Does the establishment really want to empower bumiputera?

 

“It's discouraging to think how many people are shocked by honesty and how few by deceit.” - Noël Coward, Blithe Spirit

Bursa Malaysia chairperson Abdul Wahid Omar recently said at the Bumiputera Economic Congress - “So, we must ask. If it’s been six decades, we have implemented various policies to empower the bumiputera and what is the result today? Why haven’t we reached our target all this time?”

This is the problem right here. After 60 years, the Malay establishment cannot bring themselves to admit that all their policies have failed the majority ethnic community.

Do not get me wrong. Rich people were created from these policies, Malay and non-Malay, but for the majority community (I am not including the “other bumiputera”) it has been a total failure.

Wahid (above) said that the main cause of the failure was that the bumiputera group concentrated on the public sector and neglected the private sector.

He wants mandatory diversity disclosures to ensure private companies hire more bumiputera, especially when they do business with the government.

In 2019, Wahid also pushed for an equal opportunity act because it helps everyone and “many are aware there is still prejudice or discrimination against the bumiputera.”

Gaming the system

Honestly, the people not damaged by these policies and indeed in many ways thrive despite these policies, are the non-Malays. Do not take my word for it, former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad acknowledged this.

He said: “The Chinese in Malaysia have no special rights, they experience discrimination. But they are more successful than us.”

I was never up to date on the nomenclature of economics or economic policy framing but the reality is that for the average non-Malay, he or she understands and is brought up to understand that they are not going to get anything from the government.

Their reliance on the government is defined by how well they game the system, which is why we get all these “corporate non-Malays” hooking up with Malay proxies to get on the gravy train.

The rest of the non-Malays, especially in the private sector, have to hustle to get by and the worry for them is that if government intervention, especially when it comes to religion, gets in the way of their economic rice bowls.

The non-Malays, having left to fend for themselves, have opened up economic, educational, and social spheres in which connective tissue has allowed the state to sustain a kleptocracy that has endured for decades. This is the Malaysian experience.

Indeed, if someone like Wahid is concerned about the lack of bumiputera participation in the private sector, well Mahathir also had his thoughts on that.

As reported in the press, Mahathir said that: “Malays had failed because they were lazy and sought the easy way out by reselling their shares, licences and contracts to non-Malays”.

He also said: “They cannot be patient, cannot wait a little. They want to be rich this very moment... no work is done other than to be close to people with influence and authority in order to get something… After selling and getting the cash, they come back to ask for more.”

And forget about all those entitlement programmes which people often term “poverty alleviation” programmes. We know that all those are complete bunkum.

Do not take my word for it. Take former prime minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob’s words. He has admitted that all those poverty alleviation programmes were carried out by the vast bureaucracy and nobody had any idea about their effectiveness - “… that hitherto many ministries had programmes on poverty alleviation but there was no specific monitoring on their effectiveness.”

Not because monitoring these programmes would mean there would be transparency, but because many of these poverty alleviation programmes were part of the gravy train driven by bureaucrats, political operatives, and their various proxies.

Hence, all this talk of poverty alleviation, especially when it comes to the Malay community, is mired in the kind of corruption that plagues the mainstream political establishment.

So when Prime Minister Anwar Ibhraim announces that an RM1 billion fund would be set up and managed by GLCs, you have to contrast this with what Mahathir said about a specific class of Malays - “They want to be rich this very moment... no work is done other than to be close to people with influence and authority in order to get something.”

Insanity or strategy?

But the real question people should be asking is this. Does the mainstream political establishment want the Malays not to depend on the government?

After all, this is not rocket science. Do you really think that all these ketuanan types are dumb? Look, they may narcotize the majority with race and religion but they do not drink the kool aid they are dispensing. 

They send their children to better schools. They ensure their children are competitive here and elsewhere and with the proper connections, they can earn their place on the gravy train.

Keep in mind, Mahathir created a Malay middle-class which was a combination of middle management in the public sector and the proxies in the private sector. 

Can you imagine if the majority ethnic group did not need the government? That they did not want to be under the shadow of the religious bureaucracy? That they were successful and independent enough to vote for political operatives who were not of the same race or religion as them and who wanted a secular and democratic system of governance?

Because this is what happens when people do not need the government. This is what happens when people coalesce around common goals and seek communion although from different religions and cultures.

Does a political system built around Malay rights and religious superiority really want these types of majority electorate?

A failure after six decades is not a mistake. It is a strategy. - Mkini

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S THAYAPARAN is Commander (Rtd) of the Royal Malaysian Navy. Fīat jūstitia ruat cælum - “Let justice be done though the heavens fall.”

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of MMKtT,