Malaysia economic plan: Old wine, new bottle
By Anil Netto
PENANG, Malaysia - This country's Ninth Economic Plan would have been another ho-hum affair if not for one key ingredient that raised eyebrows. In Malaysia's race-fixated society, it inevitably centered on another extension of ethnic-based affirmative-action policies that favor the ethnic Malays and other indigenous Malaysians, known collectively as the bumiputeras.
Affirmative action was first incorporated into economic policy in 1971, when the New Economy Policy (NEP) was introduced in the wake of anti-Chinese race riots. To ease racial tensions and
promote national unity, the policy had two main aims: to alleviate poverty and to restructure society so that occupations were not defined by race. Among the targets to be achieved - which has since become a larger-than-life obsession - was for bumiputeras to own 30% of all corporate equity by 1990.
The NEP was supposed to expire in 1990 but it was extended under a new guise because, according to official figures, the bumiputeras, who now make up some 60% of the population, had not yet reached the 30% target. Under the Seventh Malaysia Plan, the NEP was refashioned as the National Development Policy (NDP) and extended a further 10 years until the year 2000.
In 2004, official figures showed that bumiputera equity ownership, including through government trust agencies and government-linked firms, had hardly budged at 18.7% in recent years. So it was extended yet again. The Ninth Plan's decision to extend the period of affirmative action further, until 2020, was in a sense a fulfillment of calls made last year at the assembly of the United Malays National Organization (UMNO), the dominant party in the ruling coalition. Key UMNO leaders had called for a "New National Agenda" to advance the "unfinished Malay agenda" for a further 15 years.
Still, there is some contention over whether the 18.7% achieved so far is an accurate reflection of actual bumiputera wealth. Some have pointed out that the figures are calculated based on the par value of shares and not the market value. A 1990 study carried out by political economist Edmund Terence Gomez into corporate equity owned by politicians and political parties, including UMNO, revealed that many use nominee companies, which now own 8% of total equity, to conceal their ownership from public scrutiny.
The 30% target might have been met if shares awarded to bumiputeras during initial public offerings (IPOs) and then quickly sold for a profit were taken into account. Moreover, most of the top 10 firms by market capitalization in the country are government-linked corporations (GLCs). If the equity these GLCs own - regarded as bumiputera private-sector investments - and the ownership of privatized firms are taken into account, a different picture emerges.
Undoubtedly, the NEP has raised the living standards of the bumiputeras through the creation of a new middle class and greater participation across a wide range of occupations. But the obsession with share capital ownership as a measure of bumiputera participation masks a deeper problem: the yawning wealth and income gap within the bumiputera community itself. The bumiputeras who take up IPO shares are frequently the middle and upper classes.
"In truth, a tiny minority [of bumiputeras] hold the bulk of the shares, and they are the ones salivating at the thought of the 30%," political analyst Philip Khoo said last year.
The Ninth Plan's answer to broadening the group's participation is to widen the benchmark to include not just bumiputera equity ownership, but also to promote their ownership of residential and commercial urban property, intellectual property rights and small and medium enterprises (SMEs). New foundations, trust funds and an SME Bank will be established in the future to achieve this end.
In addition to racial inequality, the urban-rural income gap has widened, with the poverty rate in Sabah province 30 times that in the capital, Kuala Lumpur. As one political economist, G Lim, pointed out, "The disparity between states has been more or less consistently growing since 1970, while ethnic disparities have been significantly reduced."
The poorest rural states - Kelantan, Perlis, Sabah, Sarawak and Terengganu - tend to be dominated by bumiputeras. This has contributed to Malaysia being one of the most unequal societies in Asia.
While the government says it wants to reduce regional imbalances, state spending plans in the new economic program do not seem to reflect this as a priority. Heavily developed Kuala Lumpur alone has been allocated RM31 billion (US$8.4 billion), while less developed Sabah and Sarawak in North Borneo - together covering an area much larger than peninsular Malaysia - have been allocated only RM29 billion.
