Clive Kessler:The Haughty And Idiotic Professor

Hantu Laut

The social engineer

Isn't it commanding of a learned person to know his subject well before he put his thoughts to pen.

Clive Kessler's denunciation of the social contract enshrined in the constitution goes to show his shallow knowledge of Malaysian politics and the Malaysian Constitution or he just simply meddling in the affairs of this country for the benefits of the oppositions.There is no Ketuanan Melayu, there is only Malay majority rule.

Majority rule is common in many countries.The same fear  White Australians have of the continuing migration of Asians to Australia that one day may dilute their power to control the political future of the country, the Malays have the same fear and have every rights to defend the erosion of Malay political power.

Would White Australians accede majority control of their political power to the minority Chinese or Vietnamese or for that matter to the minority Muslim population?

Perhaps, Clive Kessler could answer this question if he still hanged to his tenacious belief that the Malays should not protect the political hegemony in their own country and succor for more support if they felt threatened of losing their grip on political power.

'Ketuanan Melayu' is implicit, social contract is not, it is explicitly defined in Article 153 of the Malaysian Constitution that clearly spelled out what the social contract entails.

I would invite the learned professor to read this particular article and see for himself whether the social contract is imaginary or explicitly addressed in the Constitution.

The claim is not plain and simple 'historical revisionist' as inferred by him.It is a plain and simple 'contract' in the Constitution and one that does not need 'historical revisionists' to manufacture it.It is there plain and simple.

You are not happy, you want to change it and you think changing the government would solve the problem. You have to get two-thirds majority in Parliament to agree to kick it out of the Constitution.Can you get all the Malay MPs from both sides of the political fence to agree? No where mates! So stop cursing the Malays for your political troubles.It ain't their making.If you want to curse ..... it's the Brits, they are the culprits.

The proviso is primarily a continuation of previous laws made by the British to protect the indigenous peoples from being overwhelmed by the migrant races, mostly Chinese and Indians, who were much well to do urban dwellers as compared to the Bumiputras, who, at that time, were mostly poor farmers and labourers. The British saw the economic disequilibrium among the races that placed the indigenous peoples at a big disadvantage economically.

To protect the natives further the British even introduced 'Malay Reserve' lands in the then Malaya and 'Native Title' lands in the then British North Borneo and Sarawak.These lands can only be transacted among indigenous people. The British fear that the natives could be robbed of their lands if no such protection is made mandatory.Was the British wrong then? Perhaps, Kessler could also give an answer to this pertinent question.

Why did the British introduced affirmative actions even then.Did they not foresee the precarious economic position of the Malays and the natives of the Bornean states? Those considerations were part and parcel of a 'social contract'.As late as the early seventies the bumiputras controlled less than 5 per cent of the economy.

The Constitution and Article 153 was written on the basis of a report from the 'Reid Commission' which included recommendation for protective clause in the Constitution for safeguarding Malay rights and later the inclusion of natives of Sabah and Sarawak when Malaysia was formed.Article 153 in particular, was incorporated to address the economic imbalance.Kessler, was clearly muted on this.

Even more disappointing is Kessler's haughty remarks that showed his headful of garbage using pseudo-cleft sentences trying to win over uninitiated Malaysians into believing his craps. Because of his academic background some would fall into his web of deceit.
He said:

"Yet there was no “social contract” as such at the time. People have only inferred and argued subsequently that there was, because there somehow must have been, such a contract at the time of Merdeka — and, driven by retrospective wish-fulfilment, they have then “filled in” what it pleases them to believe, or passionately desire, that its terms must have been. They “read back” the politics of the present, and their preferred political future that they like to imagine for themselves, into the historic past."
If Article 153 is not a social contract, what is?

I am not a great proponent of the NEP as it is, I do believe, for the sake of the Malays, it should not be allowed to go on forever. It will only add more sins to the already burdening rent-seeking mentality and demands of certain group of bumiputras who want it easy.

Prime Minister Najib would be better off ignoring the militancy of such groups.

Being a Malay he has every right to perpetuate Malay political power within the ambit of the laws of this country and ignore people like Clive Kessler who can flush his anthropological scroll down the toilet bowl.Knowing anthropology did not make him an expert in Malaysian politics.

His closing paragraph:

"This, quite simply and evidently, is historically erroneous. It is sheer revisionism. It is retrospective meddling with national historical truth and the nation’s constitutional foundations."
Keep your social engineering bullshit at home, Mr Kessler !

