The Omnipresent NEP (1970-Forevermore)

It really doesn’t matter whether the NEP exists officially, or disguised under a more innocent name like the New National Agenda of UMNO Youth. For as long as there are UMNO-like Malays in decision-making positions, there will be subtle, silent but tangible marginalization of the minorities in Malaysia...



The Beginning of the End Of NEP?

Many non-bumis are elated that Lim Guan Eng decided to abolish the NEP in Penang. They hail it as a major breakthrough in institutionalized racial discrimination in the land called Malaysia. With the successful ‘abolishment’ of the NEP in Penang, many non-Malay folks are now calling for the Perak government to follow suit.

I say these people are all stupid fools.

Don’t mistake me for an UMNO apologist. I didn’t take any wrong or new medication. I also did not receive any big money from anyone to call my fellow DAP/PKR/PAS supporters degrading names.

It’s just that I honestly think that we were all really overwhelmed by the victory of five state governments that we have lost touch with reality on the ground.

Does anyone really believe that the NEP in Penang is gone forevermore with one official announcement by the chief minister? Does anyone really expect more tendes for non-Malay contractors simply because they now have an open system? Are all non-bumis closely anticipating and quietly hoping that there will be a fairer and brighter Malaysia soon?

Racial discrimination does not need the NEP. The majority race does not need an outdated policy to step over the heads of the minorities. Malay supremacy will continue to be the order of the day even if DAP, PKR and PAS all wholeheartedly denounce the NEP. Elements of the NEP will remain an integral part of Malaysian society even when UMNO is no longer the ruling party of Malaysia.

NEP is but a name of one of the too many policies Malaysia has enacted since independence. That’s all there is to it. In fact, if one scrutinizes the contents and aims of the NEP, no sane Malaysian will object to eradication of poverty regardless of race, amongst others.

NEP is not the cause of our eternal Malaysian curse. NEP merely lends an official name to the systematic ethnic marginalization that takes place in Malaysia due to overzealous Malay supremacists.

It really doesn’t matter whether the NEP exists officially, or disguised under a more innocent name like the New National Agenda of UMNO Youth. For as long as there are UMNO-like Malays in decision-making positions, there will be subtle, silent but tangible marginalization of the minorities in Malaysia. Take for example my alma mater Universiti Malaya. The decision making body in the university is the senate. The senate has the authority to employ as many Malay academic staff as it wants and as little non-Malays as it likes. It is really immaterial whether the Education Minister is Hishammudin Hussein, Mustapha Mohamed or maybe in the not too distant future, a PKR personality. The only factor that is important is whether the senate of UM believes in a fair Malaysia. Thus far, its actions show that it doesn’t. For as long as there are Malay people in positions of power thinking as UMNO does, behaving like UMNO does and feeling as UMNO does, racial discrimination will continue and persist in Tanah Melayu till kingdom comes.

In short, change in our race relations will not come from the echelons of power. It is very much the other way around. A real change can only come when the man on the street stops viewing the other person as a threat. The Malay guy must stop believing that his is a privileged race with a God-given right to supremacy over the other ethnic groups. The Chinese fella must put aside his anti-NEP pride and admit that there exists a great pool of talent among the Malay race. The Indian macha has no choice but to admit under the previous quota system, they were the greater beneficiaries than our Malay brethren when it came to local university intake.

here is no Lim Guan Eng or Anwar Ibrahim or Prof P.Ramasamy to look to in our quest to murder the NEP. The victim mentality among all races must cease – no more blame-the-British among the Malays, no more Malays-are-bullies among the Chinese, no more pundak-MIC among the Indians. We will forever be stalked by the remnants and soul of the NEP for as long we refuse to change our own viewpoints upon one another.

Only when a victim-bully mentality is no more can we truly be free from the NEP, if and when it is finally and officially no more.

Going by the current state of our race relations, do you think that is possible?