Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak has announced a new set of affirmative action policies under the Bumiputera Economic Empowerment (BEE) agenda. Does Malaysia need race-based development policies?
affirmative action
Is there a common PR stand on quotas?
PETALING Jaya Utara Member of Parliament Tony Pua’s recent suggestion for Selangor to abolish the 7% bumiputera discount for high-end property has not been uniformly received by Pakatan Rakyat (PR) leaders yet. Can we expect the implementation of Pua’s proposal for needs-based affirmative action in the PR-led states?
Who benefits from bumiputera discounts?
SHOULD bumiputera discounts continue for properties worth more than half a million ringgit? Would it be a disservice to the bumiputera community if this race-based affirmative policy was removed?
Violence against Penan: How the government ignores indigenous rights
THE phenomenon of indigenous women like the Penan being violated is not peculiar to Malaysia. Indeed, there are parallels in other countries, including a developed nation like the US. In their 2007 report, Maze of Injustice: The failure to protect indigenous women from sexual violence in the USA, Amnesty International (AI) reported that indigenous women […]
The cost of losing credibility
ON 17 June 2010, a startling accusation was made against the Malaysian armed forces. The father of Sergeant N Tharmendran said in a police report that his son, who has been charged with stealing two jet engines from the Sungai Besi air base, was tortured by officers to confess to the theft. The Royal Malaysian […]
Class vs ethnic politics
IT would be a mistake to think that Datuk Ibrahim Ali is a true champion of the Malay Malaysian poor. But it would be equally silly to think that the Malay Malaysian poor do not support or sympathise with his call. After all, the Pakatan Rakyat (PR)’s failure to increase support in Malay Malaysian rural […]
Dr M and “subsidy mentality”
“I cannot predict how much longer this (affirmative action) will go on but at the moment, we are trying out… some kind of experiment… by withdrawing some of the protection in education.” “We want to see whether they will be able to withstand the competition or not. Obviously if they prove themselves able to, we […]
“Respect the syariah courts”
LINA Joy. Indira Gandhi. S Banggarma. M Moorthy. R Subashini. M Revathi. S Shamala. The list of individuals whose rights the Barisan Nasional (BN) government and the courts have failed to protect grows long. In its efforts to out-Islamise PAS and protect its “champion of Malay-Muslim Malaysians” tag, the Umno-led BN has been unable to […]
“NEP must end”
PARTI Keadilan Rakyat (PKR)’s Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad has been very busy for a 27-year-old. At 26, he was the youngest candidate in the 2008 general election, defeating the Umno incumbent in the Seri Setia state seat in Selangor by almost 3,000 votes. Nik Nazmi is now Selangor Menteri Besar Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim’s political […]
1Malaysia, ethnicity and the economy
HOW ethnic interests are addressed in the nation’s economic and social development will be one of the major determinants of the success or failure of 1Malaysia. It was with the advent of British colonial rule and the mass influx of Chinese and Indian migrant labour that the question of ethnicity in its present form emerged […]
