Malays ‘not stupid or weak’ !

"The feeling of being scared and apprehensive has dominated the thinking of the Malays for far too long... we are still scared even after 50 years of independence,"

- Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi

Malaysia's majority ethnic group, the Muslim Malays, are not "stupid or weak" and should stop being fearful and learn to live without government handouts, the prime minister reportedly said yesterday.

"The feeling of being scared and apprehensive has dominated the thinking of the Malays for far too long... we are still scared even after 50 years of independence," Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said.

Abdullah said in an interview reported by the official Bernama news agency that Malays must not continue to rely on a four-decade-old system of positive discrimination which entitles them to a range of benefits. "They must learn to stand on their own feet and learn to be competitive. We will help the Malays who are serious in wanting to do business and want to work hard," he said.

"I've said many times Malays are not stupid or weak," he added. "I want the Malays to capitalise on the opportunities given to them," he said. "There are no easy ways to succeed in life. Only the educated, knowledgeable and the hard-working will succeed eventually."

Malaysiakini has this to say "Forgotten Malays failed by NEP" and my posting here.

Meantime, Malaysia's ruling party opened its annual congress this Monday to hammer out strategies for retaining power in upcoming national elections amid mounting public disquiet over soaring crime, corruption and prices.

The five-day assembly of the United Malays National Organization, the dominant component of the ruling National Front coalition, started with a closed-door briefing by Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi. The main proceedings kick off with Abdullah's keynote speech Wednesday to some 2,500 delegates.

The National Front's current mandate lasts until mid-2009, but Abdullah is widely expected to call an early election within the first half of next year.

"For many people, the government has become so rotten that it is incapable of doing anything right," Malik Imtiaz Sarwar, a human rights lawyer and political commentator, told The Associated Press.

People are also upset about spiraling consumer prices, which have been partially boosted by rising global oil prices. Officially, the consumer price index, a measure of inflation, has gone up by 2 percent this year.

But market surveys by local newspapers show costs have gone up by as much as 6.7 percent for vegetables, 8 percent for rice, 15 percent for milk and 20 percent for bread.

Soaring crime in cities — including muggings in broad daylight — were emphasized by the rape and murder Thursday of a 9-year-old girl while she was alone at home. On Saturday, a woman and her 3-year-old daughter were burned alive in their car, and a 50-year-old Singaporean on vacation was raped and stabbed to death in an expensive condominium Sunday.

UMNO's leaders "are living in their insulated Rajah (royal) life and don't understand what ordinary people are going through," Malik, the lawyer, said.