Opposite ruled states pledge major reversal of economic policies
Eileen Ng | AP | 11 March 2008
PENANG: Malaysia's opposition-ruled states will no longer follow a longtime affirmative action program that benefits the majority Malays, top leaders said Tuesday (11 Mar) in the wake of an election upheaval that clipped the ruling coalition's powers.
A three-party opposition alliance won control of the governments in five of Malaysia's 13 states in Saturday's (8 Mar) elections in the biggest loss for the ruling National Front since independence in 1957.
The result was a reflection of anger among the sizable Chinese and Indian minorities against social and racial inequalities.
The most clear policy reversals were announced by Lim Guan Eng, sworn in Tuesday as chief minister of the northern Chinese-dominated state of Penang. The industrial state is the site of multinational electronics companies such as Intel and Dell and a tourism center.
Lim announced his government will do away with the New Economic Policy, the 37-year-old affirmative action program for Malays, in awarding state contracts.
"We will run the government administration free from the New Economic Policy that breeds cronyism, corruption and systemic inefficiency," Lim, an ethnic Chinese, said in a statement.
In other reforms, Lim said all state government members and civil servants will be required to publicly declare their assets.
Following Saturday's elections, Lim's Democratic Action Party, the Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party (PAS) and the People's Justice Party of former Deputy Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim formed coalition governments in Penang, Kedah, Perak and Selangor states. The PAS will rule by itself in Kelantan state, which it has held for the last 18 years.
It is the first time the National Front has given up control of so many states.
At the federal level, the opposition increased its strength in Parliament from 19 to 82, leaving the National Front with a simple majority of 140 seats in the 222-member house.
Anwar told reporters in Kuala Lumpur, the country's main city, that the opposition does not have the power to abolish the New Economic Policy nationwide. But in the five opposition states the governments will "reduce race based affirmative action policies and begin to implement a more competitive merit based system," he said.
He said the states will try to ensure that the poor among all races receive benefits such as low cost homes and education, saying affirmative action policies were obsolete.
He also said the states will open the process for awarding state contracts to everyone, rather than just ethnic Malay-based companies. Currently, many contracts go to businesses with links to the ruling party, which has created a powerful culture of cronyism and a nexus between politics and business.
Anger against such practices was one of the major factors that led to the National Front's loss.
The minority Chinese and Indians felt marginalized by the affirmative action programs for Malays, which was started in 1971 to lift them from poverty by giving them privileges in jobs, education and business.
