The NEP

July 8th, 2007 Posted in Uncategorized

Thierry Rommel touched the sacred cow, as a foreign diplomat he was supposed to be more than polished in his approach . He’d so incensed some of the local politicians that a government backbencher had asked him to leave and be barred from the country.

Does he care? He will be leaving the country for good in September anyway, maybe, he saw this was the right time for him to speak .

His sin was to criticise the affirmative action policy of the Malaysian government, generally referred to as the New Economic Policy(NEP)..

The head of the European Commission in Malaysia, was alleged to have said that at a luncheon talk to ambassadors and foreign diplomats that Malaysia should roll back its 37 year old policy.He was quoted as saying that the NEP was discriminatory and amounted to protectionism against foreign companies.

My guess is he wants to go down in history as a straight speaking diplomat, you know, if you have a name like Rommel, it is not easy to match The Rommel of the Desert Fox fame, consciously or subconsciously this Rommel needs to be remembered, if not by the world at least by Malaysians.Or is it just an attitude problem as claimed by Minister For International Trade and Industry Rafidah Aziz? Why then become a diplomat? I suppose we will never know.

By the way, this is the same Rommel in the course of his tour with his Malaysian based European colleagues two years ago,met with an accident in Sabah . He escaped unscathed although several others were injured.

The NEP was created after the bloody Malay-Chinese riots in 1969 with two basic primary goals,to reduce and eventually eradicate poverty and to eliminate racial identification with economic functions.

The policy has been a success in restructuring an inequitable society where the Bumi (indigenious) corporate wealth at that time stood only at 1.5% , in the process a Bumi commercial class was created to spearhead more participation in business .However, the 30% target of Bumi corporate equity ownership has yet to be met. The policy has also been successful in producing more Bumi professionals and entrepreneurs, thus expanding the middle class.

Many critics see the failure of the NEP is in its implementation where certain people close to the ruling party are said to be the main beneficiaries.These UMNOputras got rich beyond their wildest dreams, while many people especially in the rural areas still live without basic amenities.In other words, a few benefit at the expense of the many.

While the policy looks discriminatory to the other non-native races, the policy has also benefited them as it is not a question of robbing Ah Chong to pay Ah mad.Seen as the greatest social engineering ever to restructure society, the defenders of the policy say the idea is to make the cake grow bigger for everyone, in fact, Malaysia’s economic growth has been steady except for some glitches here and there.Generally, Malaysians on the whole have benefited. The NEP is acknowledged and even copied by South Africa .

However,open criticisms of the policy by any quarters are not tolerated, a recent research done by an ethnic Chinese Malaysian for a local think tank ASLI arguing that the NEP goals have been achieved was not taken too kindly by the ruling party.

The reaction over Rommel’s remark must be seen in this defensive posture. Of course, Rommel later explained that he had no intention to meddle in Malaysia’s domestic affairs and that the issue had been blown out of proportion.

Many native groups in Borneo call for the NEP to be maintained, Leo Moggie the Tenaga Nasional Bhd(TNB) chairman was reported to have said at the recent inaugural joint Gawai-Kaamatan Festival in Kota Kinabalu that the Dayak and Kadazandusun communities need special attention in order to give them a fair start in economic development.

This prompted the Secretary General of the United Sabah Bajau Organisation (USBO), Pandikar Mulia to declare that the Bajaus should not be lumped together with the Malays even if they are Muslims , they too need help as they are still poor and lagging in the economic race.Some of these people still live on boats out in the open seas.

While we can agree that the NEP has some good and some bad points depending where you are coming from, maybe, it is time for the government to re- look at the policy and do some soul searching. It’s no fun for any group of people to be labeled as ” handicapped “. At the same time, the different stages of economic development of the various races in the country are real.

The government can, for example, look at how the policy can be better implemented to prevent abuse and corruption and also to examine to what extent the target groups have benefited instead of just focusing on the equity ownership. The discriminatory clause which favours Malays and other native groups which many object to can be modified by including all Malaysians regardless of race and religion as long as they deserve help.

Every Malaysian needs to be looked after as this will bring stability to the country,nobody should feel marginalised. New mechanisms must also be worked out to see who really deserve help.

An example is to use the median incomes of the family as a yardstick and extend the necessary help if they deserve it, be it scholarship for further studies or business opportunities.

Politicians from the ruling party should not be too emotional when other parties criticise the policy, the spirit of NEP which is based on the moral doctrine of utilitarianism, that is, we should always act to produce the greatest possible of good over bad for everyone is worth defending in a sophisticated and rational manner.

On the other hand, it must be remembered that the longer the policy is allowed to stay, the more the targeted groups will remain complacent which in turn will kill their desire to compete .

Therefore, a balance approach must be adopted,even with our own children, once they reach a certain age, we have to let them go. So, a new look and time line must be drawn up for this policy.
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We do not want the NEP to be called the never ending party, do we?