There should be a special new economic policy aimed specifically at raising the socio-economic status of the Muslim and non-Muslim bumiputeras in Sarawak and Sabah, said the Sarawak Malay Graduates Association (SMGA) and the Sarawak Dayak Graduates Association (SDGA).

Speaking at a SGDA seminar on poverty eradication among bumiputera minorities, SMGA president Sanib Said argued that both the Sarawak's Malays and Dayaks as well as Sabah's Kadazadusuns and Muruts faced the same dilemma in adjusting to a new economic environment.

Sanib, a Lawas Malay who is director of Sarawak Museum, said his association had recently discussed poverty eradication among the community and felt that the government's New Economic Policy (NEP) which stopped in 1990 - and later replaced by the New Development Policy - should be enhanced to enable the Muslim and non-Muslim natives in the two states to catch up with other bumis.

According to the United Nations Development Programme's (UNDP) 2002 surveys, poverty rates were the highest among the Iban (10.5 percent), other bumiputeras (like the Orang Ulu and Bidayuh) (6.8 percent) and Sarawak Malays (5.4 percent).

Sanib said the special privileges and rights of the Borneo's natives are enshrined in the Federal Constitution and the Malaysia Agreement, and this encompassed the rights to continue to receive special treatment.

Meanwhile, in closing the one-day seminar, Tenaga Nasional chairperson Leo Moggie suggested the need for affirmative action programmes to continue in the two Borneo states to further reduce poverty among the diverse ethnic communities.

He commented that although Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi had said that special assistance for bumiputeras was something necessary, they should not be permanently on crutches "otherwise they would be crippled financially."

But Moggie said there was a need for a continuation of affirmative action programmes to address "a particular and unique situation" in the case of the natives in Sabah and Sarawak.

Subsidy mentality

The SDGA, SMGA and other non-governmental organisations have been urged to work together to discuss poverty eradication issues and present their findings and recommendations to the state and federal authorities.

Meanwhile, a Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (Unimas) lecturer who asked not be identified said : 'The Malaysia Agreement and the Federal Constitution do not treat the bumis of Sabah and Sarawak any differently from the bumis of Semenanjung.'

"Why should the bumis of the two states think that they deserve to get more privileges than other bumis? The constitution is clear that all bumis are equal and treatment should be equal."

The lecturer supported the enhancement of the NEP but on different premises, namely that it not be confined only to bumis.

"It must not have an ethnic flavour but be targeted at all poor people in the country."

He felt that "it's time all bumis - including those in Sabah and Sarawak - start to compete and work hard for their money."

"Otherwise, it's more of the same subsidy mentality. And this is one approach Malaysia cannot afford anymore, simply because our budget deficits are too large and we have resource limitations," he added.