The Ninth Plan envisages RM200 billion of government spending over the next five years. Another RM20 billion will be expended through private finance initiatives (PFIs). The plan also envisages transforming traditional farming into large-scale commercial farming ventures. Some RM32 billion will be spent on highways, airports, railways and urban transport projects, and a further RM22 billion on energy and public-utility projects. That poses a problem of leakages. Funds could gush out from the system, as even industry insiders admit the construction sector is plagued with corruption in all stages from the awarding of contracts to collection of payment.
In the past, there has been very little transparency in the way contracts and shares have been awarded. Large privatization projects have in many cases benefited a small group of well-connected firms - and many have failed.
"Why has privatization [proved] to be such a dismal failure?" asked Gomez, a University of Malaya political economist temporarily with the UN Research Institute for Social Development in Geneva. "For example, the renationalization of Proton, Malaysia Airlines [MAS] and [sewage disposal firm] IWK indicates that this policy needs a thorough review before being continued to be promoted ... Why has no one been charged for running MAS into the ground?"
The real test will be whether contracts under the Ninth Plan will be awarded on an open-tender basis or whether a handful of privileged firms will once again dominate major infrastructure and privatized projects with little transparency or regulation.
Former deputy premier Anwar Ibrahim is one of the few high-profile ethnic Malays who have openly called for the NEP to be scrapped. "We're not going to sacrifice Malay interests, we're going to help them as we are going to help those deserving irrespective of race," he said in November.
Another Malaysia-based political economist, who declined to be identified, agrees with that assessment: "If they really wanted to extend the NEP, then it should have been fully non-ethnic and only favoring the genuinely poor."
Last week, Anwar pointed out that there has not been much transparency in how the wealth of the national oil corporation, Petronas, has been used. Anwar, a former finance minister, insisted that Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi should explain what had happened to Petronas' Legacy Fund (Tabung Warisan), which he said was set up to provide for the day when the country turns into a net importer of oil. "Annually, a sum from Petronas revenue is contributed to the Tabung Warisan. It has been 20 years, and what is the amount?" he asked.
To its credit, the government recognizes that Malaysia badly needs to upgrade its human resources to meet the annual 6% gross domestic product growth target over the next five years. A huge chunk - RM50 billion - is to be set aside for education and training as the Ninth Plan recognizes the importance of enhancing the national capacity for knowledge and innovation and nurturing citizens with "first-class mentality".
But qualitative issues - rather than funding - are likely to prove crucial: how to promote critical thinking in a climate where dissent and alternative viewpoints are not encouraged, where meritocracy is the exception rather than the rule, where stifling laws remain in place, and where universities and the government are burdened by a culture of mediocrity. With this restrictive environment likely to remain unchanged, the Ninth Economic Plan, framed along ethnic lines that do little to foster national unity, will find it difficult to unleash the full potential of Malaysians.
Anil Netto is a freelance writer based in Penang, Malaysia.http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Southeast_Asia/HD06Ae04.html
Infiltrating Australia's Academe
In February, Prime Minister Howard’s Muslim Advisory Group met for the first time for 2006, and it was not a happy event. Prior to the meeting, Howard and his Treasurer, Peter Costello, spoke to the media on Islamic extremism in Australia. And then the country’s Grand Mufti, Sheikh Taj El Din Al Hilaly, began demanding that the government expel its Muslim youth representative, Mustapha Kara-Ali, from the advisory group.
But, amid the Islamic community’s claims of discrimination and its inter-faith squabbling, the Prime Minister and his Treasurer had, in fact, expressed legitimate and valid concerns. For it appears that the national Islamic youth group, the Federation of Australian Muslim Students and Youth (FAMSY), has been working assiduously to promote extremist aspects of Islam to the next generation of Australian Muslims.
When Steven Emerson – one of the world’s leading authorities on Islamist extremist networks – recently visited Australia, he acknowledged that FAMSY is an ideological offshoot of the international Islamist movement, the Muslim Brotherhood.