What Malaysians should be fighting against is not Malay powers or Ketuanan Melayu , they should be fighting against corruptions, abuses of power and mismanagement of the nation resources.

Nazir Razak:This Is What The Malays Should Have Written About Him

Hantu Laut

My own article on Nazir and the NEP is still in the midst of construction but I would let this praiseworthy article by Tay Tian Yan go first.

This is what the Malays should write about him instead of ridiculing him for baring the truth about the NEP.

Insteads of calling him anak bangsawan, born with a golden spoon and a product of the NEP we should admire his capability as a rising star in the corporate world who has taken a bank from the gutter to what it is today.

Nazir Razak wouldn't have brought CIMB to become a respectable name in the region if he hadn't got it up there.Imagine if he is stuck to the Ibrahim Ali's mindset, insecure, myopic, medieval and feudalistic and one who still live in cloud cuckoo land.The Malays are better off without the likes of Ibrahim Ali.

Nazir Razak would not have succeeded if he had let himself be drawn to employing homogeneous management in his bank which was exactly what BBMB was before, mired in Malay monism.He has made full use of the talents of our pluralistic society and I agree with him the NEP was bastardised.

I quote what he said.

"As a personal example, when I took over the helm at CIMB, I resisted the tendency to surround myself with people who thought the same way as I did or with whom I was socially comfortable. Instead, I selected a very diverse management team, in age, race and gender, so that I could draw from our varied perspectives and arrive at better solutions than a homogenous team could have achieved."

The Malays need to do away with the "dengki'" culture if they want to progress.Below is what one appreciative Chinaman wrote.

Nazir Razak — Tay Tian Yan

August 19, 2010

AUG 19 — Some say if he were not Najib’s brother, he couldn’t have achieved this much today.

But some also say if he were not Najib’s brother, he could have achieved even more.

I have an inclination towards the second saying.

Nazir Razak is the youngest brother of Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, and the youngest son of the country’s second prime minister Tun Abdul Razak.

Nazir is the chief executive officer of CIMB. About 10 years ago, he was instrumental in the merger between Bank Bumiputra and the Bank of Commerce in what everyone believed was a bailout for the ailing BBMB.

Not many viewed the merged entity’s future with favour. The fiscal conditions of BBMB back then, along with its modus operandi and personnel issues were tacky enough for anyone to fix.

Nazir’s challenge was to transform the government-sponsored bank plagued by a severe lack of competitiveness, rigidity and corruption into a highly efficient, market-oriented and profitable business entity.

Upon taking over the bank, Nazir embarked on a slew of ambitious restructuring policies.

He succeeded in convincing the board to lure elite bankers with attractive remuneration and bring in many non-Bumiputera managers. With the power in his hands, he reorganised the internal operations of the bank, weeded out connections, optimised the businesses and established a set of governance guidelines.

At the same time, he reinvented the bank’s branding position in a bid to reinstate customer confidence. He launched an array of financial services and products to meet the market needs. He even brought the company’s businesses overseas in an ambitious expansion programme.

This erstwhile dying bank has now received a new lease of life over the years, with capitalisation and profit margin both among the country’s top three.

Nazir’s competence is beyond doubt, and the corporate sector generally agrees that he is not merely an outstanding banker, but one of the country’s most capable CEOs too.

But Nazir is more than just a top-rated manager, he is also an initiator and advocate of open and progressive ideas.

He has since Mahathir’s time been making proposals to the government to reform the country’s economic structure, saying that it should further liberalise the economy and implement free market principles while uprooting antiquated and stale policies in a bid to create a more equitable and competitive business environment.

Among his most controversial proposals was the one calling for the abolition of the New Economic Policy.

He argued that the NEP had not helped the Malays in general, but had instead shut the majority of Malays out of the country’s economic activities while denying non-Malays access to the mainstream national economy, jeopardising the country’s overall economic performance in so doing.

His did not make the remarks to please foreign investors or non-Malays. He unapologetically hit out at the NEP during an exclusive interview with Utusan Malaysia some two months ago.

Nazir’s achievements had nothing much to do with his family, upbringing or his Bumiputera status, but his own wisdom and input.

His progressive psyche testifies that the Malays can still get plugged to the world so long as they are willing to deliver themselves out of the “kampung mentality” cocoon.

