The Children of the NEP

Browsing through pages of blogs and talking to many professionals who live in Malaysia, one cannot escape the feeling that we are developing faster than we actually thought we could possibly become. There are many more professionals and well-learned individuals in Malaysia as compared to the 50's thanks to a system designed to provide everyone, a chance to change their lives; the NEP (New Economic Policy). It also gives one, a chance to postulate the actual effect of NEP on the current political upheaval. When the NEP was executed with a pure mission in assisting Bumiputras (who were then living in poor living and economic conditions) alleviate themselves from poverty and increase their competitive advantage against the other races, it was never intended to alienate the others. It does however, have serious repercussions on people who received it. 

As the children of NEP grew stronger and became economically capable, they are thrown into a free-market environment where they are free to compete with the others based on their own merits. These NEP children by then enjoys a good life and by virtue of professionalism, starts to encounter 'non-professional' conditions in their life. They begin to feel disgusted at the so-called non-ethical 'governmental' cronyism (or so it is labeled) practice in their life and working environment. Such conditions could appear as the examples below:

1. A lecturer who knows someone at the Ministry could get a quick promotion.

2. A rival company gets governmental contracts because he knows someone inside the project.

3. A certain someone gets preferential treatment at the public hospital (whilst others queue to their measly deaths)

4. We have a suspected crony neighbour who drives around in either his Lexus, Merc or Ferrari.  

The children of NEP thus grow very unsettled and of course, disgruntled. The illusionary freedom to compete fairly (as was learnt during their sponsored overseas and local education) was suddenly destroyed, and the reality that life-changing decisions is controlled makes them feel betrayed. They feel that the entrusted governance to keep everything fair (so that they don't feel envious) is corrupt. For most, this passes by without causing much trouble in their lives and with better economic stance, have now chosen to become a fully liberated individual free to choose whomever he wishes to rule the country (and of course subsequently says NEP is redundant because he/she has reaped the benefits and conveniently forgets about the other poverty stricken rakyat). They also start to cringe at the fact that they now hold the responsibility to ‘pay’ for these inefficiencies of supporting the poor ‘kampong losers’ who know nothing but to consume.

It is also probably interesting to get a statistics on the number of children born under NEP (or also loosely aggregated as professionals/middle income individuals) who are in the opposition. So the war on NEP is probably just an excuse to bring down a government that requires the practice of ‘kongsi’ (malay equivalent of kongsi), a popular business ethics practiced in China until today (view Kotler; ‘Marketing in Asia’ and Wong.J; ‘The Political Economy of Corruption in China’). I do not blame them for feeling this way; after all I am also a child of NEP. Given the chance to study abroad and accumulate invaluable experience, I am truly blessed. As such, I'm also aware of the in-congruencies the government system causes in the society. The children of NEP are now crying out that the system is outdated and some have even blamed it for the higher growth of an elite society. It is truly sad to see them moaning, fighting, crying and molesting their self-respect to destroy what is that they do not understand. Question is, do they really have the answers to preventing policy abuse, cronyism, unethical conduct, bribery, etc., of which they accused the current political system is drowned in.

Although the debate on cronyism have been a long overdue argument to no conclusive end. I would like to reiterate that the cronyism system is a societal default and that even the opposition cannot destroy if they were to take over. As illustrated in studies by Kotler (just one of the books that I stumbled across containing this issue), the habit of preferring to help the people you know or befriend is much higher and could easily be mistaken as crony (When I make a purchase from a friend as compared to another equal, and he willingly gives me a discount, does it mean we're cronies?). Even if monetary transaction is not involved, preferential treatment will always prevail, you name it; a wife, husband, son, daughter, relatives, in-laws, best friends, future prospects, terhutang budi (sorry, I’m unsure of the english equivalent ;-P), scandals, protection gangs, political funders, private funders, and the list goes on.... I suppose we are all cronies. As such, I fail to understand the concept of ‘fairness’ in their argument (the attention seeking opposition). Perhaps what they mean is ‘fairness’ in squandering? “kasi semua makan sama laaaa”…. 

Finally, I theorize this view on the NEP children (who are now proud opposition professionals) because I find it annoying that their speech of 'fairness' and 'freedom' is perhaps hypocritical at most. Thus their 'fairness' and 'freedom' will only be achieved once they've taken charge of national governance and squander up the portion they were eyeing years before. Without delay they start using technology irresponsibly (blogs and media) to poison the minds of the youths, thus creating the opposition image as 'Non-conformists' or ‘rebellious’, which is extremely popular with the latter age group (see ‘pop-culture’). Perhaps their children would also rebel against them when they grow up as professional adults and learn that their parents were also dishing out favours to 'friends' in their political position. 

The New Malay Dilemma

This article is to invite all of us to think and re-evaluate the values we hold until now. The Malays in the new century is faced with a new challenge, built upon the foundations of guilt. The guilt in context is not a wrongdoing or regret, but focused on the in-depth feeling we all have for receiving something we didn’t work for; our Malay rights. The post-independence generation of Malays who inherited Bumiputra rights is condemned for protecting it.

