BERSIH Rally - Letter to International Organisations to make representations to Malaysian Government

 by P. Waytha Moorthy, Chair, HINDRAF

 

 

William J.Burns

The Under Secretary for Political Affairs

U.S. Department of State
2201 C Street NW
Washington, DC 20520

 

Rt.Hon.  William Hague MP

Foreign Secretary

Foreign & Commonwealth Office,
King Charles Street,
London.
SW1A 2AH

 

Ms Heidi Hautala

Chair of the Human Rights Sub Committee

European Parliament

Rue Wiertz
Wiertzstraat
B-1047 Brussels

 

Richard Ottaway MP

House of Commons

Foreign Affairs Committee

4 Millbank
City of London SW1P 3JA

 

 

Ms Navanethem Pillay

High Commissioner for Human Rights.

Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR)
Palais Wilson
52 rue des Pâquis
CH-1201 Geneva, Switzerland

+41 22 917 9656

civilsociety@ohchr.org

 

Mr. Githu Muigai
Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance
Palais des Nations
CH-1211 Geneva 10
Switzerland
Fax: +41 22 917 9006
Email: racism@ohchr.org

 

Mrs. Margaret Sekaggya
Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders
Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights

Palais des Nations
CH-1211 Geneva 10
Switzerland
Fax: +41 22 917 9006
Email: urgent-action@ohchr.org

 

Gay McDougall

Independent Expert on Minority Issues

Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights

Palais des Nations
CH-1211 Geneva 10
Switzerland 

Fax: + 41 22 917 9006

 

Mr. Frank La Rue
Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression
Palais des Nations
CH-1211 Geneva 10
Switzerland
Fax: +41 22 917 9006
Email: freedex@ohchr.org 

 

 

Gabriella Habtom
Human Rights Officer and Secretary of the Committee
on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination
Human Rights Treaties Division
Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights
Tel. +41.22.917.9193 - Fax +41.22.917.90.08
e-mail: ghabtom@ohchr.org / tb-petitions@ohchr.org
Palais Wilson - 52, rue des Pâquis, CH-1201,

Geneva, Switzerland

 

Frank William La Rue
Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression

UNOG-OHCHR 
CH-1211 Geneva 10
Switzerland

Tel: +41 22 917 93 32 
Fax: +41 22 917 90 22

 

 

 Amnesty International

1 Easton Street
London
WC1X 0DW, UK

Telephone: +44-20-74135500

Fax number: +44-20-79561157

Email: activism@amnesty.org.uk

 

Human Rights Watch

Address: 350 Fifth Avenue, 34th floor
New York, NY 10118-3299 USA
Tel: +1-212-290-4700
Fax: +1-212-736-1300
email: spiegem@hrw.org

 

Minority Rights Group International
54 Commercial Street
London E1 6LT, UK
Telephone: +44 (0)20 7422 4200
Fax: +44 (0)20 7422 4201

Email: minority.rights@mrgmail.org

 

Front Line –

The International Foundation for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders
Head Office, Second Floor, Grattan House
Temple Road, Blackrock
Co Dublin, Ireland
Tel: +353 (0)1 212 3750 
Fax: +353 (0)1 212 1001
E-mail: info@frontlinedefenders.org

 

OSCE Secretariat
Wallnerstrasse 6
1010 Vienna
Austria
Tel: +43 1 514 36 6000
Fax: +43 1 514 36 6996
E-mail: info@osce.org

 

 

NAACP

Washington Bureau
1156 15th Street, NW Suite 915
Washington, DC 20005
Phone: (202) 463-2940
Fax: (202) 463-2953
Email: washingtonbureau@naacpnet.org

 

European Union External Action Service

Menara Tan & Tan, Suite 10.01 
207 Jalan Tun Razak 
50400 Kuala Lumpur
Malaysia
Tel.: +6 03 2723 7373
Fax: +6 03 2723 7337

 E-mail: delegation-malaysia@ec.europa.eu

 

