Aliran Monthly, Vol 25 (2005): Issue 7

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Philip Khoo observes that greed underscores the proposal to revive the NEP under the auspices of a New National Agenda. And yet, the purported national agenda does not address the needs, interests and aspirations of the poor Malays, let alone the non-Malays. Instead, it seems obsessed with equity ownership targets for the Malays, even though this would only benefit a tiny minority - a point that Khoo lucidly argues.

Similary, in our back-cover story, Abang Bennet is troubled to hear UMNOputeras baldly declaring that NEP objectives have not yet been achieved. Abdullah Badawi�s attempt to get UMNO to focus on the global challenges fell on deaf ears. How do we finance these new UMNO demands when the oil dries up?

Have such ethnic-based policies produced the right results in the past? Koon Yew Yin, a retired engineer, looks at the reasons for the failure to produce, among others, bumiputera contractors capable of standing on their own feet. Equally, he is disturbed by the aggressive demands of the current UMNOputeras.

K George meanwhile laments that privatisation policies have only enriched the cronies and the well connected. This veteran unionist calls for the renationalisation of privatised essential services. Why not?

John Hilley observes that Britons may be genuinely traumatised by the bomb atrocities at their own doorstep. Yet it appears that they are unable to emphatise with even worse tragedies such as those in Iraq and Niger.

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