The Chinese bogeyman again
In particular, in my view, the communist insurgency mainly comprised Chinese activists due to the fact communism is an atheist doctrine and distasteful to the average Muslim Malay, not because the Chinese wanted to dominate the Malays. It was a not primarily a racially-motivated insurgency although the prime minister claimed it was such.
Other socialist parties that are less adverse to belief in religion therefore find a far higher proportion of Muslim supporters. The high proportion of Malays in the leadership and membership of PRM tells me that Malays are not lagging behind other races in their acceptance of more universal values of egalitarianism.
Of course, for the past 30 years, materialism took precedence over lofty ideals. Hence, a sizeable number of Malays were seduced by the very lure of money from politics and from the promise of rapid improvements in material wealth through Umno's brand of affirmative action. Hence, Umno's success in the past 30 years.
But someone should point out to Dr Mahathir that affirmative action may work very well for a very long period in the US because the African Americans are in the minority, and the effectiveness of affirmative action will not detract from the economic vibrance of the Caucasian majority there.
Here in Malaysia, the Chinese are in the minority and, may I add, a rapidly shrinking minority. Simple arithmetic will tell you that at the margin, in such a situation, over time, a race-based redistribution policy will lose its apparent effectiveness. Some day not too far from now, only five percent of Malaysia's population will be Chinese. By then, it will be more relevant for Malays to be questioning how they compare against the larger number of the rich in their own ranks than against the rich amongst Chinese.
This is already happening and it is leading to newfound frustration amongst Malays themselves, seeing that the Umnoputras have become super-rich while others sense their turn to enjoy the simplest fruits of the affirmative policy will never come.
Dr Mahathir is content to draw inferences from the history of the country to drive home the threat from the Chinese to a disunited Malay race. In all fairness, this may have held true at an early stage in post-independence.
But this is now far removed from reality. He must know it very well, but nevertheless still attempts to invoke now mostly latent fears (rightfully so) to play to Malay emotions so as to draw votes.
If as the leading component in the Barisan Nasional government, a magnanimous Umno pays more attention to better distribution of wealth amongst all people (by that I do not mean jettison the New Economic Policy principles entirely), and not just between races, the frustration between races will disappear over time without sacrificing the longer-term growth potential of the country.
Remember, frustration felt is not only amongst the Malays but amongst the poor in the Chinese as well. Tax the rich Chinese and help poor Malays by all means. Call it by any fancy term you like but all governments in the world aim, to one degree or another, to reduce the disparity of income between the rich and the poor.
But affirmative policies in the form they currently take that totally ignore the means test is a luxury the country cannot afford for much longer. The cake is not growing as fast as before and robbing Peter to pay Paul will work well only while Peter is still rich and if there are manyPeters around for each Paul.
Mahathir preaches the 'prosper thy neighbour' policy in international forums. It would be nice to begin at home.
