My blog has numerous comment post by reader on New Economic Policy(NEP). A "Letter to Editors"published by The Edge on its recent printed edition has an interesting comment.
The reader claim that the bumiputra has dominant the banking industry, which I agree. And dominant the automobile industry in Malaysia.
Out of 10 anchor bank in Malaysia. Only PBB, Hong Leong Bank and Southern Bank are control by non-bumiputra.
Again, after Oriental Holding Bhd lost it franchise and dealership of Honda. Hyundai franchise has been acquired by Sime Darby. Only Tan Chong which hold distributorship of Nissan remain under Non-bumi.
Actually, it is ridiculous to excluded Government Link company(GLC) on it calculation on 18% ownership. If included GLC. Bumiputra is control more than 50% of Malaysia economy. All GLC are head by bumiputra and majority of its staff comprises bumiputra plus it has the bumiputra culture.
Other than the two industry highligh by the reader of The Edge. The reader fail to included plantation industry. With the GLC control of Sime Darby, Golden Hope and Guthrie. Bumiputra actually control the majority of the plantation land in Malaysia. It just that it yield of the company unable to compete with those control by Non-bumi like IOI, KLK and PPBOP. Thus, it's time to improve efficiency and competitiveness rather than improve percentage of ownership.
All the plantation company also have a property development arm to capitalize on the landbank like Sime UEP,I&P and Gutherie Land.
Bumiputra also control all the free to air TV via Media Prima Bhd. Holding company of TV3.
At one point of time. Bumiputra control the whole Kuala Lumpur transport system via IntraKota and Park May Bhd. However, both have been acquired by the government due to inefficiency and unable to pay it debt. Again, this is a question of efficiency and not question of ownership.
Sadly, savvy bumiputra entrepreneur like AIC Corporation Bhd's chairman Y. Bhg. Datuk Haji Sarip bin Hamid fail to get government support as he prefer to donate to the poor rather than make political donation.
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5 comments:
Hey, I find this post interesting.
With all the incentives and whatnot given to the bumiputeras and bumiputera companies, they still failed to achieve success, or at least provide quality services/goods.
And I find the government policies are always biased to the bumiputeras. Are we, the non-bumiputeras, not Malaysian?
It is true NEP has its good and its bad points depending on whose view you are looking at it.
The non-bumi has been straddled with this law for a long time and I can see lots of dissatisfaction emerging from their rank. This can be seen by the ever-increasing number of emigration taking place as well as non-returning students from abroad.
I cannot start to call them traitors, as some of the bumis here seem to imply on them. Put yourself in their shoe first and feel the full effect of the discrimination for over 30 years……….Do you think you will be happy? Anybody?
Want to know why the so call non-bumis are all running away from Malaysia for greener pasture as bumis call traitors and rats? Know that even rats must be wise to jump ship when the ship is sinking.
The government has been pushing the unity theme for Malaysia for a long time - The so-called Bangsa Malaysia. How do you unite people? How are you going to unite people of different races where one race enjoys more rights than other races? Unity can never happen if there is inequality.
So, if you don't want people to comment on your special rights, then don't talk about unity in front of the non-bumis.
The next reason why the non-bumis keep on condemning the special rights is because of the implementation of it. Does every bumi has the chance to enjoy their special rights? From what non-bumis have been seeing since the past till now, only the rich and powerful are enjoying it. The poor bumis are still poor. How many poor bumis were transformed from poverty to middle class?
Sure, what you talk about your experience might be true if you put it in a nutshell. You cite examples of success cases and stories which is what it should be. But don't use special rights to deny a fellow deserving Malaysian of that chance too.
If you don't trust your fellow countrymen, whom in the world are you going to put your faith into?
The reasons have been given, countless in fact. And I believe you can also see it for yourself what kind of state Malaysia is in now. No unity, no improvement in the competitiveness in Malaysia.
I believe no community will get stronger if it depends on protection all the time. In face of globalization, each one must pull its own weight but work as a team. Otherwise we go down together.
Even when we were children we were taught the strength of sticking together. Ultimately, we probably won't affect policy much. But it will satisfy me to know, someone reading this, will accept my argument. If only one person reads this and is willing to change their way of thinking, then I have succeeded.
Because they will then carry that idea to the next person.
Like myself, I will seriously wish that my future children would not have to endure the same pain as I did. The system hasn't changed much in the past (even if they do change, the change usually isn't beneficial to non-bumis), and as I can foresee, the system won't change much in the future too.
I know things cannot be as ideal as everyone would wish. We all are persevering. Nevertheless, when there is a better opportunity worthwhile to pursue, we will go for it.
Read it all. In Mahathir's Malaysia, over 40% of the population lives under Constitutionally mandated and perpetual state sanctioned racism. It is verging on illegality to even bring up the subject - even in parliament.
Non-bumis live under widespread and considerable electoral, educational, economic and even religious restrictions and also have to live with the risk of racially motivated stirring from malay politicians who could put one nation to shame. And don't ask about illegal aliens, they're safely locked up in detention centres.
Unsurprisingly, some malay policies have played upon resultant fears of racial tensions and the difficulties non-bumis face in creating their own political voice to shore up a captive vote in the ethnic electorate.
Starting up a company or even purchasing land and property is harder and more expensive for non-bumis. The only way to alleviate their permanent designation as a second-class citizen is to convert to Islam and thus enjoy partial legal acceptance as a bumis.