Some say he makes the most ideal candidate for finance minister, but the prime minister has been reluctant to bring his younger brother into the government or politics.

Having said that, there are voices calling for Nazir to play a bigger role so that he can change the largely conservative mindset of the Malays and help steer the nation towards greater progress. — mysinchew.com

Malaysian Insider

No School Of Hard Knocks! Why The NEP Failed ?

Hantu Laut

He is as blunt as a kick in the shin.

Former premier Mahathir Mohammad never munches his words, he does not know how.Those who dislike him called him racist.

No prime minister of this nation can afford to be a racist. Mahathir is just one man who shoot straight from the hip, he has no niceties, no political correctitude.A racist but he is not.

His statement here would be very upsetting to non-Malays particularly the Chinese.Literally, Chinese do not need political power, they were already rich.Certainly, the Chinese per capita is much better than the Malays.It's not a wild guess, it's a statement of fact.The Chinese should be proud of it.

Mahathir himself, while he was in power, did not push the Malay agenda as aggressively as he is doing now.Why? Does he feel the Malays are losing their grips on political power.

Mahathir said the Malays have not attained the desired equity proportion after almost 40 years of NEP and out of which he helmed the nation for 22 years and had the best opportunity to correct the imbalance.

The greatest chance of the NEP being made successful should have been under his regime.UMNO politicians shrivelled in fear at the prospect of falling out with him.He could have hard-nosed the NEP then.Why, didn't he?

Should Mahathir shoulder greater part of the blame for failure of the NEP or are the bumiputras to blame for their indifference and lamentable attitude toward hard work that smothered the government's efforts to turn them into shrewed businessmen and corporate leaders.

We have seen how GLCs handed over to selected bumiputras had gotten into trouble because of bad management.They are not small entities but big corporations, some, have existed since colonial days.Over the years billion of ringgit of taxpayer's money have been lost to corruptions and bad management of such companies led by manufactured entrepreneurs.

GLCs under bumiputra's management have also suffered the same fate.The recent debacles in Sime Darby and Felda are big embarrassment to bumiputras and the government.

The question is why have the Malays not grown better in business? What are they lacking in? Lack of business skill and acumen may be one of them but than skill can be learned. We are either taught or learned it empirically.If Malays can become doctors,engineers, lawyers,architects and many other professions, why can't they be good businessmen?

If I remember well Mahathir was of the view that all he needs to do was to make few Malays rich who in turn will make many more Malays rich.

Obviously, Mahathir's principle of multiplier effect was a failure.There was no quantum jump in bumiputra's equity. His dreams of Malays helping Malays in the business and the corporate world did not happen. The rich Malays stay rich and the poor Malays stay poor.

The nouveu riche Malays become a class of their own, leading flatulent lifestyle with horrid distaste for the proletariat.They ride on their high horses ignoring the fact that the millions they have were not the fruits of hard labour but were the windfalls of political connections.

I have no doubt there are many hard-working honest Malays but they are the forgotten lot.

In this country it is 'who you know not what you know' and a policy with fatal consequence.The good brains left the country where their talents would be better appreciated.

Mahathir's policy of helping only few selected Malays have not brought the desired result and one that led him to coin the phrase "Melayu mudah lupa", a reflection of his frustration with failure of the Malays to achieve higher economic success.

It is simple logic which Mahathir overlooked.

If you have RM100 to distribute and you divided it into RM10 each and give it to 10 people you would have made 10 Malays happy and maybe 5 out of the 10 would have used the money wisely and succeed.If you give the RM100 only to one or two than you only make one or two Malays happy and this one failure mean total failure.

During his time Mahathir did not push the NEP as aggressively because he knew without active participation of the Chinese the country could never attain the higher growth rate that would help push his vision 2020 to reality. The Chinese are the economic engines and their big contribution to the economy is undeniable.They also hold bigger slice of the economic cake due to hard work and business prudence.Mahathir had openly admitted the Chinese larger contribution to the economy by the amount of taxes they pay.

The Chinese are mostly urban and semi-urban dwellers.Most real estates in urban and semi-urban areas are owned by Chinese and over 90 percent of retail trade and most of service industry are done by them. This is one area where the government seems to lack the will to encourage bumiputras to be actively involved in.If there are some, it is negligible.

