KUALA LUMPUR, June 28 — Malaysia should abolish pro-Bumiputera policies and introduce race-blind affirmative action instead as they violate international laws that prohibit discrimination, Suaram adviser Dr Kua Kia Soong has said.

The human rights activist said racism and racial discrimination have been pulling the country apart for a very long time and Malaysians will never unite unless they face the question of eradicating racial discrimination.

“I think the authorities, they themselves should be wary because they are breaking international laws on racial discrimination and it is they who should be sensitive to what they are doing because they are holding the country back and they are obstacles for us to achieve a high-income status country,” Kua told Malay Mail Online in an interview yesterday after a dialogue session on his new book Racism and Racial Discrimination in Malaysia organised by the #UndiMsia group.

He was referring to the United Nations treaties and conventions which uphold the principle of non-discrimination and maintain that reasonableness for differential treatment must be proven.

Kua, who was also a DAP MP for Petaling Jaya Utara from 1990 to 1995, said racial discrimination leads to crony capitalism, which he claimed was the basis for national problems like the debt-laden 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB), the bailout of national carrier Malaysia Airlines and the Scorpene bribery and murder scandal.

“The first big step is to declare the New Economic Policy (NEP) finished and to have affirmative action based on need and class and sector.

“You cannot have affirmative action based on race because it is ridiculous. Why should a Bumiputera who can afford a RM2.5 million for a house require a discount to buy that house?” he asked.

The NEP was an affirmative action plan launched by the country’s second prime minister Tun Abdul Razak Hussein following violent racial riots on May 13, 1969.

It was originally planned to eradicate poverty among Malaysians and to narrow the economic gap between the Malay majority and the ethnic Chinese minority, by redistributing wealth to promote a 30 per cent economic ownership by the Bumiputera.

Dr Kua said his book ‘Racism and Racial Discrimination in Malaysia’ was an updated analysis of his PhD thesis that was published as his first book some 32 years ago.

Although the NEP technically expired in 1990, many of the NEP’s race-based policies continue to be enforced and even expanded, resulting in simmering discontent among the non-Bumiputera communities, who complain that it deprives them of equal treatment and opportunities.

Kua described pro-Bumiputera policies as a “populist move” that gives the majority community reason to support such racial discrimination.

“I am hoping that my book will make people sit up and I’m hoping that political parties such as those in Pakatan Rakyat will face this question squarely instead of beating around the bush because they have to show how different they are from Barisan Nasional.

“It is not so much giving a verbal guarantee. We have to have something written down in their election manifesto,” he said.

He also said the Sedition Act should be abolished and laws should be drafted to deal specifically with hate crimes and speech, such as the Racism and Religious Hatred Act in the UK.

Kua said his book Racism and Racial Discrimination in Malaysia was an updated analysis of his PhD thesis that was published as his first book some 32 years ago.

He added that Popular, the biggest book retailer in the country, had refused to carry his latest book, calling it “sensitive”.

“I am hoping the people who are interested can get in touch with me and prepare to distribute them to the rest of the country,” he said, adding that there is a 50 per cent discount for orders of 50 books and above.

When asked if he was concerned about a ban or backlash from the authorities, he said his latest and 32nd book was written more academically than his book on the May 13 race riots, which saw calls for it to be banned.

The former Internal Security Act (ISA) detainee also said that this book has “very solid references”, so there is no reason for the government to ban it.