Bumi quotas to go eventually, says Najib


By Clara Chooi
The Malaysian Insider
Sep 27, 2011

KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 27 — Datuk Seri Najib Razak expressed today the need to eventually do away with Bumiputera quotas but said the government must continue to support the community’s best talent to ensure a more competitive business environment.

The prime minister pointed out that the New Economic Model (NEM) promotes affirmative action based more on meritocracy, saying “we must promote the right Bumiputera”.

He said offering quotas would promote complacency, hamper economic growth and bury Bumiputera talent.

“What we have done in the past is we have not promoted the right kind of people.

“We want to do away from (with) quotas but we must support them (Bumiputera entrepreneurs) in a way that would allow them to grow,” he told the Khazanah Megatrends Forum 2011 here this evening.

“If we give them quotas, what will happen is that they will rest on their laurels and eventually, they will not gain expertise,” he added.

Najib said the 30 per cent Bumiputera equity target “does not mean anything”, particularly if entrepreneurs decide to sell off their shares when prices soar, leaving little in the hands of the Bumiputeras.

He said the government was now moving on a different footing by seeking “good, tested and dedicated” Bumiputeras and supporting them in a manner that could help them become more competitive.

As an example, Najib mentioned Teraju’s recently launched programme to train 1,100 top small, micro and medium-sized Bumiputera companies under a special entrepreneurship programme as one of the government’s new initiatives.

“That is the new approach — to create a new class of Bumiputeras who are more resilient and can succeed in the long run,” he said.

Critics have accused Najib of diluting his NEM by creating agencies like Teraju and failing to focus on needs and merit-based affirmative action policies but government officials said the move was necessary as Bumiputera equity in the economy remained low despite the billions doled out since the New Economic Policy (NEP) began in 1971.

In his speech earlier, Najib also expressed a need for the government to remove “rigidities within the system” in order to create a more resilient economy.

“We know that people do not start in the same place… we know that everyone is not equally endowed… we know too that there will be winners and losers when things change – and of course we worry about those who deserve assistance more than those who could easily get by with less,” he said.

“Equally, we want to see winners who find their lives and the lives of their families transformed rather than simply enriching those who already have too much,” he added.

  1. #1 by Fatty Doc on Wednesday, 28 September 2011 - 8:09 am

    Our dear PM is “tok-kok” again.

  2. #2 by dagen on Wednesday, 28 September 2011 - 8:28 am

    Wot is the use of saying this? Huh? Eventually? Eventually umnoputra quota will be removed, you said? Wot “eventually”? Give us a timetable jib. Do not just say at one point in time – “eventually”. “Eventually” could mean a hundred years jib. “Eventually” could mean forever, idiot. Have you just fired another trial balloon jib?

  3. #3 by k1980 on Wednesday, 28 September 2011 - 8:30 am

    //Give us a timetable, jib//

    Jib: “Err…certainly not in 2012…..but possibly in 3013 or even 4014, I mean 5015… you get the drift?”

  4. #4 by asia on Wednesday, 28 September 2011 - 8:39 am

    Lie…lie….lie…lie….lie…lie….lie…lie….lie…lie….lie…lie….lie…lie….lie…lie….lie…lie….lie…lie….lie…lie….lie…lie….lie…lie….lie…lie….lie…lie….lie…lie….lie

  5. #5 by ktteokt on Wednesday, 28 September 2011 - 9:30 am

    Eventually? So when? Looks like this is a PERPETUAL PLAN to cripple the Malays so that they HAVE TO DEPEND ON UMNO! UMNO is breeding JELLYFISHES!

  6. #6 by baochingtian on Wednesday, 28 September 2011 - 9:40 am

    Sorry to side track. Wud like to comment extract from M’kini commentary section of
    On one of the comments:
    ((…People should look at the possibility that Penang’s crime rate is down because of the Royal Malaysian Police. It is one of the police’s key performance indicators to reduce crimes. So kudos to the police.)) I do not concur. When everybody is making a decent and good living, getting jobs and get busy with healthy activities, crime goes down. Bad economy and cronyism create crime and Police alone can’t fight crime! Why crime rates remain high in certain states ? Don’t they hv Police?