US Embassy Malaysia

Mr Brian D. McFeeters - Political Counselor

376 Jalan Tun Razak

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia  

Tel No:   (03) 2168-4946,

Fax  No : (03) 2168-5165,

Email : mcfeetersbd@state.gov

 

 

Rainbow Push Coalition

National Headquarters

930 East 50th Street

Chicago, IL 60615

Phone: 773-373-3366

Fax: 773-373-3571

Email : info@rainbowpush.org

 

National Action Network

House of Justice

106 West, 145^th Street,

Harlem ,NY 10039

Tel No: (212) 690 3070

Fax No ( 877)-  626  4651

Email : rachel@noerdlingermedia.com

 

23rd June 2011.

 

Dear Sir/Madam,

 

Re:      Urgent Request to make Representations to the Government of Malaysia on the possible violence by PERKASA, UMNO sponsored NGO on Human Rights Advocates and the general public on the BERSIH 2.0 public rally for free and fair election in Malaysia on 9^th July 2011.

  

I write to you with the utmost urgency for your attention on the above matter. 

 

BERSIH is a coalition of NGOs’  that  advocate   free and fair elections  and intend to march peacefully  with the public in Malaysia on July 9, 2011 in line with the fundamental rights  contained in the  Malaysian Federal constitution under Article  10.The purpose of the march is to express the collective desire of the malaysian people for a free and fair election in the forthcoming General Election.

 

PERKASA is a Malaysian NGO and is a tool used by the UMNO led Malaysian government in extending its ugly hands into politically extreme policies topped up by fear inducing methods to ensure that whatever is sacred in the Federal Constitution for the good of the multi-ethnic polity is  compromised through this fear and state sanctioned threats from a seemingly independent organisation -PERKASA..

 

Malaysiakini, one of the few independent online news  portals reported on June 19^th 2011 quoting  PERKASA as saying,  “Imagine, ladies and gentlemen, if the Bersih rally is not called off and they go ahead with it - if they don't cancel it on July 8 or 9 - I believe the Chinese community, many of them, will have to stock up on food at home."Anything can happen on that day”

 

On 13^th of June 2011 Malaysiakini  quoted PERKASA chief as saying said they are ready to "fight to the end" (lawan habis-habisan) to stop the rally if the organisers insist on taking to the streets of Kuala Lumpur on July 9. "(If they proceed) there will be a clash (pertembungan). If that happens, it is for the better," he told a press conference in the Parliament lobby.”

 

The insinuations above falls short of an orchestrated attempt to riot or to promote some form of violent action by UMNO sponsored PERKASA against the public for their participating in this peaceful march on July 9, 2011 just for free and fair elections.   

 

The fear of the Malaysian community is real and should not be underestimated or downplayed at this crucial moment as state sponsored gangsters PERKASA and its allies PEKIDA (another organization of ex-police and army personnel) & 3 Line ( a known large street gang) blatantly come forward in this aggressive and belligerent manner against what is a natural and legitimate grievance of the people. This march is nothing other than an expression of a collective voice of Malaysians.  

 

The international community whilst accepting Malaysia as a member of the United Nations cannot sit in silence when such threats and fear mongering methods are pursued by fascist elements in the ruling party with the implicit sanction of the UMNO led government.

 

Your public statement in opposing this tendency of state sponsored violence against its people is of paramount significance as it is a fundamental human rights issue and not just political theatre. The minorities, marginalized and discriminated face these kind of human rights abuse daily through the racist and fascist agenda of the Malaysian government..    

 

I write to urge you to make urgent representations to the Malaysian government that the BERSIH rally should be allowed to proceed unhindered and the peaceful protesters be provided protection from any untoward violent reactions by the state sponsored PERKASA, PEKIDA and other fringe elements.. 

