Just
yesterday amidst the pomp and splendour, PM Najib the UMNO president, announced
his Permerkasaan Ekonomi Bumiputera. I translate that loosely into English as
The Empowerment of Bumiputera economics. I haven’t seen the English version.
Muhyidin
says he is all for the economic push. It’s a lucky day says he. Except he has got
it wrong. It will not be a push but it will be a putsch.
Where
was it declared? It was done at the UITM main hall in Shah Alam. UITM in the words
of the PM, is the ultimate symbol of Malay achievements and potential. That symbolism-
I don’t find objectionable.
What
are disturbing are the increasingly flawed leadership qualities of the PM as
the proclaimed leader of all Malays. I hear him. I hear him loud and clear as he
thanked all the Malays for their fabled support that allowed UMNO to increase
its parliamentary seats from 79 to 88. He can only point that part of his generalship
from the recent GE. He won’t fool everyone.
Of
course he didn’t and won’t qualify this claim by revealing that UMNO increased
the number of seats due to gerrymandering and because of unfair voter density in
the constituencies. He did not qualify it by saying he only got 133 seats
compared to 140 in the previous administration. And he of course didn’t say
that he only managed 47% of the popular votes and that he failed to regain
Selangor where UITM is itself located.
Here
is a leader who revelled in ceremonies and decorum. It is anyone’s guess to
imagine how much money was spent to set up the prop and stage from which the
emperor shall issue the edicts and dictates for an economic blueprint for the
Malays. If anything, Najib was emperor-like when he announced the economic
blueprint for the Malays.
If
Tun Razak were to declare such a plan, he would have done it in a natural and unaffected
setting. It’s a blueprint for the poor and yet the declaration is done in all
its pomp and glory more fitting and suitable for a declaration of a business
model for corporate mandarins. No doubt many of the Malay economic mandarins
were around on hand in the PM’s entourage and salivating at the prospects of
stealing more.
The
first thing that comes to mind- now which of the consultants came up with this
idea for the PM to announce? Maybe not many people have realised this, but
Najib began the era where many of the ideas and initiatives- as Najib cautiously
describes them, are produced by consultants. I am not surprised when friends in
the government tell me that the upcoming Budget for 2014 is prepared mostly by
consultants with little involvement from officers and researchers in the
Finance Ministry. How do we expect government officers to wholeheartedly support
the Budget if the final version of the budget wasn’t the result of much involvement
from them? How do you expect them to defend what you can’t claim ownership on? You
are asked to implement a version which is put up by consultants using the
diverse inputs supplied by them in the first place.
We
begin by asking who are the Bumiputeras that Najib has in mind. 60% of our
population of around 28 million is Malay. That’s about 16.8 million Malays. 8%
are non-Malay Bumiputeras. That’s another 2.2 million non Malaybumis. Altogether
there about 19 million Malays and Bumputeras. The average monthly income of these
Bumputeras says the PM is RM4457 I can only exclaim, hip hip hooray.
Najib’s
declaration of a new economic agenda or blueprint for Malay and Bumupetras has
the immediate effect of infusing renewed confidence and comforting feelings
among the Malays. It gave many Malays the placebo effect at once. But that is all they will get.
What
does the declaration mean actually? I am fearful more for the Malays because I think
they are going to be misled further. The basic cause for the failure of Malay
economics thus far has not been addressed. What is that? In my mind it’s the idea
of unqualified entitlement which needs to be secured only by means of edicts
and dictates.
Rights
and privileges are thought as being birth right entitlements and so create the
false thinking that they do not have to be qualified by hard work or
corresponding educational levels. Malays are thought to believe that every one
of them ought as a right, to become millionaires by way of declaring an edict.
That
being so, the new economic blueprint for the Malays is set to become the NEP
with a vengeance. Prepare and brace ourselves for economic marauding by the elite
and powerful Malays as they use the new empowerment tools and instruments to muscle
their way into the economy at the expense of the majority Malays who will
continue to be left out.
Do
we remember what happened to the RM54billion worth of shares and equities
distributed to Malays during the NEP period? RM 52 billon worth has been sold
off by the Malay sell-outs. The Malays are left with RM2 billion.
