The Truth Shall Set Malaysia FREE

A good book once said "the Truth shall set us free." Once a lie persists, doom will be on the road and one can never come back to the truth. It is a long road unless there is a true repentance, no one will ever tell the truth. Simply, ego. Human by nature tend to always stand by his ego. It is his ego that will either destroy him or make him a man that he hope he will be proud of. Yes, I'm talking about the NEP. Good or bad, it was introduced by the government purportedly to strengthen the stakeholdership of the bumiputra.

A couple of days ago the issue surrounding the NEP raised it's ugly head again. This time by the European Commission delegation to Malaysia, Mr. Thierry Rommel an outsider. In 2006, a major dispute arose when the Asian Strategic and Leadership Institute (ASLI) issued a report calculating Bumiputra-held equity at 45% — a stark difference from the official figure of 18.9%. The report's publication triggered a relatively vocal public debate about the status of the NEP and its related policies, with many from UMNO questioning the methodology used by ASLI. Although ASLI later withdrew the report, citing unspecified errors in its methodology, the debate did not die down. One political analyst suggested that "If Bumiputra equity is 45 per cent, then surely the next question is, why the need for Bumiputera rights? It has implications for government policy and it (removing indigenous rights) is one thing UMNO will never accept. The turn of event causes former Researcher of ASLI , Dr Lim Teck Ghee to resign immediately for the differing stand he takes.

Now, it comes from an outsider, and this is what was reported,

“Rommel attributed Malaysia’s slowdown in drawing Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) to a lack of a level playing field for foreign companies “even when they are in a partnership with bumis”.

Together with an inefficient public service, corruption and the questionable and unchecked practices of Malay preferential treatment, it had also dampened the business environment and economy of the country, he added.

While the public service delivery system lacks efficiency, responsiveness, transparency and accountability, corruption as well as the questionable and unchecked practices of Malay preferential treatment also plague the business environment and economy of the country, he added.

In urging Malaysia to re-look its pro-Bumiputera policies to attract European investors, Rommel warned that opening up a public debate on the NEP would incur short-term political risks. However, Rommel said such risks can be managed through transparency, dialogue and education.”

After going through Rommel's thought, I find it difficult to understand DPM's statement about the above report. Nothing in the above report at any point of time asking for an immediate 'termination' or the abolishment of the NEP. It basically suggest that in order to see a strong economic growth for Malaysia's future, the NEP has to be reviewed so as to enable a new change of policy to meet the demands of competitiveness and globalisation.

What Mr. Rommel uttered is nothing new and in fact an opinion that is generally common knowledge to the views expressed by the general public including the Malay. The NEP does not benefit the very hard core poor Malay but in fact only benefitting the classes of Malay that is dominated and connected to UMNO.

Malaysia cannot deny that the NEP is hurting the economy of this country and as such it has to be done away with. Or to at least help the general poorer bumiputra that seriously need to be aided. It is dishartening to see after 50 years of merdeka and yet we still hear of the hard core Malay, Chinese or Indian do not have simple amenities to live in. This is indeed very embarrassing. How are we achieve vision 2020 or the Malaysia dream of 2057 and yet problems like this remain unsolved.

As such there must be a re-look to consider and to review the totality of the current policy that will in some way or another damage the economic growth of the country. Definitely the truth always hurt. As the Malay saying goes, "Siapa makan cili dia rasa pedas"