Most wholesale and retail businesses are dominated by the Chinese. Other than the typical restaurant business that bumiputras seem to prefer they shunned other type of business in this category instead preferring the easier option, chase government contracts where the money is bigger, faster and easier to make.More often than not such contracts go back to the Chinese where Ali sat on his ass and Baba joyfully working hard to make lots more money.

Even in the remotest areas deep in the interior, where I observed during my time as a logger, it is likely to be a Chinese family running the village shop and does everything as seller, buyer and financier.

Other than selling the essential commodities the Chinese towkay would also buy local produces and gives financial aids (advances) to reliable natives to secure the products which he than export to the bigger towns and cities to another Chinese middleman.In another word the Chinese is not just mere shopkeeper but also the banker in the village.

Retail,whole selling and contracting are tedious and competitive business and these are the places where most Chinese business had its early existence before making it big.It does not make your rich overnight but it teaches you hard work and the art of doing business, of being competitive and of being able to survive the cruel business environment.This is the school of hard knocks.

Are the bumiputras willing to take up the challenge or continue to rely on their leaders for government handouts.

It is not that the Malays or bumiputras can't become good business people and are at fault, it is the Malay leaders that spoiled them, Mahathir included, resorting to quick fix solution and politics of political patronage.

As the English say "Take care of the penny and the pound will take care of itself"
A business built purely on political connections would eventually fall.

The next time you hear Ibrahim Ali cry wolf, take it with a pinch of salt.

Najib's Do or Die

Hantu Laut

Well done! Mr Prime Minister.That's the way how it should be.A man who is not afraid of losing his job will do a better job.

Najib says his head is on the chopping block for purging rent seekers and political patronage and I believe him.

It's about time a leader take the bold step to stop this despicable practice of political largasse, giving huge contracts to party members,cronies, sycophants and hangers-on who do not have the capability to do the job other than sitting on their asses collecting million of ringgit by selling off the contracts.

The right thing to do is to have fair distribution of these contracts to all Malaysians and where preference for bumiputra participation are required, a special category of tender system exclusively for bumiputra contractors could be set up.There can be a two-category system, one for all Malaysian and the other exclusively for bona fide bumiputra contractors.In this way bumiputras are not deprived of the chance to share the economic pie and can compete among themselves under the new economic model.The other catergory should be opened to all Malaysians including bumiputras who think they can compete with the non-bumiputras. In the case of projects of extreme urgency or of sensitive nature the prime minister can dispense with the tender system and allow the projects to be on negotiated basis.

The present system is a 'catch penny' situation where the person given the contract is only concerned about the money but not the quality of the product.That's why, over the years, we have numerous abandoned projects and sub-standard products delivered to the government and no action taken against the culprit because he happened to be a powerful party member or a rich and powerful crony.The system has made those kind of bumiputras to become the abominable leeches, continuing to demand more and more projects to feed their insatiable greed and laziness.

The ruling party is full of them and think they should be given the handouts as of rights. Where do you think the easy money goes to? Certainly, not to fund further businesses because they have none.It goes to building palatial homes, buying posh cars and branded goods.When the money level is low they would go again for more and if they don't get, they start bad mouthing the leadership and some would even abandon the party and jump to the opposition hoping for better luck in the event the opposition won the elections and took over the government.

I have seen this happening since the formation of Malaysia and you see the same politicians being recycled over and over again.Sabah, used to be the place for recycling politicians but now politicians in the Peninsula seemed to have joined the circus and found the long-term benefits of recycling.

As I have said in my earlier article there is nothing wrong with the NEP if put to its proper use, helping the poor and needy Malays and bumiputras.

Najib needs to change the perception that the NEP is not to make the rich richer but to help give the poor and needy a decent living.The NEP should be retained for that purpose and that purpose only.Under his NEM he can create a new model to help other needy Malaysians the same way as helping needy bumiputras, therefore, providing fair and equitable treatment to all Malaysians.

There are many other things that he needs to revamp to truly show that he is serious about changing the social landscape of this nation.

Some, maybe, painful to do away with but unless he swallows the bitter pill now and takes his chances and between the risk of being castrated by his party members and the risk of no UMNO government tomorrow, I would say go for it.

Do or die!

Below is an article from Time Magazine published on 4 April 2010.

Affirmative action: Bad for growth?

Posted by Michael Schuman Sunday, April 4, 2010 at 9:55 pm

My post today is about a country that doesn't usually get much attention in debates about global economic issues – Malaysia. But don't be too quick to click to the next webpage. What's going on these days in that small, tropical nation is raising interesting questions about the relationship between social justice and economic development.

