In his maiden 2005 Budget speech, Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi says that:

"It is important that residential areas in urban centres consist of the various races living in harmony. Currently, the property ownership of bumiputera in these areas is still low.

Therefore, the government will undertake measures to increase and sustain the level of bumiputera presence and ownership of houses and commercial properties in town centers.

Toward this end, one of the steps taken by the government is to develop the former Pudu Prison site as a commercial and residential centre." (paragraph 119).

This is indeed another manifestation of the failure of the new economic policy (NEP). After nearly five decades of independence with three decades of NEP and rapid economic development, the bumiputera community is still struggling to win a respected place in the mainstream economic and business life of the country.

No doubt progress has been made, but the 30 per cent magic number as envisaged in NEP remains an elusive dream.

Of course, there are rich and even super rich bumiputeras who live in up-market residential areas, drive luxury cars and own properties abroad, but the number is disproportionately small, reflecting the true economic status and life style of the majority.

Quick profit

These bumiputeras are mainly the products crony capitalism, belonging to the rentier class and have disproportionately benefitted from the government's affirmative programmes.

For example, the minimum 30 percent shares in companies seeking listed status in the stock exchange, which are reserved for bumiputeras, are mainly allocated to members of this group.

However, they do not hold the shares long enough as their attitude is: 'I'm not married to shares, so when the price is right, I should sell them. It's is stupid if I don't sell.' So, they sell the shares for quick profit.

It is this kind of bumiputera who contribute to the miserably low bumiputera ownership in listed companies. If not for the small number of bumiputera investors who have bought unit trusts (such as the ones run by PNB) for investment in the stock exchange, the bumiputera ownership in listed companies could have been even lower.

The property market

How many successful bumiputera property developers were there in the market? Very few, only a handful.

The authority to approve alienation of land in the cities lie in the hand of bumiputera administrators and politicians and they were responsible in alienating the bulk of the land to non-bumiputeras. Of course, land was also allocated to bumiputeras, but they eventually resold it to non-bumiputeras for quick gains.

What went wrong? Could it be that the bumiputeras are incapable in the property development business? They have no capability to become developers? They don't love their land? They are only interested in becoming instant millionaires?

Or they were so easily influenced by a quick small profit that they lost sight of the future interest and the importance of preserving bumiputera presence in the cities? Certainly, the bumiputeras have failed to learn from the fate of the Palestinian people, who sold their land to the Jews because of the attractive price. In the end, they were chased out.

Bodies like Urban Development Authority (UDA) were set up with the objective, among others, to ensure that bumiputeras are proportionately represented in the urban centres. But what has it done?

UDA developed residential, commercial and industrial centers but they were mainly sold to non-bumiputeras, purportedly due to lack of qualified bumiputera purchasers.

In the end, UDA became a profit-motivated body and lost sight of its original social reengineering role. Perhaps, the presence of free market thinkers, instead of social engineers at the helm contributed to the predicament.

Inequal proportion

When I first moved to Subang Jaya (in early 1970s), more than 50 percent of the residents were bumiputeras. The proportion has since eroded.

Today, Subang Jaya is a non-bumiputera majority residential, commercial and industrial centre. In so far as ownership of shop houses, commercial and industrial complexes is concerned, the bumiputeras can be safely counted out.

I asked the developers why this happened. Firstly, when the bumiputeras sold their units, the buyers were mostly non-bumiputeras. Secondly, the price of properties in Subang Jaya have gone up to a level that is prohibitive to most bumiputera purchasers. Thirdly, the developers have done away with the 30 percent quota for bumiputeras, as the authority was no longer particular about it.

If the present trend continues, the non-Malay state assemblyman and members of parliament will continue to represent Subang Jaya residents in many years to come. Under the present race-bias system of seat allocation, the Malays stand a slim chance to become election candidates for the Subang Jaya constituency.

The Subang Jaya story is not unique. If one travels to other states (perhaps, with the exception of Kelantan and Terengganu), you can sense that the non-bumiputeras make up the majority owners of most residential, commercial and industrial properties.