This Malaysia, a land where racism is used to justify racism, is Mahathir's creation and if that isn't the pot calling the kettle black, then I need a new palette.
Perhaps you may have heard of the axiom making its rounds among the Malaysian bloggers:
"If it is a malay issue, it is a national issue. If it is an Indian issue, it is not an issue. If it is a Chinese issue, it is a racial issue."
That is the problem with Malaysia. The Chinese and Indians are made to feel as if Malaysia is for the malays, and not for the citizens of Malaysia. Even the textbooks are often written as if addressing the malays instead of Malaysians, with references to Islam and other malay cultural aspects.
Just look at Singapore. In spite of their being a multiracial society completely lacking in national resources, they are now a developed country. Why?
Because the people there are united. There is no presumption that the average citizen is a Chinese or any serious programme giving a particular race special rights.
The presumption that greed, dishonesty, and betrayal are innate qualities of a Chinese is simply as abhorrent as the presumption by some Chinese that malays smell bad, are lazy, and are extremely religious to the point of martyrdom. Such stereotyping accomplishes nothing.
If Chinese kids won't die for Malaysia, we should not jump to the conclusion that Chinese cannot be trusted. Instead, we should consider it equally among other possibilities, such as the government's policies creating a feeling of unfair treatment despite the premise that we are all equal as citizens of Malaysia.
We know what the original intentions of the malay special privileges provision in the Merdeka Constitution were, but to maintain that it is a carte blanche for all manner of discrimination based on the bumi/non-bumi divide is certainly straining credibility.
Now that the commanding heights of the Malaysian economy have fallen into the hands of malay capitalists 48 years after independence, is it wrong to appeal for a new consensus based on social sector and need instead of race?
From the above, it is clear that the question of the constitutionality of the quota system as it has been practised since 1971 especially in totally bumi institutions has never been tested.
Because the government imposes racial quota in education and government departments, therefore Singapore and other countries take fortune at the tide. For years, there has been brain drain to our neighbour.
I called my newfound friend earlier who works in Singapore. Somehow, the conversation ended up on Malaysians holding top positions in Singapore.
Well, I have a good friend who is currently working with a top-notch investment company in Singapore. When my new friend found out, immediately said, "No wonder that Pak Lah person was mentioning about the brain drain in Malaysia!"
Well, I know a lot of doctors and scientists are working overseas. A number of my school alumni are actually working overseas and not in Malaysia. Some are doing well in Boston, London, to name a few. It's even funnier to hear stories of some of my school alumni to accidentally meet each other when they are overseas. Yes, my school is guilty for contributing to the brain drain……….
Closer to home, I wonder if Pak Lah knows about our own Malaysian companies that are also contributing to the brain drain. No name mentioned, but I know of one company, due to the change in business process has forced a number of the disgruntled staff to leave the company.
The worse thing, these staff left and joined the competitors that are not Malaysian owned. And even worse, some staff actually decided to leave Malaysia and work at greener pastures.
They could have stayed in Malaysia, but no company in Malaysia could afford to pay the expected salary due to the staff being former scholars and studied overseas during the economic crisis.
Sad really. Now wonder why Pak Lah has an uphill task.
Clearly, there has always been movement of highly skilled people in and out of a country. If there is brain drain from a particular country, it can scarcely develop. On the other hand, if it can keep its talents and successfully attract its skilled citizens to return as well as foreign talents to come, it will prosper.
First of all, are we (the non-bumis, that is) really to believe that the government will abolish or tone down the New Economic Policy in the near future? We must be realistic, if you have the right to buy a property at a discount and have scholarships for your children, would you let go of these rights?
With Chinese population dwindling in Malaysia, what needs to be done depends on the Chinese themselves.
There is nothing wrong with the brain drain. In fact, we should encourage our children to move to Singapore, Taiwan, China etc. if we disagree with Malaysian government policies that are based on race and religion.
When it comes to the matter of the dwindling number of Chinese Malaysians, we should talk about quality, not quantity.
We should resolve why the Chinese-Malaysian population is reducing. Official figures have more than one million Chinese Malaysians emigrating over the past 25 years. Why did they emigrate? I am sure the government knows.
Straight A students can't get scholarships or university places. Nothing new, it is been that way for the past 35 years. Nowadays, even enlightened malay Malaysians are speaking up on this injustice. The MCA and Gerakan? Busy making money from private colleges.
What is so great about having TAR College or Utar which took more than 35 years of begging? Why should it be so difficult to set up an independent university when we have scores of public ones?
While we push young talented people away, other countries notably Singapore, the US and Australia welcome them with open arms.
Is it logical that we drive away our young talented ones and then invite retired Mat Sallehs to live here and exploit our low-cost of living?
Singapore's success in particular owes much to these ex-Malaysians or their descendants including Hon Sui Sen, Goh Keng Swee, Goh Chok Tong, just to name a few.
About 30 percent of top management in both Singapore's government and corporate sector are ex-Malaysians. We export them so that Singapore can compete with, and then whack us.
Korea and Taiwan, both way behind us in the 70s and 80s are now way ahead. Thailand is breathing down our necks.
Sadly, there is just no integrity in the nation's leadership.
I never oppose the idea of assisting weaker communities. It is nothing bad. Too bad for Malaysian, all the benefit goes to the elites. The group at the peak of the society. Pity all the poor and helpless bumis at the lower end of the "caste".
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