People who racialise poverty merely to enrich themselves

When racial defenders become parasites of society

By Sharan Raj



THIS statement is in response to the ongoing conundrum on the participation of the Indian community in the formulation of the 12th Malaysia Plan (12MP) by certain race-based elitists such as politicians, technocrats, bureaucrats and academicians.

These people racialise poverty merely to enrich themselves.

The Malaysian Indian Transformation Unit (MITRA) had an allocation of RM500 mil in funding to implement programmes. Basically, MITRA became an event funding organisation for politically-linked people.

The RM500 mil could have provided housing for 5,000 households or an equivalent of 200,000 Malaysians to end old age homelessness and housing insecurity among Malaysians.



About 250,000 of critical public service positions in government premises such as cleaners and security guards have been outsourced under Malaysia’s Privatisation Policy. According to Jaringan Pekerja Kontrak Kerajaan (JPKK), the Government paid RM1.5 bil per annum to crony contractors to manage security guards in public schools.

The cumulative wages of 40,000 security guards working 84 hours per week is about RM1 bil. Basically, these crony contractors get RM500 mil worth of commissions to pay minimum wages on behalf of the Government.

Re-nationalising these jobs will allow us to re-distribute the crony contractors’ premium to increase workers’ wages to lift them up from poverty.

This exploitative privatisation policy was formulated by race-based politicians, technocrats, bureaucrats, and academicians themselves. A majority of these contracts are held by these race-centric leaders themselves or contractors linked to them.

These morally and intellect bankrupt racial elite flare up racism to be parasites on society through divide and rule. They are not interested in ending racism and poverty as this allows them to plunder society. These so-called race leaders are parasites of society. – Sept 12, 2021


Sharan Raj is a human rights activist, environmentalist and infrastructure policy analyst. He is also the central committee member for Parti Sosialis Malaysia (PSM)