The up-market residential centres and luxury condominiums are almost totally out of reach of the bumiputeras.

Where are the bumiputeras in Penang?

If someone says that Pulau Pinang is just like Hong Kong, Taipei or Singapore, it is hard to argue otherwise. I myself encountered residents who speak no Bahasa Malaysia, indicating that they were perhaps aliens owning condominium units there.

In the city centre, there are China town and little India but there is no such thing as Malay town or Malay street. If not for the presence of the Indian Muslims, shops, commercial and hotel complexes in the city, would be almost entirely non-bumiputera owned.

The Penang bumiputeras, with the exception of a very small minority, live in apartments, low and medium cost houses and traditional Malay kampungs. The quality of the housing is poor, so is the quality of the public amenities and surrounding environment.

We can only show our sympathy to the Penang bumiputeras. It is rather sad that the rapid development of the island has brought about - intended or unintended - a rapid marginalisation of the bumiputeras.

Quite a number of them have migrated to Kedah and other states. In less than five decades Pulau Pinang had already been transformed into another Singapore.

The marginalisation of the bumiputeras has not happened in Pulau Pinang alone. It is also happening in other states including Sabah and Sarawak. It is, it seems, an unstoppable consequence - some say by product - of development.

Perhaps, the inter-ethnic gap in property ownership is far too wide for a quick remedy. If all the prison sites in the country were to be turned into 100 percent bumiputera-owned residential and commercial complexes, the imbalance would remain significant.

A reform of large scale committed to 'going against the tide', with unrelenting commitment and political will as well as huge resources is needed to correct the imbalance.

Indeed, the task ahead is challenging because the imbalance is not only in the property sector, but also in other areas retail and wholesale trades, services, commerce, industries and so on. Indeed, the identification of race with economic functions (which NEP aims to do away with) is still deep-rooted and getting worse, contrary to what we are made to believe.

Getting down to business

Indeed, many bumiputeras are interested and involved in business. For example, look at the roadside stalls in the cities. The bumiputeras were doing quite a brisk business.

However, the difference is that non-bumiputeras are doing business in proper premises, while the majority of bumiputeras are not. Some operate from illegal roadside premises, often at the mercy of enforcement officers. An example is the pasar tani traders, who are often forced to move from site to site like nomads.

It is not true that there are no business premises built for the bumiputeras. However, the number is far from enough and the size too small, the supporting facilities are of low standard and the locations are not strategic, being far away from the town centers. The impression given is that nobody paid much attention to the bumiputera small business community.

After almost five decades of independence, certainly it cannot be denied that the economic well-being of the bumiputeras has improved. However, when they stand up among the non-bumiputeras, they were still far too short.

The majority of those living in poverty are bumiputeras, among all the races, the monthly earnings of the bumiputera families are the lowest. Those school children who suffer from malnutrition were mostly bumiputeras.

Many bumiputera government servants and politicians have been caught for corruption and abuse of power. Worse still, more bumiputeras were involved in drug abuse, crimes and moral decadence than other race. What has happened to the bumiputera community?

Optimistic future

As shown by the statistics of property ownership ( chart ), certainly the Prime Minister's proposal to develop ex-Pudu Prison site into a bumiputera residential and commercial complex was a right move. But, it constituted only a small step in remedying a big-scaled problem.

The statistics also show that the success stories of bumiputera business have been exaggerated. The achievement in all fields was far off the targets, mainly as a result of poor implementation, abuses, corruption, the practice of crony-capitalism and the bumiputeras' own bad attitude.

In their present state, globalisation and meritocracy can bring even more adverse consequences to the bumiputeras.

Hence, the bumiputera community must be frank and brave enough to admit and face these realities. They must do a thorough self-assessment, throw away all bad qualities and return to good values.

Untrustworthy bumiputera leaders who committed breaches and failed to adhere to good moral values must be replaced.

The bumiputeras should not remain prisoners and blind followers of untrustworthy and bad leaders. Herein lies optimistic future of the bumiputera community.

ROSLI YAAKOP, who holds a doctorate in economics from the University of Wisconsin, is Negri Sembilan PAS commissioner.