Malaysia is a multiracial, multilingual, multireligion and multicultural nation. Malaysia is a small nation which is situated in the South East Asia region of the world. Malaysia which is previously known as Persekutuan Tanah Melayu (Malaya) gains her independent from British in 31th August 1957 and when Sabah, Sarawak and Singapore join Persekutuan Tanah Melayu (Malaya) in September 1963 the name Malaya was changed to Malaysia. In 1965 Lee Kuan Yew decided to take out Singapore from Malaysia to become an independent state known as the Republic of Singapore. Since independence it was the wishes of all the Prime Minister of Malaysia that Malaysia should become a united and prosperous nation. Malaysia has become an independent nation for more than 56 years. During the 56 years of independence, Malaysia had six Prime Ministers. All the six Prime Ministers of Malaysia were from Barisan National (BN). Since independence in 1957, Malaysia has always been a country with peace and harmony except during the 13th may 1969 incident, where there was one racial riot between the Malays and the Chinese in the city of Kuala Lumpur. During the riots, there were thousands of Chinese and Malays who were killed and the incident had led Malaysia to have state of emergency rule between 1969- 1972. The state of emergency rules was headed by the late Tun Abdul Razak who was the second Prime Minister of Malaysia and the father of our current Prime Minister, Dato’ Seri Najib Abdul Razak. It was during the state of emergency rule, when the New Economic Policy or NEP was formulated. The aim of the New Economic Policy was to distribute the wealth of Malaysia justifiably between the various races in Malaysia.
The New Economic Policy or NEP aims at restructuring the distribution of wealth between the Chinese, the Malays and the Indians in Malaysia. Although Chinese is only 27% of the Malaysian population but the Chinese control about 70% of the wealth of Malaysia. The New Economic Policy or NEP was formulated with the main aim of making the Malays and Bumiputra who are the majority race in Malaysia to own about 30% of the richness of Malaysia. Unfortunately until today the main aim of the New Economic Policy or NEP has never been achieved. The New Economic Policy or NEP, which was implemented by Barisan National, was successful in making the Malays and the Bumiputra to own only about 16% of the richness of Malaysia. In other words, until today, Barisan National was not able to restructure the economic or the wealth distribution among the various races of Malaysia. Why until today, Barisan National was not able to restructure the economic or the wealth distribution between the various races of Malaysia? Many Malaysians believe Barisan National had failed to achieve the aim of the New Economic Policy because the party is heavily smeared with corruption, cronyism, and nepotism. The government under Barisan National had failed to achieve the aim of the New Economic Policy because the government failed to curb the practices of corruption, cronyism, and nepotism among the Malay ministers and Malay government servants. When all the ministers and all the government servants who are mainly Malays are taking bribe from the Chinese businessmen, the aim of making the Malays to become rich has become a failure and instead of making the Malays to become rich, the Chinese have become even richer. The real culprits who have makes the aim of the New Economic Policy or NEP has become a failure is the corrupt Malay ministers and Malay government servants who are tempted to take bribes from the Chinese businessmen. Why Malay ministers and Malay government servants are tempted to take bribes from the Chinese businessmen is because they were only Muslims and not believers. Until today, because of the failure of the New Economic Policy there are still many Malays and Bumiputra who are living in the remote areas of Malaysia with poverty and scarcity.
In general, Malays are farmers while most of the educated Malays are working with the government. Many Malays choose to work with the government because they believe to work with the government will provide them with the stable income. In Malaysia, there are very few Malays who are doing business while the majorities of Malays are working with the government or they are farmers. In my opinion, the New Economic Policy had failed to achieve its aim because the Malays are mostly working either with the government or working as farmers and very few of the Malays are doing business. With these two professions I do not think the Malays will ever manage to have the 30% share in the richness of Malaysia. As workers in the government the Malays will only earn a salary and by only earning a salary, the Malays will never become rich like the Chinese. As farmers the Malays are also not earning much because as farmers they are forced to sell their products to the Chinese middlemen at very low prices. It is the Chinese middlemen who are making the most money out of the retail businesses. How Malay farmers and fishermen could ever become rich when they are forced to sell their products to Chinese middlemen at very low prices. In my opinion, the Malays in Malaysia will only become rich when the Malays themselves not only to become farmers and fishermen but they must also become the middlemen who will not only distribute their products but become retailers who sell their products to the peoples.
Unfortunately all the middlemen in retail business in Malaysia are Chinese and since independence not much was done by the government of Malaysia about the monopoly of the Chinese in retail business. Chinese are not giving any opportunities to the Malays or any other races in Malaysia to become the middlemen in retail business. The government under Barisan National also is not helping the Malays and other races to become the middlemen in retail business in Malaysia. Chinese is not only controlling the profession of middlemen in retail business in Malaysia but the Chinese are controlling the transport system in retail businesses and therefore they are also controlling the distribution of the retail products in Malaysia. When the Chinese control the businesses of retail products such as sugar, rice and flour, in Malaysia, automatically the Chinese will control the prices of retail products in Malaysia. When the Chinese control the prices of retail products in Malaysia, automatically the Chinese will become the riches race in Malaysia. In my opinion, the Chinese is able to become the middlemen in retail products in Malaysia because they have the money, network and the connection. Many Malays and Indians are not able to become the middlemen in retail products in Malaysia because they neither have money or network nor do they have connections. One other reason why the Malays and Indians are not able to become the middlemen in retail products in Malaysia is because the government under Barisan National is not helping the Malays and other races to become the middlemen in retail products in Malaysia.
