Umno's partners in Barisan Nasional (BN) have failed to uphold their end of the social contract in promoting the rights of the minority groups.

Three parties, in particular, the Chinese-based MCA, Indian-based MIC, and multiracial Gerakan were marked out for indictment for allowing the slanted implementation of what should have been a two-way pact to uphold citizenship rights.

While the 'special position' of Malays and natives of Sabah and Sarawak are enshrined in the Federal Constitution as part of the social contract, the position, rights and responsibilities of non-bumiputeras as citizens have also been expressly guaranteed.

Yet, the ethnicisation and politicisation of the pact has been allowed to occur and perpetuate as MCA, MIC and Gerakan have not forced Malay-based party Umno's hand to act otherwise.

According to Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) professor of social anthropology Dr Shamsul Amri Baharuddin Shamsul there is very little likelihood of that happening as MCA, MIC and Gerakan leaders are unlikely to risk their personal interests and positions.

"If they decided to support PAS today, for example, Umno would be a goner. But BN has consistently won about 75 percent of the elections during (former premier) Dr Mahathir Mohamad's time," he said in a recent interview.

"They (MCA, MIC and Gerakan) can even change the social contract itself. There's a very straightforward method of doing so: through the elections. Why have they not done so?" said Shamsul, who heads UKM's Institute of the Malay World and Civilisation.

Personal interests

According to Shamsul, such common knowledge of the leaders' unwillingness to risk their self-interests is what allows Gerakan, for instance, to be publicly challenged without affecting BN relations.

He recounted that Mahathir's Islamic state declaration, which some quarters had argued was against the 'secular' nature of the social contract, was made at a Gerakan gathering.

More recently, calls for Gerakan president Dr Lim Keng Yaik to resign followed his calls for Malaysians to lose the " narrow communal slant " which Lim said was the result of a politically-motivated interpretation and formulation of the social contract.

"They lament, lament, and lament, but are they willing to risk their positions in government by demanding such changes? The question is not about this (the social contract itself). The agenda is about personal interests," he said.

Shamsul explained that such elitist-dominated politics had its roots in history when leaders of race-based civil societies which became today's Umno, MCA, and MIC, served as brokers between their respective communities and the British.

It was this negotiation of interests by the elite of the parties that culminated in the social contract as enshrined in the Constitution, he said.

Socio-economic imbalances, however, within and between races could be redressed if proper developmental plans were formulated and pursued that reflected the social contract as it was originally formulated.

Using the disproportionate composition of the public and private sectors as an example, Social Strategic Foundation executive director Dr Denison Jayasooria said it had earlier on been decided that for every four bumiputeras in the civil service there should be at least one non-bumiputera.

The overwhelming predominance of bumiputeras in the civil service currently is in fact contrary to public policy, said Jayasooria, whose foundation forms the social arm of the MIC.

"There must be priority development and there must be more strategic moves to get more Malays into the private sector and more non-Malays into the public sector. I think it will improve efficiency and greater integration. It will be more reflective Malaysian society," he said.

No political will

Tamil Foundation exco member S Nagarajan, believes, however, that MIC does not enjoy sufficient influence in BN to affect such drastic changes.

"These issues have been brought up at the state, Federal and national levels," said Nagarajan.

"But because (Indians) are a minority (in BN), they don't have the numbers to influence policies. Secondly, the Indian community is economically weak, made up mostly of a working class community."

Nagarajan also believes that problems in the implementation of the social contract lie not so much in the policy itself but the political will to abide by the two-way demands of the pact.

"It's all there as parts of the Constitution. It's not so much the social contract, but the economic development plans of the government and parties in power," said Nagaran.

"Even if they want to tinker with it, it all boils down to politics. You can even renegotiate what you want, but ultimately, it's about who is in power and whether they have the will, the social ideology, economic priorities and development plans that are in line with (the two-way bargain)," he added.