New Bumi agenda unconstitutional, say lawyer, academic

Malay Mail 
by BOO SU-LYN

KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 16 ― The pro-Bumiputera New Economic Model (NEM) violates Article 8 of the Federal Constitution that guarantees equality to all Malaysians, constitutional expert Tommy Thomas and law professor Dr Azmi Sharom said today.

Thomas called the NEM unveiled by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak last Saturday, which provides the dominant Malay community access to over RM31 billion in aid and contracts, another “chapter” of the now-defunct New Economic Policy (NEP) that was introduced in 1971.

“This substance is absolutely discriminatory,” Thomas said at the forum “Fifty years of Democracy: Has it weakened or strengthened our Federal Constitution?” organised by the Malaysian Centre for Constitutionalism and Human Rights (MCCHR) here today.

“Article 8(2) prevents discrimination,” he added.

Azmi, who is an associate professor of law at the University of Malaya (UM), also said that the NEM goes against Article 8.

“Everybody is equal,” Azmi told the forum of over 50 participants.

“The constitution should have an influence on this, but it doesn’t,” he added.

Thomas stressed that Article 153 of the Federal Constitution, which details the special position of the Bumiputera, is “very limited to public positions, not the total takeover of shares, GLCs, where these corporations are controlled by the majority race”.

Political analyst Wan Saiful Wan Jan said at the same forum that Najib had taken the NEM to “the extent never envisioned by the drafters of the NEP”.

“We need to be sensitive to political realities, but we need to steer the conversation to why these two clauses should remain,” said Wan Saiful, referring to Article 153 and Article 3 of the Federal Constitution that spell out the special position of the Bumiputera and Islam as the religion of the federation, respectively.

Wan Saiful, who heads the think-tank Institute for Democracy and Economic Affairs (IDEAS), expressed his hopes that both clauses would be eventually removed in a decade or two.

“I’m confident that without legal protection, Malays can survive and succeed,” he told reporters after the forum.

“With Islam being from God, it does not need legal protection,” the analyst added.

Wan Saiful and other political analysts have criticised the NEM, saying it was likely a decision taken by Najib, the Umno president, to bolster his position ahead of the upcoming party polls.

Previously, Najib who is also finance minister, had said the NEM would remove the race-based affirmative action introduced in the NEP in favour of meritocracy.

The NEP had an ambitious aim to redress the socio-economic gap between the largely-urban Chinese and the rural Malays, as well as other indigenous Bumiputera, within the span of two decades.

It ended officially in 1990, but key aspects of its Malay/Bumiputera-preferred action plan remains in various forms years later.