 

by P. Waytha Moorthy

Chair

HINDRAF

+447502289313 (Mobile)

malaysiakini: Conquer fear? Yes, we can... by Josh Hong

Conquer fear? Yes, we can

Josh Hong
malaysiakini, Oct 1, 10
1:27pm

In rolling out the Economic Transformation Programme (ETP), encompassing a great variety of projects totaling US$44 billion, Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak is pinning his hopes on securing an electoral victory over the opposition with impressive economic performance.

But would any economy in the world achieve transformation without deep-rooted reform? I am afraid not.

In fact, the experiences of the developed nations strongly indicate several key factors in sustainable economic growth: openness to the world economy, extensive freedom of private business, stable and efficient regulations (including well-defined property and intellectual property rights), considerable infrastructure investments, a competent, professional and honest public administration, strong commitment in human capital, as well as a vibrant civil society.

As Najib celebrates the 18th month of his government this weekend, the public is yet to hear about root-and-branch reforms in the judiciary, police, bureaucracy, press and media and, of course, the political sector.

Instead of feeding the people with dazzling but unrealistic figures and statistics, the government will do well to spell out concrete measures - if any - to root out corruption, improve public integrity and enhance transparency. Any attempt at China's Great Leap Forward will likely end in bitter disappointment at best and catastrophic failure at worst.

Recent developments show that the government may on one hand be trying doubly hard to prove that it does have in mind a gigantic economic pie to keep everyone satisfied, it is also seeking to tighten up control over the public on the other.

Of late, there has been a series of blatant assaults on voices and views that do not go down well with the powers-that-be, the latest casualties being Zunar, the popular cartoonist who was briefly detained last week, and Kim Quek, whose title The March To Putrajaya is now officially banned. The government's weird and desperate acts have got Zunar and many wondering if one, under Najib's 1Malaysia, now needs a licence even to laugh.

Umno's politicking is so intense and its attacks so profane that they have prompted one Hata Wahari to brave the potential reprisal by urging both the government and the top management of Utusan Malaysia to stop exploiting the Malay daily as a political tool.

Nearly five decades to the year when the once progressive Malay nationalist newspaper was forcibly taken over by Umno amid much public outcry and protest, a conscientious voice that resembles that of the fearless Said Zahari is finally heard, however feeble it may sound.

Writing already on the wall

Like it or not, the end of the Barisan Nasional era is nigh. Even if it does not happen at the next general election, the writing is already on the wall. The strange emergence of Perkasa cannot be more ominous. In failing to distance itself from the ultra-Malay group, Umno is alienating non-Malays, with the MCA, MIC and Gerakan being among those hit by collateral damage.

Even moderate and fair-minded Malays will be alarmed by the incivility pervasive among Perkasa members, whose abusive language and vulgarity have outdone Namewee's poor taste. Both Perkasa and Namewee can now go back conceited, safe in the knowledge that they have strengthened their respective support bases.

All this is part and parcel of Umno's cunning plan to strike great fears in the public, for no authoritarian government will take defeat lying down, especially when so much vested interest is at stake.

Knowing that all the dodgy deals and mega scandals have widened the trust deficit between the people and itself, the BN government has no option but to do its utmost to ensure minimal punishment at the ballot box, hence the paradoxical combination of economic hopes and political fears.

Whether the oft-used tactic will work is dependent on us. Malaysians must remember our dreams will be blocked or even shattered if we allow our fear to grow bigger than our faith in creating a peaceful and trustful society.

Fear makes strangers of people who would otherwise be friends. For years, Malaysians of all races have been frightened into thinking the other party would never understand us, so we choose not to talk directly to avoid unpleasantness. But are Malaysians really so immature in handling differences that we must constantly look to the government for guidance?

The Germans cannot have put it more succinctly: fear makes the wolf bigger than it is (Angst macht den Wolf größer, als er ist), so the onus is on us to reject BN's politics of intimidation and bullying. National life is nothing if it is based on fear, rather than genuine hopes and understandings.

It is either that we rise up and overcome the fear, or wait to be devoured by it. What do you think the authorities can do if thousands of people take to the streets to protest against the government's inertia in institutional reforms across the board? Put us all behind bars?


