Dennis Ignatius on the Bumiputera Economic Congress 2024

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A forum to advance the power and position of privileged Bumiputera elites at the expense of the rest of the nation.

Bernama

The recently concluded Bumiputera Economic Congress (like the ones before it) was  very much a political affair as Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim sought to position himself as the new champion of Malay nationalism.

While there was a great deal of verbal incontinence about Bumiputera empowerment, it ended up being a forum to advance the power and position of privileged Bumiputera elites at the expense of the rest of the nation.

Once again, the B40 group – Bumiputera and non-Bumiputera – are left with the crumbs; they can look forward to yet more years of low-paying, dead-end jobs and government handouts to survive. And that’s exactly where the politicians want them to be – forever dependent on government largesse to survive and easy to manipulate to boot.

In the run-up to the Congress, Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim raised expectations with lofty speeches about inclusivity, transformation and change. Hopes soared that finally he would put an end to the whole wasteful, corrupt and widely abused structures that the NEP had spawned over the years, that he would move towards the kind of needs-based policies that he himself had long advocated.

It was not to be. The same old failed policies were trotted out camouflaged with new names, new labels, new terminologies. Bumiputera Empowerment became Bumiputera Transformation. The word “inclusiveness” which gave the impression that there would be something in it for non-Malays turned out to be nothing more than a demand that non-Bumiputeras work closely with the government to further empower the Bumiputeras.

Bumiputeras and non-Bumiputeras working together for the good of all is something that is much needed but if the government wants to see genuine cooperation and real partnership between the two, it has to demonstrate in meaningful ways that both sides will really benefit from such cooperation. Cooperation, after all, means working together for mutual benefit. As it stands, there’s really nothing much for non-Bumiputeras to get excited about. Constantly shunting minorities aside and then expecting them to work together is simply unrealistic and ultimately self-defeating.

Of course, there was no shortage of people who praised the congress as a breakthrough event; it was actually a wasted opportunity. It just condemns the nation to the continuance of a failed economic framework, an albatross that keeps Malaysia at the level of mediocrity while doing nothing to ease racial polarization.

Zahid, perhaps sensing the growing hostility towards many of these Bumiputera policies, urged everyone not to view government assistance for Bumiputeras cynically. He is expecting too much. Years of corruption, abuse of power and failed policies have made cynics of most Malaysians.

But no matter how bad these policies are or no matter how much money is squandered, we are all warned to respect Bumiputera sensitivities and refrain from questioning the Bumiputera agenda. It’s the preferred method of stifling honest debate and avoiding the hard questions. All it does is perpetuate a system that is wasteful and abusive. If there is to be change, voters must demand greater accountability and transparency of all polices whether for Bumiputeras or otherwise.

Interestingly, UMNO emerged as the key driver of Bumiputera-related policies with Deputy Prime Minister and UMNO President Zahid Hamidi playing an outsized role in the Congress. As Chairman of the Performance and Implementation Management Committee Meeting (Steering Committee) that was set up by the Congress, he will now have a huge say in developing the Bumiputera economy and all the billions that will be channelled to it. That should translate into a great deal of political power and patronage.

It is another reminder that Pakatan Harapan appears to have given up trying to win Malay support on its own and has outsourced that role to UMNO now. Zahid must be congratulated for his political acumen; with only 26 seats in parliament (compared to PKR’s 31 and DAP’s 40), he has made UMNO the real lynchpin of the coalition government. Will UMNO use it to build up the Anwar Administration or strengthen its own position and challenge PH down the road?

Speakers at the Bumiputera Economic Congress made much of their concern for the B40 group, the people most disadvantaged by our current economic system. Most of them are Malays. For them the promises of Merdeka remain an illusion.

Unemployment and underemployment are major problems; businesses prefer to hire cheap foreign labour rather than pay locals a decent wage. As Dr Michael Jeyakumar Devaraj noted recently, “A small number of bumiputera control the companies that bring in excess migrant workers and depress the wages of the B40 bumiputera layer, making it difficult for the B40 to find work with a decent salary”. For the most part they earn the minimum wage and have to struggle to make ends meet. Whole generations have been condemned to poverty.

The politicians know all this. Economists and social scientists have studied the problem for decades; it’s not rocket science. If there’s political will, the problems of the B40 group can be solved quite easily.

It doesn’t happen because Bumiputera elites prefer to talk about equity ownership, more money for bumiputera entrepreneurs, bigger allocations for all sorts of projects, increasing the size of Bumiputera land ownership, etc. – all of which benefit them rather than the B40 group.

All these proposals – put forward with a straight face – are really quite revolting and utterly shameless. They are just out to grab as much as they can get in the name of Bumiputera empowerment. And it is the dwindling non-Malay minority that has to disproportionately shoulder the burden of this exploitative system.

To justify the continuance of the current discriminatory economic system, they keep changing the goal posts, adding new often vague conditionalities, new parameters and new demands to help the Bumiputeras “catch up.” Of course, ambiguous goals are hard to reach but that’s the whole idea.