For
as long as the Malays are not programmed to believe at the onset that rights and
entitlements are objects that you qualify for, there won’t be the drive and
vibrancy to sustain the Malay economy. How does the Malay qualify? Qualify by
working hard to secure the fruits of your labour and qualify by developing
technical skills and education. Because in the end of it all, there is no such
thing as a free lunch. One is rewarded according to the qualifications one puts
in.
Najib
is doing a great disservice to the Malays by entrenching the free lunch mind-set.
Many Malays will now believe that their economic entitlement is an unqualified
right. Malay economics will now become an enforcement of edicts regime.
Dear Sakmongkol
ReplyDelete“Najib is doing a great disservice to the Malays by entrenching the free lunch mind-set. Many Malays will now believe that their economic entitlement is an unqualified right. Malay economics will now become an enforcement of edicts regime.”
That about sums up the effect of what Najib plans to do. To be sure this new NEP is the third or fourth version – I forget the actual number - of the original NEP that his father promulgated in 1971. That was 42 years ago. The original version was meant to last for just 20 years. It was extended and then again using different names for the same thing. But what happened? The government by its own admission had not succeeded in uplifting the economic status of the Malays compared to the non-Malays. How long would it take before the Malays realize that promulgating more versions of the NEP will not help at all? Wealth cannot be legislated or created by some edict. It can only be created by each individual through desire, ambition, drive and sacrifice. All these things cannot be wished for or legislated. The sooner this is understood the faster the Malays are on their way to real success.
The Malays who left these shores to go to Sri Lanka or South Africa or to Arab countries have been much more successful. There was no NEP to help them. They faced the same headwinds that all immigrants faced, yet succeeded. Why? Because they sacrificed, saved, worked hard knowing they had to rely solely on themselves. There was no government promising wealth through entitlement.
In this country the non-Malays did not succeed through some favourable legislation. There was no non-Malay NEP that guaranteed or promised privileges or rights. They faced the same headwinds that overseas Malays faced.
When we look at these two communities and examine their relative success or lack of, we can see clearly if we are unbiased, that the NEP although it had some positive contribution early on, had perhaps outlived its usefulness. Instead of helping it is now entrenching the entitlement mentality that you talked about.
All this is not to argue for not helping the Malays or for any Malaysians who need help. But a perpetual NEP is not the way to go about doing it.
Therecis no doubt our country will be ruined by these idiots sooner or later if nothing is done to stop them.
ReplyDeleteDato',
ReplyDeleteI just hope more Malays will accept the cold hard fact of life, i.e. there is no free lunch. Whatever you want YOU HAVE TO WORK HARD FOR IT. There is no short cut about it. The pomp and grandeur of the launch will not solve any problem, but hard work will!
Dear Dato Sak;
ReplyDeleteIn trying to up his ante to please the Malays and at the same time punish the Chinese for not voting BNs overwhemingly, Najib has tinkered with the Law of Entrophy- that law that dictates that energy(or money,economic pie) is constant and orderliness with decay into anarchy will spontaneously occur if no efforts are undertaken to create new energy( money, resources).
The NEP has created some form of entropy in the Malay psyche. Getting handouts without putting in effort/ energy results in the Malay race being laid-back and unable to contribute positive energy to prevent the Malay race from being catapulted into irrelevance in the future which I see in an inevitability.
Najib, the right wingers and those lazy
bums thought they have done something great to the Malay race by giving them something out of nothing. The Malay race will be made indolent, non-compeititive, forever asking for alms and addicted to a luxurious lifestyle. When one fine day, the country ran out of natural resources or the government is unable to continue to pander/unkeep these privilges owing to the infusion of more Bumiputras from Philipines, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Pakistan, Indonesia and others, then all hell will break loose. Anarchy, demonstrations, killings and lawlessness will prevail.
Of course, the social and national melt-down will not occur in Najib's or most of the living Malay extremist's lifetime but it can't be said for his or their children's or grandchildren's time. But as selfish and immoral people, they won't give a damn so long as bad things don't occur duing their time on this earth. Anak atau cucu, diaorang punya pasal-I no eyes see.
