ADUN SPEAKS | NEP subservient to the majoritarian agenda

ADUN SPEAKS | No other policy in the country has been analysed as much as the New Economic Policy (NEP).

A policy that was introduced in the immediate aftermath of the May 13, 1969, racial riots to restructure capital equity and ensure effective bumiputera participation - as well as the removal of ‘race’ with economic function.

Poverty eradication was one of the top priorities of the NEP. The policy was supposed to last 20 years, officially coming to an end in 1990.

However, the policy was never ended - and continues far beyond the stated date.

So much so it came to be termed not as the New Economic Policy but as the “Never-Ending Policy”.

A reading of the various analyses of the NEP would indicate the following:

• First, it was a great policy with good intentions, but was not properly implemented;

• Second, the equity portion of the policy was progressive, but it was later hijacked by the bumiputera political and bureaucratic elite, particularly those in Umno;

• Third, restricting never took place to remove the identification of race with economic function; and

• Fourth, the NEP was credited for the reduction of substantial urban and rural poverty.

It must be remembered that the politics in the aftermath of the racial riots was a different ball game altogether.

It was a complete bumiputera agenda.

The NEP functioned under this agenda, without having a life of its own.

Singing praises of the NEP do not address the overarching majoritarian agenda of the Umno under the BN government.

The NEP was merely to soften and placate the roughness and unpalatability of the bumiputera racial agenda.

It was more of a buying-in public relations exercise than anything else.

Restructuring, in other words, was a joke

As the policy was unashamedly continued far beyond its original time period, the real purpose could not be submerged.

The intention to increase bumiputera equity was lauded as something necessary to subdue the non-Malays, in particular the Chinese.

The notion of bumiputera equity became the slogan for the enrichment of the bumiputera political and bureaucratic elite. While the majority of the bumiputera community suffered, a tiny elite that held political and bureaucratic power benefited enormously.

How can it be stated that the policy has good intentions when it was later waylaid by greedy and capricious politicians?

The policy was not good, in the first place, to draw a distinction between the policy and implementation levels.

When there exists an explicit racial agenda, it is pointless to give credibility to the NEP from the perspective of policy and implementation.

Restructuring, in other words, was a joke not to be taken seriously.

The removal of the identification of race with economic functions was merely a smokescreen to ensure the domination of the bumiputera in all sectors.

However, this was easier said than done.

While the bumiputera emboldened by the restructuring component came to dominate the employment in the public sector, progress was not as smooth in the private sector, as government directives did not achieve the intended effects.

How can the restructuring component of the NEP be praised when it was never intended to be comprehensive in nature?

It is, really, a component of the overarching bumiputera agenda.

I really don’t understand why the NEP has been given so much credit in the eradication of poverty when it was not aimed at reducing income gaps among the different races and within the races.

There is no need to mistake the political propaganda of the NEP with the true intentions of the policy.

Sad to say, there were no true or honest intentions but an attempt to hoodwink Malaysians.

Whether there was NEP or not, the rapid thrust of urbanisation and commercialisation is the key to poverty eradication.

It was not the slogan of the NEP that did the job but the nature of capitalist development.

It is my argument that the overarching bumiputera agenda was the key reason why the NEP failed.

The NEP was the dependent variable or a public face to drive the majoritarian agenda.

It does not make sense to endlessly argue that the NEP was something good but failed by way of implementation.

If such an argument is pursued, it is merely an apology for the racist agenda.

The NEP is merely a stated instrument to hide or camouflage the true intentions of those in power for racial domination.

It was just propaganda or public face to mitigate or ameliorate the worst effects of a decadent ethnic agenda.

The very fact that the NEP had no timeline suggests the ulterior motives of those in power.

With the newly added religious agenda, the NEP is well entrenched for a long time.

It would be a Herculean task to dismantle the racist system.

Hopefully, the ravages of the Covid-19 pandemic would expose the system that has divided and pitted Malaysians against one another for several decades.

P RAMASAMY is Penang deputy chief minister II and Perai assemblyperson.

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysiakini.