Dennis Ignatius
~ Provoking discussion, dissent & debate on politics, diplomacy, human rights & civil society.
Bumiputera Economic Congress 2024
23SaturdayMar 2024
Posted in corruption, Malaysia, Politic
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Part 4: Empowered to plunder?
All told the NEP has now spanned some 12 Malaysia Plans, 53 national budgets and 9 prime ministers. At the same time, hundreds of federal and state agencies and government-funded companies have been set up in pursuit of the Bumiputera agenda. It is estimated that more than RM3 trillion has already been spent on Bumiputera empowerment.
Despite all of that, the claim is made that Bumiputeras still lag behind and still need preferential treatment. The question why – despite the huge sums expended and the myriad of agencies devoted to this singular cause – the programme has not accomplished its goals is rarely asked.
Discussions on Bumiputera empowerment almost always centre around the need for yet more funds, privileges, more agencies and yet more time to get the job done. It’s a never-ending, ever-expanding black hole.
Since the NEP began, there have been hundreds of financial scandals; billions have been lost or stolen. Almost every agency has run into difficulty because of corruption, abuse of power or plain incompetence. Just read the Auditor-General’s annual reports.
Daim Zainuddin, the former Chairman of the Council of Eminent Persons (now charged with failing to declare his assets) described it as “the shameless robbing of the very institutions that were established to help and uplift our rakyat. The pillage of trust bodies like FELDA, LTAT, Tabung Haji, and KWAP were astounding and heart-breaking.”[1] He also warned that there were dozens of mini-1MDBs waiting to be uncovered.
More recently, former law minister Zaid Ibrahim highlighted two examples of the utter folly of some of these Bumiputera assistance programmes.[2] According to Zaid, since 1970, the government has spent close to RM80 billion to help the Bumiputera fishing industry improve both productivity and living standards. Yet today, he noted, that our 110,000 fishermen are among the poorest segment of our society.
Billions are also allocated each year for various subsidies and incentives to rice farmers. Again, it has not resulted in proportionately higher yields or living standards for rice farmers. Indeed, the 2022 Auditor General’s report found that almost a quarter of the 77,275 rice farmers have an average income below RM600 while the majority earned between RM600 and RM1,499.[3]
How is it that so much money allocated to relatively so few recipients has made so little difference? Where did all the money go to? How much of it actually went to the farmers and fishermen? Again, no answers.
Every time there’s a scandal and billions are lost, the government rushes in to bail out failing companies with public funds. Billions have been spent bailing out Proton, Malaysia Airlines, Tabung Haji, FELDA and LTAT to name a few. Make no mistake, such bailouts mean less money for health care, infrastructure, education, etc. And it is the people who end up paying for the profligacy, indolence and corruption of some of the elites who mismanage these corporations and agencies in the name of the Bumiputeras.
What’s worse, no one is ever held accountable; those who have failed in their responsibilities are just reassigned to other parts of the Bumiputera economy; some go on to become cabinet ministers again. Just look at the Littoral Combat Ships (LCS) scandal. Possibly as much as RM6 billion was misappropriated in what Anwar himself (then in the Opposition) called an act of “massive corruption.”[4] No one has thus far been convicted or held responsible for the fiasco. To save the project the government pumped in yet more billions for even fewer ships.
The whole construct looks more and more like a state-sponsored criminal enterprise in which politicians and their cronies plunder the nation in the name of affirmative action and then bail out the companies they have robbed or mismanaged with further public funds. As Salleh Said Keruak dryly noted, there may be only a few wealthy Malay businessmen but there are plenty of wealthy Malay politicians.[5]
How long are we going to have to carry the burden of these corrupt, indolent and privileged rent-seekers? How long are we going to keep subsidizing them in the name of affirmative action? Where does it say we are supposed to accept such thievery in the name of Bumiputera empowerment?
No one will begrudge assistance to those who need help but it is both criminal and intolerable that privileged elites keep grabbing more and more for themselves at the expense of the rest of us. Enough is enough!
[Dennis Ignatius | Kuala Lumpur | 23rd March 2024]
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