Affirmative action shackles, not frees
Jaya Prakash, Malaysiakini, Jul 27, 05
With the dust finally settled on Umno’s general assembly, the logical thing to do next, is to follow up on what was deliberated during the sessions. It is also an occasion for grave reflection and introspection.
That means making every word uttered during the assembly a bond. And could range from tackling a whole gamut of issues from reining in corruption, to ethereal issues such as the issuance of permits for cars and how to hoist the economy to developed status.
Even as all these seem noble and uplifting to the cause of national morale, the failure nonetheless, to tackle and banish the bumiputera policy must have surely left many keen watchers of the event with a sense of understandable disillusionment.
If that disillusionment is what is felt, the fact that the policy will be given a second lease of life - despite its obvious failure – from a no less a public figure than Khairy Jamaluddin amounts to a death blow to those wishing for the policy's demise.
This is despite the irony and failure of the assistance scheme to deliver the 30 percent stakeholder role in the economy for the Malays; which interestingly was what the policy was intended for.
Far from it, it has attracted snide attacks from no less a figure than the very architect of it: former premier Dr Mahathir Mohamad.
The mercurial former leader had once reasoned two years ago, that despite all the help the Malays got from affirmative action programmes, they still fell dismally behind the non-Malays, especially the Chinese, in educational and economic performance.
"No matter what kind of obstacles we place, the Chinese are still able to get ahead and (survive)," were the words the former Umno boss used when expressing his disappointment with the bumiputera policy.
Those words give ample clues that like any idea which time has come, the bumiputera policy needs its final sacraments and a resting-place.
But alas, that does not seem like what it is about to get.
Naivete and defensiveness
To the contrary, what seemed to have ruled the assembly's raucous sessions, is a prevailing sense of naivete and maybe outright defensiveness.
If ever the policy is revived, how much merit it deserves in Malay and subsequently in Malaysian consciousness would only be left to harsh historical judgements?
To begin with, what needs addressing is not what the bumiputera policy has done, but what it will never be able to do all because of what it is.
If Malay competitiveness is what is needed here, remedial action should begin first with very a hard look at education followed by stringent and transparent ways to ensure it is what to international standards.
So, in the main what is needed if not for a dismantling of the bumiputera policy is perhaps a fine-tuning of it. This could mean, the gradual withdrawal of subsidies and business permits for bumiputeras, signalling to them that like a growing child, they do need to grow up and come of age.
Yet what has never been attempted for fear of embarrassment, is the Singapore-style, self-help programmes such as Mendaki. Such a programme would not only foster a spirit of kinship loyalty, but a kindred desire to pitch and rescue fellow compatriots.
With institutional guarantees, such a programme can be gauged for its effectiveness by periodic reports on its success, and become a useful indicator of the progress of the community.
Presently, the bumiputera policy with an emphasis on heavy handouts is unable to deliver that, as too often it is bogged down in institutional gridlock and red tape.
The Italians have a saying that goes like this. "Welfare is like holy water. Everybody helps themselves to it".
That could just sum up the situation with affirmative action. Because it is help that is free without any need to earn it, everybody helps themselves to it.
The choice indeed now is for Malaysia to make. Whether to learn from experience or have that same experience shackle it once again.
Jaya Prakash lectures in journalism in Singapore
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