Malaysians of Malay ethnicity wait to cross a street in Kuala Lumpur September 12, 2013. Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak announced steps to further boost the economic participation of the ethnic Malay majority. – Reuters pic

KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 15 — He has carefully crafted his image as a reformer since taking office in 2009 but Datuk Seri Najib Razak may have dealt this façade a blow by unveiling a slew of additional pro-Bumiputera affirmative action seen to shore up his position ahead of the Umno polls, political analysts said.



After over a week of publicity, the prime minister yesterday detailed a far-reaching New Economic Model (NEM) that is set to offer the dominant Malay community access to over RM31 billion in aid and contracts.



And despite previously saying the NEM would replace the pro-Bumiputera affirmative action from the now-defunct New Economic Policy (NEP) in favour of meritocracy, Najib yesterday instead gave the controversial programme a new lease on life.



“The question now for Najib and his administration is how the international community will view him from now onwards,” James Chin, a political analyst from Monash University Sunway told The Malay Mail Online in an e-mail interview..



“They saw him as a reformer and I suspect this will no longer be the case after this.”



The timing of the announcement just three months away from the Umno election was also not coincidental, Chin noted. Instead, he said this was likely to pre-empt any talk from Umno bloggers that the party president needed to be challenged because “he is not defending Malay rights”.



Since the general election in May, prominent blogs aligned to the party such as bigdogdotcom and outsyedthebox have become increasingly vocal with their criticism against Najib for apparently seeking to court the non-Malay electorate as well as calls for him to recognise the role the Malays played in BN’s Election 2013 win.



Mooted in 1971, the NEP had an ambitious aim to redress the socio-economic gap between the largely-urban Chinese and the rural Malays as well as other indigenous Bumiputera, within the span of two decades.



It ended officially in 1990, but the key aspects of its Malay/Bumiputera-preferred action plan remains in various forms years later.



Yesterday, Chin said the new Bumiputera agenda was a reward to the Malay community for supporting Umno and Barisan Nasional (BN) during Election 2013.



“He has no choice given that he is facing increasing pressure from right wing Malay groups,” Chin said.



Chief executive officer of the Institute for Democracy and Economic Affairs (Ideas) Wan Saiful Wan Jan shared the same view and said Najib’s image among the international community is set to take a mauling because of the programme unveiled yesterday.



“I think when international bodies look at the announcement today (yesterday), they will certainly see nothing much has changed.



“There were a lot of rhetoric by the government before the election, but once the political reality come to play, it is difficult to change,” he said.



Wan Saiful also said the announcement signalled an entrenchment of the status quo, and a reversal of promises made by the prime minister to reform the economy and do away with race-based policies.



“It shows confirmation that there are certain groups of people in Malaysia who are more privileged than the rest,” he said.



The announcements also sought to push the Bumiputera agenda in a way not conceived of during the NEP’s launch in 1970, Wan Saiful pointed out.



“Tun Razak talked about eradicating poverty in all level of society but he did not talk about ethnic Malays as a privileged group in the society.”



Another analyst, director of Centre for Policy Initiatives (CPI) Dr Lim Teck Ghee, said the policies rolled out yesterday were unlikely to bring about any fundamental changes to the current state of affairs.



”Poor Bumiputera (as well as non-Bumiputera) need greater access to capital, education, housing and business opportunities but we have seen how Umno’s leaders and cronies have in fact monopolised the opportunities during the past 40 years of the NEP.



”We can expect the same situation to continue,” he said via e-mail.





Both Wan Saiful and Lim said the policies will only encourage a generation that expects handouts and constant aid from the government ― or “grantreprenuers”, entrepreneurs who expect government grants.



”The enlargement of pro-Malay economic policies will worsen the rent seeking, patronage and other opaque government procurement and engender even more cronyism and corruption.



”Efficiency, competitiveness, merit-based reform will take second place and the losers will be the larger population and the country,” Lim said.



”It is very clear that what is being unveiled will only damage the country’s economic prospect,” he said.



Associate professor and political analyst from Universiti Malaysia Sarawak Dr Andrew Aeria said the new wave of contracts and aid undermines former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s idea of Vision 2020 in which Malaysia would be an open and competitive market.



“The message he is sending is that you don’t need to be competitive to be part of the Malaysian economy.



“It undermines the whole idea of being globally competitive, you just have to part of Umno to get contracts and I think that is unfortunate,” he said.



Aeria said Malaysia is already uncompetitive in the global market and these new policies are not helping the country.