How can Malaysia shape a fairer and more inclusive Bumiputera policy for the future? Join Ibrahim Sani and Provost, Malaysian University of Science & Technology (MUST) as they unpack the challenges, opportunities, and strategies to strengthen equity in the nation’s economic landscape.
00:00Terima kasih kerana menikmati kami. Ini adalah ekonomi.
00:10Sebelum ini, ekonomi telah berbicara tentang bagaimana polisi Buhin Putra di negara dan mengapa kita perlu fokuskan sedikit lagi
00:18dalam termasuk pengawasan Buhin Putra Agenda dan cuba memahami lebih baik bagaimana kita boleh membaikannya.
00:26Terima kasih kerana menikmati kami adalah Prof. Dr. Barjoyai Bardai, provost dari Malaysia Universiti Sains dan Teknologi, atau MUST.
00:38Bagaimana dengan anda, Prof? Mari kita menikmati dua komentar besar yang anda telah buat tadi.
00:45Kita mulakan dengan semua idea bagaimana dan mengapa anda fikir bahawa pembuatan Buhin Putra telah dibuat dari polisi Buhin Putra.
00:59Dan bagaimana pembuatan Buhin Putra sebenarnya mempunyai pembuatan politik dan bukan pembuatan Buhin Putra.
01:08Mungkin, Prof, jika anda boleh berkongsi dengan kami mengapa anda berkongsi bahawa NEP, contohnya, mempunyai pembuatan politik dan bukan orang yang biasa.
01:20Terima kasih, Cik Varim. Bismillahirrahmanirrahim.
01:23Mari saya mulakan dengan situasi ekonomi sebelumnya.
01:28Sebenarnya, Malaysia telah berkongsi oleh India British.
01:37dan sehingga mereka berkongsi kami, mempunyai pembuatan kita.
01:42Mereka juga mempunyai mempunyai mempunyai pembuatan tersebut untuk pembuatan imigran.
01:54Mereka lebih daripada 1,000,000 atas tersebut.
02:00700,000 hektare.
02:05Dan ini mempunyai mempunyai mempunyai pembuatan tersebut.
02:09Mereka mempunyai pembuatan tersebut untuk pembuatan tersebut untuk mempunyai pembuatan tersebut.
02:19sehingga kita hidup dengan itu dan kita berkembang.
02:28Of course Malaysia telah berfungsi banyak dengan kekembang dengan kekembang.
02:35Ekonomi kami telah berkembang dari 5 bilion sebelum di termasuk GDP
02:42berkembang dari 1.5 triliun, 300 kali.
02:47And of course the poverty has reduced
02:52and the poverty level was over 80% when we started
03:00and went to 47% in 1970 and so on.
03:04but it is still some disparity that we see
03:12and the economic policy was initiated in 1970
03:19after the clash between the different factions
03:27and that created a concern about we should do something serious to change this
03:34and hence the new economic policy was enacted
03:39with the missions of first increasing the wealth of the Bumi Putra income and wealth
03:48and also the education level and so on.
03:52It went very well in education.
03:57Before 1970 only to less than 5% of Bumi Putra
04:03were in the public university.
04:08Today actually we can be proud that over 3 million of Bumi Putra
04:18graduated from the university.
04:21I mean so in terms of education we have achieved this success
04:26I think because we were very serious about correcting the education in equity.
04:33But the problem is in wealth and income.
04:38actually we achieved nearly 20% equity by 1990.
04:50But that was short of the 30% target that we won.
04:54and then in 1990 suddenly the government decided that there is no point continuing with the NEP
05:05because there is very little to share and the cake is very small.
05:10So we need to work hard to make the cake bigger.
05:15Then only we can think about redistribution.
05:18And that's when the new economic policy went in.
05:23not the Bumi Putra policy but the rapid development policy.
05:30And so by 1990, by 2000, we really saw the rapid development of the economy.
05:46but that has deteriorated the equity of the Bumi Putra.
05:53It went down as low as less than 15%.
05:59So then we started to go into the micro measurement
06:06seeing what has really happened in the last 30 or 40 years.
06:11and we realized that actually the new economic policy has not really benefited the mass or majority of the Bumi Putra.
06:20It has benefited many of the elite groups, the cronies to the ruling party, the government or the politicians.
06:32and even to a certain extent we can say that some of the benefits in the education policy or incentive has also benefited this group.
06:46And today we are again at the crossroads.
06:49Many people think that especially the small and micro businesses felt that it is useless to think about NEP
07:01and we cannot hold to this dream of getting anything out of NEP.
07:10And so they write off NEP from their dictionary and they are trying to be independent.
07:17So this has been a while.
07:20I think if you ask many micro businesses, small businesses, Bumi Putra,
07:27in the first decade or more, they have been actually ignoring NEP.
07:36They have not mentioned about NEP, never asked about anything from NEP.
07:42and they are quite successful.
07:46Today, if we go around the country, we can see that Bumi Putra, micro businesses and small businesses are mushrooming.
07:58They are doing well.
08:01I mean, actually, we cannot imagine 40 years ago we see a Malay shop in the town.
08:10Today, in some town, actually, they are even competing well with the non-Malay, for example.
08:20So with that background, we see that today, we talk about NEP as a threat and deterrent to the rapid economic development
08:39because of the tariff agreement and so on.
08:46But on the other hand, actually, it has also affected the most successful Bumi Putra businesses reputation.
