Move away from race-based NEP, says Muda candidate

 

Muda co-founder and the party’s candidate for Tenang, Lim Wei Jiet, has called for the empowerment of the poor and a move away from the New Economic Policy. (Facebook pic)

JOHOR BAHRU: Muda’s candidate for the Tenang seat, Lim Wei Jiet, said affirmative action must be based on people’s needs rather than race.

He said it was time to move away from the New Economic Policy (NEP) which had been abused.

In an interview with FMT, Lim said he did not want situations where projects were given and quotas fulfilled simply because of one’s skin, especially when these went to the well-to-do.

“At the end of the day, you want the poor to be empowered and given extra support.

“We’ve seen the abuse of the NEP countless times over the decades by Umno-Barisan Nasional, where rich people’s kids get to enter Mara Junior Science Colleges (MRSMs), for example.

“If you’re a rich ‘Datuk’, you can still buy an allocated Bumiputera house at a discount compared to a poor Chinese family. How does that even make sense? I’m not rejecting affirmative action, it’s just that it needs to move to a needs-based approach,” he said.

While maintaining that he could not speak for Muda and that the party had not specifically outlined its stand on NEP yet, Lim said he believed that his views were shared by the rest of the leadership.

“I would be very surprised if my views are not the same as the leadership of Muda – that we need to move to a needs-based approach,” said the Muda co-founder.

Muda’s Johor manifesto

Lim said Muda would be launching its manifesto for the Johor polls soon.

The Muda central committee member said the issues most Malaysians faced were the same, such as the lack of job opportunities and the rising cost of living.

Asked if Muda and Pakatan Harapan had discussed their separate manifestos, he said “no”. Lim said right now both sides were focusing on trying to win the seats they were contesting.

“What generally happens after the elections is, if we form the majority number of parties in power, we will sit together and elect a menteri besar among ourselves.

“And throughout those discussions, our support for the MB may be conditional upon this or that policy, so I think those kinds of discussions will take place later on.” - FMT