Time to let go of the past

In January, a plantation in Zimbabwe owned by Malaysian company Matanuska was seized by a retired general. After harvesting and selling off the crop, General Chimonyo then claimed ownership of the land. Despite repeated protests from our government, he refused to budge.

Malaysia's charge d'affaires in Harare, Mohamad Nizan, solicited vice-president John Nkomo to persuade president Robert Mugabe ( left ), Mahathir Mohamad's buddy, to intervene.

Mugabe's chaotic and violent land redistribution programme routinely seizes foreign-owned farms, even those protected by bilateral trade agreements. No surprises then at the Malaysian government's rage. They've sampled a dose of their own medicine.

My reaction is padan muka (serves you (the Malaysian government) right)! If you want to deal with another crook, then be prepared to be double-crossed. Too many crooks spoil the broth.

Anyone would be angry when something they invested time and money and felt proud of, is confiscated. This resentment and frustration closely resembles what non-Malay Malaysians feel, after they spend a lifetime being loyal and dutiful citizens, but are given the brush-off and termed immigrants.

The Malay elite, or Umnoputras, lead lives that seem out of this world, with commissions and perks that turn us green with envy. They constantly use race and religion to shock and disgust the population thus ensuring that the races squabble amongst themselves rather than unite against the common enemy. But, their tactics will ultimately backfire.

NEP no saviour

The roots of the problem and current misguided Malay thinking goes back to the seventies, when the NEP was rubber stamped by the MCA and MIC, to redress the imbalance in wealth distribution, economic inequality, civil service quota and places in public universities. A time limit of 20 years was imposed. Not only did the NEP fail to reach its objectives, the end-date of 1990 didn't materialise either.

The NEP is like a hangover from those days. It is like the dead-wood in a company. It is tearing Malays and Malaysians apart. Some foolish people want to resurrect the NEP and give it a ‘job-for-life' status, like displaying the same thinking processes as the more backward types in our bloated civil-service.

Malays need to be realistic. The Malay elite are unwilling to promote, or even share their riches with other Malays. This created the unequal wealth distribution. The gap between rich and poor Malays is wider now. The rich get richer; millionaires become billionaires. But, we have more poor Malays than before and sadly, even more hardcore-poor Malays. Needless to say, the other races suffer, too.

Malays may be getting an education but they do not act educated. When a friend offered employment to a Malay graduate, the lad was disinterested. He claimed he could ‘sell' his name and degree to various Ali Baba companies, be listed on their books and draw a salary - a ‘gaji buta'.

Another deserving person would have benefited from his place at university, and then contributed to society. The NEP has devalued self-respect, hard-work and self-worth.

The daughter of a friend obtained her degree locally. Her English was poor, and inferior to the English-educated people who are now in their seventies or eighties. She became a teacher in a local school because of the attractive loans, free medical and other government related perks. Liking children or imparting knowledge didn't feature at all. It was pure material benefits.

Did she even want to be a teacher? When told she‘d be transferred to a rural school, her father managed to contact his mate in Umno and so the transfer fell through. Is this how the NEP helps other Malays and promote their interests?

Another Malay friend, a foreign graduate, was enterprising enough to set up his own business. However, he could not compete with other well-established companies for government contracts. He had the right qualifications and his tenders were reasonable.

He discovered, by accident, that he had not ‘entertained' the various tiers of people involved in the project; hence none of his bids were successful. Passion and commitment were not valued. Thoroughly disillusioned, he left for Europe where he is now a successful entrepreneur. He's not returning.

Exercising control with moral police

Furthermore, these Malay groups claim to be defenders of the faith, but they use fear as a weapon, and the religious police as a tool. The peoples' movements are constantly monitored and their privacy invaded. Isn't this exercising control over people?

Some independent women I know are petrified of calling an electrician to their houses, for fear of religious police raids. Everyone risks the spite of others.

Thus, it is not surprising that the Malay groups fear losing the charmed life they have led thus far. They protest against the New Economic Model, NEM, the subsequent version of the NEP, as it would liberalise the economy and leave the Malay community behind. Actually, they are only afraid of facing up to reality.

The glory years only benefitted a few chosen Malays. Sadly, the rest are too daft or too blind, to notice. Some of us keep trying to pass the message but they refuse to listen.

They would rather allow racist types to do their thinking for them. Umno has been neuralgic about its past and has misunderstood our constitution, civil service, police force and system of law. And yet, the problem with these inward-looking types is that they are so sure about things whereas the intelligent Malays are themselves full of doubt.

When race and religion are politicised, we scare off foreign investors. But we also haemorrhage money and people, our most important resource. When push comes to shove, how will we react? How will we respond when the country goes down the tubes? Who can we blame after we have chased away our disillusioned Malays and non-Malays?

Our leaders lack political will to confront sensitive issues. Neither have they succeeded nor been robust enough in promoting the interests of all Malaysians. If they want to be trusted, they must start to listen. It is why we gave them their jobs.