For the others non who are made more resillient because of these bullying/apartheid policies of Umno, they are already a super race in disguise and can survive in any parts of the world so long as Mother earth can still physically sustain life.
Let, Umno and Najib hallucinates, let the Malay masses be doped by their lies and indoctrinations and slow poisoning by the last rascist/apartheid/stupid regime left in this world. When they have awakened from the stupor, the world would have passed them by.
We the feet are in no position to tell the head what to do. So be it.Cina dan India tidak akan hilang di dunia ini. Terima Kasih.
ReplyDeleteBe that as it may, Malays are happy that Najib is back to loving them. That this is a just reward for us voting UMNO back to power.
ReplyDeleteMalays feel alienated when he was over-courting the Chinese by giving money to temples and to Chinese schools. Up to the eve of GE, he was giving allocation to a Chinese school.
All the perks for Chinese leave some Malays teary-eyed.
I am sure you know there are Malays who did not go out to vote because of this. Without UMNO, why must they waste time voting. SO it's time he returned our love.
And I agree with Kadir Jasin that the rural poor must be the first target of empowerment. See how they can benefit more from good network of business strategies to uplift their economy.
And an economist said new townships must have provisions for Malay shops.
As a Malay (or half Malay), are you not proud when Najib said: "Sememangnya kita mendengar rintihan tuan-tuan dan puan-puan...Yes indeed!!!....We hear you..We hear you loud and clear."
And: "Kepada orang-orang Melayu dan Bumiputera, usahlah berbimbang-bimbang dan bergundah-gundah, kerana selagi hayat dikandung badan, survival Melayu dan bumiputera tetapi menjadi keutamaan dan pelita perjuangan kita sampai bila-bila."
Wow, that's a firm commitment.
And the most important thing is with this policy, Najib is set to be firmly entrenched as PM. Good-bye forever, Anu-War. Bwahaha.
And he will be the unchallenged UMNO President. I think Ku Li will change his mind about going against him.
P.s. Aren't you sad that you are out of the system? That whom you said will benefit from this policy will be people like you?
Salam Datuk,
ReplyDeleteYou have clarity enough to see beyond this blatant reincarnation of policies that have failed to enrich ordinary Malays.
So do many others; yet is the clarity widespread enough?
"Of course, the social and national melt-down will not occur in Najib's or most of the living Malay extremist's lifetime but it can't be said for his or their children's or grandchildren's time", says a commenter.
Hence, Najib has no qualms about throwing not millions but billions around, merely to secure his own survival.
We saw it pre-GE13; we see it now, pre-Umno polls.
But what can be done to wean the Umno-voting population off their financial opiates? To make them see the truth that these billions will go into very few pockets?
It is a task that's hard.
A fat woman will prefer a boyfriend who lies and says: "you are beautiful and thin", over a boyfriend who says: "you are fat, but I will get up at 6am to go jogging with you, for three months. It will be hard, but I will make you beautiful and thin by the end".
This is a quandary that PR must resolve together.
The time to start is now.
To quote QD...the Malaya are happy that Najib is back loving them.QD must chuckle when he wrote that statement.The Malays,that loves Najib is the 2000++ perwakilan that will held all UMNO leaders to ransom for their votes.
ReplyDelete@ quiet despair
ReplyDeleteQuote:
'As a Malay (or half Malay), are you not proud when Najib said: "Sememangnya kita mendengar rintihan tuan-tuan dan puan-puan...Yes indeed!!!....We hear you..We hear you loud and clear."
And: "Kepada orang-orang Melayu dan Bumiputera, usahlah berbimbang-bimbang dan bergundah-gundah, kerana selagi hayat dikandung badan, survival Melayu dan bumiputera tetapi menjadi keutamaan dan pelita perjuangan kita sampai bila-bila."
No, not really proud. Just like BR1M, it[s a pre-election bribe from a desperate politician. The same promises have been made and broken a dozen times, and still after 40 years Malays and Malaysia lag behind countries who have far surpassed us.
