WHAT? Yet another Bumiputra empowerment council?
We are not questioning the status of Bumiputras nor its status in the constitutions but we were given to understand that such "council of empowerment" of many kinds or brands has been in place since from the beginning. From Umno, to Barisan Nasional, till Pakatan Harapan and today the Perikatan Nasional's rebel government, the efforts are of the same old story, certainly but in a different brand of course, under different ruling coalitions.
For over 61 years of BN's rule which was dominated by Umno who notoriously claimed to champion the plights of the Malays and Bumiputras, for 61 years, we only saw only a small group of Bangsawan who has managed to craft a successful venture in their businesses and became billionaires, but majority of the Bumiputra communities there are still backward, left behind, uneducated, cannot affort this or that nor having the opportunities to excel in whatever they wanted to do or intend to do.
What has actually went wrong? This is the question that we have been asking for decades and the question is still a question till today. It is still unanswered. If we were press ahead to ask more drastic questions, we will be accused of questioning the Malay rights and Islam instead.
Why? Because, by putting such question in public and keep asking them to get the answers and put the right things in place, some parties may then feel their positions and wealth being threatened with new ideas or possible reforms into the system which has been a status quo since from day one, meaning is since from the Razak's era. Nothing has change at all ever since the NEP was implemented, then come the New Economic Model (NEM) under the then disgraced premier Najib Razak (yes, certainly the kleptocratic son of Tun Abdul Razak bin Hussein).
So, initiating yet another so-called Bumiputra empowerment efforts with a different brand, but the same old leaders, same old group of politicians handling the initiatives, the same old system managing such and such "empowerment" programs on the ground, the same kind of hierachical management style from the politicians right down to the bureaucratic structure which has been existing decades ago without any amends nor reforms onto how the distribution should be, it is deemed to failed one more timie, and if you ask how many more efforts will it make to truly empower the Bumiputras into a stronger and better community in terms of economy and achievement, certainly, we will give the same answer, same old story, same old empowerment with nothing to achieve but continue to enrich only a small group of the already rich Bangsawans.
Nobody within the system knows what went wrong? Or they knew about it but did not dare to voice out for fear of being targeted or being acted upon by certain leaders with vast political interest?
As long as race is still a concern in any kinds of economic empowerment programs, there are sure to be power abuse or mismanagement of such taking place. The race-based political parties who are now part of the rebel government wll certainly take all the chance to bulldoze whatever it takes in the name of their "race" to sweep through the Bumiputra empowerment programmes' subsidies and that subsidies, and they will then establish a line of their cronies and connections to take up the same and enjoy every spoon of meals given out by this government's machineries out there.
That is why, only a certain minority of Bumiputras within the current ruling political circle will get to enjoy such. The rest, maybe they will have to wait for their few more generations to come before they could get their hands to touch on it. Simply go into any rural parts of the country and check in at some of the villages out there, you will definitely find most of the disconnected Bumiputras who has never heard of any sorts of Bumiputra empowerment in their lives.
If you are asking us what else do we want if we are questioning such continuously, we will have to tell you again, come up with a need-based socio-economic empowerment program instead of a race-based. Address the socio-economic concerns of all the poor, left-behind, regardless of race or religion. The Bumiputra community is not the only one in this country that still need help. There are also poor and left-behind people from the Indian, Chinese, Kadazan, Orang Asal, Iban, Dayak, Orang Asli, etc, etc communities.
The socio-economic empowerment programs should be applied to all Malaysians. We are already in the year of 2020 (where the Wawasan 2020 was supposed to be achieved), and the NEP of 1970s is still in place? It is the world's greatest joke!
