Malaysia-Chronicle
Over the last two days, the death of a very young girl in an apparent suicide bid by a family of four has captured the attention of the nation. The story which was front-paged by a daily English newspaper for two days in a row, if anything, is perhaps a glaring and stark indication of the state-of-the-nation now.
Initial investigations by the authorities show that the family was facing a financial struggle. They lived in a shop-house in Taman Sri Sentosa, off Old Kland Road, Kuala Lumpur and made several attempts to end their lives. The couple and a son survived the attempts but their little girl succumbed to death.
Their horrifying decision to kill themselves came about after the father, a contractor, failed to obtain a loan of RM30,000 to do business and the mother was unsuccessful in a bid to become a kindergarten teacher.
They were reduced to living on pittance and the shame and misery was just too much for them to bear that they made the drastic decision to commit suicide together as they felt there was no more point in living.
This is Malaysia now in the real New Millennium where the doors are beginning to close on people and families and this story is starting to cause Malaysians to wonder if there are other such tragedies waiting to happen, if this is the tip of the iceberg.
How really do Chinese and Indians figure?
We are well accustomed to hear tales of the Indian community whereby many languish in Malaysian jails as gangsters for crime and why the number of Indians who are assessed as mentally unstable rising in numbers.
Are the Chinese and Indians now in such despair and despondency that there is no way out or manner of affirmative action in place by the Barisan Nasional (BN) Government for these communities? They have been long neglected by the implementation of The New Economic Policy from 1970 and which ran for a 30-year period only to be replaced by the New Economic Model.
Are Chinese and Indians not citizens of this country that are on par or equal footing with the bumiputras? Must they be at the mercy of banks, insurance companies, money lenders and loan sharks for financial assistance while the bumiputras are given a guaranteed safety net by the Malaysian Government?
In what is seen as a complete reversal and betrayal of Najib's "Satu Malaysia" concept, just prior to Malaysia Day, the BN government announced a slew of initiatives in a grand, affirmative action plan exclusively for bumiputras.
This was to thank the bumiputras for supporting the government and standing by BN in the 13
GE which was a clear slap in the face by Najib for the Chinese and Indians who went out on a limb to support Pakatan Rakyat.
This immature move by the BN government which continues to reek of their lop-sided justice in practicing partisan politics has sparked outrage and inflamed the fires of race relations as this is a sheer case of racism being practiced against the minority races.
The Bumiputra Economic Empowerment Agenda
The agenda as outlined by the Malaysian government focuses on five main thrusts:
> Empowering bumiputra human capital.
> Strengthening bumiputra equity ownership in the corporate sector
> Strengthening bumiputra non-financial asset ownership
> Improving bumiputra entrepreneurship and businesses; and
> Strengthening the services delivery ecosystem
This slew of initiatives will also cause a 10 billion unit injection into a New Amanah Saham Bumiputra 2, expand PSD and Mara post-graduate programmes to increase highly-qualified bumiputras, give an additional RM1 billion loan or "freebie" to bumiputra entrepreneurs and the CEOs of Government-Linked Companies to have Key Performance Indicators on bumiputra participation and a bumiputra development unit is to be set up within every ministry.
The questions non-bumis are beginning to ask
In the light of this new agenda which will supersede the New Economic Model, non-bumi's are beginning to ask when affirmative action for the bumiputras will come to a close. The bigger question on their mind is why since 1970 non-bumis have been separated from bumiputras and hardly been given any kind of affirmative action.
The kind of affirmative action that could have spared the death of a little Chinese girl whose hopes to live a meaningful live was actually snuffed out by an apathetic and indifferent government in power. Not only her but the numerous other non-bumi's who are the casualties of Malaysia's weakening economy.
By failing to practice meritocracy and by opting for partisan politics and showing favoritism to the bumiputra community for such a long period of time is really to the degradation of the country and it is high time the spotlight of the international community begin to focus on Malaysia and the atrocities practiced by the BN regime.
Non-bumi's are being unfairly overlooked and the plight of even those non-bumi's who are well off are beginning to start to weaken as the BN government turns to skewer the economy in favor of the bumiputras only.
There is little hope and there is little left for the non-bumis when the economic pie is being chopped nearly wholly to be given to the bumiputras on a silver platter. Indians such as those belonging to Hindraf must now be wondering why on earth they supported BN in the first place.
If truth was a casualty of the 13th GE, then the truth of the matter is that Malaysians of all walks of life including those from PKR and Parti Pas and DAP have been hoodwinked by BN-Umno. They have pulled the rug from under the feet of Malaysians.
What about the future?
Malaysia is now a country that is beginning to be taken note of by the international community. The BN-UMNO leadership has come to the forefront of world attention owing to their refusal to toe the line of globalization.
While the whole wide world is becoming increasingly globalized, it appears that Malaysia is starting to become like a fish out of water and all calls by the global community requesting Malaysia to practice the full tenets and obligations of democracy have so far fallen on deaf years. It's like pouring water on a duck's back.
Despite the peril, Malaysia still wants to go ahead and be stubborn and defiant in wanting to see that the country is governed not democratically, but by the whims and fancies of the UMNO big-wigs. When will Malays start to realize that UMNO is not leading them along a healthy path but instead beginning to ostracize and isolate the Malays.
By spewing out affirmative action only for the benefit of bumiputras, UMNO has begun to paint itself into a corner. It will be hard in future for the Malay to gain respect and acceptance on merit among Malaysians and on the global stage owing to much favoritism that has been shown to them.
Whatever the Malays and other bumiputras achieved will then be considered a hollow achievement, something which does not carry merit as it goes to show that it was actually not achieved through a level but lop-sided playing field in which bumiputras were basically being handed success to them without any effort.
This really means that all that affirmative action has actually caused bumiputras to weaken and heavily dependent on the government with the government continuing to bail them out to stay in power. This is a vicious cycle that is causing bumiputras to get nowhere in life and exasperating to non-bumis.
