KUALA LUMPUR: A social activist has congratulated an Umno top gun for
criticising Malays who abuse pro-Bumiputera policies but questions
whether there’s any political will to correct the situation.
“This realisation is welcome but it is a bit too late,” said lawyer
Azhar Harun in a comment on remarks by Umno Secretary-General Tengku
Adnan Mansor.
According to a news report on Friday, Tengku Adnan attributed the
failure of some Bumiputera entrepreneurs to the government’s tendency to
spoonfeed them. He said this had robbed them of the competitive spirit.
He also criticised Bumiputera entrepreneurs who took government
assistance for granted, saying they had not bothered to repay their
loans or develop pieces of land given to them, choosing instead to sell
them for profit.
“To a large extent, what he said is correct,” said Azhar, better
known as Art. “The Bumiputeras have become heavily reliant on subsidies
and government aid.”
He said Bumiputera entrepreneurs had become addicted to policies that
were originally meant as weapons for the eradication of poverty.
He
alleged that these policies had instead become a means to give
preferential treatment to rich Malays.
“They have become an economic opium,” he said. “Without this opium,
they will die. So how? What’s next? Is there the political will to
correct this?”
He said the government had long known that many Malays were abusing the policies but had nevertheless continued with them.
It was therefore not quite fair for Tengku Adnan to blame the Bumiputera entreprenuers alone, he added.
“If I keep feeding my two-year-old child with sweets every day and
she does not want to eat anything that is not sweet, do I blame her?
Partly, yes, you can blame her for eating. But I should be blamed too
for supplying the sweets to her.”
He said the nation as a whole was in fact losing out from the abuse of the policies, and not just the Malays who deserved help.
“The people who are entitled to this are not getting the help they
need, but those who are not entitled are benefiting and abusing it.”
Art said the New Economic Policy launched in 1971 was to eradicate poverty among all races and not just the Malays.
“The Bumiputera policy now has turned into a political weapon for support,” he said. “It has become a sensitive issue.
“Now that Tengku Adnan has raised the issue, will the government take measures to stop the decades-old abuse?”
Source : http://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/nation/2016/12/10/whatll-umno-do-to-end-abuse-of-bumi-policies/