 

We are forced to feel guilty that we’re given the opportunity to become the sole heir to the country that was rightly ours. We are afraid to incite unspeakable racial issues even though the others scream their lungs out at our so-called despicable behaviour; “Melayu malas” and “Pemerintahan Ketuanan Melayu”. We give way, we allow ourselves to be kicked and gutted, as our guilt slowly make its way into our psyche. We drink the poison given to us in a gilded cup, served in a manner that is politically correct, but morally wrong.

 

Save our children’s mind as they laud the superiority of children who go to Chinese Schools and learn Mandarin Language as their language of preference. We are dubbed intolerant and racists without them even realizing that the practice of social ‘castes’ was heavily practiced in the origins of India and China. We are forced to subjugate our religious conscience since the others do not feel they should tolerate morning Azan. They say we push them away when their children at school have to sit quietly and listen to others say the morning ‘doa’. I wonder how do our children feel if we sent them to a chinese school where they serve pork in the canteens with no other choice? We dim our souls to cater to those who speak loudest, not the wisest.

 

Are we quick to point our fingers to the racial tendency of Ah Long operators, illegal DVD peddlers, suicidal tendencies and errant porn video shop operators, as clearly as they shout out issues of Malay rape cases and incest? Have they not seen our tolerance to their slandering words? And do we sit quietly and wallow in shame as they crown us more titles by the day?

 

We endure so much guilt that we hide our real selves and try to not to appear Malay in our thoughts, views and requests. In order to become the so-called “new-generation” Malays, we discard our culture, our history, our responsibility to protect our children’s future and our inheritance. The damaging psychological effects of our guilt as Malays are running deeper by the day, amplified by continuous political media warfare.

 

Being Malay has never been more shameful and unpopular as it is today. It is painful for us to accept Malay majority quotas and be judged by it. We beat ourselves to retribution to be rid of the social stigma, endowed by those who hate our rights. This is the psychological ills that have been fed to our children and us by politicized media.

 

It is unfortunate that the guilt is already inside us, eating our minds and not one of us is spared. It is probably scandalous to say that a religious political party which used to be strong, now bow cowering as the weight of guilt take its toll. It is inherently fashionable to be in opposition nowadays to be seen as non-conforming modern Malay rather than take the taunt of being “kuno” and accept our constitution.  

 

Are we ready to undo the constitution that our forefathers have lived and died for? Were our forefathers guilty to ensure that their children’s future is protected from those who wish to enslave us as the British did? What the current Australians did to the native aborigines? The South African ‘Mat Salleh’s did to the native africans? If they were not guilty, then why should we bare the blame? And the most practical question to ask is “why now?”  

 

Relieve us of this guilt and take pride in our souls. We should no longer carry this weight and should be proud of our race. We were a big part of the leadership that brought this country to its Independence, and there is no need for us to feel shame and guilt to claim what is right for the Malays. Finally, it is to be remembered that the day we loose our rights, is the very day we turned our backs on our very own selves. 

Chicken Coup

This blog may or may not sound lame but it does spark some interest for my own record. I've been reading the news these past days regarding our rogue chicken producer (or the union) asking the government to stop regulating (or controlling) the chicken prices. I suppose it would be beneficial to raise the prices at the moment due to the raising fears over swine flu, but it also begs a sound and logical explanation behind the request. 

In proper economics, increased demand ensures prices will drop due to higher volume. It's kinda weird to see the chicken farmers increasing their prices during a higher demand (due to a demand switch from pig based produce to chicken) environment. This usually happens in a regulated market. But wait! The chicken farmer (or the union) is asking for the FREE MARKET to determine the market prices... This incomprehensible situation is absolutely nonsense. A free market does not support unions in the first place, meaning all farmers produce their own goods and sell them at a willing rate to any purchasing customer without resorting to unionized pressure. Creating one large monopoly via a union and forcing a price increase on ALL chicken produce is NOT a free market practice in the first place. Thus they are WRONG in forcing this non-free market price on all customers. It is also therefore NOT wrong for the government to be a collective voice of the consumers in general to put a pressure on them to reduce their prices. Until this union break-up their controls on chicken produce distribution and let the REAL free market take place, I firmly believe the Government has the right to put a price ceiling to curb such monopolistic and anti-free market pressures. 

I would also like to suggest another treatment to this growing itch in our backs. I recall a few years ago during a worldwide bird-flu outbreak that the situation is very much different. At that time, the chicken sales suffered tremendously with losses of income and reduction in chicken consumption. Guess who begged for subsidies and assistance FROM the government? We all know the answer and therefore we could also easily pen down the diagnosis and treatment for them. The government will let the chicken union have their free-market with a BIG relief... and a small clause. That in any case of environmental and market situation that may effect the future sales of the chicken union and its constituents (farmers, distributors, resellers), they may NOT ask for any assistance at all and let the FREE-MARKET take its damage on THEM. Nuff said, case closed... we know who will loose. Customers can purchase fish, beef, boer meat and countless other produce with no worries at all.