NEP bastardized - Nazir Razak......(continuation)

I am continuing what I was writing yesterday about the issue of bastardizing the NEP that was raised by Nazir Razak the brother–in-law of Rosmah Mansor. Nazir sounded very thankful being the product of the NEP and that policy made him where he is today.

Resulting from Nazir’s strong statement Ibrahim Ali of PERKASA reacted muscularly against Nazir and called Nazir as inexperience and Ibrahim was just short of saying ‘you shut up’ to Nazir.

I appreciate Ibrahim for speaking on the Malay gallery and that is fine with me and everybody. The Malay issues that PERKASA is resting its laurel on are fitting to some extent. The Malays are certainly in need of a ‘shoulder’ to lean on as the party which is supposed to care for them is flirting around with others leaving their members without lead and pointer. Hence the NGO Ibrahim is leading becomes an expedient premise for the disgruntled UMNO members and Malays to get associated with.

PERKASA has been overt and explicitly doing the tetchy job for what the Malays is at today. Ibrahim has been wailing and has been putting the government leadership on trial for negating from the original role of observing the Malay rights and protecting other races as provided by the Federal Constitutions.

I must say it loudly that in effect what Nazir has said concurs with the struggles of PERKASA. Both are not happy with the Malay’s progress. The difference between these two personalities is the position or angle they look the issue from.

Nazir was talking about the contributory factors that made the NEP a failure and he chose to blame the successors to the NEP inventors for bastardizing the well thought policy. Ibrahim on the other hand is looking from the angle of ill fated Malays who have been the victim of bastardizing the NEP done by the successors of NEP founder.

Ibrahim is no more young and if he cares to recollect history which is still recent, he must remember how the prostituting the NEP started and he must also admit that what he (Ibrahim) is complaining today is the result of dismantling the NEP which Nazir has rightly said.

The introduction of direct negotiations on the gigantic fast tract projects was the killer for the NEP. Development projects with the tune of big billions destroyed the basic fabric of the NEP. Bumiputra was not able to participate as the recipients of those projects were already predetermined and more often than not, the same faces within the cronies secured the jobs.

Let us be reminded that the ‘Unit Penyertaan Bumiputra’ which was set up in every bank and government department was unceremoniously set aside and not many people remember it any more.

The government went on with express project and was very proud of GDP growth of almost double digit so on and so forth. The late Tun Dr Ismail told the last General Assembly he attended in 1972 that we were able to grow with double digit growth but the slowing down of the growth was for national purpose; that Bumiputra was not yet ready and if the economic development growth was too fast it might leave the Malays and other indigenous far behind. Hence that would bring political instability. BUT that caution was not remembered and appreciated. Our leaders wanted what they wanted to do very quickly.

Hence the marginal growth of Malay and Bumiputra equity holding was so insignificant. A day before Dr Mahathir stepped down from power he mentioned the official figure of Malay equity as at 2002 as 19 percent.

It simply means that during the period of 1984 until 2002 there was only an increase of 0.8 percent Bumiputra equity. For this I don’t know what to say about Daim Zainuddin who took the mantle of the nation’s economy. BUT he was and still is appreciated by the exclusive cronies who were able to secure project by billion of ringgit then.

1990s were the period when all the special ‘Bumiputras’ with big names were flying in personal executive jets, some of them even had 2 jets, one of which to be used to fly PM, DPM and Senior Ministers and exclusive heads of GLCs and related personality within the corridors of power.

The spirit of NEP was swiftly forgotten. Our corporate guys within PM and Daim’s circle were spending the ill gotten money more than the expenses of the CEOs of world’s big corporation like Toyota, Honda and other gigantic names in the world class corporations.

BUT of late we don’t see the jets anymore. I am told that all those were repossessed and many are back to flying commercial flights. If that is true, then what a close friend of mine said has been proven right. “Owning a jet is only two-time happiness; one is when we get the delivery and the other is when we are able to sell it”. So that is the reason why we only see Dr Mahathir who flies in and out of the nation in a white Global Express.

The operative Malay businessmen were slowly thinning in numbers as almost big opportunities were taken away by the ‘special bumiputras’ who worked hand-in--glove with the powerful power house for negotiated tenders where prices and costs of the development projects were determined by a ‘cartel like’ apparatus. They were not worried because the forgiving ralyat and in particular the Malays continued on supporting them.

They took the Malays and others as donkeys with one responsibility, i.e just support them. They would be telling the people, we have Putrajaya, we have KLCC, we have the tallest flagpole in the world so on and on.

So Nazir is very close to telling the truth but may be he is the wrong person to talk about the issue. He is certainly together with some others who enjoyed being within the corridors of power right from his infant age until now.

I never had the opportunity like Nazir has, as my father was a policeman, not the PM of this nation. Like many others I have no capacity to be a social climber.