These fine but insincere words just mean business as usual, which is more fat contracts for the Umno boys while doing nothing to uplift ordinary Malays.
You've seen it happen for 40 years, so what has really changed?
Quiet Despair,
ReplyDelete‘Aren't you sad that you are out of the system? That whom you said will benefit from this policy will be people like you?’
MF**ker, so it all boils down to this, for u!
A Freudian slip & inevitably yr true colour shows.
BTW, why r u still here to play crown? Aint yr greencard entitles u to a way of challenge of ability? Or rather the tongkat of bolihalnd that yr paternal side provides u with is too tempting not to exploit by a slimy scum, who’s ability is spurious. Am I wrong to say u have gene-coded fork-tongue into yr current life, after all yr paternal side IS not Melayu tulin?
Obviously u r playing Melayu terlampau Melayu, so as to get some’benefits’ via yr older generation’s constitutional definition! Yes?
M: Do you think it will work?
ReplyDeleteB: If it didn't at rm54 billion, would it at rm9 billion, for that matter rm900 billion?
M: Are you hinting it's to bumiputra at large what br1m was to the poor at large?
B: What sustained effect did br1m deliver except a few more rounds at mcdonalds and kfc? And if people are asking what's wrong with that, then the situation is even worse if being able to afford fast food is considered an economic improvement.
M: We need something more worthwhile and sustainable for the poor.
B: Let me correct you immediately. You don't mean 'the' poor. You mean 'our' poor.
M: Point taken. But it's Umno after all and since Umno is a Malay party, then our politicians can't be blamed for thinking first about their race.
B: But when they dispense the money, what hat are they wearing and where did the money come from?
M: Well, if you want to argue like that, then our poor will forever not be helped.
B: Hold on there. Did you give a thought about the poor of the other races?
M: We think most of them are doing alright. And because of the way we are constructed, we don't have a mandate to service them.
B: Which side of the bed did you fall off from this morning?
You just equated an unpopular party with a national government.
Do you know the meaning of national?
Do you know how many poor non-bumi's are out there? Can you see 1M inside your own Br1M? Do you feel no shame from still thinking you can do any damn thing you like with taxpayers money and then use them as punching bags just to wash away your shame? C'mon, make my day.
M: But surely you can agree our Malays form the biggest poverty group.
B: Let me tell you what is real poverty. It's 13 percent versus 80 percent concentration. That's what is poverty in this country.
M: I don't get you.
B: Then you can disqualify yourself and at your own expense.
M: Care to explain?
B: Paraquat dichloride was sold at 80% strength for a long time. Nowadays, you can only get it at 13% strength, furthermore at increased prices.
You see, so many of the poor in the estates had drunk it at 80% to kill themselves that the manufacturers had to be coaxed to reduce its strength. Don't you already know where these poor souls come from?
M: Well, at least now they can die in cells.
B: Let me guess. The feeling of compassion you have is restricted by only one factor. Race. Are you therefore a racist since that would be the only reason for your brusque and utterly heartless remark?
M: Look, i don't blame you for thinking that of me. But the election is coming and if i don't win, then i can't have the power to maintain peace and order and prosperity after that, can i? It's a tradeoff. We know the minorities are too small in numbers to do anything about it so we just have to be thick-skinned about things.
B: And how many times have you been doing the same thing and expecting different results?
ReplyDeleteUnless...unless all the while you knew you were not going to get different results...
...which means...which means you had some other personal agenda in twisting a party platform for national access to minority-contributed tax funds which is the sole objective of the entire sandiwara year after year.
No?
M: Whatever the case may be....
B: No. Enough is enough. No more trying to whitewash the matter.
Your party created all the mess and tension and then it comes out to say it must be returned in order to stop the mess and tension.
Even donkeys will have brains to see through such idiocy.
M: Ok. How much?
B: What?
M: How much of that rm9 billion you want as a closed tender contract?
B: With or without your usual 30% kickback?
M: Of course, with. After all, fuel prices have gone up. Haulage had followed immediately, soon electricity, then GST diikuti income tax restructuring.
I do have a lifestyle to upkeep, you know.
