There is something rotten in the state of Malaysia?

馬哈迪：非馬來人不滿
“新經濟政策濫用”

馬哈迪接受財經週刊《TheEdge》專訪時，被詢及如何克服新經濟政策遭到濫用的問題時，他說，政府無法說，立即停止落實有關政策。

“我一直呼吁馬來人努力工作，不要依賴新經濟政策。是有人聽我的話，但大部份人還是不理會。”詢及他自認的最大失敗時，馬哈迪說，他無法改變馬來人的思維。

The NEP or New economy policy is actually the “Never Ending Policy” under the BN; Dr. M knows that the majority of the Malays would never be willing to forgo the special privileges that the BN started in the 70s. He also knows that any UMNO president would not be able to really abolish the NEP although officially it has ceded to exist, as that would be political suicide for him. Even an authoritarian leader like the dear Dr. who has ruled Malaysia for 22 years can’t openly defy the majority of the Malays.

Dr. M also knew that the ruling Umno and its leaders (at the expense of the non-bumi) have abused the NEP as I quote him when he talked about the Aps that was created under the NEP “這不是新經濟政策，而是濫用新經濟政策！”

We do not have to doubt his view that the BN has abused the affirmative action plan since then and majority of the bumi are unhappy that the NEP actually enriches only those well connected. We can talk to the cab drivers in KL and they would tell us that they did not benefited under the BN’s policies and that only a few BN men controlled the licenses of the taxis in KL.

However, the culture of the Malays does not allow them to question the views of those in control and they are basically very trusting people. They are the victim of the political party and their leaders because they would never be able to face the globalization like what Freidman described in his book “The world is flat.”

Dr. M had on the 15th August 2007 borrowed the phrase from Shakespeare's Hamlet 's to describe Malaysia's current state of affairs which i think is most fitting;"Something is rotten in the state of Denmark”

David Wong
DAP Sarawak publicity secretary
02/09/2007