The New Economic Policy and the Effects of Sociology towards People

The year 1971 had witnessed an ambitious and controversial socio-economic restructuring action programme that was launched by the Prime Minister Tun Abdul Razak which was namely called The Malaysian New Economic Policy(NEP).Basically, there were other parties that have accused it of having to reduce non-Malays to the status of second-class citizens by bringing forth the “Ketuanan Melayu” (Malay Supremacy) issue.

First and foremost, the economy prospect views a noticeable increase among Bumiputra participation in the professions and private sectors although Bumiputras remain somewhat under-represented. Statistics have shown that between 1970 to 1990, the Bumiputra share of accountants doubled from 7 to 14 per cent, doctors from 4 per cent to 28 per cent, engineers from 7 to 35 per cent and architects from 4 to 24 per cent. It was estimated also that wealth in the hands of the Bumiputras went from 4 % in 1970 to about 20 % in 1997. The overall wealth of the country as a whole also grew ; per capita GNP went from RM1,142 in 1970 to RM12,102 in 1997.

The education policy in NEP has also shown a major difference among the races especially when Bumiputras were accorded quotas for the admission to public universities until the year 2002. Although the allocation were then reduced, they were still considered unfair towards the non-Bumiputras. The act of eliminating the quota for good in 2003 had yet not removed the perceptions of the Bumiputra bias in the public tertiary education when the difference pertaining academic routes between these races still exists. As an example, many Bumiputra enter boarding secondary schools whereas most non-Bumiputra remain in normal public secondary schools. This has made the non-Bumiputras to believe that the education policy of NEP does not give major benefits to them.

On top of that, it is also found that the calculation of the Bumiputra-held economic equity has been disputed where it is claimed that the government intentionally underestimated the share of Bumiputra equity to justify the NEP and its related politics. The issue that the official Bumiputra equity share remained less than the original 30% target although the policy had continued until 2008 had made economic debates become more intense and people kept arguing over inter-ethnic disparities in Malaysia since then.

In a nutshell, a myriad of controversies had arise since the implementation of NEP in Malaysia’s political system. It is only recently discovered that there are some Bumiputra parties that would want the elimination or reduction in the implementation of the policy since they believe it is a race-based affirmative act.

Syamil Sofiah Bt Hussin~Section 21~