  7. #7 by baochingtian on Wednesday, 28 September 2011 - 9:41 am

    sorry, #6. ..
    commentaty section of ‘TV3: Guan Eng’s faux pas in S’pore, not Australia’

  8. #8 by k1980 on Wednesday, 28 September 2011 - 9:42 am

    The RM100 million Community Chest education fund for education aid is to help upgrade vernacular and mission schools funded primarily by the profits of gaming company Pan Malaysian Pools, returns from its investments and from public donations.

    Does this mean that the federal govt is washing its hands from future funding of these Chinese, Tamil and mission schools, which are partially-aided schools, and always require funds to ensure better educational facilities?

    http://www.nst.com.my/nst/articles/19sr/Article/

  9. #9 by Jeffrey on Wednesday, 28 September 2011 - 9:47 am

    As a policy statement “Bumi Quotas to go eventually” is hardly meaningful.
    Firstly “eventually” is indeterminate. There is no time frame. There is nothing to suggest that it is within tenure of his administration or even lifetime. It is trite that Bumi Quotas will go in the distant future when number of Non Malays have so dwindled by slower birth rate or emigration that they constitute 5% of the population. No one has such distant a horizon to see it happen! Secondly his statement of merit as criteria is not a move to Meritocracy as applied between Malaysians of all races in spirit of 1 Malaysia. It is confined to only between Malays. Therefore it is still within the ethnocentric framework, no different from that of TDM’s administration. Therefore there is no reform here. It is intended to sound like it though. Its purpose is twofold: (1) populist, to try garner Non Malay and moderate Malays’ votes (2) sufficiently meaningless as not to scare or cause a backlash from the other hard-line and right wing faction within the party eyeing his position which has to be convinced that “talk” like this is necessary to ensure their own electability under the party’s banner to enure return in next GE to forage further on the fruits of staying loyal to him and the party in dominant political power.

  10. #10 by wanderer on Wednesday, 28 September 2011 - 9:49 am

    Najib, “You are 30 years too late!” UMNO has created a mob of one-legged, ketuanan Melayu corrupted jerks…money is their religion, egoistic and arrogant. The biggest joke is, these men on crutches behave as if the whole nation owes them a living! Get off your blooming a** and start to earn a decent living. Even there is a genuine desire to remove this shamless policy, “It’s too late baby, it’s to late now…learning to walk again is a very hard thing to do!”

  11. #11 by sheriff singh on Wednesday, 28 September 2011 - 10:16 am

    Eventually means Never Ever (by All Saints). We are on rubber-time.

  12. #12 by Ray on Wednesday, 28 September 2011 - 10:22 am

    Malaysia Ruling govt will never ever has any Hope of good Economic achievement except for Corrupt Practise Umno Political selfish Aspiration >>why??
    Becos of all these 1 MALAYSIA- RACE Biased Preferential Bumi Quota TongkatAli culture Policies for their own race …””Nothing in this word is Free of charge””we all matured enough to responsible for our decisions and behaviour …even respect has to be earned .We need a proper haert inorder to aspire our ambition,dream ,self confident and hopes to pass on to the future generations as to lead toward determination for individual success and gracious living .

  13. #13 by boh-liao on Wednesday, 28 September 2011 - 10:41 am

    NO WAY lah Bumiputera quotas n NEP 2 go; d filthy rich n corrupt UmnoB n their cronies want them 2 b NEVER ENDING goodies 2 keep enriching themselves n their offspring

    Meritocracy? Bright sparks? We hv heard all this b4; where r d Bumi poster boys of MMK

    1M’sia is d best nation 2 rule1, not with d best democracy but with d most compliant n meek rakyat, most easi 2 manipulate via issues on race n religion, long live UmnoB

    Just look at EVOLUTION, SELECTION n SURVIVAL of d fittest – so, when there is no selection/pressure, how 2 produce tough Bumi talents dat survive1, kangkung got lor
    UmnoB/BN truly doing a disservice 2 many Malays n Bumis

  14. #14 by Cinapek on Wednesday, 28 September 2011 - 11:43 am

    “eventually” is again another of Najib’s open ended promises. This guy should realise by now that the majority of the people can see through his tricks and empty promises and he would not be able to try his con job anymore.