The Brotherhood’s motto is: Allah is our goal; the Messenger is our model; the Koran is our constitution; jihad is our means; and martyrdom in the way of Allah is our aspiration. It has spawned violent terrorist groups, including Hamas. It attempted to overthrow the government in Syria and was involved in the assassination of the Egyptian President Anwar Sadat. Middle East expert Robert Spencer noted that the Brotherhood was the inspiration behind Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaeda.
Richard Clark, former head of counter-terrorism for the US National Security Council, testified in October 2003 before a Senate Committee that:
The issue of terrorist financing in the United States is a fundamental example of the shared infrastructure levered by Hamas, Islamic Jihad and al-Qaida, all of which enjoy a significant degree of cooperation and coordination within our borders. The common link here is the extremist Muslim Brotherhood - all of these organizations are descendants of the membership and ideology of the Muslim Brothers.
Today the Muslim Brotherhood is a sprawling and secretive society that purports to follow the laws of the countries wherein it operates. Translated recruitment documents from the Chicago Tribune demonstrate that the US Muslim Brotherhood has been extremely careful in obscuring its beliefs from outsiders. One document informs leaders to be cautious when screening potential recruits. If the recruit enquires whether the leader is a Brotherhood member, it advises, the member should reply, “You may deduce the answer to that with your own intelligence.”
FAMSY has operated in Australia since 1968 and defines itself, on its web site, as “a national student and youth Islamic organisation with branches throughout most states of Australia.” It is, in fact, the umbrella movement that unites all Muslim university and youth groups.
One of the organisation’s most committed members is Zachariah Matthews, who has been involved with FAMSY since 1992 and has been a keynote speaker at its last five annual conferences. He told Margaret Coffey on ABC radio in August 2005 that his title for the conference last year was “Guiding Muslim Youth”, and as a subtitle, he added, “How do we prevent their radicalisation?”
Sounds reasonable enough. But FAMSY’s guest speakers over the last few years validate Emerson’s claim that the organisation is clearly an ideological offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood. It also demonstrates that Islamists have become regular fixtures on Australian university campuses.
FAMSY sponsors a number of activities for Muslim youth. On the recent Australia Day holiday it joined forces with ‘Bright Start’ to organise a Youth Camp on the Victorian coast at Anglesea. Ibrahim Abdul Rahim, one of the young attendees, reviewed the camp on the FAMSY web site. Zachariah Matthews, he wrote, “flew from Sydney” to speak to the 33 young people — “many very young people still in High School”. According to Rahim, Matthews spoke to the camp followers and put a number of subjects, including “role models,” into “perspective”.
And then on the last day of the camp, FAMSY produced their ideal role model, Abdul Rahim Ghouse, who presented a “highly interactive” workshop. Amongst the subjects discussed, Rahim wrote, was the “issue of resources in Islamic work.”
In 2003, The Sydney Morning Herald reported on this same subject when it described how the SBS-TV program, “Dateline”, had investigated Rahim Ghouse and claimed he “had business dealings with Sheik Yassin al-Qadi, an alleged al-Qaeda financier.” Ghouse was a Director of the International Free Anwar Campaign lobby group in Australia. Anwar Ibrahim was jailed in Malaysia between 1998 and 2004 on trumped-up sodomy and corruption charges. Ibrahim was also a director of the Washington-based International Institute of Islamic Thought (IIIT) – which Dateline reported – was being investigated for “possibly funding the pro-Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad.” The Washington Post stated that the IIIT network was “set up in the 1980s largely by onetime Brotherhood sympathizers.” And some network figures, the newspaper claimed “had dealings with activists,” such as “USF professor Sami al-Arian” who was “indicted last year [2003] on charges of conspiracy to commit murder via suicide attacks in Israel.”
In 2001, IIIT published a book entitled Violence. The Washington Post reported this IIIT work declared Israel to be a “foreign usurper” and that it should be confronted with “fear, terror and lack of security.” The text also advised Palestinian fighters to choose their targets, “whether the targets are civilian or military.”
