By C C Pung
Justice of Peace
Tokoh Wartawan Sabah and FT Labuan
Datuk Seri Mohamad Sabu, our Minister of Agriculture, wondered out loud in Parliament why bumiputra durian farmers achieved far less success than their Chinese counterparts.
Excellent question.
It’s been said that knowing or daring to ask seemingly unsavoury questions is the key to unlocking answers to seemingly unsolvable questions.
Aside from the Chinese-bumi gap in durian entrepreneurship, there are widely acknowledged gaps between them in educations, work ethics, creativity, maths, business and, in fact, anything under the sun.
It’s a widely held perception based on anecdotal evidence.
It has remained in this state of limbo because Malaysia doesn’t encourage any discourse or discussion.
Many people go into business.
Some thrived. Some barely survived. Others went bust. That’s normal.
So why did the scenario in durian farming spook Sabu’s inquiry.
He gave no explanation, probably because he feared that his speculative explanation would earn him not-so-nice nicknames from his fellow bumiputras.
So, here’s my take.
Bumiputras are a privileged class of Malaysians. They are the majority.
Since 1970, there have been a myriad of laws and procedures that grant them special privileges from cradle to grave and, in between, free education, aids and subsidies to go on haj.
Special land rights, all manner of subsidies and business loans, and countless other ‘bumi only’ schemes to help them start and succeed in anything they can think of.
Unknowingly, and happily, we have in our midst a people born with crutches, lived with crutches who have become tone deaf to what’s in the real world.
It’s now 2024, two generations after the first goodies were handed out.
An honest bumi in Sabu, has come out to ask what many felt they should stay away from.
I hereby venture : –
1) are our bumi brethren genetically disposed to be deficient in the things of entrepreneurship?
If not, what is it?
If yes, what can be done as remedy/correction?
2) we all agree that we are the products of our environment.
So, is the entrepreneurial deficiency among the bumi today a result of the past decades of cock-eyed dubious/faulty concepts of morality, integrity, racial pride, entitlement mindset, racial/religious supremacy, thin-skin syndrome, inferiority comples, etc etc etc?
By law, bumis get free land if they bothered to look. A Chinese must buy.
Bumis can seek out innumerable government loan schemes or agri aids to grow durian. A Chinese counts only on himself and his god.
Bumi contractors can apply for ‘bumi only’ contractor licence, qualify to bid for jobs exclusively set aside for contractors like them..
Every now and then, he gets invited to attend, free, all sorts of government run courses on contract management.
A Chinese contractor gets none of that. Yet, behind every other abandoned or failed construction project in Malaysia is a bumiputra contractor.
A Malay blogger recently challenged his viewers who they’d trust to renovate their home, a Malay or a Chinese contractor?
In Malaysian today where Malays are increasingly being oriented to blame the Chinese on every result of their (Malay) shortcomings, the poser should be redundant.
But is it?
The Bumi Advantage has been around and will be for much longer.
There is a proverbial elephant in the room to explain the malaise and lethargy of the bumis.
It’s ‘denial’ that is blocking us from seeing.
And, looking further afield … we see no bumiputra ranked among the 10 richest men in Malaysia while every main character in almost every case of grand theft of the people’s money in the past decades while in office was a bumiputera … except perhaps the case of Fatso Jho Low.
Malaysia boleh. Betul kah ?
Editor: The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of talantang.com
