1 Melayu, 1 Bumi Movement

Written by: Dr. John Brian Anthony

What in the world is that 1 Melayu, 1 Bumi Movement as proposed by Utusan Malaysia assistant Editor-in-Chief Datuk Zaini Hassan. Now put that along side 1 Malaysia slogan of the prime Minister, the question now is where are we heading to? We like to be known as a multi-racial country but then again we have UMNO minded people who think that the only fair thing in Malaysia is 1Melayu.

How do I feel as a Bumiputera?

The Dayak under the NEP is categorized as “Bumiputera” literally translated as son of the soil. It is a big waste of time to be categorized at Bumiputera when the NEP has come and gone and what benefits has it brought to us? It is a scam by political people in UMNO and that even most ordinary members in PBB have not seen the light of day under NEP. Just asked around how many PBB members has made it in business.

A good friend of mind in Bintulu work very hard for PBB and ended up selling salted fish and balacan in Bintulu dry market. No disrespect to the person as my example, I am sre you do not need to be a bumiputera to sell belacan and salted fish, but still the men felt that he owed his life to PBB.

What are we Dayakbaru interested in?

We are interested to see that the government is sincere in trying to help and ensure that the bumiputera programs will see that the bumiputera are economically independent. Are we economically independent today? Who is having the best negotiated contract, the business quota, special business license, etc it is those with political power.

Did the government implemented policies that is helpful to natives?

If I take land development policies, I do not see any such program implemented to help the natives. The policies take away native land and given away to investors and the native only hope is to become small time contractor in the plantation and work as plantation labourers. Is that what we Dayakbaru want to be – to work as a labourer in the plantation?

Where is the special fund to provide seeding capital for bumiputera to start small business with? Tekun etc – can we see the result and which natives has been given the financial assistance and has they been successful? This is more important then the racialist idea of 1 Melayu, 1 Bumuputera. Does it means that the UMNO people are stillinterested to use the natives of Sabah and Sarawak as their decoy to make more business for themselves?

We Dayakbaru are not at all happy with our economic participation opportunities and assistance from the Government. Thus, we do see that the BN government is not caring enough for the people.

Did the government practice fair education policies and practice equal distribution of national resources?

Just look at the Economics Transformation program – which program benefits us in Sarawak? There is almost nothing for Sarawak in the ETP. Maybe Sarawak did not proposed any major business initiative. But then how do you proposed big business initiative when all of the big business is controlled by Taib and his cronies?

The education policies is not so poor that countries like Thailand and Indonesia are overtaking Malaysia with their mastery of English. Without English how can we compete well internationally. What is national pride when the stomach is grumbling for lack of food.

Conclusion

1 Melayu 1 Bumi movement is founded based on very narrow view of Malaysia. By accepting such concept we can only create more chaos and negativity in the country that may lead to racial unrest.

BN is losing support on a continuous basis as evident by election result because BN is not delivery what the people want. the Chinese want more business opportunities, the Dayak want security by being given registered ownership over their land. There are many more issues that BN is not addressing despite being given the mandate to lead and govern. Maybe, it is because BN right to govern is bought through corruption practices through vote buying.

We can see less then qualified people serving as YB in today’s context. How could such YB understand the concept of planning for progress?

As the voters we must push for change and Change WE Must. Aram Berubah.