Malay Consultative Council a New Dilemma for Najib
Khoo Kay Peng
Najib’s 1Malaysia vision is facing yet another serious threat. 80 Malay groups came together to form the Malay Consultative Council (MPM) to push the government to maintain affirmative action for the country’s dominant race.
A Malay leader revealed that the MPM wants the Umno-led Barisan Nasional government to maintain a “guided” New Economic Policy (NEP) that protects the Malays and Bumiputras, saying the community was worried about moves to abolish subsidies and other forms of aid.
The fact is the federal government cannot afford to hand out subsidies and aids forever. Malaysia’s oil reserve is depleting. Our over dependence on oil revenue is slowing stalling our ability to fund socio-economic development programmes.
Najib has identified the need to build a high growth economy through innovation and creativity. The question is how is he going to convince these Malay NGOs that what they are doing (blind protection of Malay rights) is going to generate more pain than gain for the community.
As a small economy with limited resources, we should have focused on growing the economic pie and not
