Perkasa tells Najib not to agonise over empowering Bumiputera

KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 18 — Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak need not be apologetic over the New Economic Model (NEM) as it is the government’s obligation to repay the Bumiputera for their support in the recent general election, Perkasa said today.

The Malay rights group also thanked Putrajaya for listening to its recommendations while forming the NEM, claiming now that empowering the Bumiputera is a “national agenda” instead of a racial one.

“The government has been supported by the Malays since Independence ... It is an obligation for the government to repay the deeds and the support of the Malays,” said Perkasa president Datuk Ibrahim Ali in a press conference here.

“There is no need to be apologetic,” he added, claiming that other political parties have also presented their manifesto and pledges that they would have implemented had they won the 13^th general election.

Perkasa stressed that there is a need for a “corrective measure” to ensure that the Malays and Bumiputera, who form the ethnic majority in Malaysia, achieve economic parity with other races.

According to Ibrahim, it is thus a “national agenda” to empower the ethnic group, since the Bumiputera would not be happy otherwise and might affect the nation’s security.

With an eye firmly on the Umno party elections soon, Najib detailed on Saturday a far-reaching New Economic Model (NEM) that is set to offer the dominant Malay community access to tens of billions in aid and contracts.

In a high-profile announcement, Najib trotted off a list of over RM31 billion in various loans, contracts and programmes that will be made available to the group, with the stated aim of strengthening Bumiputera economic participation and boost their ownership of commercial property.

Last week’s firm commitment towards uplifting the lot of the Malay community — which Najib described as integral in charting the country’s fortunes — follows recent criticism against the Umno president for failing to fully acknowledge the support the group had extended to the ruling Barisan Nasional during the recent general election.

The move has received heavy criticism from opposition Pakatan Rakyat, with DAP advisor Lim Kit Siang claiming today that the NEM will only result in greater benefits for Umno’s upper echelon.

PAS president Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang had also said yesterday that Bumiputera special privileges cannot justify Putrajaya’s decision to lavish billions on the community without care for the rest of Malaysia.

Meanwhile, Perkasa has also urged Putrajaya today to pump RM1.4 trillion into the Bumiputera community to ensure the success of the revamped NEM.

Among others, the fiscal injection includes the formation of another iteration of asset manager Permodalan Nasional Berhad (PNB), under which non-core government-linked companies (GLC) should be placed for the benefit of the country’s dominant community.

But the group did not explain how Putrajaya is expected to provide for such a large infusion, given that the country’s annual Budget was RM252 billion for the entirety of 2013.