[Malaysia] NEP: Wrong to blame policy

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NEP: Wrong to blame policy

TUNKU TAN SRI SHAHRIMAN TUNKU SULAIMAN, Kuala Lumpur
Aug 29 2005

ON Aug 14, my daughter lecturing in digital media at a local university came back by bus to Kuala Lumpur from Langkawi.

She took a taxi from Jalan Bukit Bintang to my house in Persiaran Duta.

The taxi driver was Chinese. He asked my daughter, despite her wearing a tudung, if she was of Chinese descent. My daughter informed him her grandmother was Chinese.

The taxi driver then began narrating to my daughter his frustrations. He said he had three children and laboured for 10 hours a day and yet hardly earned enough to support his three children in school.

On the other hand, he said he had read in newspapers that one of the "Approved Permit kings" enjoyed a very luxurious life, even to the extent of going to his golf club in his helicopter.

During the whole journey, the taxi driver went on raising the same issues and, I am sure out of ignorance, blamed the New Economic Policy (NEP) for his difficulties.

While I fully sympathise with the poor taxi driver and it is difficult for anybody to defend such a situation, I honestly think his blaming the NEP for his difficulties is wrong and misplaced.

As the first director-general of ICDAU (now the Implementation and Co-ordination Unit), a unit in the Prime Minister’s Department reporting direct to Tun Abdul Razak Hussein, and responsible for monitoring the implementation of the NEP, I am a bit disappointed and sad that most of the discussions and statements made by politicians and others today seem to focus only on initiatives taken by the Government to obtain at least 30 per cent of the economic pie for Bumiputeras.

Actually, the other equally important objective of the NEP, that is the eradication of poverty irrespective of race, is also very relevant.

When the NEP was launched, the National Action Committee (for which I was the secretary) comprised Razak, Tun Dr Ismail Abdul Rahman, Tun Tan Siew Sin, Tun V.T. Sambanthan and Tan Sri Ghazali Shafie (now Tun).

It met almost every week to discuss and ensure that the two main objectives of the policy, that is to redress the economic imbalance among the races and eradicate poverty, were equally addressed and frankly debated in the National Action Council meeting room.

In the case of poverty eradication, big programmes were formulated and implemented in rural areas, comprising Malay kampungs, Chinese new villages, Indian settlements and native areas in Sarawak and Sabah.

Not much priority was then given to mega projects and most of the manpower and finance were used for the purpose of poverty alleviation.

For instance, I still remember, at that time there was a proposal to build a massive building in Kuala Lumpur for the Farmers Organisation Authority (Lembaga Pertubuhan Peladang) to showcase the political and economic strength of rural areas but it was turned down by Razak. He shot down the proposal, telling me: "What is the point of having beautiful buildings when the farmers in the kampungs, new villages and estates are poor?"

The National Action Council was later informed of the rejection.

As for the objective of redressing the economic imbalance among the races, the sacred guidelines of the National Action Council, to be effected by government agencies and departments, was that it should not be done at the expense of other races and should be implemented in the context of an expanding economic cake.

The NEP must have been one of the major issues considered by Malaysian voters going to the polls in 1974. Its noble dual objectives must have been clearly explained and accepted by them. In my opinion, this was why the Barisan Nasional won 135 of 154 parliamentary seats contested that year.

What was sweeter for the Barisan Nasional, which then included Parti Islam Malaysia, was that they won 47 seats uncontested.

I am sure a clear explanation of the dual roles of the NEP, instead of the over-emphasis we have now on racial economic objectives, would be equally acceptable to all Malaysians today.

I will be 74 in February 2006 and look forward to the day in the next few years when my daughter or granddaughter taking a taxi to my house and the driver, whether he be Chinese, Malay or Indian, tells her that he is the owner and licence holder of the taxi and that he lives in a three-bedroom house, purchased perhaps with some assistance from the Government, and that at least one of his children goes to university on a government or private sector scholarship.

I hope this taxi driver is no longer angry with rich Bumiputeras who achieved such status through hard work and perseverance, wisely making use of the opportunities given not only by the Government but also the private sector.

I am confident that under the leadership of our Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, and the genuine support of leaders of the Barisan Nasional, Malaysia will have a bright future with its people living in harmony and prosperity, marching hand-in-hand towards becoming a developed nation.

From now onwards let us therefore talk more of unity rather than division, showing humility rather than arrogance and be constructive rather than destructive