At their annual conference at the University of Sydney in 1997, FAMSY presented Ahmad Elkadi, the founder of the Muslim Brotherhood in the United States. He was the secret leader of the underground movement from 1984 until 1994. In an exclusive interview with the Chicago Tribune in 2004, the newspaper reported that Elkadi explained the process of recruiting new members. It begins, he supposedly said, with small prayer meetings where the identity of the Brotherhood is not revealed. “First you change the person, then the family, then the community, then the nation.”
In 1998 FAMSY invited American convert to Islam, Siraj Wahhaj, to its annual conference. This radical Muslim proved so popular that he was invited back to the 2001 conference. Three years prior to his first FAMSY appearance Wahhaj had served as a character witness for Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman — the blind Sheik who was found guilty of conspiring to bomb New York city landmarks. Rahman had worshipped at Wahhaj’s New York mosque and was once a featured speaker. During this provocative sermon, The Wall Street Journal reported that the blind Sheik had suggested to about 150 congregants that they ought to rob banks to benefit Islam.
Wahhaj was listed as one of 170 “unindicted persons who may be alleged as co-conspirators” of the 1993 World Trade Centre bombing. More recently, Wahhaj expressed an opinion that the US constitutional government will eventually be replaced by Islamic law. “In time, this so-called democracy will crumble, and there will be nothing. And the only thing that will remain will be Islam.” Daniel Pipes in his book, Militant Islam Reaches America, describes Siraj Wahhaj as an imam representing Muslims who “both despise the United States and ultimately wish to transform it into a Muslim country.”
Also featured on the 1998 FAMSY program at RMIT in Melbourne, was Kamal Helwabi, a former senior member of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood. Helwabi resigned from the Brotherhood in 1997 and fled to the UK. According to The Investigative Project, Helwabi was also a founder of the World Assembly of Muslim Youth (WAMY), a Saudi organisation that has espoused radical views and has been linked to terrorist activity around the world.
American convert to Islam, Mahdi Bray, spoke to Australian Muslim youth at the FAMSY conference in 2003. Within two months of his University of Sydney guest appearance, Bray was named by a witness who addressed the US Congressional Subcommittee on Terrorism, Technology and Homeland Security, as the contact for a key organisation involved in Muslim prison recruitment
In his book, American Jihad, Emerson noted that Bray had organised a rally outside the White House in 2000 where the crowd chanted in Arabic, “Khaybar, Khaybar oh Jews, the Army of Muhammad is coming to get you.”, [In the Koran, Mohammed conquered the Jewish settlement of Khaybar and slaughtered all the male inhabitants.] The crowd burned an Israeli flag as they marched from the White House to the State Department and openly distributed literature calling for the death of all Jews.
Emerson also reported that Bray attended a rally co-sponsored by the Muslim Public Affairs Council a few weeks later, where he was seen “jubilantly displaying his support” for Hamas and Hezbollah. Emerson claims Bray was seen playing the tambourine as a speaker sang, “Al-Aqsa is calling us, let’s all go into jihad, and throw stones at the face of the Jews.”
Bray also lobbied vigorously for the extradition from Saudi Arabia of Ahmed Abu Ali. After the prisoner was deported to the US, Bray exclaimed, “Nothing short of his release and return to his family is acceptable.” Abu Ali has been convicted and faces 80 years in prison for plotting to assassinate President Bush and for providing material support and resources to al-Qaeda.
In 2004 FAMSY again demonstrated its comfortable relationship with radical Islam when it invited Shaker Elsayed to its annual get-together. Three years prior, its guest had stated at a US State Department press conference that “...The so-called Israeli settlers are not civilian population. They are military reserves. They are armed, trained and dangerous. They invade Palestinian neighbourhoods at night and they squander everything. They kill, they maim and they destroy homes...”
