COMMENT | Hardly a week goes by without a Malay politician or government official speaking about the plight of the poor bumiputera and the need for more affirmative action.

This has been a convenient political lament for a good 40 years or so. Malaysians of all races have tuned out as they know they don’t mean what they say as their insincerity is on display every day with a track record to match.

As all Malaysians know, a great deal was achieved in the early years of affirmative action, particularly in allowing the majority disenfranchised Malays to gain access to basic rights such as education, healthcare, housing, land and equal employment opportunities within the economy.

That was before a well-meaning affirmative action programme was hijacked and transformed into a racist political movement and normalised.

What is now clearly understood is that the early gains and promises were accompanied by the rise of an elite rent-seeking class of Malays who used race and religion to create a political ecosystem which...