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I am reluctant to frame my response to Tricia Yeoh’s article in Malay versus Non-Malay terms. This is because we must now make a serious attempt to take a more inclusive Malaysian perspective of our national development in terms of sharing the rewards of economic growth and restructuring of our polity.
The Malaysian Economic Agenda (MEA) of Parti KeADILan Rakyat is framed to deal with the issue of distributive justice in the context of the failure of the New Economic Policy (NEP) while we attempt to make Malaysia competitive in a globalised world. Reading Tricia Yeoh I am led to wonder which is the more testing challenge: Getting Malaysians in general to believe that the elitist, corruption-plagued NEP is an hindrance to the achievement of Malay economic parity with non-Malays, or getting Malays to accept that the egalitarian MEA is the better prescription for the progress of the entire Malaysian nation? There is already too much politiking over this issue, and that has to stop since we have to get our economy back on track. One of the more nefarious effects of the deviationist NEP is that it has led Malaysians to believe it is a permanent feature of the socio-political landscape. Never mind that its authors never intended it as such. I am certain that they would be appalled at the damage done to the national psyche by a policy prescription, originally intended for a limited duration, that has become, what many like Tricia think, a psychological crutch for the Malays and other Bumiputras, with the other Malaysians resigned to permanent second class status. This is the cause of the plague of ills that can be seen, except obviously to ostrich-like UMNO, to beset the Malaysian nation. It is a scenario, not only emphatically rejected by PKR, but viewed by them as plainly avoidable. The NEP was a temporary expedient to help Malays and other Bumiputras help themselves to get on to a level playing field where they can compete so that economic parity with other Malaysians is attained and, more importantly, the dignity of the race is assured. The way the NEP has been abused, particularly in the last two decades or so, to enrich a coterie of the politically well-connected has turned both the race’s quest for economic parity and ethnic dignity into mocking chimeras. READ MORE HERE
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This is no different from the children in a family. When parents starts to differentiate and give partial treatment and shows favours to one a the expense of the other, the family will not be a family anymore.
Why can Malaysian think like that?
Every race has a minority group that are not given the level playing field due to their background, education, origin, intellect and so on. There can never be a level playing field. What every government should do is to institute policies that are fair and easy to implement.
Until today, we have scholars being denied scholarship and places in instituition of higher learning. They are marginalized by the enforcers of the policies and under their thumb. They use every excuse not to benefit these scholars.
Who do we blame?
On the other hand once these policies of differentiation is instituited it is very difficult to tear it down. People are use to benefits and not hardship.
They behaved like a cat... who thinks like this..."you pet me, you feed me you shelter me, you love me, I must be GOD"
In fact the ketuanan Melayu came from this line of thinking and they will behave accordingly.
How about " You pet me, you feed me, you shelter me, you love me , then You must be God" When we have this perspective the obvious question we asked would be...Ask not what Malaysia can do for me but what I can do for Malaysia....
I think there is nothing wrong with policies. There is everthing wrong with our thinking and perception of things. There are right and wrongs. There are no grey areas.
If we live our lives in the grey, obviously something is very wrong.
Come On Malaysia, after 50 years we are very backwards. In fact most of the politicians or so called leaders neeeds a quantum leap in their thinking to catch up with the rest of the world.
Unless they are contented and wants to compare Malaysia to say Zimbabwee.