PM says affirmative action aids Malays, but they still lag behind Chinese

Updated 4 years ago · Published on 26 Sep 2019 8:51AM · 4 Comments

Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad says the government will be more selective when it comes to affirmative action to help Malays. – The Malaysian Insight file pic, September 26, 2019.

IT is not right to say affirmative action has not helped Malays, said Dr Mahathir Mohamad, adding that the community remains far behind the Chinese.

“Many (Malays) have gotten help, and many have found success,” said the prime minister when fielding questions at the World Leaders’ Forum at Columbia University in New York yesterday.

Dr Mahathir, who is in the US city for the 74th United Nations General Assembly, said measures have been taken to correct imbalances in, for example, the medical profession, where there are now more Malay doctors.

“Corrections have been made in other professions, too. It is not yet satisfactory, but at least, we’ve made some corrections.

“Now, there are Malays doing quite well in business. I was talking to a man last night. He flies helicopters and owns a lot of helicopters, not just in Malaysia, but all over the world. He was given a chance, and he made good use of the chance.”

What had happened before was that opportunities were given freely without taking into consideration people’s capabilities, he said.

“Now, we’re going to be very selective, to combat this habit of selling contracts and (granting) other opportunities freely. We want to ensure that those who get contracts, carry out the work. If they don’t, we’ll take back the contracts.

“If you do away with affirmative action, what do you do next? If you do nothing, the disparity will get worse. There will be tensions between the races, and between the rich and poor.”

Dr Mahathir said previously, he tried to help those who had a clear potential to succeed, meaning help was given to people who had already recorded some success.

“But then, I was accused of cronyism. Apparently, if you don’t want to be accused of cronyism, you must ensure that everybody fails.

“A lot of people failed, and they were not accused of being my cronies. But those who succeeded were called my cronies. So, how do you correct such things… if you succeed, you are wrong, but if you fail, you are right?” – Bernama, September 26, 2019.

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Comments

  • Enough already. They have to stand on their own feet...tongkat policy will destroy them instead of helping them. Look at other races, with nothing they just have to work themselves up. We need to inculcate such intrinsic value so this will be a permanent resilient strength not merely just give filter all the real challenges outside no more fixed deposits if not once you walk out this nation, you will be dead duck being unable to compete. we shuld n

    Posted 4 years ago by Wei Kuan Tan · Reply

  • Tun must find out how these affirmative actions could have bred a terrible kleptocratic regime. The implementation were obviously out of control from day one.
    Every year we read the agenda of the rhetoric AGM of UMNO and each year the agenda got worse than the last.

    Now they move on to ally with PAS and the two Rs are brought to a higher level.

    Where is the end?

    Posted 4 years ago by Tanahair Ku · Reply

  • This affirmative action for a single race has been going on for decades but the benefit to the whole race is minuscule. The government cant expect to be doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. Its time to try something else. How about giving them a better education, force them to learn other languages and teach them to think out of the box and train them to be business savvy. No more giving easy contracts for them.

    Posted 4 years ago by Elyse Gim · Reply

  • You call them lazy. And they have the right to be lazy if crutches are forever given to them. Set a timeline to train them up and make it clear that NEP will not be continued after that. Everyone has to earn their keeps. Governments Shared Prosperity policy is another hollow sounding policy. If you want to earn money, work hard for it. Theres no shortcut. No pain no gain.

    Posted 4 years ago by Derrick Tan · Reply