Born in 1965, the Democratic Action Party started off very small and humble, but big in ideas. Their leaders promoted a vision of a multi racial, multilingual and multicultural society, where all are born equal whether Malays, Chinese, Indians or indigenous tribes.
This was a deep contrast to UMNO’s philosophy of dividing the populace into bumiputras and non-bumiputras, purely on the vanity and pride of UMNO, although the Constitution never indicated that the people should be divided into bumiputras and non-bumiputras. This was a big mistake and because of the policy, national unity became a goal, which was very hard to achieve. Up until today, national unity remains a dream, and this has greatly affected the political, social and economic development of the country.
Countries that tried apartheid like discrimination against the Negros in America and the blacks in S Africa, brought suffering to the people. Today there is no apartheid in S Africa. Unfortunately, UMNO in Malaysia stubborning pursuing apartheid by claiming that Malays are Ketuanan Melayu, while the other races are second class citizens.
KETUANAN MELAYU AND WIDESPREAD CORRUPTION FOR THE PAST FIFTY YEARS HAVE MADE MALAYSIA A POOR MIDDLE INCOME COUNTRY.
The DAP had tried to persuade UMNO to move away from racialism, but they had stubbornly followed the bumiputra and NEP policies not only did they ignore the demands of Opposition parties, but they also refused to listen to the advice of the World Bank.
The three Prime ministers Tun Razak, Tun Mahathir and Tun Badawi tried to improve the economy and uplift the living standards, but living standards remained low, while the rural kampongs remained very poor.
Now PM Najib Razak has proposed his 1 Malaysia, which would bring a HIGH INCOME economy to the people, where the people would enjoy a higher income and living standards in the kampongs would be higher. He introduced an impressive number of reforms, calculated to attract more foreign investments.
Unfortunately, UMNO and PERKASA both refused to scrap the NEP. The result was that Foreign Direct Investments did not come in great numbers. So NAJIB could only hobble along, and he had to abandon his reforms. He had to retain the NEP, and this has continued to deter foreign investments from investing in Malaysia. Foreign direct investments are far behind Singapore, and Indonesia.
PM Najib keep boasting that targets of investments are exceeding expectations as vast amounts of money are flowing in. However, statistics show otherwise.
FOREIGN DIRECT INVESTMENTS. Singapore Straits Times reported on Jan 20 th, that Indonesia foreign direct investments hit a record US19.3 billion last year. In contrast, Malaysia only pulled in about US10 billion last year, same as Vietnam. Of course, there are frequent reports that the economy has bounced back, but the figures do not lie.
PER CAPITA INCOME.
This is the true indicator of just how well a country is progressing, by the annual income of the average citizen. PM Najib has been in government for over four years. Let us see how much money he has put into the pocket of the average Malaysian, compared to the average citizen in other countries.
It is clear from the figures that the per capita income of the average Malaysian is far far behind his compatriot in Singapore, Hong Kong, and South Korea. Corruption and racial policies have eroded the productivity of the average Malaysian
A high-income society means that the per capita income must be around US20, 000. So a Malaysian has to wait another 8 years to enjoy a high-income status.
Singapore, Hong Kong, and South Korea have open economies, liberal and follow free market principles. Hence, they progress faster. However in Malaysia, as the economy is dictated by racial policies and there is no free market the economy remain slow and retarded. This is the reason why Singapore, Hong Kong, s Korea and Taiwan are called the Asian tigers.
FOR THE SAKE OF THE COUNTRY AND FOR SAKE OF POOR MALAYSIANS, PM NAJIB MUST REVISE HIS POLICIES, AND MODIFY HIS 1 MALAYSIA TO FOLLOW THE PRINCIPLES OF A MALAYSIAN MALAYSIA
DR CHEN MAN HIN, DAP LIFE ADVISOR
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