THE NEW DEAL FOR MALAYSIANS

Malaysia has been run based on the principle expounded by Dr Mahathir in his book The Malay Dilemma, published in 1970.  The main theme of Mahathir's theory is that the Malays who are the majority race in Malaysia, are inferior to the Chinese who have 4,000 years of history surviving wars, plagues, famine, natural disasters and corrupt officials.  They are able to survive under the most adverse conditions.  On the contrary, the Malays do not have this ability.  Therefore, his conclusion is that the Malays must be helped and given a handicap, just like in a game of golf.  Otherwise, they will not be able to compete and this will result in the majority race being sidelined.  And this will eventually result in an unstable country with violence as a possible outcome.

Mahathir's theory and social experiment as mentioned above is deeply flawed.  After running the country based on this prognosis, the country is widely perceived as lagging behind our neighbours who were once considered backward.  They have progressed and overtaken Malaysia.  In fact, Mahathir himself admited that he has failed because his New Economic Policy or NEP has failed to bring progress for the Malays as he expected, depite repeated encouragement and scoldings by him from time to time, while at the same time admitting that the Chinese still hold the upperhand despite the handicap given.

However, the country up till now is still running on the fuel of affirmative action.  This is partly because nobody or no political party has proposed a new deal for all Malaysians - deal that is cohesive and comprehensive.  A deal that revokes that premises of Mahathir's The Malay Dilemma.

Therefore, a new political party must outline the terms of the new deal for all Malaysians.  This deal must include the following:-

1.  The assurance and guarantee of political power and privileges of the Malays who are the majority race in the country - including religious freedom, economic privileges for all classes of Malays, and guaranteed education quota for the willing and deserving.

2.  The guarantee of various forms of assistance to other races in Malaysia such as economic, business and educational opportunities for the deserving, regardless of race.

3.  The removal of shackles of race and religion in politics.  (We can follow the good example of our neighbour Indonesia who bans politicians from using or abusing race and religion in their political ceramahs.  Former US President Barack Obama who visited our country also said that any country that divides itself along racial lines will not succeed.  We need to bring back the good old days of muhibbah for all Malaysians.)

The politics of race and religion is powerful because it is self-reinforcing.  Malay politicians portray themselves as heroes and saviours of the Malays and their religion in order to garner votes.  After securing power they will give some handouts to the majority race in order to obtain their continual support.  However, it is also destructive because the elite Malay politicians and their cronies will pocket a lot of the country's wealth and leave the Malays still struggling for indefinite periods of time.  A new deal must break this powerful force misusing race and religion for personal benefit, under the pretext of helping the Malays.  But first they need to win the trust of the Malays which is probably at its easiest level right now under the scourge of Covid.  All races are frustrated with the incompetent way the government that is run by Malays right now, including the Malays themselves.  They are all desperate to have a "third force" or new political power that can change their situation for the better.

The opposition led by DAP will never be able to reverse the situation because they have failed in their ideals of creating a Malaysian Malaysia.  It is all along perceived as a Chinese party.  One of the reasons is that they are unable to solve their racial composition within their own party.  The Malays are suspicious because they are not properly represented according to the ratio of their population in the country.  How would they be able to solve this problem on a national basis if they can't even solve it internally?  This has resulted in very clumsy partnerships with PAS, PKR and even Mahathir's Bersatu, which all ended badly.