From: subraman@andy.bgsu.edu (ANAND)
Subject: Re: Mal news ,  Nov 9, Monday, 1992
Organization: Bowling Green State University B.G., Oh.
Date: Mon, 9 Nov 1992 21:12:03 GMT

In article <6820@news.duke.edu>, jit@slic.cellbio.duke.edu writes:
> The Strait Times, Monday, Nov 9th, 1992
> 
> Stop expecting KL to help bumis get rich: Mahathir
> "Work hard as gvt has done everything it can"
> (By Kalimullah Hassan)
> 
> Kuala Lumpur -- Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr Mahathir Mohamad yesterday
> told bumiputras to stop expecting the government to provide them with
> means to become rich.
>   Speaking at the closing of the annual UMNO General Assembly, Dr
> mahathir said the government had over the years done everything it could
> to help bumiputras.
>   "We have given licences to import cars, for deep seafishing, easy-term
> loans, contractors' licences, cheaper houses and ensured that they get
> 30 percent equity in public companies."
>   "But it is time that we learn we cannot depend on the government for
> everything," he said in response to calls from delegates attending the
> assembly for the govt to increase aid to bumiputras.

  It's about time the UMNO has realized that they are not coming up using
  their own effor instead using others.

>    In the same manner, he said bumiputras had to learn that nothing was
> for free.  They had to work hard the Japanese, koreans and Taiwanese if
> they wanted to succeed without depending on the govt as a crutch.
>   He lamented that when the govt made regulations whereby bumiputras
> received equity in newly listed companies, it found that they sold off
> their shares to make quick money, defeating the purpose of ensuring that
> they held a 30 percent stake in the country's economy.

  You can see the problem very clearly here.  The bumis are taking things
  for granted. No one would do such  a thing if they have earned it and not
  given to them to realize how valuable it is. This shows the failure of our
  NEP policy.

>   For this reason, he si\aid, the government now preferred to give new
> shares to govt-controlled bumiputra institutions to ensure that shares
> remained in bumiputra hands.
>    Dr Mahathir was also unhappy that some UMNO delegates had questioned
> why non-Malays were given big projects.

  Very nice attitude here among the UMNO delegates about ethnic groups. I
  just don't know how to elaborate this further.  How to expect a unity 
  among the ethnic groups if there is a big difference in treatment such as
  who should get the big projects. 

>   "You have to accept the fact that the only way to progress is to work
> hard.  If you can accept that, then we will succeed."

  Why would they work hard if everything is provided and given to them. I 
  wouldn't work hard. Why should I?

>   He also expressed disappointment with the delegates' debates, saying
> that many merely kept on asking for more handouts.

  It will take them forever to develope if they still depending on the
  government's help and not to try own their own.


  I wonder if any of our politicians reads this newsgroup. I hope so. Atlest
  the government would be aware of the problems.


Geeva Subramaniam
Bowling Green State University.