JOSH HONG studied politics at London Metropolitan University and the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. A keen watcher of domestic and international politics, he longs for a day when Malaysians will learn and master the art of self-mockery, and enjoy life to the full in spite of politicians.

The Age, Austalia: Malaysia stumbling,,, by Eric Ellis

Malaysia stumbling

Eric Ellis
TheAge
Australia September 23, 2010

ONE of Australia’s key partners in Asia is struggling. Given the way its leaders have taunted Australia over the years, schadenfreude at its plight would be understandable. But this should be resisted, for if Malaysia stumbles, the effects may ripple across the region.

Erstwhile sponsor of the Carlton Football Club, a cash cow for the Australian education sector, Australia’s 10th largest trading partner and a champion of ”Asian values” – whatever they are – Malaysia seems to be brimming with sky-is-falling Chicken Littles. And their analyses are alarmist; ”failed state”, ”deep pit”, ”national decay”, ”ocean-going corruption”, ”useless mega-projects”.

While some of these could be used to describe the Delhi Commonwealth Games – a massive undertaking Malaysia successfully pulled off 12 years ago by the way – it is about a country oft-regarded as an Asian success, whose rampant economy inspired a cockiness among its leaders to take racially tinged potshots at the ”decadent and immoral” West, and at Australia in particular.

And then there was the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank to demonise, indeed anyone its mercurial then prime minister Mahathir Mohamad didn’t like on any given day. And there was 23 years of it, the Mahathir monopoly on Malaysian power.

So what’s prompted such painful hand-wringing from a tigerish economy that likes to boast how it ditched traditional models to virtually promise endless riches? The answer is some of the nastiest foreign direct investment (FDI) statistics an Asian economy has served up in a generation.

FDI into Malaysia slumped dramatically last year, falling a whopping 81 per cent. In 2009, Malaysia took in just $1.38 billion of new investment, barely enough to build a half-decent bridge in a land where pork-barrelling infrastructure projects are de rigueur. By contrast, India averaged almost double that in any given month. Malaysia’s FDI take was even less than that lured by the Philippines, long the region’s economic basket case.

This worries Malaysians greatly. For all of Mahathir’s bluster, he was careful to suck up to big business, and his less-poisonous successors since 2003 have done much the same. Foreign investment underpinned the Malaysian ”miracle”, transforming sleepy Penang into an Asian Silicon Valley and industrialising the Klang Valley that surrounds Kuala Lumpur to OECD levels, with $40,000 a year average incomes to match.

So has the sky fallen in? Some of the fall can be explained by the 2008 ”trans-Atlantic financial crisis”, as many like to call it in Asia. Malaysia’s reliance on foreign investment made it one of Asia’s most globally connected countries. So when Europe and North America tightened their belts after the subprime meltdown, Malaysia naturally was jolted. But the same external dramas affected just as connected Thailand – which endured a crippling political crisis to boot – and more so globalised Singapore, and both far outperformed Malaysia in ongoing FDI, as did Indonesia.

Malaysian fingers point at Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak and his on-again, off-again will to reform a lop-sided economy Mahathir tilted to favour his bumiputra franchise, the ethnic Malays who comprise about half Malaysia’s 28 million people.

Mahathir advantaged Malays with an aggressive ”new economic policy (NEP)”. Mahathir’s thinking went that Malays were less commercially inclined than their compatriot Chinese and Indian Malaysians and thus needed the state’s help. The NEP’s affirmative action aimed to lift Malays out of poverty, but many analysts have likened it to economic apartheid, a meal ticket that many Malays have got too used to.

The NEP anchored Mahathirism and helped keep him in power for two decades. Malays were lifted but NEP side effects are many and cancerous; corruption, cronyism and an oversized sense of entitlement. Much of Malaysia’s economy is controlled by ethnic Chinese, who pragmatically chummed up to Mahathir. To some, the NEP meant simply installing well-paid and influential Malay placemen on boards to fulfil quotas.

