Race-based policies pushing away non-Malay voters, MCA says

(MM) – Umno’s expansion of pro-Bumiputera policies may pay dividends for the Malay party but this will come at the expense of its non-Malay partners in the Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition, the MCA said today.

With support from Malaysia’s minorities already on the wane in previous two general elections, MCA president Datuk Seri Dr Chua Soi Lek today warned that more race-based affirmative action will only make the uphill task of winning back the section’s support even harder.

“Any policy, even if by perception, to sideline non-Bumiputera makes it difficult for non-Bumiputera parties in BN to get support from the non-Bumiputera and this is the dilemma facing MCA, MIC, Gerakan and SUPP.

“That is why DAP will always continue to do well by exploiting this issue to the non-Bumiputera,” he told The Malay Mail Online in a phone interview.

Although Dr Chua said he understood Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s motives for the announcement ― to reward the Bumiputera for their support in the general election and appease Umno critics ― and acknowledged the lack of support from non-Malays for BN, he explained that the extension of policies that operate along racial lines will only be detrimental to the country.

“… in the long term, any policy in Malaysia should be based on needs and meritocracy rather than ethnic lines, as it will not be healthy for nation building,” he said.

He stressed that even if such policies are based on needs and targeted at lower income groups, the Bumiputera community will still ultimately benefit the most by virtue of them making up 68 per cent of Malaysians.

Separately, MCA Youth chief Datuk Dr Wee Ka Siong said government policies should be based on needs and merits, instead of ethnicity, taking aim directly at the slew of additional pro-Bumiputera affirmative action announced yesterday.

“The formulation of any affirmative action policies should benefit all across the board and not just intended to uplift a community from a particular ethnicity,” he said in a statement today.

Wee warned that race-based policies will have “far-reaching consequences” if adopted in the long term.

“For our country’s policies to achieve absolute equality is probably still a distant ideal but the federal government should at least be fair and reasonable.

“While strengthening the competitiveness of the Malay community, the government should simultaneously focus on the lower classes of all other ethnicities,” he said.

Wee pointed out that the prime minister had launched National Key Result Areas (NKRAs) with accompanying Key Performance Indicators (KPI) to boost Malaysia’s economy as a whole.

“This concept must be sustained and must not be substituted with race-based performance indicators.

“If the original performance-based initiative is ignored, this will cause competitiveness to be lost and runs counter to its original aims,” he said, echoing economists’ concerns that the prime minister was sacrificing the country’s ability to be competitive, in order to fortify his position in the BN lynchpin.

MIC vice-president Datuk S. K. Devamany, however, was unperturbed by the new Bumiputera agenda unveiled yesterday, saying parts of the New Economic Model (NEM) was applicable to Malaysia’s minorities.

“He is empowering the Bumiputera group and will empower the non-Bumis as well, and we expect him as the prime minister to do that and I’m sure he will,” he told The Malay Mail Online over the phone.

Devamany also expressed belief that Najib will announce aid and benefits for minority groups when he tables Budget 2014 on October 25.

“For me, the manifestation of the budget will be a more balanced view of the nation’s expenditure,” he said.

“We want to know what the prime minister has for other races as well.”

Najib yesterday unveiled a revamped NEM that is set to offer the Bumiputera community access to over RM30 billion in loans, aid and contracts in a move that political observers say was taken with an eye on the upcoming Umno party election.