Government must offer level playing field in business
By Dr Collin Abraham
It is refreshing to read of Zaid “telling” the Government that it needs to adopt the policy of a level playing field in its dealing with the local and global business community. In a straight- forward and no-nonsense perspective, now apparently characteristic of his style, his comment needs to be given very serious attention indeed. Coming as it does from an up and coming lawyer, politician, entrepreneur, and if I might say so, a Malay, is all the more reason for the Government to sit back and take note.
What Zaid is saying in fact strikes at the heart of what is terribly wrong with many Government policies that, put simply, take the economic situation as given and in the name of pragmatism, try to ‘sneak in’ the vested interests of the nationalist, political and bureaucratic elite business partners, marginalizing the interests of all others and then, to try cover this up in the hope that all will be “happy ever after”. Unfortunately this simply does not and cannot happen.
What does happen is that the diverse voices of ethnic and racial groups particularly among the SME’s and small scale family businesses clamouring and struggling for a stake in the economy, find their path to equal access as well as to involvement in the decision making process blocked at every turn. Because of a clear monopolistic or oligarchic dominance of the business elite, this is a clear case of mobility closure such that sooner or later these marginalized groups will face a glass ceiling or worse a concrete ceiling. The revolution of rising expectations then becomes a revolution of rising frustrations.
Zaid has also done well to point out that, access to the internet is gradually but surely giving insights to trends as to what is really happening under globalization, so that people can think for themselves and understand the predicament in which they find themselves. For instance the local English media has recently been screaming that “We Must get our economic act together” (NST 25/10/07) and “MIER lowers 2008 growth forecast” (NST 25/10/07).
What these articles are saying is something that has been waiting to happen, namely that the anticipated competition under globalization has begun to adversely affect our GDP growth rates. Indeed, while trying not to sound alarmist, it needs to be pointed out that with the rapid and accelerated GDP growth being recorded by both China and India, unless and until the Government takes concrete steps to even out the uneven playing field now, we may soon face an intractable and irreversible situation.
Finally, we need to be realistic and understand that the one group who will be most negatively affected by initiating the level playing field will be certain Bumiputra groups under the provisions of the NEP. But here again it has been repeatedly shown, that a restructuring of the egalitarian prong of the NEP will most certainly benefit the underclass among the Bumiputra as much as it will the Non- Bumis as well. As for the strategy to make this possible, Zaid’s Chapter “Department of Bumiputra Affairs” in his book “In Good Faith”, I believe sets the stage for a brave new order to level the playing field in its totality once and for all.