Anti-NEP rancour has been building for years and in 2008, five years after Mahathir retired, voters registered disgust by handing his Malay-centric United Malay National Organisation-led coalition its worst result in history, losing its two-thirds parliamentary majority in a gerrymandered assembly. The UMNO faithful toppled Mahathir’s successor, Abdullah Badawi, and now, as support wavers, his successor, Najib, says he wants to replace the NEP with a ”new economic model”, which he pledges to ”execute or be executed”.

There’s a rising fin de regime tint about the UMNO empire, which has never been out of office and has absorbed Malaysia’s critical facilities of state; the civil service, military, media and the education system. Abolishing the NEP is a particular cross for the aristocratic Najib to bear; it was conceived in the early 1970s by his then prime minister father Tun Abdul Razak.

Najib has a big problem, and it is not just the allegations of corruption and even murder that swirl around his circle. Like Julia Gillard, Najib doesn’t have a popular mandate to govern. Also like Gillard, he got handed office when his party’s faceless men knifed an elected PM, Badawi, in office. Malaysians expect Najib to go to the polls soon to get that mandate, but he doesn’t seem sure it’s a good idea, as a confident opposition calls him to account.

In shades of Gillard’s Labor still, party hardliners are in revolt. While most moderate Malays accept the NEP needs tweaking, if only to keep UMNO breathing and in power, a virulent core of party heavies has organised under the banner of a movement called Perkasa, which means ”mighty” in Malay.

Perkasa claims to be defending the Malaysian constitution, which guarantees Malay ethnic primacy. It says it is fighting for Malay rights against the rising challenge of minorities. But Perkasa feels like a supremacist movement, something a Pauline Hanson might recognise. A former US ambassador to Kuala Lumpur has described Perkasa as ”militant”, while non-Malays condemn it for racial divisiveness. That’s emotive language in a country where people still define themselves by ethnicity over nationality and where the deadly race riots of the 1960s are never far away in thinking and policy – not just in Malaysia but among neighbours alert to ethnic tension.

As he dithers over rolling back the NEP and over an election timetable, Najib seems to think he can spend his way to popularity. Last week, he outlined a Mahathir-esque $500 billion investment plan to transform the economy with mega-projects. He appealed to foreign investors to help. But as China, India and Indonesia boom, they will need convincing it is money well spent.

Malaysian Insider: Not so Perkasa -- by Nizam Bashir

Not so Perkasa

by Nizam Bashir

Malaysian Insider, APRIL 2 —

Perkasa is an interesting NGO. Their raison d’être appears to be predicated on the following:

• the right of Bumiputeras to own 67 per cent the nation’s economic wealth because they form the majority;

• the ISA as being integral to 1 Malaysia;

• the word Allah is exclusive to Muslims.

We must salute Perkasa for having the gumption to be pig-headed (or katak puru-headed if you wish) on issues such as the above.

They are certainly being made at a time when the climate appears cold to their views, with the government talking of the New Economic Model, the ISA possibly being amended and the High Court allowing the Herald to use the word Allah in their publications. Still, climate change doesn’t determine the answer to the RM64,000 question — is Perkasa objectively justified in championing those issues?

Let’s deal with each of their stand in turn.

Perkasa’s national economic policy proposal makes for fascinating reading. In effect, they are suggesting that a community is entitled to the national economic pie purely on the basis of their numbers within the nation and without any qualifications.

The problem is that their proposal seems irreconcilable with what the Reid Commission had to say on the issue and wherein they noted that:

“… We found that there are now four matters with regard to which the special position of the Malays is recognised and safeguarded:
1. … Malay reservations of land …
2. … admission to the public services …
3. … permits or licenses for the operation of certain businesses …
4. … scholarships, bursaries and other forms of aid for educational purposes …”

“We found little opposition in any quarter to the continuance of the present system for a time, but there was great opposition in some quarters to any increase of the present preferences and to their being continued for any prolonged period.”

and then recommended that:

“… with the integration of the various communities into a common nationality which we trust will gradually come about, the need for these preferences will gradually disappear. Our recommendations are made on the footing that the Malays should be assured that the present position will continue for a substantial period, but that in due course the present preferences should be reduced and should ultimately cease so that there should then be no discrimination between races and communities.

