The unfortunate thing about saying anything with a shade or suggestion of alternative politics in Malaysia puts one at risk of being castigated, investigated and eventually jailed under the infamous Seditions Act. Several bloggers have already suffered this, from being investigated to being put in jail without trial for up to two years.
Among those affected currently is Raja Petra Kamarudin, the editor of Malaysia Today, a site run by Malaysians providing alternative views of the political goings-on in Malaysia. Unfortunately for Raja Petra, this will be the second time he’s had to face this; he was imprisoned once already for alleged seditious comments.
Jeff Ooi has also been under Police investigation since October 2004, for allowing an anonymous poster to post a apparently seditious comment insulting Islam or some such. He now screens posters to his site, and actively edits posts that he feels are not factual or established with solid, available evidence.
In effect, Jeff Ooi has been forced to self-censor. A price to pay for maintaining alternative news? Perhaps, but his case, as far as I know, has not been resolved and is still under investigation. If prosecuted, I think he faces several years in jail. More information on Jeff Ooi’s plight and on other bloggers threatened with action can be found here.
Local forums in Malaysia has recently been replete with news coming off of the UMNO general assembly, held between 19 July to 23 July this year. At the heels of the assembly was a dramatic spat between the former Prime Minister, Dr Mahathir and his loyalist, Puan Rafidah Aziz, the current Minister of International Trade and Industry, over the issue of Proton Berhad’s survival as a national car maker. The issue is quite complex and is replete with obscure references, but what has emerged as the smokescreen in this instance is the issue of Approved Permits (or “APs”) issued to Bumiputra Malaysians.
I prefer not to explain what “Bumiputra” means, but for a bit of context, go here for a brief wiki on the main issues. At its basis, APs are sort of like the Singaporean version of the COE, or Certificate of Entitlement, required for the purchase of imported cars. In Singapore, one is forced to purchase a COE when purchasing an automobile, and said COEs are used to maintain a necessary control measure against streets overpopulated with vehicles.
In Malaysia, however, the stated aim of APs is to engender a class of “towering” Bumiputra operators in the automotive industry. It works like this: an AP can only be issued to a Bumiputra, who in turn uses it to import cars into the country. Now, this makes AP certificates really sought-after, and it has been estimated that each AP is worth between RM 20,000.00 to RM 40,000.00. This year alone, about 60,000 APs were issued, for a total estimated worth of about RM 2 billion dollars.
Now, beneficiaries of these APs do not pay a single dime to the government for the privilege; being Bumiputra is reason enough to have these APs. What has ensued, since the inception of the AP program is characteristic of the get-rich-quick mentality of some of its beneficiaries: instead of going through the trouble of importing cars, setting up service centres and sales staff etc., quite a number of beneficiaries sold their APs to existing operators in return for cold hard cash. This practice, prevalent in many sectors of the economy, is the vaunted “rentier mentalities” of these fortunate Bumiputras.
The government, under the New Economic Plan (NEP) of 1971 decreed that all companies must have a compulsory 30% Bumiputra shareholding. These shares, when distributed by the government, we promptly sold for quick cash. The same thing happened.
In any case, it’s come to light now that almost all beneficiaries of APs were either politically well-connected, “in the family” or, as it turned out, former MITI officials. About 40% of all APs issued for this year went into the hands of 4 persons, representing, of course, 2 corporations. The recipients have insisted that they do not benefit directly from any sale of APs, of course, but that’s not saying much since they run the corporations that enjoy the government’s largesse.
It has been a tumultuous and significant week, so far, with tears and lots of drama, all of which has been faithfully reported by Jeff Ooi. Strangely enough, the ensuing furore has been particularly effective in turning attention away from the flailing Proton.
