Jason Liew

He is, perhaps, one of the most powerful men in Malaysia. He is the son-in-law of current Prime Minister of Malaysia.

Let me introduce you Khairy Jamaluddin. He, a graduate from Oxford University in UK with a degree in PPE (Philosophy, Politics, and Economics), is married to Nori Abdullah. With the influence of his Father-In-Law, he won the post of Deputy Chief of the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) Youth wing, without being challenged in year 2004. What a typical path of climbing up the social ladder huh?

Recently, Khairy has been kept on making noises about the wealth inequality between races. His claim that “The Chinese Communities in Malaysia will take advantage of the Malays if UMNO is weak” is one of the most controversial issues lately. Just a few days after his remark, the ASLI Report showed that the total share ownership by Malays in KLSE (Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange) hasn’t reach 45%. This report, with no doubt, strengthened Khairy’s claim even further. And he was suggesting aggressive steps to be taken in order to defend Islam and the Malay rights.

Yes, Malaysia is a parliamentary democratic country. In this BOLEH-land, we are all theoretically equal, or at least we are putting in effort to be equal (although, it’s unlikely). The government is working towards a Malaysian version of “I Have A Dream” by Martin Luther King Jr. “I have a dream of equality of opportunity, of privilege and property widely distributed; I have a dream of a land where men will not argue that the color of a man’s skin determines the content of his character; a dream of a land where men will not take necessities from the many to give luxuries to the few….”

STOP! Rewind to the previous sentence, “a dream of a land where men will not take necessities from the many to give luxuries to the few”. If this is part of what our Vision 2020 is about, then Khairy should be the first to shut his mouth.

Frankly, Do you think the fishermen in Kelantan or the farmers in Kedah know economics? Maybe, maybe they know that they need to destroy excessive agricultural goods in order to maintain a stable price and income. However, do they know the rationale and mechanism that lie behind? I don’t think so.

Do you think these people, who are those in relative poverty, regardless of race, they know what is GDP about? Yeah, they watch TV for the forecast weather report, but how about the stock exchange news that being broadcasted? Do they really care? If they care, do they really know? If they know, do they really play shares?

No.

Yes, they will be happy, while the Ringgit Malaysia strengthens. “Wow yeah! It’s time for a new USA-imported-yacht for my quality time with turtle and sunset” “Great! It’s time to buy a new Mercedes Benz to speed on countryside roads after a laborious day in the farm” But, do they know exchange rate affects trade balance? Do they know purchasing imports is a leakage to domestic cash circular flow?

If we are talking about building a nation of equal opportunity and property, we need to be careful. Yes, the Malays will definitely benefit, if aggressive steps are to be taken to reach the 45% share ownerships. The question is, how many of them will benefit? And who are they?

Don’t think like a racist and says, “I don’t care who gets, as soon as they are Malays, then it’s fine to me.” This is ridiculous. What we are aiming is, a redistribution of wealth, a harmonized way of reducing the gap between the rich and the poor. It has nothing much to do with race.

Furthermore, the issue about the share ownerships of Malays, has a relatively insignificant impact on the equality of wealth between races. The poor Malays know what about Stock Exchange? They fly kites, they play Gasing, but NOT shares. Any policy soon to be implemented in order to achieve that 45% share ownerships, is just making the rich Malays richer.

Why we the common people in the rat race, we the middle class, we the laymen in policy implementing, we the crowd, fight to get a small portion of the rich to be richer? And you say, it is because if the one that get richer is a Malay, then Malays will be taken better care. Have you ever see a Rich Malay just simply give another some cash on the streets, for no other reason, but just because the another looks poor and looks like a Malay? To make your sorrow and poor life better off, depends on the government welfare policy, not the generosity of Rich Malays.

And again, you will say, the few rich Malays that get richer, will have a stronger lobbying power, thus perhaps they will influence the policies regarding the Government Welfare. The fact is businessman doesn’t dump millions of dollars in lobbying just to influence the government welfare policies. Businessmen run business, not ruin business. They are lobbying to get their products unregulated, to prevent new environmental standard bills that against their polluting factories, to obtain a better standing in tendering government multimillions project, but never to make any race have a better life. They only care, their whatever race shareholders’ interest.

Government Welfare related bill, is a political candy. It is meant to be used for political survival during election. It is a tool for government, not for the very few rich Malays (even they can afford). Therefore, nobody is justified to have any duty or charity to help any race through lobbying.

What we should do, is to shut up, and focus on utilizing each and every resource of this nation, to achieve a better economic growth, to increase the GDP per capita, to fight for a bigger cake for each and everyone, instead of wasting our resources in planning how to get more cake from other races, and how to get the cake inside Chinese mouths to the Malays’. That is stupid, foolish and dirty.

 Tags: Khairy, UMNO, ASLI+Report, Politics, Economy, Malaysia