“We recommend that after 15 years there should be a review of the whole matter ...”

In other words, the special position could exist but in a qualified way depending on the subject matter — such as land, education, etc. — and always for a finite term.

Notice what’s missing? Population as a basis to extend or enhance special position is nowhere to be found. So much for that.

Let’s now move on to Perkasa’s other notion, i.e. that ISA is integral to 1 Malaysia. This was premised on a number of subsidiary grounds and which are as follows:

• ISA is crucial in safeguarding the “social contract” between the races;

• the country is not a melting pot of different cultures but a salad bowl fragile to sensitive issues;

• ISA is needed to protect Islam and the Muslim culture.

Simply put, the ISA is a legislative mechanism to detain someone without a trial. Typically, a detention under ISA occurs like this:

A police officer knocks on your door at 2am and tells you that you are being arrested under the ISA because you are involved with activities which threatened and which were detrimental to national security.

A document is then issued, which says that the detention is premised on 2 grounds:

• a police officer believes there are grounds to detain you under the relevant section in the ISA; and,

• the police officer believes that you have acted in a manner which is detrimental to the security of Malaysia.

And, voila, your 60 day detention begins.

Around the 60th day, another document is issued where you are detained for a further two year period because a minister thinks you might be a threat to national security.

At both points where the detention occurs, no trial takes place, a mantra was repeated ad nauseam and no evidence was presented to be tested in a court of law.

To put it another way, the accused was detained because someone had arbitrarily decided that he was a threat. Arbitrary because the mantra of “threat to national security”, taken by itself, can never amount to a valid reason for detention. Yet, Perkasa believes that such arbitrary detentions will further the cause of 1 Malaysia.

More than that, Perkasa appears oblivious to the fact that the ISA was only intended to be utilised solely against communist-terrorists and not against legitimate opposition or to silence lawful dissent.

So, save and unless the Malayan Communist Party is still in existence, bent on unravelling the “social contract”, race relations and Islam as well as Muslim culture, Perkasa does not appear to have a leg to stand on vis-a-vis this issue.

Lastly, there is the not so small matter of the intellectual property to the word Allah. Perkasa contends it is exclusive to Muslims. I have written extensively on this matter previously and do not intend to belabour the points made in my earlier article. Suffice to say, a number of Muslims scholars who base their opinions on Quranic verses would beg to differ with Perkasa on this score.

Still, like I said when I began this article, Perkasa is an interesting NGO and I maintain this view for a number of reasons. On the one hand, we should laud the fact that they are trying to present their worldview in relatively civilised fashion. On the other, it also provides us with a suitable opportunity to assess what exactly is the barometer of public sentiment on the issues in question.

If, for example, the absence of the Malay heads of government linked companies is anything to go by, their parochial calls do not appear to be persuading one and all. If nothing else, they provide the perfect foil for those opposed their worldview to present their ideas and their solutions in combating racial-religious issues which perennially bedevil this nation. May the best worldview win.

* The views expressed here are the personal opinion of the columnist.

Malaysian Insider: Perkasa, GLCs and the New Economic Model — Lim Teck Ghee

Perkasa, GLCs and the New Economic Model — Lim Teck Ghee

MARCH 29 — During the recent Perkasa meeting on March 27, Ibrahim Ali expressed his displeasure with the CEOs of government-linked companies (GLCs) for not attending his Malay rights group inaugural congress.

He also criticised the GLC heads for being more concerned about their personal interests instead of the interests of the Malay community.

Introducing a note of intimidation, he warned that Perkasa will scrutinise the GLCs. “We are not only looking at their performance but also the role they play in helping Malay entrepreneurs.”

