NEM = NEP for UMNO’s Malay supremacy and designed to exclude especially the Indian poor

After much hype the UMNO led government announced it’s New Economic Model (NEM) promising among others:-

1) Our first priority must be eradicate poverty, irrespective of race. We cannot have the high-income, sustainable and the inclusive economy we seek, when disparities in income are not addressed.

2) It will put in place mechanisms to strengthen the capability of the 40% of households in rural and urban areas that earns less than RM1,500 a month.

3) The aim is to help the lowest income group take advantage of the opportunities to secure better jobs, raise productivity, and dabble in entrepreneurial ventures and other economic activities that will boost their income.

4) Stressing no one would be left behind, the council said a coherent and comprehensive need-based social safety net would support vulnerable groups, particularly those with disabilities.

5) For too long, the implementation of our affirmative action policies has not reached those who needed them most.

6) “We can no longer tolerate practices that support the behaviour of rent-seeking and patronage, which have long tarnished the altruistic aims of the NEP,” he said.

7) “Fishermen, petty traders and small farmers also fall under this category and not forgetting the orang asli and low-income urban dwellers seeking out a livelihood in tough economic circumstances,” he said.

Najib said the ultimate goal was no Malaysian to live in poverty.

9) All will get the chance to succeed and share in prosperity. For those who struggle with low incomes and live in harsh conditions, we will always provide special support to help lift them out of the poverty trap,” he said. (The Star 31/3/2010 headlines and at page N4).

When implementing the New Economic Policy (NEP) in 1970 the then UMNO Prime Minister Tun Razak, the current Prime Minister’s father had assured all Malaysians including the Malaysian Indians that the main objective of the NEP is the eradication of poverty irrespective of race. But in the 40 years of it’s implementation, especially the Indian poor were by UMNOs’ design, excluded from especially the upward mobility opportunities in the national mainstream development of Malaysia.

Today after 53 years of independence, the suicide rate arising out of or related to poverty is 600% higher than in the Malay community 500% higher single parent rate, also arising out of poverty or poverty related, than in the Chinese community, 90% of Tamil school students entering year one cannot read or write because they never went to kindergartens as their parents could not afford the same, 60% of the inmates are Indians when they form only 8% of the population, which is related to denial of upward mobility opportunities in education, jobs and the business and economic sectors. UMNO has by design made 70% of the Indians to be in the poor and hardcore poor category. For further details please refer Human Rights Violations Against the Ethnic Minority Malaysian Indians – HRP Briefing for foreign and diplomatic missions in Kuala Lumpur Malaysia on 26/3/2010.

But the shrewd excuse UMNO has been giving us is that the policy was good but it was it’s implementation vis a vis the Indians that was bad. But the coincidence is that the implementation for the Malays somehow reaches target. There seems to be no problems, no error in the implementation when it comes to Malays.

And today the present Prime Minister, after 40 long years of the NEP, is telling us the same thing, ie, NEP is replaced by NEM without a specific mention on specific affirmative action for the Indians to undo UMNO’s injustices to the Indians in the last 40 years of the NEP, and specific implementation mechanisms to bring the Indians into the national mainstream development of Malaysia.

In over the last 40 years of the NEP (and we believe to will be continued under the NEM), 1,016,799 (UM 21/6/09 at page 19) civil servants have been specifically trained under the Biro Tatanegara courses to implement UMNO’s racist, religious extremist and supremacist policies, and specifically to keep the Indians out of the national mainstream development of Malaysia.

The Equal Opportunities Commission proposed by the UMNO Prime Minister is a non starter unless these 1,016,799 racist Biro Tatanegara graduates are retrained to implement policies so as not to exclude the Indians from the national mainstream development of Malaysia. It would help and would in fact go a long way if the UMNO Prime Minister goes one step forward by instructing the Chief Secretary of the Government to issue a circular to all the government departments to stop all forms of discrimination in particular against the Malaysian Indians as the Prime Minister and the Government of Malaysia has decided that the Indians cannot and should not be excluded from the National mainstream development of Malaysia vis a vis the non implementing for the Indians the eradicating of poverty irrespective of race.

But UMNO won’t to this because they were ab initio (from the very beginning) never sincere in the inclusiveness as per the sub headlines in the Star herein below.

While UMNO implements these injustices by commission the Opposition parties namely PKR, DAP and PAS watch silently this “blood letting” and by omission perpetuate these injustices especially to these poor Indians.

To conclude in short the UMNO led Malay-sian Prime Minister’s NEM is actually the NEP in a new name ie, old wine in new bottles.

P.Uthayakumar