B: Ok. Let's see. My maths is mampus. Say about 30% kickbacks from rm9 billion leaves about Rm6 billion adalah 600 of rm10 million so the full sum equals giving out a total of 600 bumi companies a rm10 million contract each.
Say, 20 bumi workers in each company. This means at best the rm9 billion will benefit 12,000 bumiputra workers plus 2,000 Umno special members. Betul?
M: Not so loud-lah. You want the whole world to know-kah?
B: (whispers conspiratorially). Forgive me....a moment of over-excited indiscretion.
But i have a problem with those numbers.
M: What problem can there be? You've just been given a chance to have the first bite of the juicy epal. When was the last time you had one?
B: These days even duku also cannot afford so i'll take that as an encouragement.
But indulge me. I have a teeny pang of conscience somewhere. It's the number, you see. A total of 14,000 special bumi's will benefit from that rm9 billion when all along it is portrayed as NEP2 to push the Great Economik Assimilasi Bungkus Nasi Mati Mesti Transformasi program.
Which our felicitous blogger has pointed out was actually meant for 19 million bumi's.
That's 19,000,000 orang-orang. So minus 14,000 orang-orang, leaves eighteen million nine hundred and eighty six thousand of our Malays without it.
M: Hah, you're so wrong. You forget our 12,000 bumi's benefiting will be able to provide spin-offs to those 18,986,000.
B: Are you sure or not? Spin i can believe but spin-off?
What spin-off can they give out from their rm10 million contracts when prices of raw materials and transport have gone up?
However let me humour you. Say each company can donate rm2 million of the contract sum to the other not so fortunate Malays. That's rm1,200 million for some 18,986,000 Malays.
Or rm63.20 for each not-so-fortunate poor Malay. Generous,eh?
It's not NEP. It's NURO. New Umno Rip Off.
M: Oi! You can't simply talk like that.
B: Ok, since you're holding the big stick, i'll waggle along. But tell me, after selling the soul for rm10 million, and knowing the 2,000 special bumi's may each and i repeat - each - get rm1,500,000, which of the 600 companies would want to give out rm2,000,000 each translated as rm63.20 per other Malay outside the company, especially when Br0M (that's Zero Malaysia) will be coming along with rm1,500 for a household of say 6? And bugger those stupid taxpaying china-men and their companies.
It's not just NURO. It's also NERO. New Economic Rip Off. All because Umno wants to be hero. But at the expense of Malaysia becoming zero.
3/3
ReplyDeleteM: Ah, but you forget. We have endless possibilities. That sixty three twenty in each Malay hand will multiply itself into billions, erasing our national deficit and raising us above the others into the pantheon of the great nations!
B: But don't you know these days the only thing that can give us endless possibilities is viagra?
You may want to pop some before the election. By the way, sixty three twenty buys two. (sucks tooth).
M: Why can't you for once see what we are trying to do?!
B: Blame it on my poor eyesight.
M: Can't you see we are trying to save our way of life?
B: By 'our' you mean Malay or Malaysian or 'Umno elite'?
M: Well, without Umno elite how to have the others?
B: Excuser me, did a nyamuk just fly in and got stuck in my telinga or what?!
It's precisely because of the Umno elites that the others won't have.
M: Your otak tak pakai. Blame it on those bloody pendatang's. They must somehow have given you their mumbo-jumbo wishy-washy Malaysian talk. We own the sovereignty and dignity of this land. Who are they?
B: But just the other day i saw something funny.
M: What?!
B: I saw an old chinaman talking perfect Malay to a young Malay girl who replied to him in what i presume would be perfect mandarin so that if i had closed my eyes at that moment, i could have sworn a conversation was going on between a Malay man and a Chinese girl. So strange-one, lah.
M: That's what we are trying to prevent. Cultural pollution.
B: Of who? The Chinese man or the Malay girl?
By the way, i sensed they deliberately wanted to use each other's language just to keep alive that magical moment of Malaysian chemistry.
Maybe Umno would care to make a new movie out of that, instead of that tandas thingey?
M: Hardly, old chap. Anything that brings the races together we will banish. If we don't create division between the races, they may see through us and then we will not have the power to rule over them.