    The NEP is like a drug addiction. They are not only addicted to it but are also totally dependent on it. And the only way to wean them from this, as for all drug addictions, is to “cold turkey” them, i.e. kick BN out in the next GE and withdraw the NEP and replace it with a colour blind policy to help ALL the genuine poor.

  15. #15 by dcasey on Wednesday, 28 September 2011 - 11:49 am

    “Eventually” means at such time when Malaysia goes bankrupted (Jibby borrowed one of his minister’s crystal ball to see how far the date “eventually” can go). Hope the rakyat are wary of this before it is too late. BN hopes to work on borrowed time, that’s why Jibby & Co are throwing everything in BN’s book to get elected one more time (to try to make it closer to year 2019 to prove the minister’s crystal ball to be spot on). That’s also why a host of scandals are swept under the carpet (eg PKFZ, MACC, AG etc, etc) but on the other hand a host of mega projects are on the gravy pipe line (eg the MRT, the land grab to make way for new development, the Sg Besi air base development, the 100 storey building etc, etc). Jibby is desperate, even clueless on Malaysia’s future, so some smart a$$ speech writer of his helped throw in the word “eventually”, so to please the rakyat in the hope that BN get elected one last time.

  16. #16 by ShanghaiBund on Wednesday, 28 September 2011 - 11:57 am

    EVENTUALLY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  17. #17 by dagen on Wednesday, 28 September 2011 - 1:42 pm

    !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
    ……………..
    zzzzzzzzzzzzz
    RRRRRRRIIIIIIIIIPPPPPP
    Si liao lor.

  18. #18 by drngsc on Wednesday, 28 September 2011 - 2:02 pm

    The problem with Jib is credibility.

    He has broken his word so many times, that we cannot take it seriously until we see it happen,………………………eventually!!!!!!!!!!!

    Lets us continue to work very hard.

    We need to change the tenant at Putrajaya. GE 13 is our best chance. failure is not an option. Let us all work very very hard.

  19. #19 by dagen on Wednesday, 28 September 2011 - 2:11 pm

    Eventually umnoputra quota will be removed! Tang ku lor.

    Well while we wait for that eventuality lets read something more news worthy:

    ///By Debra Chong & Clara Chooi, The Malaysian Insider

    SUBANG JAYA, Sept 28 — Four people were hurt in an early morning explosion at the Empire Gallery shopping mall here, which was heard from as far away as Bangsar.

    Eyewitnesses described a scene of chaos, with police, ambulances and the fire brigade still on the scene.

    Police tracker dogs were also present, as were Fire and Rescue Department personnel from stations across Subang Jaya, Shah Alam, Damansara and Puchong to investigate the incident.

    Subang Jaya OCPD ACP Zainal Rashid Abu Bakar told reporters at the scene that the blast was believed to have started in the basement and involved a gas pipeline.

    “We have yet to determine the cause of the blast but damage is extensive, affecting the parking lot and many outlets on the basement level and even the ground floor,” he said.

    “Our forensics team is still investigating. We have not been able to enter certain parts of the mall . . . the damage is too bad and the areas are sealed off.”

    He confirmed that a distress call was received at 3.45am concerning the explosion at the mall, which is at the entrance of Subang Jaya from the Federal Highway.

    Zainal Rashid said four people were injured — two Nepalese security guards and a couple. They received minor scrapes and bruises.

    Rescue workers are still combing the basement in search of more victims.

    The security guards, who were initially trapped in the basement, have been sent to hospital.

    The couple, sales executives Daryl Chua, 27, and his girlfriend Hibbie Tan, 23, were taken to hospital in an ambulance but have since been discharged.

    Nearly the entire stretch of the front portion of the newly-built mall was blown out, damaging a number of cafes, restaurants and clothing stores including Tangs and Starbucks Coffee.
    Chua told reporters that he was walking with his girlfriend to an parking payment station a few steps from Starbucks when the explosion occurred about 3.30am.