Chinese middlemen will sell the retail products such as rice, sugar and flour to the retailers who are also Chinese at prices which are control by the Chinese middlemen. When the prices of retail products are control by Chinese middlemen certainly the Chinese middlemen will be among the ones who will become rich in Malaysia. Who are the ones who will become rich in Malaysia? The ones who will become rich in Malaysia will be the ones who will obtain the large amount of money out of retail business in Malaysia? It is the Chinese middlemen who are in the business of retail products and the Chinese retailers who sell retail products who will become rich in Malaysia and not the Malays or the Indians who mainly work with the government and who are mainly farmers and the fishermen. Certainly it is the Chinese who will become the richest race in Malaysia. Since independence and until today the Chinese in Malaysia is the richest race in Malaysia while the Malays, other Bumiputra and Indians are among the poorest race in Malaysia. In my opinion the government under Barisan National had failed to understand the reason why the New Economic Policy which they had formulated in 1969 had failed in solving the problem of unequal distribution of wealth among the various races in Malaysia. New Economic Policy only aim to eradicate poverty among the Malays but not among the Indians and other races in Malaysia. In my opinion, the New Economic Policy is successful only in increasing the numbers of Malays and Bumiputra who are professionals. The government was successful in increasing the numbers of Malays and Bumiputra who are professionals by giving good Malay students scholarships to study professional courses oversea and within the country.
With the New Economic Policy the government under Barisan National was successful in sending thousands of Malays and Bumiputra students to study abroad in the various professional fields such as medicine, engineering, optometry and many others. When these Malays and Bumiputra students have graduated from their professional courses abroad and when they come back to Malaysia, they usually work with the government or with the private sectors and there are very few of them who will do businesses. With the presence of these Malays professionals, it will only increase the number of middle class Malays in Malaysia but the earnings of these Malays professionals will not contribute significantly to the increase in the wealth ownership among the Malays and Bumiputra in Malaysia. In my opinion, the Malays are a very special race and I think it is hard to find a race like the Malay race in this world. Malays are very accommodating to all the other races in the world. In my opinion there is no other race in the world which is very accommodating as the Malay race. The Malays race, allow other races to live with them with peace and harmony. The Malays is the majority race in Malaysia and they constitute about 65% of the population of Malaysia and yet now they own only 16% of the wealth in Malaysia. In my opinion the percentage of the wealth the Malays should owned in Malaysia should be about 60% and not 30% as requested by the Malays leaders at that time when the New Economic Policy was formulated in 1969. Although the Malays constitute about 60% of the population but I think the Malays are satisfied to own only 30% of the wealth of Malaysia.
Malays in general are not a greedy. In my opinion a Malay race is a race which easily becomes contented with the worldly materials which they owned in this world. Why the Malays in 1969 were asking only for 30% share of the wealth of Malaysia for the Malays, when the Malays should have asked for 60% share of the wealth of Malaysia? The Malays were asking only for 30% share and not for 60% share of the wealth of Malaysia, because in my opinion, the Malays at that time were not sure whether they could obtain even the 30% share of the wealth of Malaysia which they have asked in the New Economic Policy. In 1969, the Malays in Malaysia were very poor and even now with the implementation of the New Economic Policy, the Malays are able to obtain only 16% share of the wealth of Malaysia. With the implementation of the New Economic Policy, the Malays own only about 16% share of the wealth of Malaysia. What would be the percentage of the share of the wealth of Malaysia owned by the Malays in 1969? Since 1957, Barisan National was the only party which rule Malaysia. Since 1957 and until now, Barisan National was not even able to obtain 30% share of the wealth of Malaysia for the Malays? What is wrong with Umno and Barisan National and what is wrong with the New Economic Policy?
I am sure there is something wrong with Umno, Barisan National and with the New Economic Policy or otherwise the aim of attaining about 30% share of the wealth of Malaysia for the Malays through the New Economic Policy should have been achieved by now. In my opinion the New Economic Policy is wrong because, the real causes or reasons why the Chinese are rich and the Malays and the Indians are poor were not correctly diagnosed by the Malay leaders at the time when the New Economic Policy was being formulated in 1969. When the real causes of the disease were not correctly diagnosed the medicine to cure the disease were never implemented in the New Economic Policy. When the correct medicines to cure the disease were never implemented, then the disease of unequal distribution of wealth between the various races in Malaysia has never been cured until today. Although the Malays in Malaysia were not able to own even 30% share of the wealth of Malaysia, the Malays in Malaysia remain cool, calm and contented. This is the reason why I have said earlier that the Malays are a very good race in this world, who in spite of being the majority race in Malaysia is contented of owning only about 16% share of the wealth of Malaysia. Although the Malays own only 16% share of the wealth of Malaysia and the Chinese owns about 70% share of the wealth of Malaysia, the Malays are not jealous with the Chinese who are the minority race but own 70% share of the wealth of Malaysia. In spite of the Malays own only about 16% share of the wealth of Malaysia, the Malays is able to live with the Chinese and the Indians with peace and harmony.
Prof Dr Nasoha Saabin
July 2013
Integrative Holistic Wellness Centre