NEP - Another Misfortune for Bidayuh

The share of national wealth is a long time issue where this has bring up to State of Emergency in 1969. Refering back into this agenda by the UMNO, the target of the ownership of bumiputera's shares in Public Listed companies , for me it is beautiful enough:

NEP Benchmarks	1970	1990	2004
Bumiputera equity	2.4% (RM477m)	19.3% (RM20.9b)	18.7% (RM73.2b)
Overall poverty	52%	17.1%	5%
Rural poverty	59%	21.8%	11%
Household income	RM660	RM1,254	RM2,996

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malaysian_New_Economic_Policy

From the statistic, the GNI (Gross National Income) gives us an improvement on per capita income of the bumiputera. The government has achieve its target in distributing equal wealth to every single bumiputera.

Who are bumiputeras? Malay and Sabah and Sarawak aborigines. The bumiputeras are those who are easy and relax rather than working very hard to get better living. Depending on subsidies, is the another attitude of "escapetism" and laziness among the bumiputera. Instead of giving away government business to the bumiputera, the government has forgotten the second-class communities who are the main economic contributors. The Indians and Chinese as the non-bumiputera citizen. The slave of economic policy are those who pay for taxes and getting hard to get any return. The bankruptcy of Perwaja Steel and MAS are the fault of NEP implementation where we have lost so much money. Was Eric Chia guilty of the discrimination? Yet to know why but he was found not guilty then.

Tun Mahathir in his book "The Malay Dilemma" stating much more on racial equity and the economic imbalance among the Malaysian citizen. As an economic doctorate, he believe that the economic equality must be practiced to sustain the harmonic country.

Now, after the 12th General election the implementation of RMK-9 will be on board. My only question is that will we Bidayuh gain some benefit from it? Will it be the opportunity for us to gain from billion ringgit of government wealth which is from our taxes? We will see five years after. We will count how many bidayuh millionaires or at least second board in Bursa Malaysia.

It is time to think of our position in the eyes of National Economic Policy. We are better enough than Indians and Chinese where the license of "Bumiputera" and for me it is a luck. But somehow we are not counted in the NEP. Maybe we are non-bumiputera and perhaps, it is better to not have any status or else we will surrender ourself to the economic slavery and discrimination.

I still remember my interview for Royal Airforce candidate in Sungai Besi few years back. Only two of us bidayuh, one chinese and three Malay. Both of us are rejected due to small problem and yet the long-sighted malay boy was selected because he is bumiputera. He is not going to be a jet fighter pilot but he will be the air traffic officer. Well, we can do that too since we have smaller problem, and yet we ended up with three nights transit in Ampang.

As long as you are bumiputera, you can get what you ask. But as long as you are bidayuh, there is nothing much you can do. Be like an ant. Toil harder to get good living. It is hard to get land title, high position in government sectors, government contract, etc.

The "Ketuanan Melayu" is the threat of non-malay bumiputera. So to the peninsular Orang Asli where they are excepted from the national wealth. The dagger seems to be horrible and sharp enough to cut every opportunity to get a penny of government. Maybe it is a payback from British colony and years time of restoration of need to take to get back the wealth. It is their fault to allow the "Strait Agreement" with the British.

We have been cheated to be a bumiputera. Being unemployed bidayuh graduate is my regret to sign in RM 30K loan and now I have to work hard to get rid from it. There must be no different if we do not have the bumiputera status.

1. We still pay RM 1 at the clinic counter as others do.
2. We still pay taxes and fees like others do.
3. We still send our kid to school like others do.
4. Still have to seat 5 times of exam to get a N17 post like indians did.
5. Still get 30% discount to have a house like others did.

The different might be:

1. Hard to get scholarship.
2. We speak bidayuh instead of Bahasa Melayu (known as Bahasa Malaysia before).
3. We will work hard like chinese and migrated out of Malaysia.
4. We rent a piece of land to plant crops.
5. We are more cunning like those businessmans.
6. We march with the indians to protect the temple.
etc..

The NEP the economic imbalance and unequal among those bumiputera. Sabah is the poorest bumiputera's state and yet under UMNO and Barisan Nasional administration. It is not the fault of the Kadazan, Dusun and Murut to adopt UMNO but the Barisan Nasional fault to take advantages from the sabahan ignorance.

There is no Ketuanan in Sarawak because the Iban and the Bidayuh are the majority. The Malays make up 21% of the population in Sarawak and they are abide of the rights and practices of the aborigines. Therefore the wealth contribution should be equal and not to benefit only one race. It is wrong to take someone belonging and never return it back. It is such a frustration for the victim.