THE Seventh Bumiputera Economic Congress (BEC) will be held between Feb 29 and March 2, 2024.
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim said that the BEC will be an inclusive one – one that will seek to identify new growth rates and the eradication of poverty immaterial of race of religion.
Non-Malay representatives will be invited for the Congress, apparently for the first time in history. The question is the meaning of the inclusive nature of the BEC.
Can the BEC for the first time in history of the country set the trend to ensure that policies and measures will benefit all the ethnic groups in Malaysia? Can the BEC see the rise of Anwar who is also the Finance Minister as a statesman and not as the ethnic champion?
Will the BEC see that there is a fair distribution of economic and commercial opportunities to all the deserving ethnic groups?
Anwar cannot use the term “inclusive” and yet make no meaningful changes to the content of the BEC.
The previous past BECs have been used to draw up policies and measure to benefit the Malays who are the political anchor of all the Bumiputra communities. Essentially, the term Bumiputra might be misleading as it only refers to the Malays.
In fact, the BECs in the past have been held against the non-Malays particularly to sideline them in the economic and financial arears.
The question is how is the coming BEC is going to make difference to the Malays and non-Malays. Given the declining Malay support for the government of the day, is Anwar willing to dilute the BEC by factoring the participation of the non-Malays?
Yes, non-Malays will be invited but will their invitation make a difference to the outcome of the gathering? Is Anwar given his shifting and populist ways willing to tamper with the Malay hegemonic ingredient of the gathering.
I think that the BEC might be called inclusive to suggest that Anwar is concerned with broad issues. But I really doubt that Anwar will contribute in meaningful ways to change the deep-seated ethnic character of the BEC.
Even the Malays particularly those who are not enamoured by Anwar’s politics think that the BEC is nothing but a gathering stage-managed by Anwar in the interest of improving the political credentials of UMNO.
What better way to enhance the prestige of UMNO, the political party on the verge of losing complete Malay support.
Even if the BEC takes a conservative rightest position, I sincerely doubt that Malays will be enthralled by the political gimmicks of Anwar, the man who he thinks that represents all Malaysians.
But in actual fact, he is not representative of any race or social class. But when the odds are not in his favour, he will politically gravitate to the dominant ethnic group. – Feb 18, 2024
Former DAP stalwart and Penang chief minister II Prof Ramasamy Palanisamy is chairman of the Urimai (United Rights of Malaysian Party) interim council.
The views expressed are solely of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Focus Malaysia.