Elsayed’s declaration was not surprising. A couple of years earlier he had discarded his moderate façade when he declared at the 2002 ICNA- MAS conference that, “...the honor of the Muslims has been violated, the jihad is a must for everyone, a child, a lady and a man. They have to make jihad with every tool that they can get in their hand...”
And last year, FAMSY bought Anas Altikriti to Australia to speak to Muslim youth. Altikriti’s father had attended school with Saddam Hussein and was currently head of the Muslim Brotherhood in Iraq. And Altikriti himself is a founding member of the Muslim Association of Britain (MAB), which readily admits to having links to the Muslim Brotherhood.
In 2005, Altikriti spoke on behalf of MAB and declared his organisation was “extremely concerned by the decision of the [British] Prime Minister to ban Hizb ut-Tahrir. Despite the fact,” he stated, “that MAB has constantly had major disagreement with Hizb ut-Tahrir, banning HT will serve no cause and could prove counter productive.”
Hizb ut-Tahrir is banned in nearly every Arab state, including the Muslim states of Central Asia and Germany and Russia. Its web site describes its ambition to install the Islamic way of life and convey the Islamic “da’wah” to the world. It is dedicated to bringing “back the Islamic guidance for mankind and to lead the Ummah [nation] into a struggle with Kufr [infidels], its systems and its thoughts so that Islam encapsulates the world.”
In May this year, FAMSY is co-sponsoring a peace conference in Melbourne. And once again, Altikriti is a main player. FAMSY advertise him as “hosting” the conference and define Alkitriki both by his association with MAB and ‘Stop the War Coalition’. The FAMSY web site promotes the Peace Conference by claiming “the US and its allies are trapped in their illegal war in Iraq...At the same time in the name of fighting ‘terror’,” it states, “the government[Australian]] is attacking civil liberties and demonising Muslims in our community.”
Margaret Coffey reported on ABC radio from the University of Melbourne 2005 FAMSY conference, that Altikriti exclaimed to his student audience, “Despite that we stand clear and say we have nothing to apologise for, we are the best of the best and we can and we will play our part in bringing about the best for the future of this country and its people. That is our role, these are our teachings.”
Coffey also noted that FAMSY organiser Zachariah Matthews promoted the “Jerusalem theory” to the young Muslim audience. The West, he explained to the conference attendees, is so unfair to the Muslim world that it is understandable how an extreme margin would strike out in frustration and revenge. This theory, Coffey said, “includes but goes beyond issues like Iraq, Afghanistan and Palestine.”
The Washington Post has stated that the Muslim Brotherhood is a diverse society where some “supporters went on to help found al-Qaeda, while others launched one of the largest college student groups in the United States.” But the radical religious roots of the Brotherhood have transformed a number of the latter into a campus cheerleading squad for the former. In the era of jihadist terrorism – in which we all live – that is a form of student activism Australia can ill afford.
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Sharon Lapkin is a former Australian Army Officer and a postgraduate student at the University of Melbourne.
http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=21848
By Sharon LapkinFrontPageMagazine.com April 4, 2006
[This article first appeared in the Australia/Israel Review, the monthly journal of the Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council.]
Malaysia's ex-deputy leader Anwar Ibrahim says he will contest next election
2006/3/25 KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) - Malaysian ex-deputy leader Anwar Ibrahim said he intends to contest the country's next general election set for 2009, but predicted the government he once backed would call for polls early to prevent him from running.
Anwar, 59, was sacked in September 1998 following a fallout with then-Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad over economic policies. He was arrested, tried for corruption and sodomy, and sentenced to 15 years in prison.
Anwar was released in September 2004 when the sodomy conviction was overturned, but he is banned from running for political office until April 2008 because of the corruption sentence that he served.
"I have reason to suspect it (the election) will be held before April 2008," he said late Friday at a small gathering in Kuala Lumpur. "I'm a Malaysian citizen. Why can't I participate?"
Now a visiting lecturer at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., Anwar tested the waters for a return to politics in previous visits to Malaysia, drawing thousands in rallies across the country.