A hundred years from now, they’ll still be talking about the need to catch up with the non-Malays, never mind that by then the non-Malays will be only a tiny minority given their low birth rates and present migration trends. If they keep on pursuing failed policies and neglecting the B40 group, they might someday have to talk about catching up with Indonesian, Bangladeshi and other migrants.

Amazingly, the government still harbours hopes that it can somehow magically create a new class of Bumiputera entrepreneurs out of thin air by throwing more money into the pot and offering yet more privileged access to contracts, etc. But if there’s one thing that the last few decades of Bumiputera empowerment has taught us it is that there are no shortcuts; the only way is to go to the root of the issue – our abysmally atrocious education system.

Reforming the education system, making it more competitive and equipping students with the right skills, is the only way to lift the B40 segment out of poverty. Many non-Malay families – without any government support – lifted themselves out of poverty through education and hard work. That almost all the current crop of Bumiputera highflyers are foreign educated should also tell us something.

But, of course, talking about education reform is not politically sexy; besides, there’s not much money to be made from it. To make matters worse, the mullahs now have an iron grip on the education system; they are more interested in developing faithful followers and equipping students for the next life rather than building a generation of entrepreneurs, professionals and skilled workers. But nobody – certainly not any of those at the congress who made much about Bumiputera empowerment – has the courage to stand up to them.

At the end of the Congress, Former Law Minister Zaid Ibrahim said, “It’s a relief that the Bumiputera Economic Congress is over. Let’s pray we will not have another one ever again.” Many Malaysians hope so too. But rent-seeking and entitlement is now so wrapped up in the fortunes of Malay political and business elites that all the prayers in the world will not avail for much.

In the run-up to the Congress, Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim and other government leaders raised expectations among non-Bumiputeras by talking about inclusiveness. Deputy Prime Minister Zahid Hamidi promised that the Bumiputera Economic Transformation policy would benefit all Malaysians. Anwar himself talked about “a more inclusive approach” and about addressing issues together. He was even quoted as saying that “although the event is called a Bumiputera economic congress, the government’s attention is not limited to challenges encountered by only the Bumiputeras”. Economy Minister Rafizi Ramli said it would be “fresh and inclusive”.

If you thought that “inclusiveness” meant policies and programmes that would benefit everyone regardless of ethnicity you would be wrong. It turns out that as far as the government is concerned, the word simply means having a few non-Malay speakers as window dressing. Other than that, there was nothing in it for non-Bumiputeras, not even for B40 non-Bumiputeras.

The government’s “inclusiveness” does not include a fair distribution of scholarships for struggling non-Bumiputera students or more university places or support for non-Bumiputera farmers and small businessmen, for example. And neither does it extend to a more inclusive civil service.

Insisting that non-Bumiputeras will not be marginalised – as Zahid has repeatedly emphasised since the Congress – doesn’t make it so. After all, non-Bumiputeras have been progressively marginalized in almost every way since the NEP was introduced. And it is not about to get any better.

Take the proposal by Zahid’s to create a Bumiputera Land Corporation to boost Bumiputera land ownership. Under the proposed plan, if the lease size exceeds 50 acres (20.23ha) for agricultural land or 20 acres for industrial use, the proposal calls for 20 percent of the land to be handed back to the government upon lease renewal or extension. This means that every time non-Bumiputera-owned leases come up for renewal, they could lose 20% of their land!

As Malaysiakini columnist P Gunasegaram noted, there’s a good chance that the corporation will then hand the land over to a privileged bumiputera who can then sell it back to the original lessor for a huge premium. How is that inclusive leave alone fair? I hope those affected will challenge this state-sponsored land grab policy in the courts.

Since the inception of the NEP, successive governments have promised not to rob Peter to pay Paul; it’s a promise that’s never been kept. Banks, transport companies, rice mills etc. were all taken over in the name of affirmative action. Now they have set their eyes on non-Bumiputera land holdings. It’s never-ending; the more they get the more these elites cast envious eyes on the wealth of others.

As former law minister Zaid Ibrahim caustically noted, “no group in this world is as fortunate as the Bumiputera”; not all of them, of course, only the select few who are connected to those in power.

And then there’s the proposal for companies to make diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) disclosures to ensure “workplace diversity” – a fancy way of saying non-Bumiputera companies need to employ more Bumiputeras.

But, if workplace diversity is so important, why is the civil service and GLCs – which are both Bumiputera preserves – excluded? Surely, if workplace diversity is important – and I believe it certainly is – the government, as the largest employer, should set the example by ensuring diversity in the workplaces that it manages before insisting that others do so.  Insisting on diversity in non-Bumiputera workplaces while closing off Bumiputera workplaces to non-Bumiputeras will further marginalise non-Bumiputeras.

Non-Bumiputras have been marginalised long enough. If policies aimed at uplifting Bumiputeras are fair, transparent and well-managed, there would be more than enough money to get the job done without depriving or marginalizing non-Bumiputeras.  What is unacceptable is for Bumiputera elites to keep siphoning off billions from Bumiputera projects and then expect non-Bumiputeras to keep paying the price for Bumiputera empowerment. – Dennis Ignatius