The GLC rebuff is indicative of a rejection of the Perkasa agenda by the Malay captains of industry who recognize the negative implications of the policies being espoused.

It is also salutary that apart from Deputy International Trade and Industry Minister Mukhriz Mahathir, no other significant member of the cabinet took part in the gathering of the ultras at the Putra World Trade Centre (PWTC).

The Malay and Malaysian public should look forward to hearing the outcome of Perkasa monitoring the GLCs and learning the truth about how these bodies are standing in the way of, or seriously implementing, their mission of fulfilling the Malay agenda.

The importance of GLCs to the Malay agenda can be ascertained from the following facts:
• GLCs are major shareholders of corporate equity. They comprise 36 per cent and 54 per cent of the market capitalization of Bursa Malaysia and the benchmark Kuala Lumpur Composite Index.
• Seven out of the top 10 listed companies are under majority ownership of the government.
• Senior GLC positions are largely determined along ethnic lines. GLC directors, management and staff are largely Bumiputeras.
• Non-Malay owners of listed and unlisted companies often have no choice but to work with influential Bumiputera and GLCs to help protect their interests through obtaining sub-contracts or becoming suppliers of goods and services.
• Non-Malays may own 40 per cent of corporate equity based on the government’s flawed calculations but GLCs are the major players and have control over the economy.

Because they have done very well for the Malays (including the likes of Ibrahim Ali and many of his supporters who have benefitted from GLC patronage and largesse), it is rather dumb of Ibrahim Ali to expect these GLC leaders to openly attend the meeting and to proclaim to Perkasa members and the world the various ways in which they are protecting and advancing the Malay socio-economic position.

In fact, Ibrahim Ali and many GLC Malay leaders may be on the same wavelength on the issue of enhancing the Malay socio-economic position. However, the main difference might only be that the Perkasa head is a politician using crude racist tactics whilst shouting from the top of his voice at the PWTC while the GLC chiefs are likely to pursue the Malay cause through more subtle means. As corporate figures, they recognize that growth is a prerequisite to fulfillment of long-term Malay and national goals.

Quite apart from this, many of these GLC leaders also recognize the realities and implications of policies that have contributed to capital flight, the virtual drying up of FDI flows, a sizable brain drain and a general loss of competitiveness. These negatives have been acknowledged by the Second Minister of Finance and are indeed implicit in the call by the Prime Minister to adopt a New Economic Model (NEM).

A New Economic Model devoid of a course correction —via adoption of more market friendly and less racially skewed policies —would be an exercise in futility. Ibrahim Ali’s formula constitutes an abandonment of much needed pro-growth strategies in favour of a discredited policy package that is centered round the distribution of existing wealth. No country in the world in this era of globalization and liberalization has chosen such an economic strategy.

Similarly with the refusal by Umno to respond to Ibrahim Ali’s unfounded charges that the Malays have been marginalized in the country.  All Umno leaders (except perhaps Mukhriz) are aware of the overwhelming dominance of Malay power in the country. Far from Malay constitutional rights being eroded or usurped by other communities, it is the other way round. This is acknowledged by many Malay leaders including Anwar Ibrahim and Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah.

If one is using a purely racial lens approach it is difficult to avoid the conclusion that Malay hegemony has never been so strong or firmly entrenched as it is today. Ibrahim Ali and his cohorts are opportunistically delusional and appear to be living in a cocoon of their own. They fail to factor in the fact that the political and economic model that they espouse will bring irreparable harm to the nation and future generations of Malaysians, including Malays.

Tackling Malay poverty
In the economic sphere whilst there is still much work to be done to uplift the lot of the poor Malays, the task is less formidable than official statistics may make it out to be.  This is because Malay poverty — as distinct from Bumiputera poverty — is likely to be considerably over-estimated by the present statistical practice whereby the Malay figures are lumped together with the figures of recent migrants from Indonesia who have obtained Bumiputera status as well as the other Bumiputera from East Malaysia.

