Damning Asli's report damned bumiputera poor as well

underlining are all mine

Edmund Terence Gomez, a research coordinator at the United Nations Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD) in Geneva and associate professor of political economy at the Faculty of Economics, Universiti Malaya, lamented the disproportionate UMNO criticism of Asli’s study titled ‘Corporate Equity Distribution: Past Trends and Future Policy’.

The study by Asli or the Asian Strategy and Leadership Institute's Centre for Public Policy Studies (CPPS), headed by Dr Lim Teck Ghee, was undertaken late last year as part of a larger report prepared for submission to the government, which was then in the midst of putting together the Ninth Malaysia Plan (9MP).

Asli had invited a multi-ethnic group of academics to review urgent issues, including the alleviation of poverty, the reformation of the civil service and tertiary institutions, and the plight of the nation's highly marginalised communities, in particular the Orang Asli.

Asli’s study was in fact in response to the call by PM AAB for public participation in the formulation of the 9MP, a call that was seen as a genuine request to secure honest feedback on social and economic inequities.

Obviously Asli wasn’t aware that AAB or any UMNO leader didn’t and don't want any 'genuine' report to undermine the current ‘cosy arrangement’ accorded to ‘certain people’ under the aegis of the unaccountable NEP’s bumi equity excuse.

Gomez opined that the racialisation of Asli's study has been unfortunate. Because of the racist nature of the attack on the Asli’s report, the UMNO argument has eventually focused on just one issue: the corporate wealth owned by bumiputeras, where there were far more important issues, such as the growing disparity in wealth between segments of the Malay and bumiputera community.

Hmmm, maybe Gomez is being diplomatic as we all know that UMNO leaders also don't want such embarrasing facts to be aired.

Gomez seemed to indirectly support KTemoc's opinion because he then pointed out that at no point in the UMNO criticism of Asli’s report did any of those UMNO politicians address a key concern raised by the report: namely, that the pattern of implementation of affirmative action had contributed to serious wealth and income disparities within the bumiputera community.

'... pattern of implementation ...' What does that tell us. Now, perhaps we wouldn't really expect those UMNO leaders to address that, would we?

Gomez said that this income disparity alone demanded an urgent overhaul of government policies, specifically those that were supposed to help bumiputeras but which in practice had done little to alleviate the plight of the poor of the bumiputera community.

Well, ... what did we just commented on ... ?

Gomez averred that the [solely UMNO instituted] political furor [and KTemoc believes, undoubtedly behind-the-scene political pressure] leading to Dr Lim’s resignation does not augur well for the AAB government as the Asli’s report was undertaken solely in the spirit of responding to the prime minister's call to all Malaysians to speak the truth to him.

Well, as mentioned, AAB doesn’t want the truth as the 'T' word is damn incomnenient. It's alien to the nature of our govenment, which has been functioning and living for decades without it. Besides, 'truth' jeopardises UMNO leaders’ ‘aspirations’ and ‘expectations’.

Ah well, it's just the usual case of AAB’s cakap ta’serupa bikin.