The Nefarious Economic Policy & Bumiputras

THE NEFARIOUS ECONOMIC POLICY & BUMIPUTRAS

While everyone (except those directly benefiting from it) will agree that it is high time money politics was eradicated from Malaysian political life, this entirely depends on the status of enlightenment of the electorate and whether they care enough about the future. If Kelantan managed to do it, I don't see why the rest of Malaysia, especially Sarawak, can't (even if PAS does not figure in the equation).

This time around, in the just-concluded 2008 general elections, people in another 4 states, Penang, Perak, Kedah and Selangor, booted out the BN and voted in PKR, DAP and PAS. Will it be the turn of Sarawak next (in or before 2011)? For the good of all Sarawakians it had better be.

I don't think it's so much because of the larger sums of money available to Malays and to a lesser extent other Bumiputras. I'm quite sure we can see money politics being practised by the Chinese and the Indian segments of the BN as well. Cronyism and corruption go beyond race. The BN's politics of divide and rule through the raising of the racial spectre or bogeyman has a lot more to do with race than any other factor and allow the money politics to take place.

It is every loyal Sarawak citizen's duty to ensure that the electorate will not continue to be fooled yet again by PBB and the rest of the traitorous Sarawak BN. These people have betrayed not just their own respective races but the whole State in the process. They will continue to do so until the majority of the electorate tell them "Enough is enough!"

Genuine reform can only take place if the electorate itself genuinely desires such reform and is aware of the real and desperate need for it. Such enlightenment does not come without hard work and thought or effort on everyone's part. We will all have to sacrifice some of our racial stereotypes and prejudices if we are to achieve any semblance of political maturity on which to base the future progress of our State and Nation along the path of sustainable political, economic, social, material, ethical, moral and spiritual development.

We hold the key to our own future. Let us not be bribed or tricked into handing it over to the bunch of crooks and charlatans who have the disgusting temerity to call themselves our government and claim a mandate which they never really had all these years.

Let us work together irrespective of race or religion for our own greater good towards a new and better Sarawak and Malaysia. It's going to be tough going, especially in view of the sheer scale of what has been siphoned out of our system, but it has to be done.

Let us not surrender to a bunch of flag-waving traitors who spit in our faces, trample on us and pick our pockets in broad daylight, then ask us to pay taxes and tolls.

The costs are undoubtedly too high. The Malays and other Bumiputras will have to learn to trust those Chinese (who can be trusted) and the Chinese will have to forge genuine partnerships with trustworthy Malays/Bumiputras unlike the present system of each using the other for their own sorry and illegitimate gains. There is no denying that some Chinese have benefited from the NEP as well and that the majority of the Malays/Bumiputras and Chinese have not.

Unfortunately, this has an ethical and moral dimension as well. Many of the businesses as well as the business practices of many (not all) Chinese are anathema to the Malays (other than for the more materialistic ones).

Competition does not take place on a level playing field and "economic" development is therefore distorted by this factor. There are many things which Chinese can do which Malays being Muslims cannot. This must be taken into account. Not all Malays/Bumiputras can be bought (nor are all given equitable access) in spite of the so-called advantages which they are supposed to have through the NEP and not all Chinese do business unethically.

Again, it must be said that genuine attempts must be made to eliminate unfair and unethical business practices, corruption, etc. so that the real costs of progress/development are transparent. This requires much open discussion and more hard work.

To end the politics of race, we must all be prepared to join a multi-racial party whose membership is open to all (needless to say regardless of race, religion or what have you), entirely for the purposes of working towards such goals. Is PKR such a party? Only the people can answer this for themselves.

It is not going to be easy and a lot needs to be worked out, but then again who said reform would be easy? Such change for the better can only come about through a change in the government.

True mutual understanding and tolerance for each other's beliefs/culture, etc. are key ingredients for reform. Abuse and injustice in any form cannot and must not be tolerated irrespective of the race of the perpetrators.

We must all personally fight tyranny, corruption, and injustice committed by someone even of our own race. We should all develop a concept that race is nothing other than perhaps merely a convenient means of identification (but then there are also many other means of identification).

It is high time Malaysians progressed towards such a level of maturity. Malays as Muslims should also remember that Islam is not a racist religion and that no race is superior to others in any manner.

Even through handicaps, people cheat at golf. Do such people deserve such handicaps when they abuse the system? This has nothing to do with race, merely personal propensity. Generalising racial "traits" is not only misleading but highly dangerous and should be shunned at all costs.

This should to some extent clarify the real situation. Can we now get on with the real job of reform instead of quibbling about who has really benefited from the Nefarious Economic Policy? There are more important things to do, rather than to fight over this.