Forcing the government to justify bumiputera quotas in business under the mooted harmony bills unnecessarily causes anxiety among those in the business community, said the Malay Economic Action Council (MTEM).

In addition, MTEM CEO Mohd Nizam Mahshar argued that making race-based affirmative action illegal does not help the National Unity Consultative Council (NUCC) meet its goal of national unity.

“We question why there is a necessity to create anxiety among Malaysian businesses in (the area of) bumiputera quota.

“While we support the council’s move to address transparency which we believe is important, we question the intention of the NUCC raising this issue (on bumiputera quota),” he said in a statement.

He was referring to NUCC law and policy committee deputy chairperson Lim Chee Wee’s statement that with the new bills, the government would need to justify bumiputera quotas in business.

The three bills mooted by the NUCC, among others, make it illegal to discriminate based on race and religion.

Mohd Nizam said that instead of focusing on doing away with race-based affirmative action, NUCC should address the root cause of disparity between races which cause disharmony.

He said that despite the New Economic Policy (NEP), which aimed at removing identification of sector with race, employment data still show such tendencies.

“Facts clearly show that there is a racial tendency in employment as well as monopolies in the industrial supply chain.

“We also wish to point out that there is also ethnic discrimination when it comes to hiring, salaries and even promotions within corporations,” he said.

One race controls 80pct of economy

He added that racial tendencies are also masked by corruption, as evident in the 'Ali Baba' practice where Malays are awarded contracts but pass them on to the Chinese.

“In the macro scale of economic disparity, Mtem wishes to point out that one ethnic base controls 80 percent of the Malaysian economy while others have to battle for the remaining 20 percent?” he asked.

He also pointed out that as inter-ethnic disparity grows, it is the Malaysian Indian community which suffers most and removing race-based affirmative action will not help.

“As such, we believe that affirmative action policies should remain and address this inter-ethnic disparity as well as the needs of the Malaysian population as a whole.

“Mtem believes that to address unity, one must first address economic disparity, and we would support any move if corruption is proven to be the root cause of this,” he said.