He stayed abroad after his release because he "couldn't get a job" here, but will be spending more time in Malaysia from May, he said.
"I will encourage our friends to work harder to support the opposition agenda," he said.
He said his wife, Azizah Ismail, may vacate her parliamentary seat for him in northern Penang state _ a seat he held from the early 1980s until his arrest.
Anwar is now adviser to the People's Justice Party _ formed by Azizah after his arrest. It initially garnered substantial support following his sacking, but was overwhelmed by the ruling National Front party in elections two years ago.
In his comments Friday, Anwar focused on the economy and education _ portfolios he held while in government.
"They (the government) have a problem because the economy is not doing well," he said, calling for an end to the country's affirmative action program for Malays that has dominated Malaysia's economic policy since 1970.
"How do you accept that a policy introduced in 1970 remains sacred till today?" he said. "The new approach must be to get Malays to participate with their Chinese counterparts."
Malaysia's 26 million population has a majority Malay population, with ethnic Chinese and Indians forming the main minorities.
The decades-old New Economic Policy was designed to bridge the economic gap between Malays and other ethnic groups. It allows Malays to receive preferential treatment for university placement and business contracts, while giving them discounts for housing purchases.
Anwar alleged the government had wasted "billions" of dollars by propping up "mega companies" owned by Malay businessmen.
"You cannot compete with affirmative action ... it breeds mediocrity. It will weaken the economic base of our fabric," he said.
Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi is scheduled to deliver the next edition of the economic policy, dubbed the Ninth Malaysia Plan, next week.
http://www.chinapost.com.tw/i_latestdetail.asp?id=36734
West has hijacked democracy in Muslim world: Anwar Ibrahim
Thursday, March 09, 2006
Staff Report ISLAMABAD: The West has hijacked democracy in the Muslim world, said Anwar Ibrahim, the former Malaysian deputy prime minister, on Wednesday.He was speaking at a seminar on ‘Democracy in the Muslim World’ organised by the Institute of Policy Studies (IPS). According to a press release, Ibrahim said that there should be rule of law on freedom of expression, free and fair elections, and independent judiciary in the Muslim world for the establishment of democracy.He said that there is no question of compatibility between democracy and Islam as Islam had introduced it long before during the time of caliphs. But later on, the monarchs and colonial rulers hijacked democracy from the Muslim world, he added. “After the colonial era, the Muslims were not allowed to choose the right kind of government for themselves because of the West’s interference. They did not allow democracy to flourish in the Muslim World. They supported dictators and corrupt leaders. Partly, the blame goes to our own society too which did not stop corrupt elements from hijacking democracy,” Ibrahim said. He said that Muslims were far behind other nations in the fields of education, economy, employment, quality of life, technology, and were involved in corruption, malpractices and intolerance. Ibrahim said that mere elections did not serve the purpose of democracy and there should be sound a institution to hold elections under strict laws.Referring to Pakistan, he said, “The foundation of Pakistan was a cyclonic revolution and a model of freedom and rule of law. But there are basic ills of poor governance, bribery, corruption and nepotism which need to be addressed”.He said that he wanted to engage with America in promoting democracy in the Muslim world but opposed their methods. “We do not need to take American or Western model of democracy as they have their own vested interests,” he added.Referring to the caricatures of Holy Prophet Muhammad (pbuh), he said, “We must condemn these reprehensible acts as in Islam, the sanctity of life and property of an individual must be protected”. Earlier, General Khalid Rahman, the IPS director, opened the session and Senator SM Zafar introduced the guest and the topic. Zafar said that democracy is mandatory in Islam and the caliphs had established the true manifestation of democratic rule. During the concluding session, Senator Khurshid Ahmed thanked the speaker and the guests. He said that democracy should have permanent value framework with divine guidance.Senator Saadia Abbassi paid tribute to Anwar Ibrahim for his trials and tribulations during his six years solitary confinement
