BY: KEN WATANABE

Most likely the world is witnessing the tailend of the Covid-19 pandemic and in Malaysia what is happening now is that the Malay community have become even more fearful of the future despite more than five decades of affirmative action.

What is emerging is that affirmative action for the Malays and other bumiputeras have benefitted only a select group to move up to the elite of Malaysian society while the majority of Malays are basket cases.

The reason why affirmative action for Malays and other bumiputeras failed is simply because of successive governments since the regime of Tun Abdul Razak having failed to play by the rules of democracy.

Affirmative action alone for Malays is not enough. The Malay government at present has to initiate a multi-prong strategy to boost the confidence, capabilities and abilities of the Malays to rise on par with their fellow Malaysian Chinese and Malaysian Indian communities.

The danger now many Malays realize is to take for granted that the government will be there in perpetuity to assist and help bail them out of their poor and weak management of household finances.

It is unrealistic for affirmative action for the bumiputeras to continue forever. This the Malays realize now at the tailend of the Covid-19 pandemic and this is why the community is living in fear of an uncertain future.

-THE MALAYSIA VOICE

** The views expressed on this opinion is of the writer and not the publisher