Love Letter

Dear Voice,

I thank you for your comments and views on the subject matter. However, personal issues and emotions should be left at the door to ensure a healthy discussion. This topic needs to be discussed and addressed objectively.

Firstly, it is worth noting that there are many different segments of society having differing points of views on the subject matter. From professionals in the urban city to the folks in the “kampung’s” all have a say about it. Even members of the same segment have differing opinions. For example, there is the so called “Malay ultra” group that feel that this country is theirs and everybody else is “sekadar menumpang”. Many young professionals feel that NEP has not helped enough Malays. There is also the corporate/business group that feel that NEP has made it more difficult to do business. Not to forget the group that wants the NEP to be put aside and allow equality to take place. There is also a group that feels that if you take away the NEP you must also take away vernacular schools.

As you can see, there are so many views and so many segments to manage and as Ahmad Ariff mentioned, what matters at the end of the day is convincing 51% of the voters to vote for your party and in my case BN. The government of the day cannot just look and favour one particular segment or group of a society; it needs to implement policies that are acceptable to the majority of the people.

You may have noticed that Gerakkan has showed positive signs of leaving BN. MCA leaders in a recent interview mentioned that leaving BN if UMNO does not change is an option. If UMNO and the Malays continue to be stubborn (which is an option) then it will spell the demise of BN. It is because of the arrogance and chauvinistic attitude portrayed by Malay leaders that caused BN lose badly in the recent March 08 elections. This mind set needs to change and we need to come out of our comfort zone. We need to take cognisance that we are not just leading one race but all races. If we continue with this attitude then BN will surely loose in the next election.

As I mentioned in my previous article, even with the NEP the Bumi’s only own 17% of the economic pie. Something must be seriously wrong with our policy. The NEP has been in existence for 30 years and we cannot even achieve the 30% target? What is the point of having a policy that does not achieve its objective?

I am not against the NEP but I do however think that there should be a specific mechanism and timeline to achieve the desired results. The NEP is not a god given right for the Malays. We did not have it before we achieved independence nor was it implemented immediately after independence. It was only implemented after the 1969 riots to correct the economic imbalance at that point in time. The NEP was subsequently replaced by the NDP in 1990. Even ex-prime minister Tun Mahathir once said that the NEP should be abolished at one point but the time is not now.

All I am saying is take a look at the policy again and find out what’s working and what’s not. Insanity is defined as doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. It is time to do things differently.