MPM claims Malays are marginalised

By Shazwan Mustafa Kamal - The Malaysian Insider

KUALA LUMPUR, March 17 — The Malay Consultative Council (MPM) claims that Malays and Bumiputras, who form the majority group in the country, are being marginalised and amendments need to be made to the New Economic Model (NEM) to remedy that.

Speaking to reporters outside of Parliament today, Datuk Ibrahim Ali (picture), who is the founder and steering committee member of MPM, said these amendments have been sent to Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak earlier today.

He stated that MPM wanted to make sure that NEM was balanced and that there were “no more polemics” surrounding its introduction.

“I want to clarify something... people are thinking that MPM is racist, it’s not true. We are focusing on the distribution of the country’s wealth, based on social justice.

“MPM’s proposal is that NEM follows the UN Social Economic Charter for marginalised people,” said Ibrahim.

According to the politician, 67 per cent of the country’s population is made up of Malays and Bumiputras while 33 percent are non-Malays, which made Malays and Bumiputras the majority race in the country.

“Any country where the majority is marginalised, they should be given priority... with continual affirmative action.

“The UN charter states that the majority group is the national agenda... this is indeed the issue of national agenda, because this is the majority population.”

He added that contrary to preconceived notions, Malays have not “received much anyway, these are all misperceptions.”

According to Ibrahim, MPM had a roundtable discussion back on March 7 where 75 NGOs and 500 academics had first debated on the proposed amendments to the NEM.

He said that the proposals were designed on the constitutional laws of the country.

“The NEM should include measures that will put a stop to market dominance by a minority, and in turn make it healthier and stable. The positions and rights of the Malays have to be preserved, and distribution has to be balanced,” said Ibrahim.

He noted that the Prime Minister’s reaction had been positive thus far based on preliminary feedback.

“PM has been very receptive, and says he will look and study the proposal.”

The memorandum, titled “meletakkan agenda Melayu dalam ekonomi Melayu” had four main points to offer:

1. Social justice (no marginalisation of the majority group)
2. Economic justice and access to market (to stop the practice of cartel and market dominance by the Chinese so that other races can compete competitively)
3. NEM be based on the spirit of the Constitution
4. Simultaneous development and distribution