DURING a recent forum organised by the Malay Economic Action Council, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad told a media conference about his ideas of how to resuscitate the country’s parched economy.
At the forum he again spun his broken record claiming that while poverty affects all races in this country, the problem is worse among the Malays.
As he had done all through his political career he crooned that the Malays are so poor to the extent that sometimes they are forced to sell their property, including land, in order to survive.
This is 2022. More than half a century has flowed under the bridge of the political hatchery of the bloody May 13, 1969 racial riots.
And he is still at it splitting economic weightages along race-based (racism) milestones.
What kind of nation does he dream of when leaders around the world are racing ahead with a one-nation-of-people thinking to rebuild their post-pandemic economies?
The fact that his flawed legacies still linger on, like the various race-based Economic Action Councils and even business centres that champion trade based on race and religious preferences, will never attract the progressive and fast-forwarding investors.
Dr Mahathir’s claim that Indonesia’s 270 million population size attracts even Elon Musk to go there makes his broken record sound even more incomprehensible.
We can forgive Dr Mahathir on account of his age but for race-based economic councils to still use him to champion the flawed agendas of change makes it all look even more pathetic and dangerous.
It is stable politics, better control of corruption and a more open, tolerant and democratic space that attracts investors. Don’t you all still get this maths right?
The day we all agree that racist economic mantras and using religion to shipshape a multiracial country for decades is what is driving investors away, then that is the day the economic sun will rise again on our shores.
Dr Mahathir, please stop spinning your broken record.
Additionally, all the politically bankrupt entities better stop replaying this broken record if Malaysia is ever to rise again as the resuscitated tiger of trade in this post-pandemic climate where a looming world war is being watched closely. – The Vibes, June 20, 2022
J.D. Lovrenciear is a reader of The Vibes
