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http://theheatonline.asia/SOCIO-ECONOMICS/Time-to-dismantle-the-elite-class
The nation is in the throes of a battle between the ordinary rakyat and the elite that has been established after the aftermath of the May 13, 1969 race riots in the country which also witnessed the ouster of Tunku Abdul Rahman as founding premier.
With his departure, Tun Abdul Razak, father of present premier Datuk Seri Najib Razak (pic), took over as prime minister and implemented the New Economic Policy or NEP, a supposedly affirmative action plan to bring bumiputras to economic parity with the other races.
But what that has evolved out of the 30-year tenure of the NEP is the emergence of the governing elite in this country, at the expense of ordinary bumiputras’ prosperity. The NEP guise was used to enrich and establish the governing elite through cronyism and collusion and corruption.
Elite firmly established
Now with the elite firmly established and at the levers of control of this country, it is speculated that the elite, which consists of only 15% of the 30 million-strong Malaysian population, control nearly 85% of the economy.
In turn, social media reports that the remaining 85% of the population have to be content with 15% of the wealth of the nation. This is why it is high time that the work to dismantle and break up the elite be done as quickly as possible.
While these figures remain unconfirmed, it is worrying and of great concern to witness in daily life the bread-and-butter issues of the rakyat in Malaysia today while a minority of the population get the bulk of the spoils of economic growth.
This is where affirmative action has failed miserably and has been and is being used as a pretext to establish the elite in this country as a cartel to which the majority of Malaysians are excluded. This is why the wealth of the nation has not been equitably distributed over the years.
Failure of affirmative action
While the 30-year tenure of the NEP failed to address the economic imbalance of the bumiputras, the NEP was subsequently replaced by the New Economic Model and now there is in place the Bumiputra Economic Empowerment Council.
These affirmative action guises by the Barisan Nasional (BN) government have misfired and backfired terribly to create more misery and unhappiness for Malaysians of all walks of life with the exception of the minority governing elite in this country.
This is why the opposition coalition of Pakatan Rakyat (PR) has been stressing on the need for egalitarian values to be in place and not for the rich in this country to get richer at the expense of the toiling masses who have no respite or relief from a hard, harsh life.
It is really the elite, consisting of all races in this country, through a closed-door policy and through the nexus between politician-crony-sycophant, that truly enjoy special rights and privileges through means unfair and foul as VIPs and VVIPs.
Doing away with elitism
While ordinary Malaysians watch the on-going spectre of the elite carrying on with their lavish and opulent lifestyle, they also wonder how come there is such a wide disparity in income and equity ownership between them and the elite.
What has gone wrong? Malaysia is supposed to be a democracy and the tenets and obligations of democracy such as fair play, meritocracy and justice are not being translated into reality across the population of the nation.
What gives? This is why Malaysians, irrespective of race and religion, should back any move and initiative by any individual, group or organisation to cut down to size the elite in this country and to bring about economic parity for all Malaysians.
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