Malaysia's prime minister, Najib Razak, is in the process of overhauling what is likely the world's most extensive and intensive affirmative action program, called the New Economic Policy, or NEP. First instituted in the early 1970s, the NEP was designed to expand the role of the impoverished Malay community in the national economy. The Malays represent the majority of the population, but back when the NEP was launched, Chinese immigrants and foreign firms owned the vast majority of the country's assets. To fix that, the Malay-dominated government adopted all kinds of rules and regulations that gave special perquisites to Malays. Malay-owned companies received preferential treatment when bidding for state contracts, for example, while the government mandated Malay investors receive 30% of initial public offerings on the local stock market. It was an amazing experiment in social reconstruction.Read more.

NEP Is Only A Small Clog In The System

Hantu Laut

Najib announced the NEM (New Economic Model) on 30 March 2010.He hasn't even started, so how could he stalled? Asia Sentinel commemorated his one year in office with this story.

Certainly, one should not expect everyone to support or agree with his new policy. The oppositions, no matter, how good his new policy is, would surely find fault with it and not gave him the support.It is what the American called "hyperpartisanship", a sharply polarized situation in which political parties are in fierce disagreement with each other.

You don't need reason to disagree, just disagree for the sake of disagreeing. Lim Kit Siang has mastered the art of hyperpartisanship. He is the biggest and most fierce rabble rouser and becoming the most dangerous man in the country, raising racial and religious issues without blinking an eye.

Those who have benefited from the NEP in a big way and filled their pockets to bursting point are some of those who think thay have achieved success on their on own merits and now think they don't need the NEP.These are the few Malays who changed their tune hoping to jump on the next bandwagon that they reckoned will ride to victory in the next general elections in 2013 and with it bringing a new kind of gravy train that they hope to benefit from. They came in all shapes, sizes and intellectuality.

A well-known columnist who during the Mahathir's era think that the NEP was a great idea and tried to sell it to South Africa as affirmative action for the blacks seems to have changed his mind about the goodness of the NEP.When Anwar Ibrahim was in UMNO and was deputy prime minister he did not see anything wrong with the NEP, had no objection or made any attempt to fight for change.A well-known lawyer who was once a big recipient of the NEP, directly or indirectly, have now changed his wavelength.The NEP had become a distinct and distant memory.

Are they for real?

I am not a great proponent of the NEP, at least, not the way it is being plonked around now.It would have been good if it had remained in its original shape, that is to bring the whole Malay community at par with the other races in term of economic benefits and standard of living.It has, in some ways, achieved some of its objectives.

Forty years ago, most Malays dreamed only to be civil servants, uncomplicated, risk free and secured job.The civil service was geared to accept mostly Malays.It shunned the mindshares from commerce.Almost all economic activities were in the hands of the Chinese.Malays, were mostly rural agrarian and urban working class.Little or no emphasis were given to commercialise the Malays then. Now, there are large number of Malay middle class and increasing number of professionals and businessmen.Without the NEP, the progress would have been painfully slow.

It is not the NEP at fault, it is the way it is being abused that had turned it into a four-letter word, euphonious for those who benefited from it and perfunctory disquiet for those who don't. It has become a gravy train to enrich a handful of rent-seekers.

Most of the huge contracts given to these parasitic rent-seekers would eventually land in some Chinese towkay's lap and worse they would come back for more and more of these handouts through their political connections.The intended purpose of making them entrepreneurs become self-defeating.This is the hickey side of the NEP that we should be fighting to get rid of completely, not the NEP as a whole.There is no point scrapping the NEP, wholesale, if such practices still continue under other pretexts.

In a nutshell, kill political largesse and corruptions, the NEP is not the scourge that destroying this country and should not be made the sacrificial lamb.

Power and money are something difficult to give up.Man's greed for power and wealth have no bounds.For some, power and wealth precede ethics and morality.In politics, the ingrates and unprincipled will always change allegiance to serve their greed for more power and money.They say one thing today and say something else tomorrow to feed their insatiable appetite.Many of this type are now courting Anwar Ibrahim and if they were writers and columnists the writings have changed to obsequiously serving the oppositions.

Ethically questionable behaviours of politicians and official malfeasance are what we should be concerned with.The NEP is only a small clog in the system.Corruptions and abuse of power are the ones that's killing this country.This was where Pak Lah had failed miserably causing political upheaval and throwing the nation into political dissension and instability.If he had pushed through his promised reforms he would have been the strongest and most powerful prime minister today.

