance for the B40 group doesn’t make sense. What's more with the high prices of goods and essential items.

Pakatan Harapan is not doing much, and if this trend continues, it can kiss the next election goodbye.

Krokodie: @Iphonezours, that was the "addiction" prescribed by the previous BN government. If everything is given as subsidies, soon our country will be just like Venezuela - bankrupt.

Vgeorgemy: The deep state that supports the Malay crony and cleric class system has cut the benefits provided to the working class to maintain their own huge budget allocation.

Harapan fell victim to such ploys instead of relying on community civic groups to gauge the impact on removing benefits to the B40. Harapan needs to get back to its original struggle of providing welfare to the weaker communities.

Ghostwhowalks: I fully agree with you, Jeyakumar. That has always been my take that helping the B40 group will help the majority of Malays in need and besides, it’s the noble thing to do.

Next, free up the economy and have it based on meritocracy to build a bigger pie for all to share. This will make the share of the pie much more than the current 30 percent. All will be happy and Malaysia will be great again!

Malaysiamyhome: As a Chinese, I am okay if help is given to poor Malays like the Felda farmers, fishermen and small traders. Help them, so long as the poor Chinese and Indians are also helped.

But today, most of the contracts, directorships and scholarships are given to the rich Malays.

David Dass: Indeed, it is time to have needs-based policies and programmes for the poor. This will ensure that the very poor get the assistance they need to lift them out of poverty. The large number of Malay households demonstrate the flaws in earlier policies.

The huge hole in Felda also indicates a need for a different approach to Malay empowerment. There cannot be bailouts every time a scheme to advance the Malays or any other group fails.

The collapse of the cooperatives is a case in point which affected all races and also the frequent bailout of Bank Bumiputra. There is an urgent and compelling need to bring our people together.

At the very top, they get along together as they are bound together by successful commercial ventures. Many, if not most, get along very well on the ground as well.

But the rantings of politicians stir the racial and religious brew. This is an explosive concoction that can blow up in our faces if not checked.

Undecided: Spot on Jeyakumar, since the B40 voting base is much larger than rich Malays.

If Harapan is serious about doing away with affirmative action policies, especially when it comes to preferential treatment on government contracts and licences, this is the way forward.

The government should not lose this opportunity to do so with the overthrow of Umno/BN. This will help over time to close the income and wealth gap between the rich and poor Malays due to the abuse of these policies by our top Malay political leaders.

Kural: The willing and uncritical acceptance of handouts and assistance does not necessarily dull the real-life awareness that there is a stark disparity in income and wealth amongst the Malay themselves.

This awareness is on the rise. Those that have misused their power and high office to waste or plunder public funds and acquire disproportionate assets are being brought to books gradually.

The outcome of the last election for Umno and PAS has made it reasonably obvious that race and religious propaganda for political domination by select groups is not going to be sustainable.

The long-standing blame game of "others gain is our loss" has been laid bare by the current exposure of corruption.

With increasing empirical reasoning that everyone could have been better off materially in this lucky country, the crooks who plundered the nation using this form of propaganda are hereafter denied leadership.

Clear Thinking: Rich Malays who did not earn their wealth honestly must be deprived of their wealth altogether by MACC through our courts.

Malays who worked hard and showed entrepreneurship should not be deprived of their wealth except through existing taxes.

If taxes are raised, the incentive to do business will be hampered and can adversely affect our economy.

Anonymous_3f4b: Cutting aid to rich Malays and curbing the New Economic Policy (NEP) on them is like throwing sand into the rice bowl of Mahathir and his cronies, formerly from Umno and now in Bersatu.

The government will never do it. Want to bet?

Malaysia Truly Asia: No, you are mistaken, Anonymous_3f4b. It's those who were against the appointment of non-Malays to positions like the finance minister and attorney-general who are corrupt in this country.

Not Mahathir and/or Anwar Ibrahim, who between them have made it their mission to stop the rot. Do you think a 94-year-old who is about to meet his Maker would want to go into the history books as the one who "two-timed" his nation?

Thickskin: It is time to stop race-based poverty eradication programmes. Just help the poor. If the majority are Malays, then the programmes will mainly benefit Malays.

Time to do away with NEP

Serembanpau: Everybody knows the bumiputeras will never give up the NEP and it is pointless to talk about it.

For the non-bumiputeras, their population is getting smaller every year (think of Lokman with his 'football team' family), and the smart thing is to have a small family and give the children the best education possible. Then encourage the children to seek their fortune elsewhere.

This country will eventually become a theocratic state and non-bumiputeras will be treated with indifference.

The Analyser: Well, I disagree, Serembanpau. With the will and correct strategising, it is possible to wean the bumiputera community off NEP. But Harapan has neither the will nor the intelligence to even try.

The first step is to open up bumiputera privileges to all needy Malaysians. After that, there are many ways to neutralise the expectations of the bumiputera community. But you have to want to make the change and you have to bring it about sensitively.

Harapan has no meaningful social agenda. All they are interested in is money, accumulating it and spending it, and usually on selfish projects.

Ex-Wfw: Unless the better-educated bumiputeras take the trouble to voice out the truth, Umno and PAS politicians will continue to spin on the issue of the poor Malays. To debunk this, we need a national data platform to record all decisions and transactions.

Without data, politicians will twist and bend facts just to create uncertainty and those who can hide behind this veil will continue to abuse the system.

Harapan has this opportunity to make a meaningful change if they want to make the nation transparent and not opaque where lies prevail.

Duapuluhsen: It’s time to find a constructive way instead of just giving opinions, this includes me. - Mkini