Subscribe in a reader | Subscribe by Email While this may not make it to our shores among the MSM, I found one Malaysiakini article and one from Taipei Times. Nothing much on Singapore ST website from what I searched. PM Najib in a candid interview with Singapore Straits Times mentioned about removing the NEP:
Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak has pledged to roll back a decades-old affirmative action program for the ethnic Malay majority, insisting that the long-term benefits of doing so would outweigh the initial “pain,” a news report said yesterday.
Najib, who took office last month, told Singapore’s Straits Times newspaper that he could handle the backlash to his plan from the ruling political party, the United Malays National Organization.
Najib told the newspaper that he did not fear opposition from the “warlords” in the party because he believes most of them are loyal to him.
“Don’t forget, I’m the biggest warlord. They are chiefs but they’re smaller chiefs. I’m the big chief,” Najib said in the interview ahead of his two-day visit to the city-state starting yesterday.
The affirmative action program launched in 1970 remains one of the most divisive aspects of Malaysia’s multiethnic society. Various policies in the program require many companies to be partly Malay-owned and allowed Malays to buy homes at reduced prices and get into universities more easily.
The Chinese and Indian ethnic minorities say this amounts to racial discrimination, but many Malays bristle at the suggestion that the program should be scrapped. The ruling party has been reluctant to meddle with the program for fear of losing the support of Malays.
Najib said Malays increasingly “support the idea of having a more equitable and socially just society.” He said steps toward economic liberalization were necessary to prevent Malaysia from being “out of sync with what’s happening globally” and reduce its ability to compete economically.
He did not elaborate on specific plans, but said the traditional method of “imposing quotas, for example, and equity restrictions, seems to be hampering achievements and growth.”
Maybe its just politik-speak. Maybe its not. Only time will tell.
Let’s end this piece with something that political scientist James Chin, who researches affirmative action policies, told The Straits Times:
Najib will likely be very cautious when it comes to actually amending the NEP. The key is to keep the economy efficient without losing the core support of the Malays that keeps Umno afloat.
Najib may modify certain less sensitive aspects of the NEP, such as the awarding of scholarships, but no country which has started affirmative action policies has ever been able to remove them, noted Chin.
“Najib is in a no-win situation,” he said.
