Umno Youth: 30% bumi quota not a stumbling block

(The Star) – Umno Youth has defended the 30% bumiputra quota in local industries, saying that it is not a stumbling block to be globally competitive.

Umno Youth’s economic bureau said it considered the proposal by Datuk Seri Ong Tee Keat to abolish the 30% bumiputra quota as the personal opinion of the Transport Minister and that did not reflect the stand of the Transport Ministry.

“The continuous attack on equity ownership, claiming that it was the stumbling block to be globally competitive, is inaccurate and untrue.

“The root of the problem is a matter of perception, where equity is seen as aid rather than pure entrepreneur cooperation,” it said in a statement.

The bureau also said that the equity issue should not be blown out of proportion.

On Monday, Ong called for the “quota-centric” system to be dropped so that local industries could survive globalisation.

He said the time had come for industries to be independent of a system that had become regressive.

The liberalisation of the services sector, he said, would test the resilience of Malaysian companies.

“But we still have people talking about the New Economic Policy and the 30% quota. We need to ask ourselves how resilient our companies are. I don’t want to see the minds of our people being shackled by this so-called quota-centric system,” said Ong.