The 30% Bumiputera Equity Participation Policy

The policy instruments that are available to the Prime Minister who is also our Finance Minister are limited because of the nature of the problem that we have to confront.

When the government announced recently that the Foreign Investment Committee would be abolished, as its principal role of ensuring the 30% equity ownership by Bumiputeras of the Malaysian corporate cake has failed, it brought cheers from some quarters and deep anxiety and worries from bumiputeras and other stakeholders who were the primary beneficiaries of the “discarded” policy. But the first tier bumiputera elites have no complaints. Why is that?

I appreciate that there is a desire to effect change and a serious attempt has been made towards that end, but the bullet fired has been wasted, because I take the view that the so-called policy change has not resulted in any fundamental shift in addressing the underlying social and economic issues.

Common sense tells us that this instrument of the NEP is an inaccurate measure of the share of the national corporate wealth and has in fact caused unnecessary friction and misunderstanding between the bumiputera and non-bumiputera communities in Malaysia. It is one of the root causes of the continuing racial tensions between the various communities in Malaysia.The policy sounds good, looks good but its effects were far from being good for Malaysia, specifically the bumiputera community.

A new and more comprehensive policy should be formulated. The new policy should address the growing disparities and distrust between the two communities in Malaysia (Bumiputeras and non-bumiputeras) without sidelining the Bumiputeras rights to a bigger pie of the economic cake. It is a formidable challange.