B: Like the Brits. Or the Kempetai?
M: Who cares these days? We may be running a huge national deficit. Our institutions may have all gone to the dogs. Our economy and industries and corporations may be barely floating. Our bourse may be keeling over. Our reputation may be in tatters. Our rakyat may be at their financial end.
But we shall still triumph.
B: Only in Putrajaya Convention Centre and PWTC Convention Centre. Everywhere else throughout the country, Umno has left its footprint of despotic despoliation.
M: You're entitled to your opinion. After all, don't we run one of the finest democracies in the world?
B: With or without gerrymandering the constituencies?
M: Just be grateful that contract will be stamp-duty exempt.
B: My gratitude already overflows endlessly.
Perhaps one of these days you just simply pause awhile, take a deep breath and ponder nicely on what UMNO have positively endowed our Malay community. Don't tell me its all zero, nil, zilch, nahe, ..! But then again were there actually any bridge that you need to burn?
ReplyDeleteDato Sak,
ReplyDeleteNo offense to the Malays but I believe Najib is replacing the Malays hand crutches with wheelchairs, except that the wheels on the wheelchairs will fall off easily. And then the Malays cannot even get up from the ground since they no longer even have the hand crutches to support themselves.
The non Malays on the other hand have their pride even though they are discriminated left, right and center. And their pride is what makes the non Malays more resilient to survive in this discriminatory environment.
anon@16 September 2013 16:37
ReplyDeletePerhaps one of these days you just simply pause awhile, take a deep breath and ponder nicely on what Chen Peng had positively endowed the Malaya, & thus M’sia. Don't tell me its all zero, nil, zilch, nahe, ..!
What an insight!
Perhaps it also explains why that die-hard resolution of not letting a patriot to come back to M'sia upon his death, even in ash form!
This is cruel & despicable & against all form of religious teachings.
Maybe, just like someone argued single-mindedly that that Allah is ONLY for Muslim in M'sia, bcoz of the localisation of Islamic interpretation. Does Islam has a M'sia interpretation?
So does no allowing a make-believed enemy of the state to return, upon a mutually signed agreement for them to return, upon lying down their weapons. Is this another localization of interpretation of the Quran & a signed official agreement?
Or it's just a farce to show the heartlanders that these scums r the defenders of their AlifBaTa, even though that initiative has been twisted in favour for continuing their strong grip of the lives of the heartlanders.
Never mind that these have casted a low esteem for M’sia’s interpretations on anything, if there is ever any!
‘But then again were there actually any bridge that you need to burn?’
As far as M’sia is concerned, any bridge that leads to her demise MUST be burned – whether real &/or imaginary.
For whatever good that umno has done to the Malays, eventually it all leads to their state of entrenched dependency. Hence, without umno, the Malay CANNOT survive!
With the coming umno erection, the ensuring orgies demand that their demands must be diperkasakan. This enforcement would eventually lead to the downfall of the M’sian nationhood, as hiding behind this Pemerkasaan ekonomi Bumiputera is the bigger force of zero sum game with a diminishing economic establishment, supporting all this wise by the minority, tax-paying Nons!
With a small group of pampered spoiled brats, cheer-leading a large majority of either blur-sotongs, tidak-apaers, In-Sya Allah stickers & cant-do-anythingers, the end result is a forgone conclusion.
So, what positive endowment has umno given to the Malay community, again?
Short-termly, it has given some fault hopes to the gullible majority while creating a self-serving elite that feeds on the imaginary fears of the mass. Long-termly, it gives bad reputation to the race in twisting their cries of AlifBaTa.
Truth to be told, with umno, the Malay as a group has change from an able body, with healthy mind & limbs, to a group of pseudo cripple, with psychological inferiority complex, who progresses from crutches to wheelchairs. The saddest part is that all this is done, with prom & fanfare, by a big section of the supporting pseudo-Malays!
Datuk Sak
ReplyDeleteNEP is perhaps also an acronym for:
Najib's Endless Pusillanimous Pussy-Footing ?
Phua Kai Lit