MALAYSIA’s New Economic Policy (NEP) has become a “distraction” for the country and, yet, is likely to stay because it is “political suicide” to remove it, academics and economists said at a webinar on 50 years of the affirmative action policy.

Economist Jomo Kwame Sundaram said the NEP was now preventing a whole range of problems in the country from being addressed.

“I think what needs to be done is to change the conversations on the NEP rather than insisting on a binary solution of ‘yes’ or ‘no’ on the NEP,” the Senior Adviser at Khazanah Research Institute said at the webinar.

The webinar was hosted by the Institute for Democracy and Economic Affairs (Ideas) to launch a policy paper entitled “NEP beyond 50: Evaluating strengths and flaws, outlining a cohesive society”.

Jomo was responding to moderator Meera Sivasothy’s question on whether the NEP should be rolled back or scrapped altogether.

Prof Sulochana Nair meanwhile, said the NEP would continue to live on, even if in a different shape or form.

“I think the NEP is going to be with us for a very long time.

“The Malays and the other Bumiputera identify the NEP as their saviour and some non-Bumiputera think that NEP is the cause for their socio-economic status,” said the vice chancellor and chief executive officer of Binary University.

“I think the NEP will be there for a very long time but it may not be called the NEP,” she added.

She said it would be political suicide to remove the policy that was introduced in 1971 in the aftermath of the race riots of May 13, 1969. It is a social engineering programme to uplift the Malay community, which was behind other ethnic groups economically and was supposed to last for 20 years until 1991.

Sulochana said there are a fraction of non-Bumiputeras who may not be that concerned about the NEP as they are not affected by its existence and can still survive regardless.

Meanwhile, author of the policy paper Lee Hwok Aun, said Malaysia needs a cohesive paradigm that is based on principles of equality and fairness to help all who are poor and disadvantaged.

There is a need to integrate needs, identity and merit, he said.

“We have not formulated a way to balance. Do we give access to the poor, then what about merit?” he asked.

He cited public university admissions, where a 10% non-Bumiputera quota is still enforced.

“I think it is important for Malaysia to look at opening up some mono-ethnic institutions which are now exclusively for Bumiputera,” he said. – November 24, 2021.