09:00because they were accused of holding tight to this NEP promise and hoping that they will make better, for example.
09:17Professor, let's talk a little bit more in terms of the second idea which is on creating an endowment fund.
09:26You were talking about to the press very recently on the national fund to support Bumi Putras
09:34and perhaps not just on, say for instance, relying on governmental aid.
09:43Maybe you can share with us this endowment fund idea and how do you think that this is going to be supporting education of Bumi Putra talents
09:53or supporting Bumi Putra entrepreneurs or supporting Bumi Putra social enterprises and, of course, community work.
10:01How do you think and why do you think we need to have this endowment fund?
10:06Okay.
10:08I think for Bumi Putra to let go the NEP altogether would be unreasonable because it is also stated in the constitution.
10:20So as a concession, we should try to create a level playing field in the economy
10:28and to create level playing field, we have to correct the damage that has been created before independent by the colonial.
10:37And that is to even out the equity shares.
10:44And so I was proposing an endowment fund.
10:49we create an endowment fund.
10:51Essentially, it is a foundation set up and we will then transfer some of the whatever left over wealth.
11:11the Malay Reserve land, the government land, the state government land, the part of the equity of the of the GLC of the State Economic Development Corporation.
11:28If we transfer this to this fund, this fund will operate like the Norway oil fund.
11:36and this is not specifically devoted for Bumi Putra, but it's for the needy group.
11:45And of course, in particular, it's the Bumi Putra group.
11:49And this fund will be managed well by professional manager.
11:53and it can be formed in the form of a wakaf so that it will be permanently there because the wakaf principle is stopping the well, the asset and only enjoy the fruits.
12:11and so the income from this endowment fund will then be used to assist in various aspects of living from education, health,
12:25and in particular for micro businesses, small businesses to help them, to support them, to grow, to be competitive.
12:36because this micro and we have over 1 million micro businesses in Malaysia.
12:44All of them are doing well rather viable, but they are short of capital.
12:49They need to be supported so that they can grow and move into the next level.
12:57Professor, let's deep dive into this whole notion of the NEP per se.
13:06Taking a step back, do you feel that we need to have a revamped policy on how we can improve the Bumi Putra's fate?
13:17Or do you feel that the, for instance, Bumi Putra 35 that talks about the economic transformation of Bumi Putra 2035 is a good enough document and a good enough blueprint to work on?
13:30And perhaps that would be the successor to the NEP.
13:35Where do you see the grand scheme of things when it comes to Bumi Putra policies?
13:41Yes, it is a good plan but I think the focus is still on developing individual wealth.
13:49And what I am suggesting is that we develop communal wealth so that the wealth of the Bumi Putra group will be enhanced in the form of wealth fund, endowment fund.
14:06And that will stay there, sustainable. It will be there forever, I mean, until Kiamat hopefully.
14:14And at the same time, we have the benefit from this fund that will help to actually spearhead the initiative to help the micro and small businesses.
14:29Of course, we should go on with the Putra 35. I think it should run in parallel.
14:36But this can be the base because a plan like Putra 35 is too ambitious and it really needs a full support of the government.
14:47For a moment, I think the government is not ready to do that because because they want to look at themselves as a more
14:55the people governments in the sense.
15:02Finally, Professor, what are your key takeaways when it comes to the Bumi Putra agenda?
15:11What are your greatest fears and hopes and more importantly wants coming out of this policy?
15:18I think we should look at the Bumi Putra initiative in the form of family initiative.
15:29And I want to actually propose the principle of family wakaf.
15:38And in Malaysia, we have been having wakaf for thousands of years.
15:44But wakaf in Malaysia was confined to giving away land and properties.
15:49But actually there is a more refined principles of wakaf, which is called the family wakaf, where every family should actually create a wakaf.
16:02And this is in the form of saving and investment where we will contribute into this fund just like a saving fund or investment fund.
16:12fund and it will be managed by the head of the family as the mutawali or the trustee.
16:19And it will then grow the wealth with trying to fix the capital there and only enjoy the benefit from the investment.
16:34So if we can, for example, couple this with the institution, the investment institution that we have like KWSP, PNB,
16:44we could actually grow investment community within every family and investment need some discipline.
16:55And for example, with the digital economy today, we can always use QR.
17:02Every time we make payment, we will allocate 1% into our family wakaf.
17:08And so the wakaf will grow.
17:10And this wakaf is called family wakaf.
17:14And it stays with the family and the family will be enjoying all the benefit from it until certain time.
17:22when, for example, the head of the family pass away, they can bring some of it and put it in the general wakaf.
17:34So in the sense, we create a new culture against the current culture of the conventional financial system
17:47literacy which encourages us to borrow.
17:52We want to promote wakaf literacy with the culture of saving investment for the eternal.
18:05So this is maybe quite a big idea to chew.
18:15But we should start thinking about it.
18:18And already I have received some invitation to start a foundation.
18:26So that is a good move.
18:29We can start several foundation, Bumi Putra Foundation, along the way of the wakaf principle.
18:37And later on merge and nationalize and broaden it with the contributions of the corporate sector under CSR and so on.
18:47So this should start from the bottom and move up, I think.
18:51All right, thank you very much.
18:53That was the Professor Emeritus Dr. Bajoaya Bardai, the Provost of Malaysia University of Science and Technology or MUST.
19:01And we thank you again for joining us for today's episode.
19:07By the way, if you want to learn more about episodes such as this, just head on to Astro Awani and find out more there.
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