Are Malays now a wounded civilization?

ARCHIVES 2013

By admin-s On Apr 1, 2013

Malay unity has suffered owing to the NEP and other factors.

Christopher Fernandez, FMT

Prior to the attainment of Merdeka (Independence) and up to the point and until Tunku Abdul Rahman was the prime minister, Malaysians enjoyed a certain camaraderie till the May 13, 1969 riots caused the shift in power towards Abdul Razak.

When Razak assumed power, he hastily conceived and implemented the New Economic Policy (NEP). He most likely meant well for the Malays and other Bumiputeras, but he failed to gaze into the future to see how the NEP will evolve.

This was the failing of the NEP and Razak, which is to be now blamed as the root causes for the factionalism and strife occurring among the Malays in this country. This is why, since the advent of the NEP till now, the Malays have most likely emerged as a wounded civilization.

Tracing the root causes of the general unhappiness, discontent and strife within the Malay community now is difficult, as this involves the complicated and daunting task of going through seamless and vast decisions that have been made for them since Independence.

But the fact that they are now splintered and disunited is obvious.

While Umno, often labelled as “Uniting Malays Not Over”, got down to work to get the Malays to reconcile their differences and be united with a stronger voice in this country, the reality on the ground is that Umno has failed to do so. The Malays are still as disunited as ever.

What is more worrying is that the Malays have caused the disunity among them to fester for so long, which is why they have now become a wounded civilization.

Ironically, it is the well-meaning NEP, an affirmative-action plan to assist Bumiputeras, that can be singled out as the main cause of misery and disunity among the Malays throughout the 30 years of its tenure.

Perhaps if the Malay leaders back then had stuck to the Tunku’s ideals and practice of meritocracy and decided to play by the rules of the game, the Malays would have fared much better now.

Still a discontented lot

By dangling the NEP carrot to the Malays – instead of dealing with them with a stick – the community now lacks the resilience and true capability to stand on their own especially in a globalised era.

While Malay leaders of the post-May 13, 1969 era should perhaps not be faulted as they needed to quickly address the situation to bring about racial harmony, the failure on their part to deal with the actual causes of the problem in a fair and just manner is to be blamed.

By being the largest number in terms of race, the Malays, through their leaders, ganged up on the other races: they bullied and cowed them into submission, and all the while thinking that the NEP would work wonders for them.

The Malays failed to adhere to the tenets and obligations of social justice and democracy, and instead took the easy solution. This has backfired on them: today they are incapable of rising up, prompting the government to continue to bail them out.