A painful truth
Proud Malays in Malaysia must be wincing at their premier's comment about their continuing special rights after 30 years which explain a lot of things.. By Seah Chiang Nee
June 16, 2002

Years ago, when Dr. Mahathir Mohamad made his first attack on globalisation saying it was bad for developing countries, I was not very surprised.

The reason, I wrote then, was the Malays in Malaysia were not ready to compete even with the non-Malays in their own country. How then could they compete with the wider world outside - against the Americans, Japanese or Koreans, et all?

Now Dr. Mahathir again talks about it - Malaysia's ethnic weakness.

The Malay majority is weak because of the privileges it still enjoys 30 years after it was given them.

A whole generation has benefited from it - and probably feeling helpless without it

If someone with a lesser stature had said it, he would have been political mince-meat, but Dr. Mahathir has been anything but normal when it comes to speaking up.

While Singaporeans may not be enamoured with him when he wants to "skin Singapore" they have heaps of respect for him when he dares to criticise extremism in his country.

He has done it again.

In an interview with a Malay-language paper, Dr. Mahathir accused the majority Malays of failing to work hard and relying too much on affirmative-action policies.

They "would scream" if the government tried to abolish these policies, which favour Malays in gaining places to public universities, government jobs, bank loans and business contracts.

He told the Malay-language Mingguan Malaysia newspaper: "I consider these special rights for Malays to be a crutch. If we always use a crutch, we will be lame forever."

Some Malays have been angered by the government's recent move to test out a merit system for entry into public universities.

It plans to allow ethnic Chinese and Indian students into government junior colleges, which have traditionally been reserved for Malays.

He urged Malays to learn from the Chinese, whom he said comprised only 26 per cent of Malaysia's population but were wealthy.

"The Chinese people in Malaysia have no special rights. They face discrimination. But they are more successful than us."

Privately, some better-educated Malays agree with him.

Some of them have told me they thought these special rights were retarding their race and keeping their nation uncompetitive. Not many are, however, prepared to say it publicly.

Take the civil service.

Under the quota system, four out of five civil servants must be Malays, especially in the top and middle-level hierarchy, which explains the bureaucracy's weakness.

The affirmative-action has produced a reasonable number of Malay professionals and managers since its launch in 1970 but their numbers are spread thin.

With the economic boom, the contest for top-class Malay talents has intensified between the private and public sectors.

Most of the top-class managers are found in the well-paid private sector, especially multi-national corporations, leaving the civil service (not the best of pay-masters) scrapping the bottom of the barrel for whatever remain.

It is unable to close the talent gap by recruiting non-Malays. This has resulted in a civil service that is below its best. In many areas, efficiency is compromised.

The same, of course, happens in the armed forces, where the skill level is even more serious.

New military armaments and equipments are high-tech which require a high level of education and sophisticated training not readily available when it is confined to one race.

Even among the lower ranks, these weapons need a fair knowledge of English and Maths to operate them.

Dr. Mahathir is the best person to resolve these shortcomings arising out of the special rights as Malaysia started the 21st Century. Crcual is changing public mindsets - and education, which decides the nation's future.

But it seems that he is facing formidable opposition to even the slightest idea of reducing some of these rights. The question is: Will he run out of time?

Seah Chiang Nee