He pushed through the Bumiputera, or “sons of the soil” New Economic Policy (NEP), as his sole ambition to restructure Malaysian society and increase economic and educational opportunities for the ethnic Malay majority.
Since the Malay population lagged behind the Chinese and Indian communities in educational achievement and incomes, he implemented race-based policies. His goals somehow changed to promoting Malay supremacy in all aspects of Malaysian life. Quotas and preference was given to malays for university admissions, recruitment into the civil service, scholarships and business loans and licenses.
He crafted NEP to create a class of Malay rent-seekers whose only role is to add 20 per cent to 50 per cent to the cost of projects. All public-works contracts were given only Bumiputera companies on negotiated basis. 20 percent was added in the negotiation. Once the contract is secured, the work is then sub-contracted to other businesses, minus the 20 percent. That 20 per cent cut went to the pockets of politically connected cronies for doing nothing. The losers are the Malaysian people and the Malaysian economy. Do you want to be a looser again knowing all this? Decision is yours….
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