Pak Lah Disappointed Bumis Yet To Achieve 30 Pct Share Of Economy. Is This A Prelude To More Discrimination?

Prominent in today's Bernama news is the lament by our Prime Minister that Bumis are not performing as the government had expected. This report follows.

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi today expressed his disappointment that Bumiputeras had yet to achieve 30 percent equity in the local economy due to their weak business management.

He said it had been the government's objective and "obsession" since the implementation of the New Economic Policy, to see to the achievement of 30 percent equity by the Bumiputera community. But this had not been achieved, he lamented.

"I don't have to go into length about this (the failure) as the Bumiputera business community is even more aware of it," he said in his speech at the Malaysia Malay Chamber of Commerce (DPMM) Entrepreneur Awards presentation, here.

Abdullah said the building of human capital emphasised the development of a group of professionals and capable Bumiputera managers. "We need those who have the capability to create value and enhance the Bumiputera equity. These are the people we want," he said.

Abdullah said he wanted Bumiputera companies to follow successful companies like Petronas, which had good management and was recognised overseas as among the Seven Sisters or the seven major oil and gas companies in the world.

The prime minister also described Khazanah Nasional Bhd and Maxis Communications Bhd with having good management and as the Malaysian companies to emulate.

Abdullah also called on the smaller Bumiputera companies to merge and form larger entities or consortiums to bid for projects both overseas and locally. He said smaller companies would not be able to move on their own if they wanted to go for big projects.

***** Whenever government bigwigs talk about the Never Ending Policy, especially in disappointed tones which is supposed to reflect their 'sadness' on how poorly the intended recipients are faring, it sends shivers throughout the non-Malay communities in the country. As it is the unprivileged ones are having a tough enough time trying to survive in a government-created hostile business atmosphere, where one has to not only bribe but also take in Malay sleeping partners to qualify for contracts. Therefore any talk of unsuccessful bumi businesses or imagined 'inability' to reach a mirage-like 30% equity can only mean that the sandiwara has or is about to start for the justification of a further extension of the notoriously discriminative NEP.

How can Pak Lah expect sleeping 'businessmen' to overcome their 'weak business management' when everything is given to them on a silver platter? The NEP in its current implementation mode can only succeed in encouraging indolence and causing narcolepsy among the undeserving recipients, nothing more. Moreover Umnoputras have already helped themselves to huge slices of the economic cake which are probably squirreled away in some very safe and distant place.

The policy at its inception may have had the noble intention of enriching Malays across the board. However, within a few years of its implementation the NEP was hijacked by the leadership at that time and since then the largesse has been spread around among the Umno family as well as some smart non-Bumi hangers-on. The end result is the current situation, where we have some obscenely rich Malays who did not have to work too hard to get there and a reasonably well balanced middle class, while the rest of the 'historically deprived' Malays are still squatting in square one waiting for the day that providence and pemimpin will smile upon them.

As long as the Never Ending Policy benefits the Umnoputras there is no way it will be modified, watered down or God forbid, removed totally from further implementation. The NEP will continue indefinitely to have pride of place in the history of bad deeds and the dictionary of evil words.
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