    “We were at La Bodega earlier for dinner and then we were just hanging out outside my car and talking,” he said.

    “Just as we were heading to the Autopay, there was a loud ‘boom’, like in the movies. I thought it was a bomb.”

    Chua said he was “literally lifted off the ground” and thrown sideways several metres from the blast, lightly grazing both his arms.

    The sound of breaking glass, falling debris and metal, and sirens broke the earlier silence, he said, leaving him in a momentary state of confusion and panic.

    “And then the flames came up. It was all over, the entire front of the mall was razed. I thought I was going to die,” he said.

    When the scene calmed slightly, Chua said he carried Tan, who had sprained her leg, to safety and noticed passers-by and nearby residents rushing to the scene.

    His car, a black Volkswagen Golf GTI, was severely damaged. ///

  20. #20 by k1980 on Wednesday, 28 September 2011 - 2:11 pm

    eventually… what a beautiful word.

    It has appeared countless times in promises, e.g.—

    Chua Soiled Leg promised to take Angela to the moon and marry her there, eventually…

    Lasak Bakinda promised to take Altantoo to Eiffel Tower and make her his 2nd wife, eventually…

    Ibrahem Ali promised to take Saifool to Universiti malaya and appoint him the dean there, eventually…

  21. #21 by monsterball on Wednesday, 28 September 2011 - 3:27 pm

    Events actually show Malaysians are no more scared ..can joke and do not treat Najib seriously.
    He is ..like Mr.Bean….an idiot.
    And so many in UMNO b..are idiots… like him are multi millionaires…dressed up with false titles.
    Eventually…..Najib need to make a deal to help him and his fat mama.

  22. #22 by ktteokt on Wednesday, 28 September 2011 - 4:42 pm

    Eventually? Does that mean THE SUN RISING IN THE WEST?

  23. #23 by yhsiew on Wednesday, 28 September 2011 - 5:00 pm

    Bumi quotas to go eventually. When? Next century?

  24. #24 by Loh on Wednesday, 28 September 2011 - 7:04 pm

    ///KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 27 — Datuk Seri Najib Razak expressed today the need to eventually do away with Bumiputera quotas but said the government must continue to support the community’s best talent to ensure a more competitive business environment.///–Najib
    Article 153 was included in the constitution so that those who were placed in the special position of needing support lest they disappear from this world, among the Malay. Article 153 did not consider it the government duty to support the best talents, of any community. The action Najib wishes to pursue is his own ideas, and it is not in upholding the constitution. That should stop when the next government takes over.

    ///The prime minister pointed out that the New Economic Model (NEM) promotes affirmative action based more on meritocracy, saying “we must promote the right Bumiputera”.///–Najib
    In pursuance of the constitution, the right Malays who need support are those who are weak. The constitution does not recognize the term bumiputras.

    ///He said offering quotas would promote complacency, hamper economic growth and bury Bumiputera talent.

    “What we have done in the past is we have not promoted the right kind of people.///–Najib
    Article 153 was subject to review after 15 years in 1972 had Razak not amended the constitution. The parliament in its wisdom would have spelt out the action to take to make this country a developed nation both in social and economic fields. As it was, the racial polarization policies offered professional politicians the opportunities to loot the nation and to send it to be among the least developed in Asia.

    ///“We want to do away from (with) quotas but we must support them (Bumiputera entrepreneurs) in a way that would allow them to grow,” he told the Khazanah Megatrends Forum 2011 here this evening.//–Najib
    The policy of setting any quota based on race was in support of the divide and rule regime. That was meant to ensure that political parties in power continue to be in power in perpetuity. NEP was established on the argument that the Malays were envious of the economic success of the non-Malays. But Razak should have realized that there were poor non-Malays and there were rich Malays. Thus if Malays can be jealous of rich Chinese, they too can be jealous of rich Malays. Only racist would consider it reasonable for Malays to be jealous of non-Malays who were better than they were in life, and would not be jealous of Malays in similar situation simply because they were Malays. Razak might have harbored that thought and thus he is the first racist prime minister of Malaysia.
    ///“If we give them quotas, what will happen is that they will rest on their laurels and eventually, they will not gain expertise,” he added.///–Najib
    Najib talks as though there were only Malays who are citizens of Malaysia. The quota mentioned in article 153 was meant to support the weak. After the initial period of experimenting with self-rule as independent nation when racial rivalry needed the quota system to set them on equal footing, the people should have been allowed to live as equal citizens. Yet Najib tries to justify that quota was a right, but there were other means to make Malays one up on other races. Najib should harbor the right thought rather than doing something right for the wrong reasons.

