THERE is no need for a major research centre to confirm or deny that there is a widening disconnect between what the Government says and does to assist the Bumiputera community in the country, said Penang deputy chief minister II Dr P. Ramasamy.
Ramasamy was responding to Merdeka Centre programmes director Ibrahim Suffian who said yesterday (June 16) that the notion that the Government looks after the welfare of Muslims and Bumiputeras is “wearing thin”.
At the launch of Sisters in Islam and Merdeka Centre’s survey on Malaysian Muslim youth Ibrahim also said the Government could no longer claim to protect the welfare of Muslims and Bumiputeras as many among them were struggling.
As such, the Government had resorted to providing subsidies and aid to those most in need rather than actively implementing measures to improve their condition of life.
On this matter Ramasamy said that race and religion are “convenient tools” that serve to submerge the real intentions of the Government that ostensibly exists to protect the interests and welfare of the Bumiputera community.
“In fact, race and religion have been used and manipulated by the Government elites to divide the various races in the country,” he claimed.
“This division merely exists to cloak the real interest of the elites for the acquisition of power and the extraction of resources.”
Ramasamy further alleged that by tuning the Bumiputera against the non-Bumiputera and vice versa the Government had, since Independence, perfected a “divide and rule” methodology.
This methodology, he elaborated, was inherited from the British colonial power and has been perfected by the elites in the post-colonial Government.
“The New Economic Policy (NEP) of growth and distribution is an example of a policy with lofty ideals but had ended up serving the narrow and sectarian interests of the Bumiputera elites,” he noted.
“Its continuation despite criticisms is a testimony to the fact that its existence serves the class interests of a particular minority within the elite circles.
“But unfortunately given the racial and religious polarisation between the races, racial policies have not been abandoned, but in fact reinforced by citing fears of the perishment of the Bumiputra community.”
According to Ramasamy the Bumiputera community had been left completely in the lurch by those who were supposed to represent them
“Some sections of non-Malays have been able to mitigate the deleterious overtly pro Bumiputra policies, but the larger battle has been lost,” he commented.
“The elites might be able to camouflage their self-interests under conditions of economic stability, but the cracks are already there.”
Ramasamy pointed out that it is when the economy deteriorates under their self-inflicted wounds that the Government’s hypocrisy towards the Bumiputera can become obvious.
“I am not sure what would it take for the Government to reverse its old and archaic race-based policies but their disastrous consequences are clear to all,” he said.
“It is not a question of switching policies on and off but rather, it is a question of how such race-based policies have become deeply-rooted to serve the interest of certain classes.” – June 17, 2022
