Letter by Loh Meng Kow
PM AAB said the New Economic Policy (NEP) was being continued to help develop professional classes among the Malays and eradicate poverty among Malaysians regardless of race, and it was never intended to make Malays rich by seizing the wealth of non-Malays. (The Sun, 9 November 2007)
If PM AAB is sincere that he wanted only to implement what he has stated in the paragraph above, through the extension of NEP, then he should declare that two new programmes, namely one, Development of Malay Professional Class, and two, Eradication of Poverty for Malaysians are hereby established, and NEP is abolished forthwith. Indeed a policy which was established 37 years ago can hardly be known as New.
PM AAB will not be truthful if he does not accept the fact that implementations of NEP until now, beginning especially from the reign of TDM 26 years ago have deviated from the stated objectives. By retaining the name NEP, PM AAB will not be able to stop government departments continuing with what they have been wrongly doing in the name of NEP. It is not unlike a mouse carrying an elephant through the gate of NEP. If he retains NEP, then PM AAB shows his intention of speaking with a fork tongue, and of utilizing skillfully the boiling frog syndrome.
PM AAB might have his subordinate BN component parties believed that for the sake of political expediency, he had to retain the term NEP. If he does not have the political will to remove NEP, then he would not have the political guts to stop UMNO continue with the old practices in the name of two programmes he has identified.
PM AAB should realize the true meaning of the words ‘develop professional classes among the Malays’. It should mean that those among the Malays who wish to take up professions as a means of living should excel in the knowledge and skills expected of their professions. It would not mean dishing out professional degrees and certificates to Malays so that the number of Malays can increase, and also in terms of percentage against other races. Hence, the number of professionals among other races has no relationship at all with regards to the success in the development of professional classes among the Malays. Consequently admission to local universities for professional courses should be based purely on merits. Indeed, the old policy of NEP in creating quantity rather than quality of Malay professionals runs counter to the objective of developing Malay professionals.
Eradication of poverty has been an important role of any government which claims to be a government for the people. In a multi racial country, it is only natural that assistance to eradicate poverty should be for all races. It is only the governments which provide assistance limited to a particular sector of the population are seen to be involved in large scale corruption, in terms of creating captive votes from electorates. There is no need to name a policy when it was the intention of the government to help the poor of all races. Much less to specify that NEP would help eradicate all of the poor when it spells out races in policy actions, and it has been misused since its inception.
PM AAB was playing with words in saying that it was never intended (by the government) to make Malays rich by seizing the wealth of the non-Malays. Yes, the laws of the land guaranteed that people have protection of their wealth. But private agricultural land had been forcibly acquired so that Bumiputra companies can make use of them for business ventures. This was in the name of developing Bumiputra entrepreneurship. In terms of semantic, the wealth of non-Malays was not seized. It was only the potential value of the plot of land that had been terminated.
Do you think PM AAB is sincere and able to use NEP only for the two programmes? If he is, then NEP should cease forthwith.