    ///Najib said the 30 per cent Bumiputera equity target “does not mean anything”, particularly if entrepreneurs decide to sell off their shares when prices soar, leaving little in the hands of the Bumiputeras.///–Najib
    It is better late than never that Najib has come to this conclusion, but he does get it wrong too. In the memorandum item on NEP, it was considered that Malays should have 30% share in the participation of economic activities. The EPU of the PM department quantifies such participation as ownership of equity shares in limited companies. That statistical objective was then converted to become the convenient easy money schemes where government forced corporations to allocate shares to Malays below market price. They would be fools if they did not sell their shares when prices soar, to change to other investments. The government was clearly wrong to insist that the 30% was computed based on the stock position rather than on the flows. Indeed since all listed companies had to allocate 30% to Malays, the target of 30% had long been achieved at the end of 1990. Yet, the government pretended that the objective had not been achieved. If the government would make an accounting, it would have concluded that despite Malays selling their shares for instant profit over the past 40 years, Malays still have more than 30% of equity share capital in the corporate sector. Najib is too smart to realize that once that proper accounting is done, NEP had to stop if the UMNO government does not want to be said to negate on the promise Razak made 40 years. So Najib now ‘relaxes’ the 30% rule and pretends that NEP target had not been reached. He can come back for another bite on NEP target.
    ///He said the government was now moving on a different footing by seeking “good, tested and dedicated” Bumiputeras and supporting them in a manner that could help them become more competitive.

    As an example, Najib mentioned Teraju’s recently launched programme to train 1,100 top small, micro and medium-sized Bumiputera companies under a special entrepreneurship programme as one of the government’s new initiatives.

    “That is the new approach — to create a new class of Bumiputeras who are more resilient and can succeed in the long run,” he said.///–Najib
    Having found a new approach, would Najib announce that all other race-based quota in all economic fields such as business licenses and taxi permits are removed? Indeed, taxi permits were more like Malay’s monopoly rather than given out based on racial quota.

    ///Critics have accused Najib of diluting his NEM by creating agencies like Teraju and failing to focus on needs and merit-based affirmative action policies but government officials said the move was necessary as Bumiputera equity in the economy remained low despite the billions doled out since the New Economic Policy (NEP) began in 1971.///–Najib
    How does that square with Najib’s claim that the 30% means nothing? Malays have gained funds selling their share since NEP began 1971. The capitals which are not included in the perverted government statistics shows only that that statistical item is irrelevant! When the cake is given and eaten, it is unfair to ask for more.

    ///In his speech earlier, Najib also expressed a need for the government to remove “rigidities within the system” in order to create a more resilient economy.

    “We know that people do not start in the same place… we know that everyone is not equally endowed… we know too that there will be winners and losers when things change – and of course we worry about those who deserve assistance more than those who could easily get by with less,” he said.///–Najib
    But the government seems to think that only Malays have the above constraints. If Najib accepts that humans of all races embody those characteristics, the so-called social engineering based on race is wrong. But then UMNO knows it all along. UMNOputras utilize it to manipulate the system of democratic elections to remain in power and to please themselves with that power.

    ///“Equally, we want to see winners who find their lives and the lives of their families transformed rather than simply enriching those who already have too much,” he added.///–Najib
    How was it possible for the government to make those to have too much, and yet remains in power? we wonder!

  25. #25 by tak tahan on Wednesday, 28 September 2011 - 9:51 pm

    Ajib’s eventually will lead to eventually objection from the right wing unless the day katak the Tok Perkosa vanished from this earth on one mission jihad or mamak mahtongkiau from big sin chong peh.

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