The great majority of the former group — Javanese, Sumatrans, etc — who have now assimilated into the country’s population in very large numbers especially after the 1970s came with virtually nothing in terms of assets or income. Inclusion of these poor “pendatang”, despite their upward mobility after settlement, has had much impact in distorting the racial distribution of household income. Without them (and also Bumiputra communities in Sabah and Sarawak), the ‘native’ or ‘indigenous’ or ‘local’ Malay achievement, as distinct from Bumiputera achievement, will be much higher on all the social and economic indicators used by the Department of Statistics to measure inter-ethnic differences.

At the same time, Ibrahim Ali and his supporters are wholly mistaken in their view of poverty. The government’s own statistics indicate that poverty, however defined, has been drastically reduced. The stark issue is the unconscionable and widening income disparities that prevail within the Bumiputera community. Ibrahim Ali and his keris waving Umnoputra crowd are totally silent on this aspect of the Malay dilemma.

Malay wealth
Umno leaders are also fully aware that much of the new wealth in the country is in Malay hands. These sources of wealth include the plantation sector which is dominated by Felda and PNB companies;  the smallholding agricultural sector where the Malays are the major group amongst the 112,635 Felda settlers; the hi-tech aerospace industry; the highly lucrative defense industry; the petroleum and gas industry where apart from Petronas and MMC, the Malays have substantial holdings in key MNCs such as Shell, Exxon, BP; the finance and banking sector where eight out of 10 banks are Bumiputera- owned and controlled; the automotive sector where Malay interests are dominant in Proton, Perodua, DRB Hicom, UMW and Naza, and where the system of APs ensures a steady stream of income for select Bumiputeras; as well as the energy and utilities sector where TNB and Malakoff are key players; and so on.

Perhaps the ace in the pack in Umno’s claim to have successfully stood up for Malay interests (besides its own) is that a key target of the NEP restructuring programme — the building of a strong Malay professional and technical elite class — was attained some years ago. From a very small base of professional and technical workers in 1970 (Bumiputera comprised 4.9 per cent of registered professionals at that time) the Malay component of the country’s professional and technical workers today is the biggest amongst the various racial groups. According to the Malaysian government’s Third Outline Perspective Plan (2001-2010), the Bumiputera community comprised 63.5 per cent of the ‘Professional and Technical’ category of employment in 2000.

This growth of a strong Malay professional class within a short period of 30 years is possibly the fastest recorded by any marginalized community anywhere in the world. That this information is not widely known or disseminated is not due to modesty but carefully controlled political spin aimed at under-reporting Malay achievement and emphasizing non-Malay dominance of the economy.
Meanwhile, the employment pattern in the public sector at all levels is overwhelmingly Malay because of discriminatory policies in hiring and in promotions. If there is any prong of the New Economic Policy that has not been fulfilled, it is the restructuring of the public sector.

The New Economic Model and the country’s future
In a few days’ time, the Prime Minister will unveil the New Economic Model which is intended to replace the New Economic Policy and its racially divisive policies. At that point, we will be able to see if Perkasa, Dr Mahathir Mohamad and other carpetbaggers have been able to successfully hijack the NEM and set the country up for another round of Malay preference policies that will destroy the promises contained in the Najib Razak vehicle ‘1 Malaysia’.

Were these fears to come to pass, Malaysia will take another step downwards to joining countries such as Burma and Zimbabwe which squandered their prospects for prosperity because of the greed of a small elite group that hijacked national wealth.

It is time for all Malaysians to firmly and clearly reject the strident siren calls of Mahathir and Ibrahim Ali to return to policies that hold no hope of serving the country’s needs. It is also important that the NEM reflects the aspirations of all Malaysians rather than the myopic views of yesterday’s men. Najib has a solemn duty to resist those that would derail moves to put right what has been wrong.

* This is the personal opinion of the writer or the newspaper. The Malaysian Insider does not endorse the view unless specified.