Would Najib be in the same shoes? Not likely.The man is a worker, he only gets forty winks. He has the nation at heart and is prepared to work hard to heal the wounded tiger.He can only succeed if his ilk gave him the support he needed.

The result of the Hulu Selangor by-election would be the first measure of his and UMNO existential political future.

Malaysia questions ethnic preferences

By Robin Brant
BBC News, Kuala Lumpur

PM Najib Razak wants to win back the support of non-Malays

Malaysia's New Economic Policy is not new, it has been around for almost 40 years.

But in his first 100 days in office, Malaysia's Prime Minister Najib Razak has been forced to tackle the government's most controversial policy - one that gives special treatment to the majority Malays.

It was meant to help people like Azban. He is 37, with a wife and two young children. He works in a ticket office at a train station.

I met him as we waited for the lift at the government-built tower block where he lives, on the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur.

The estate is rundown, with water pouring down from a spill higher up.

But it is better than the wooden house he used to live in before he left his village for the capital city.

For decades the NEP has ensured preferential treatment for people like Azban: special access to jobs, housing, education and loans - all because they are Malay.

Malaysia is made up of three main ethnic groups: Malays, Chinese and Indians.

The Malays make up the majority - just. The Chinese and Indians have been in this country for centuries but some Malays still regard them as foreigners.

Patronage politics

The NEP was born out of race riots in 1969.

The aim of the policy was to tackle an imbalance between rich businessmen, mostly Chinese, and the poor, who were mostly Malay.

At the time government figures claimed that Malays controlled less than 3% of the economy.

Ramon Navaratnam was one of the team of government economists who helped draw up the NEP.

"The principle was, have an expanding cake, with more balance and equity provided for Malays or the underprivileged - of all races it was supposed to be."

But he said the noble aims were soon displaced by the politics of patronage.

"Some politicians got smart about it and wanted to allocate special reservations and shares and stocks and contracts to Malays, and very often it went to the wrong Malays, who had no clue about business."

Forty years on the Malays, who are also known as Bumiputra, which means "son of the soil", have grown in economic power.

According to government statistics they control 20% of the economy, but that is still some way off the target of 30%.

Malay students are granted preferential access to universities

It may have been an effective political tool but many people, such as Syed Amin from the Malay Chamber of Commerce, see it as a failed project.

"There is no point in saying that we have achieved some measure of success just because we have trained a few Bumis in being professionals" he told me.

He thinks the Malays still need special help.

I think the people of this country realise and understand and agree that the Bumi population of this country needs to be supported."

'Still in development'

Tucked away in an exhibition centre on the top floor of a shopping mall was an event for small and medium sized enterprises.

I got there just as it opened. Some stalls were still setting up.

After a 15-minute walk around I had been pitched security systems, help on setting up a toll free 1-800 number and numerous franchise opportunities.

The event should have been a haven for entrepreneurs, to come to promote their business and to share ideas.

For years in Malaysia entrepreneurship has always been associated with the Chinese. Read more...

The Malays Need Honest And Sincere Leaders Not NEP

Hantu Laut

My fellow blogger Jed Yoong asked me do I think the Malays still need the NEP.My answer is no. I don't think they need the NEP and I don't think the NEP are meant for the Malays.The NEP are there only to expedite wealth for politicians,their relatives and friends.

If giving huge contracts to relatives and friends to make easy money are part of the NEP than I think the NEP is a disgrace to the Malays and many ordinary Malays are ashamed that their race are being used to benefits a small group of power hungry and greedy politicians.

After more than 50 years of independence and over 30 years of the NEP it would be shameful to admit that we Malays have still not learned to walk properly to better ourselves in business and other endeavours and have to depend on crutches provided by the government.Those crutches are made exclusively for the use of UMNO and its lapdogs, other Malays are just like the non-Malays, with the exception of priority and privileges given on education and the civil service, have no use of the NEP.

There are many capable Malays who were just unfortunate to be born on the wrong side of the track and not been able to prove themselves.These are Malays who are not in UMNO and, therefore, didn't get the chance to prove it to the world that they are just as good if not better than the non-Malays or the Malays in UMNO.

