Be angry at yourself not rich Chinese, Malays told

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ZA300114AhmadMaslan_Chinese01.jpg

KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 30 — Ahead of tomorrow’s Chinese New Year festivities, an Umno deputy minister has urged the Malay community to cease their anger and envy towards the Chinese for their successes.
Instead, Datuk Ahmad Maslan said the Malays have only themselves to blame if they have no ambitions to become entrepreneurs and improve their lot in life.
“Don’t be angry at the Chinese. Malays have their PPR which are small like a bird’s nest, but they look below and they see all these big houses owned by rich men,” said Ahmad, using the Malay initials for the low-cost People’s Housing Project.
“Don’t blame them, ladies and gentlemen. That is because they do businesses. Who told you not to do business?” he said to a mostly Malay audience today.
The deputy Finance minister was speaking at a National Economic Empowerment (Pena) seminar here, which was also attended by the Federal Territories Minister Datuk Seri Tengku Adnan Mansor.
Earlier in his presentation, he pointed out that there is only one Malay entrepreneur in the list of top ten millionaires in Malaysia: tycoon Tan Sri Syed Mokhtar al-Bukhary.
He also mentioned that the cumulative wealth of the eight Malay millionaires in the top 40 list still could not match the wealth of Chinese billionaire Tan Sri Robert Kuok, who tops the list.
Ahmad’s remark today echoes that of former minister Datuk Zaid Ibrahim, who recently told Umno and Malay rights group Perkasa to abandon their strategy of making the Chinese community a “bogeyman”.
Zaid, a former Cabinet minister, had also told the Malays to learn to be more business-savvy instead of blaming others for their own shortcomings.
In his blog post, Zaid also accused the Malays of wasting their time being “uselessly” angry at political issues when they should direct their efforts to closing the long-perceived gap with the Chinese community.
Malaysia has long operated on an informal power sharing agreement in which the Malay community holds political power while the Chinese concentrate on the economy.
But the arrangement has led to a perceived dominance of the economy by the Chinese community, a view used by Malay groups to target the ethnic group.
Race relations in Malaysia also further deteriorated after Election 2013, when leaders from ruling coalition Barisan Nasional blamed a “Chinese tsunami” for its weaker mandate.
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