Onlooker said...
Yang Amat Berbahagia Tun Dr Mahathir,
I see that you are really showing your concern about the future of UMNO. However, you have deliberately chosen to ignore the fact that the accumulated weaknesses in UMNO nowadays are undoubtedly originated from the much controversial New Economic Policy (NEP). In paper it can be read that the NEP comes with two noble objectives: 1. To promote economic growth, and 2. To eradicate poverty disregard of ethnics. In reality during your tenure as the Prime Minister of Malaysia, you chose to purportedly neglect the second noble objective of NEP and attempted to discriminately create a few multi-millionaires among the Malays (your two rich sons were the best examples of the successful multi-millionaires who had been created during your reign.) You even tried to legitimize this policy with the reason that the created Malay rich men would eventually eliminate the clear-cut isolation of different ethnics by wealth and then help to remove the jealous emotion of Malays against the relatively richer Malaysians of Chinese and Indian origins. You have tried to justify your biased policy by citing 'the prevention of racial conflicts possibly caused by wealth jealousy' as the main reason for making a few Malays rich.
However, after many years' weary implementation of the NEP, I hope you are able to sense by now that the policy of 'making a few Malays rich first' has already brought forth some setbacks or some harmful chronic side-effects. The few rich Malays do not necessarily give inspiration to the poorer Malaysians towards the direction of working hard in order to bring changes to their fate of being born poor since these few rich Malays made their fortune too easily through a short-cut of building up a political cabling. Some of these few rich Malays have even created some resentment among the Malay community. Take for instance, your best friend Malay Tycoon Tun Daim has already become a social outcast because people believe that he has squandered a lot of the people's money and then run away to live luxuriously either in South Africa or California.
UMNO members have a lot of discontent because they have too much demands and aspirations which are not easy to satisfy. Some members want 'tanah kurnia' (government granted land). Some ask for infrastructure and construction projects with lucrative profit but easy work. Some request for government financial aids or grants that are never required to be paid back to the government. Some want their son or daughter to be sent overseas for further study on the government scholarship even though this child's academic result does not meet up the admission requirement. This category of UMNO members are economically motivated by the implementation of the policy of 'making a few Malays rich first'. They also hope to be one of these few rich Malays whom will be created rich under the implementation of the NEP.
Of course, not every man can become rich too easily, disregard of ethnics, if the wealth does not come directly from the blessing of God. Many Malaysians fail to realize this truth about personal wealth. When the NEP has successfully created only a few rich Malays but left the majority Malay people live in abject poverty, the majority Malay people would definitely feel very disappointed with UMNO. Knowing this fact, it is therefore not too difficult to understand that why there were so many UMNO members choosing to cast either an opposition vote or a trash vote in Election March 8, 2008!
Tun, I hope you can be brave enough to admit your own mistake in the past. As a policy maker, a Prime Minister should not focus on only a particular interested group as the beneficary of a government policy. A popular government economic policy should by right help to create a full-fledge and sustainable positive macro-economic effect on the nation as a whole, disregard of ethnics.
Pak Lah may be too hastily to raise the petrol price by 41% in one shot. However, when we try to look at the positive aspect of this price up measure, we may be able to find that the desired curb on petrol consumption can be expected to help us save a lot of foreign exchange and help the Bank Negara to build up a much higher international reserve for purpose of strengthening the currency value of Ringgit. It is an undeniable fact that a stronger Ringgit will eventually give a positive impact on our economy as a whole since it helps to curb the imported inflation and also helps to attract the inflow of foreign direct investment when the investors feel comfortable with money putting in a strong Ringgit!
I hope you are willing to allow Pak Lah a bit more time to prove himself out. His policy may be politically incorrect, but it is economically making sense!
This is a viewpoint of a Malaysian farmer.
June 14, 2008 2:41 AM
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