Najib vows reforms despite ethnic ‘pain’

(AP) – Malaysia's leader has pledged to roll back a decades-old affirmative action program for the ethnic Malay majority, insisting that the long-term benefits of doing so would outweigh the initial "pain," a news report said Thursday.

Prime Minister Najib Razak, who took office last month, told Singapore's Straits Times newspaper that he can handle the backlash to his plan from the country's ruling political party, the United Malays National Organization.

Najib told the newspaper that he did not fear opposition from the "warlords" in the party because he believes most of them are loyal to him.

"Don't forget, I'm the biggest warlord. They are chiefs but they're smaller chiefs. I'm the big chief," Najib said in the interview ahead of his two-day visit to the city-state starting Thursday.

The affirmative action program launched in 1970 remains one of the most divisive aspects of Malaysia's multiethnic society. Various policies in the program require many companies to be partly Malay-owned and allowed Malays to buy homes at reduced prices and get into universities more easily.

The Chinese and Indian ethnic minorities say this amounts to racial discrimination, but many Malays bristle at the suggestion that the program should be scrapped. The ruling party has been reluctant to meddle with the program for fear of losing support of the Malays who form its main vote bank.

Najib said Malays increasingly "support the idea of having a more equitable and socially just society."

He said steps toward economic liberalization are necessary to prevent Malaysia from being "out of sync with what's happening globally" and reduce its ability to compete economically.

He did not elaborate on specific plans, but said the traditional method of "imposing quotas, for example, and equity restrictions, seems to be hampering achievements and growth."

Najib has already made small steps toward reforms, such as scrapping a requirement for 30 percent Malay ownership in several sectors, such as health and transport, to lure foreign investment to Malaysia's floundering economy.

Najib acknowledged that such measures might bring hardship to some Malays, but he stressed that "the gains will outweigh the pain."

Critics of the affirmative action program say it mainly benefits cronies of the ruling party instead of the truly poor among the Malay majority, which comprises nearly two-thirds of Malaysia's 27 million people. Chinese make up a quarter of the population; Indians, 8 percent.