By Ammar Syabil Mohammad Azam
Modern Malaysia today is without doubt following the neoliberal global trend.
In the 1970s, the nation focused on delivering social justice for the masses through the New Economic Policy. The policy was introduced in response to the May 13 racial riots in 1969.
The NEP began with the positive objective of slashing absolute poverty, especially among the bumiputras. During the initial stage, it achieved impressive results.
Unfortunately, it also created leeway for the proliferation of corrupt practices among politicians. This undermined the realisation of an ideal, socially just nation.
From the mid-1980s, the country chose to implement neoliberal practices, including privatisation, with a strong emphasis on an uncontrolled free market. This path was tied to then Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s vision of industrialising the nation.
It also involved handing over ownership of capital in key sectors to cronies under what is known as “crony capitalism”.
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This led to fewer opportunities for start-ups and bumiputra-owned small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) to grow. This limited space deprived these small business owners of opportunities to scale up their businesses and escape from poverty.
The concentration of political power in a select minority of the ethnic Malay elite capitalist class grew. It also eroded the system of meritocracy in Malaysia.
Ultimately, it hampered one key goal of the NEP, that is, to uplift the living standards of the bumiputras through improved livelihoods. This led to a sense of dissatisfaction among the Malays that they were not receiving the fruit of socioeconomic prosperity. Instead, the income inequality gap between the rich and the poor remained wide.
This trend has also raised a moral perspective, as outlined in Anwar Ibrahim’s well-written book, The Asian Renaissance. In it, he discussed how the moral component is contaminated by corruption and malpractices, thus hindering social justice.
Anwar’s moral standpoint on corruption may be summarised as follows: “Corruption and other forms of rent-seeking activities, including nepotism, burden society and should not be considered as a ‘necessary evil’ to stimulate growth and efficiency. Corruption can occur in both dynamic and stagnant economies. Corruption is a moral issue, a vile activity carried out secretly and deceitfully to undermine the public interest for personal gain.”
He argues that in a dynamic economy or a neoliberal economy society, when corruption persists at every level, it lowers morale in society. To fight corruption, we must hold the corrupt accountable through a strong legal system and an independent enforcement agency.
So, we need to speed up the political financing act and the government procurement act to stop the malpractices that erode social justice. The prevailing culture of ‘money politics’ and rent-seeking has hindered the nation from making robust social progress.
Syed Hussein Alatas in The Problem of Corruption argued that an uncontrolled free market breeds economic unfairness and malpractices. It results in negative outcomes for the livelihoods of the poorest.
So we must destroy the myth that corruption is a necessary evil for market rationality or utilitarian motives.
A neoliberal economy is also a strong hindrance in creating a nation with a strong will to uplift the poor and enhance social justice. A successful nation is not measured by its market competitiveness or strong economic growth. Rather, it is measured by how far it is able to uplift the poorest segment from the clutches of poverty and whether it provides them opportunities to raise their socioeconomic status.
We need to temper the excesses of neoliberalism through good governance and a sound legal framework. This way, we can ensure that competitors in the free market do not steal the people’s wealth.
Ammar Syabil Mohammad Azam has been active in the campus student movement Demokrat UKM. Through this, he has spoken out on human rights violations, student democracy and various social issues such as water shortages in Sabah, statelessness, Palestinian liberation and civil rights violations in Bangladesh.
- Tegakkan maruah serta kualiti kehidupan rakyat
- Galakkan pembangunan saksama, lestari serta tangani krisis alam sekitar
- Raikan kerencaman dan keterangkuman
- Selamatkan demokrasi dan angkatkan keluhuran undang-undang
- Lawan rasuah dan kronisme
Salam Msia. Malaysians can reflect further today on the dynamics of national integration moving together with governance efforts to ensure good, equalitarian economics for the nation for the next generations. National leaders such as the PM need to be courageous as to the moral impact of their policies on society. Vote-dependence and wieldy, ‘constitutional’ laws n policies cannot help. I think changing the Constitution according to the above, and yes, following it, focusing on national well-being, is crucial today. All Msns want to be prosper, together. Models, such as Singapore, Indonesia, and Scandinavian nations, can be referred to. The time is NOW. We can ALL work together, regardless of backgrounds. There is PROMISE.