From failed NEP to mighty clone BEE, then what?
This article was earlier published in TheAntDaily.com on 21/11/2013
In 1971, the Barisan Nasional government launched the New Economic Policy (NEP) in order to help reduce the socio-economic disparity between the Malays and the Chinese in this country.
The NEP officially ended in 1990 and the New Development Policy (NDP) was introduced and it ran from 1990 until 2000. The NDP then was supposed to be replaced by the New Vision Policy (NVP); however, this new policy was never officially launched at all. After that, the NEP was later reinstated on grounds that the targeted 30 per cent share of the economy for the Bumiputeras had yet to be achieved.
Then, in aftermath of the 12th general election (GE12) in 2008, the BN government came up with yet another kind of policy called the New Economic Model (NEM) to complement the NEP, with the aim of increasing the household earnings of the Bumiputeras nationwide. As expected, the NEM was nothing new as it was an effort to continue the NEP in a different brand, after all.
However, the NEM was also shown the exit door after the BN’s failure to regain its two-thirds majority in the 13th general election (GE13) held in May 2013. Hence, the Bumiputera Economic Empowerment (BEE) was later introduced to replace the short-lived NEM. BEE or NEM, they are all NEP’s clones.
The BEE renewed its focus on increasing the Bumiputera human capital, increasing corporate equity ownership, boosting non-financial assets, enhancing Bumiputera businesses, commerce and industry and the only new subject was to strengthen the service delivery eco-system. Just a spice added to the old menu and stirred it up like a new menu.
The BN, which is dominated by Umno, has ruled this nation since 1957. It has been more than 56 years now. Yet, the ruling party shamelessly said that it has yet to achieve its objective of enriching the Bumiputeras, particularly the Malays, in order to seek the targeted 30 per cent share over the nation’s economy; therefore it wanted to rule a little longer in order to carry out its “sacred duties”. So, what went wrong?
Umno has been ruling this nation for more than 56 years, but why on earth that despite possessing all the powers, abilities and “constitutional rights”, it still failed to provide the Bumiputeras, particularly the Malay community, with a fair share of the nation’s economy? Why is the majority of the community still living in poverty with daily hardships, lacking in necessary basic facilities, job opportunities and so on? What has been the taken-up rate of the Bumiputeras from NEP, NDP, NVP and NEM so far? Where are the records? What does it take to justify yet another kind of NEP called the BEE?
When further questions were put forward on the effectiveness of this government, Umno is quick to let out its racist and religious revenge by blaming the other ethnic groups over its failure: blaming the Chinese tsunami, blaming the other ethnics for taking the wealth away from the Malays, blaming others for not giving them more and many other lame excuses.
The fact is that the intended purpose of all these policies – dressed up in so many names – of addressing poverty and increasing Bumiputera (Malay) participation in the economy has given way to rampant corruption, mismanagement, cronyism and power abuse for the benefit of the ruling elites within the ruling BN coalition, in particular the Umno leaders at large.
The results are that only a handful of Umno-linked millionaires and billionaires were created while the vast majority of the average Bumiputeras, particularly the Malays, did not make it and remain trapped with little prospects of actually enjoying the socio-economic assistance made available by the BN government. The fact is that those who are rich became even wealthier while those average and poor ones remain stagnant in their daily lives full of pressure and hardship while trying to cope with inflation, economic uncertainties and so on.
It has also been proven that the other Bumiputera communities, like the Orang Aslis, Kadazans, Dusuns, Dayaks, Ibans, and so on, have never actually enjoyed the fruits of the “for Bumiputeras only” policies. Only a handful of the elites managed to grab whatever they could and consequently became rich. The majority of the Bumiputeras are still being marginalised.
From time to time, in order to protect the economic and monetary interests of the elites, Umno would regularly play its racial and religious cards, purportedly telling the Bumiputeras that their race and religion are under constant threat by the Chinese in order to divert the people’s attention away from Umno’s failure and corruption.
When cases of Umno’s corruption, mismanagement and power abuse were highlighted, Umno leaders were quick to accuse their detractors of trying to undermine the Malays’ special rights, going against Islam, questioning the capabilities of the Malays and not giving the Malays their opportunities.
There is no political commitment to get rid of corruption, mismanagement and power abuse in the government as a result of the continuous racial and religious manipulation on this subject. Then, it has become a kind of special rights for these leaders to commit those wrongdoings in the open. We do not need to list out all those wrongdoings. The Auditor-General’s Report has mentioned it so many times that it has become an anniversary to be “celebrated”.
NEP, NDP, NVP and NEM have gone down the drain with nothing to be proud of. And here comes the BEE, to rescue and bail out the rich again. We don’t need yet another race-based agenda to address the “poverty” subject. What we want is an open and transparent agenda that would address the needs of all poor Malaysians.
