Anwar Needs A Bumiputera Agenda

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“First, we need to stop defining ourselves as the ‘victim’. Victimhood allows us to focus exclusively on the injustices and marginalisation suffered by us and our communities and agitate that the government acts quickly to resolve these to our satisfaction.”
– PSM leader Dr Michael Jeyakumar Devaraj
In a piece titled, “Don’t fumble this second chance! Consolidate the reform process”, Dr Michael Jeyakumar Devaraj offers a sobering view of the way forward, paying particular attention to the majority polity in this country and offering possible solutions to the current regime in how to increase their vote share amongst the dominant polity that Pakatan Harapan/BN woefully lack.
Beyond the unfair voter weightage and gerrymandering, what we are dealing with here is a vicious cycle in which the dominant Malay community has been emotionally blackmailed over the decades by various racial and religious propaganda that only a Malay government can look after their interests.
While the Malay governments charged with doing so have built an elaborate system of corruption that disenfranchises and marginalises the Malay community.
Fixing electoral legerdemain is one thing but cultivating a healthy Malay base is another. The reality is that there will never be a stable reformasi government without a healthy Malay base. In order to do this, the racial discourse needs to change when it comes to Harapan.
A couple of points need to be made. Firstly, we should not harp on terms like moral high ground and principles, especially when it comes to non-Malay politics.
Some folks find it easy to blame the old maverick for everything that went wrong when Harapan was in brief power the first time around. However, the reality was that non-Malay power structures were complicit in the way how Harapan spectacularly imploded and was pandering to race-based policies because then, like now, folks were worried about the Malay vote.
The second point that needs to be made, is that while it is easy to think that the Malay voted for PN because it was a safe bet when it came to the “corruption of Umno” and the fears of Chinese DAP controlling Harapan, we need to (and this is where I and the good doctor would probably disagree) face the cold hard truth that there is a certain section of the Malay voting public that agrees with everything PAS claims about Islam and race in this country, specifically that Malaysia should be a theocratic state and that non-Muslims should be pak turut.
PSM leader Dr Michael Jeyakumar DevarajIt is with this group that unfair voter weightage and gerrymandering benefit the most, and indeed Abdul Hadi Awang has said on various campaign stumps over the years that rigging the system would benefit them (PAS) the most.
Not only does grand poobah Anwar Ibrahim need a bumiputera agenda, but what he and his team need to do is base it on a class dialectic.
We are getting some of that now, with Anwar going after monopolies that only benefit the political elites. This is all part of the feudalistic mindset that Umno created over the years and the reason some folks, certainly in PN, are getting flustered. They want the system to endure.
Indeed what has hampered the Malay community, especially those marginalised and rural, are not the policies themselves (which is a whole other debate) but rather the corruption and mismanagement that has put them in a situation where their economic fears become their racial and religious fears.
This happens when your existence is based on how directly the state can influence your life.
Vicious cycle
Indeed former prime minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob has admitted that all those poverty alleviation programmes were carried out by the vast bureaucracy and nobody had any idea about their effectiveness – “… that hitherto many ministries had programmes on poverty alleviation but there was no specific monitoring on their effectiveness.”
Not because monitoring these programmes would mean there would be transparency, but because many of these poverty alleviation programmes were part of the gravy train driven by bureaucrats, political operatives and their various proxies.
The non-Malays on the other hand, having left to fend for themselves, have opened up economic, educational and social spheres in which connective tissue has allowed the state to sustain a kleptocracy that has endured for decades.
This too is a vicious cycle but one that can only be broken when Harapan has the Malay support it needs to reform the system.
This brings us to the question of “compromises”. Non-Malays have to figure out what exactly these compromises are. Accessibility to state-funded education programmes, economic enterprises and a plethora of issues crop up whenever we have these types of discussions.
Not to mention personal and civil liberties, which the theocratic state is waiting to destroy.
Former prime minister Ismail Sabri YaakobReforms of state institutions that minimise corruption and deregulation which minimises cronyism are some things we can all agree with and, perhaps, the most economically viable way to sway the Malay public option. This is why PAS, in particular, wants this to be about a culture war.
And the culture war is where it's at and where Anwar’s bumiputera agenda will be severely tested. This means reforming the vast religious bureaucracy.
Look beyond the corruption, leakages and wasteful mismanagement of funds. What this ministry does is subvert democratic principles in the name of religious solidarity. And of course, there is wastage and corruption.
Again, remember what Ismail Sabri said - “Yet, another day, perhaps the religious council will bring zakat relief for the village again, and train the people again. But no one is monitoring. No one shows the way. (The visitors) give courses, give goods, and then leave... in the end everything is a failure. The project fails because there is no specific monitoring.”
Hence all this talk of poverty alleviation, especially when it comes to the Malay community, is mired in the kind of corruption that plagues the mainstream political establishment.
Remember what Jeyakumar has said - "If you stop affirmative action for the rich Malays, even the poor Malays would accept it."
If Anwar defines his bumiputera agenda as a class-based agenda (dissonant as it sounds) and reforms the system, aid actually goes to the majority, especially the disenfranchised as opposed to the elites, and this would be the start of cultivating a base, and more importantly, less compromising in the name of unity.
The big question is, can Anwar craft a bumi agenda which will not spook the non-Malays?- Mkini
S THAYAPARAN is Commander (Rtd) of the Royal Malaysian Navy. Fīat jūstitia ruat cælum - “Let justice be done though the heavens fall.”
The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of MMKtT

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