Unless you are politically connected, getting a government contract is next to impossible.Even if you are a good Malay businessman but do not know how to oil the cogwheels you can wait till kingdom come to get any government job.Only the sycophants,cocksuckers and ball carriers will get what they wanted.It is who you know not what you know.The only expertise you need to know in this business is how to sell your contract to a China man to make that quick profit.If you know some politicians and do not know how to ride the gravy train with him than they would call you stupid.That's what some of my friends and relatives told me.You must use your politician friends to make money.

Even more disgusting are those who made money in this most appalling of ways and think of it as being smart.They can't discern between smartness and craftiness.That's how smart they are.You just have to take a look at the huge mansions and expensive cars of this 'cepat di masak sedap dimakan' instant riches.Some were stupid enough to show off their instant wealth and ill gotten gains by building their huge mansions in the petit bourgeois community and bear the resentment of the hoi polloi. Jack and the Beanstalk would be full of envy for these people.At least Jack had to climb the gigantic beanstalk to steal the giant's treasure and risked getting killed.

The biggest recipients of the NEP would be through nepotism and chronic crony culture.Many government linked companies were privatised and given to cronies on the platter.One shining bright example of where the NEP failed miserably was MAS.The company was given to Tajuddin Ramli to own controlling interest and management at over sweetened price.Within few years he successfully screwed up the company and brought it to the brink of bankruptcy.The government had to rescue MAS and paid him above market price for the shares and took back the company and injected fresh capital to save it from crashing to the ground.Than there were people like Amin Shah who screwed up the Lumut Naval Base and naval vessels contract to the tune of a few billion and abandoned the project.No legal or criminal actions were taken against him for this very expensive blunder that cost the government billion of ringgit.

There are many others like them who had become rich at the expense of taxpayer's money.Are these people true entrepreneurs or they are more suitable to run kedai runchit ?True entrepreneur starts from nothing and built his business empire from the ground up.Is this the kind of NEP the government wanted to perpetuate? Manufactured entrepreneurs with no business acumen that destroy more than they can build.

Another even more strange phenomenon and most noticeable are the business successes of almost all of the male offspring of former and current prime ministers of the country, from the late Tun Razak to Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.They all seem to have their own businesses listed on the KLSE or in private holdings.It must be a miraculous coincident that most of them are such good entrepreneurs.

When the late Tun Razak mooted the idea of the NEP he had the noble intention of helping the Malays to improve and be at par with the other races in the country, never in his wildest dream he intented it for amassing wealth.

You don't need the NEP to help poor Malays.What you need are honest, sincere and dedicated leaders.

With the new regime soon to take over let's hope things will change.

WHO CREATED THE NEW MALAY DILEMMA ?

The New Malay Dilemma
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Hantu Laut

The following article is an excrept from ex-Prime Minister, Tun Mahathir Mohammed's speech at the Harvard Club in July 2002, shortly before he handed over the baton to Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.

When Mahathir stepped down and appointed Badawi instead of Najib as PM there was an immense feeling of euphoria among Malaysians of every race, colour and creed.The state of uneasiness of the Mahathir's era evaporated with the appointment of Abdullah, invariably seen as mild-mannered, clean and more endearing.

The general feeling of euphoria was translated into massive support for Abdullah at the polls in 2004 where he garnered 90 percent of the parliamentary seats and trounced the oppositions almost into oblivion.

His massive victory was on the premise of cleaning up corruptions and bring about a clean and transparent government.Promises he eventually failed to keep.The euphoria turned to feeling of dismay, disappointment and distrust of his character.

Mahathir, who often bashes his own people for their weaknesses and dependency on government assistance, have made himself unpopular with the Malay masses. He blames them for all the failures to achieve the objectives of the NEP.

Mahathir was at the helm for twenty two years.He was the longest serving prime minister and have had more than enough opportunity to educate the Malays the nitty-gritty of the business world and the moral principles of life. Was it fair that he only blamed the Malays and not himself for the failure of the NEP ?

Some ( those sidelined) in UMNO are now in nostalgia of the Mahathir's era.

Will Badawi takes the Malays to greater height in the forthcoming polls or destroy the Malay's political hegemony ?

Would there be a new Malay Dilemma if the Malay power base weakened ?

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Excerpts from a speech given by Prime Minister Mahathir Mohammed at the Harvard Club of Malaysia dinner on 29 July 2002

The Malays are among the few people whose race is legally defined. Thus, the Malaysian Constitution states that a Malay is one who habitually speaks Malay, professes the religion of Islam and practises Malay customs. There is nothing said about the definitive culture of the Malays.

