Najib’s announcement of massive allocations to BN cronies under the guise of the “Bumiputera Agenda” confirms the hypocrisy of the PM’s “1Malaysia”

Dato’ Seri Najib Razak has been hailed by his Barisan Nasional supporters as a “reformer”. Even many supporters of the opposition would deem him as a moderate, swimming with the sharks in UMNO. The argument has been if Pakatan Rakyat is unable to defeat Barisan Nasional in the election, then all support should be given to the Prime Minister to ensure that his “Transformation Agenda” can be have every chance of success.

Dato’ Seri Najib Razak’s image has been impeccably managed to ensure that he is perceived as sincere in fighting the tide of racial and religious extremism with the set up of the Global Movement of Moderates (GMM). His “Transformation Agenda” gained traction with the beautifully presented “New Economic Model”, Government and Economic Transformation Programmes (GTP and ETP).

However, with the latest 2 quickfire landmark announcements by the Prime Minister himself – the first, calling for Government departments and Government-linked companies to rescue Utusan Malaysia, and the second, a RM31 billion “Bumiputera Economic Empowerment Plan” (BEEP) – has in a blink of an idea reveal the real Dato’ Seri Najib Razak.

Malaysians over the past 3 months have been bewildered as to why the Prime Minister of the country has failed to reign in the increasingly extremist tendencies of various government departments during the moments of crisis. Young Malaysian students were found eating in the bathroom at a national school. A dog trainer was probed for alleged sedition for a video posted 4 years ago without controversy. A surau was demolished because a kind-hearted manager allowed the place to be temporarily used by visiting Buddhist tourists for meditation.

The Prime Minister did not even bother to defend his landmark decision to lift the state of emergency and its associated laws such as the Emergency Ordinance, when it came under attack by his own Cabinet colleagues. Malaysians were wondering, what type of Prime Minister says nothing as the country stumble from one crisis to another?

The call to bailout Utusan Malaysian is the first clear hint why the Prime Minister did absolutely nothing to prevent extremism from festering. It revealed that Dato’ Seri Najib Razak himself supported these extremist tendencies, where Utusan Malaysia, a publication owned by UMNO has been at the forefront.

Dato’ Seri Najib Razak said “Utusan has remained strong and has never backed down in defending our race. It has played a role in opening up the minds of the rakyat to current information, be it in politics, crime, entertainment, and many other areas.” As such the Prime Minister himself believes in the race-baiting extremism and the propagation of lies practiced by the paper, to the extent of abusing his power to call for tax-payers’ monies to be used to keep Utusan alive.

The Prime Minister’s latest BEEP salvo takes the racial mindset a step further by reneging on the NEM, GTP and ETP’s call for transparency and accountability in the delivery of Government projects.

NEM called for “market friendly and transparent affirmative action programs” that would focus on the bottom 40% of households in order to narrow disparities between the rich and the poor, the urban and the rural, the Bumiputera and the non-Bumiputera. Najib’s Bumiputera Agenda makes no mention of targeting the bottom 40% that was a key focus of the NEM.

Najib’s Bumiputera agenda contravenes the ETP by diverting it from a private sector driven transformation plan to a government led transformation plan. The ‘carve out’ policies to ensure Bumiputera participation in what are essentially GLC mega-projects – Menara Warisan (PNB), Bukit Bintang City Center (UDA), Rubber Research Institute land (EPF), MATRADE (Naza TTDI) proves that Najib believes “the government knows best”.

Malaysians can no longer cling on to the hope that Dato’ Seri Najib Razak might just turn out to be the “reformer” we never had. The rakyat is now left with no doubt that the “1Malaysia” policy of the Prime Minister has bitten dust, and is nothing more than an attempt to fish for votes during the last general election.

Pakatan Rakyat will fight for a fair and just Malaysia, and our economic agenda remains steadfast with the objective to help the poor and the trapped middle-class to improve their livelihood regardless of race, religion and geography. We believe that there are many Malays and bumiputeras trapped in these categories and they deserved the Government’s every assistance, which are based on needs. Najib’s BEEP is nothing more than a well-disguised policy to enrich and support BN cronies who have financed BN’s election victory, by abusing race as a justification.