Time to deliver Mr Prime Minister
I myself will not touch the NEP with a long barge pole, but it is a personal preference. I do believe that if it is applied in the right spirit in accordance with its original purpose of eradicating poverty across the board, it can be an important tool for the greater good of our society.
By Tunku Abdul Aziz, MySinchew
THE visit of the Prime Minister Najib to Batu Caves a few days ago will not, I hope, be just a public relations exercise, to gain some political mileage and win over the Indian poor who have long been left to their own devices, to fend for themselves as best they can, while the country as a whole has moved on.
Here is a great opportunity for Najib to give practical effect to the great humanitarian principles upon which the NEP, or to give it its full name, New Economic Policy, was conceived. These principles were based on empowering the poor irrespective of ethnicity, religion or political leanings, by giving them equal opportunities to participate in and enjoy the fruit of the country’s development.
Somehow, somewhere along the way, successive governments have allowed the NEP to be applied for the exclusive benefit of the Bumiputera. Counted among them are thousands upon thousands of hanger-on Indians professing the Muslim faith who claim to be more Malay than the Malays. Ever the opportunists, and who am I to blame them, for seizing the biggest prize the country has to offer under UMNO’s 1-Malay policy.
They needed little encouragement to wriggle themselves adroitly through a constitutional loophole, and reap the benefit of a system that is totally immoral, unethical and indefensible on humanitarian grounds as currently implemented. It is in serious violation of the basic objective of narrowing the gap between the rich and the marginalised poor of our society, which was what the NEP was intended to do in the first place.
We have, overnight, created a new class of super rich “Malays” who will, mark my word, be the ultimate undoing UMNO’s, and Najib’s legitimacy to govern. It is a pity that his deputy prime minister has been so blinded by his hatred of Anwar Ibrahim that he could not recognise who the real “traitors to the Malays” are. I would, if I were Najib, be wary of those surrounding him because there may well be a traitor or two lurking in his camp. One can’t be too careful.
Those in a position to make a difference have all, by default, failed in their duty to address the plight of the poor. Sensible measures must be put in train by the Najib administration to ensure that the vicious cycle of poverty is put to rest, sooner rather than later. Instead of wasting his time scheming, plotting and devising plans bordering on the morally dishonest, and ethically unwholesome, to disrupt and topple the states lost to the Pakatan Rakyat based on the last general elections that even the government admitted were free and fair, he should make it his priority to get the economy back on track quickly. The economic performance under his stewardship will be a deciding factor in how long he remains on top of the pile, and not whether he retakes Selangor or Penang.
Najib has made all the right noises and, on paper at least, he appears sensitive to the long-standing issues of public concern. However, unless people see the results, born of concrete and positive actions quickly, his credibility will go out of the window, and the proverbial closet perceived to hide a multitude of sins will throw its doors wide open before an excited gaggle raised on a diet of regurgitated conspiracy theories long past their shelf life. Malaysians are a funny people; they want to see you put your money where your mouth is!
I myself will not touch the NEP with a long barge pole, but it is a personal preference. I do believe that if it is applied in the right spirit in accordance with its original purpose of eradicating poverty across the board, it can be an important tool for the greater good of our society.
Personally I have never played my Bumi card because it was never the intention that it was created for the professional group of people to which I belong. My sense of fair play would not allow me to take something that does not belong to me. The NEP belongs to the least educated, the marginalised, and the underclass. I can look after myself without assistance from the state, but millions of our people need temporary crutches before they can stand on their two feet unaided. And they are to be found all over this land of plenty.
So, Prime Minister, the time to act is now. Do not leave it too late because before you know it, the next general election will be upon you, and there is a saying I remember vaguely about the futility of crying over spilt milk. Show the poor that they can trust you even though your detractors think they don’t trust you enough to buy a second hand Proton Saga from you. Well, I suppose you cannot please all the people all of the time.