It follows that changes in culture do not make a Malay person a non-Malay.

Culture is made up largely of the value systems accepted, even if not actually practised by a people or a race. Observations have shown that the culture of a people determines whether they are successful or they fail..... .... Europeans, Asians, Africans and American Indians can all be successful and can all fail. It is, therefore, not the race or ethnicity which determines success. It is the culture.

When I wrote The Malay Dilemma in the late 60s, I had assumed that all the Malays lacked the opportunities to develop and become successful. They lacked opportunities for educating themselves, opportunities to earn enough to go into business, opportunities to train in the required vocation, opportunities to obtain the necessary funding, licences and premises. If these opportunities could be made available to them, then they would succeed. ......

.... But today, the attitude has changed. Getting scholarships and places in the universities at home and abroad is considered a matter of right and is not valued any more. Indeed, those who get these educational opportunities for some unknown reason seem to dislike the very people who created these opportunities. Worse still, they don't seem to appreciate the opportunities that they get. They become more interested in other things, politics in particular, to the detriment of their studies. In business, the vast majority regarded the opportunities given them as something to be exploited for the quickest return. ...... They learn nothing about business and become even less capable at doing business and earning an income from their activities. They become mere sleeping partners and at times not even that. Having sold, they no longer have anything to do with the business. They would go to the government for more licences, permits, shares, etc. ....

.... Why has this thing happened? The answer lies in the culture of the Malays. They are laid-back and prone to take the easy way out. And the easy way out is to sell off whatever they get and ask for more. This is their culture. Working hard, taking risks and being patient is not a part of their culture. It should be remembered that in the past the Malays were not prepared to take up the jobs created by the colonial powers in their effort to exploit the country.

Because the Malays were not prepared to work in rubber estates and the mines, the Indians and Chinese were brought in. At one time, the migrants outnumbered the Malays. Had they continued to outnumber the Malays, independent Malaya would be like independent Singapore.

But the Malays have apparently learnt nothing from the near loss of their country in the past. Today, they are still unwilling to work and foreign workers are again flooding the country. And because they are not equipping themselves with the necessary education and skills, they have continued to depend on others. Their political dominance will protect them for a time. But that dominance is fading very fast as they quarrel among themselves and break up into small ineffective groups. Their numerical superiority means less today than at the time of Independence. ....

.... The Malays, together with the other Bumiputeras, make up 60 per cent of the country's population. But in terms of their political clout, it is now much less than 60 per cent. They are now more dependent on non-Malay support, both the government party and the opposition. Economically, of course, they have less than half the 30-per-cent share that has been allocated to them. If we discount the non-Malay contribution to the nation's economy, Malaysia would be not much better than some of the African developing countries.

To succeed, the Malays must change their culture. They must look towards work as a reward in itself. They must regard what they achieve through work as the true reward. There should be some financial reward but this must not outweigh the satisfaction obtained from the result of their work. ....

.... Changing culture is far more difficult than changing the policies of government. It is easy enough to propose affirmative action but it is not easy to implement it. The recipients must have the right attitude if the results are going to be obtained. .... Unfortunately, their view is that their crutches are symbols of their superior status in the country. The sad thing is that they are not even using the crutches properly. As a result, they gain nothing or very little from the availability of these aids. ....

.... So what is the new Malay dilemma? Their old dilemma was whether they should distort the picture a little in order to help themselves. The new dilemma is whether they should or should not do away with the crutches that they have got used to, which in fact they have become proud of. There is a minority of Malays who are confident enough to think of doing away with the crutches, albeit gradually. But they are a very small minority. Their numbers are not going to increase any time soon. They are generally regarded as traitors to the Malay race. ....

.... There will be a host of protests over this generalisation about Malay attitudes. We read almost every day about blind Malay people and other handicapped Malays graduating with university degrees or driving cars or doing all kinds of work. This does not prove that the generalisation that I make is wrong. These are exceptions. They only prove that if the right attitude or culture is adopted, even the handicapped can succeed.

The dilemma faced by those few who want to build a strong, resilient and independent Malay race without crutches is that they are most likely to end up becoming unpopular and losing the ability to influence the changes in the culture and the value system which are necessary. It seems that they should not try and yet they know that without the cultural changes, the Malays are going to fail.