Mid-week Thoughts

Irresponsible Writing

I must admit that I did not read the full story but only what was mentioned in NST Viewpoints. So I may be out of context in what I am writing. Therefore I stand corrected if it so proved and apologise for it.

That said I am referring to the statements on the under subscription of units by Bumiputra in Amanah Saham Wawasan in the story carried in Viewpoints -

“Alluding to the fact that the non-Bumiputera portion worth RM1.5 billion had been fully subscribed, Utusan Malaysia and Berita Harian said it was further proof that non-Bumiputeras were economically better than Bumiputeras.”
[…]

"What does it show? It means they really have the money, more than the Bumiputeras."[…]
(highlights are by me)

This type of writing is mischievous to say the least. It is perpetuating, what local political scientist and human rights activist, Farish Noor, wrote,

“………this negative dialectical mindset which poses the Malay-Muslim as the norm and
the rest as the constitutive Other, forever labouring under the negative
epithet of 'non'.)

In the first place they (the statements) were generalizations, without any concrete evidence of its correctness. Also, why was it necessary to apportion the reason for under-subscription of the units by Bumiputra to the seemingly “wealtier” Non-Bumiputras when the “fund manager Permodalan Nasional Berhad attributed the poor response to, among others, the conditions attached to the scheme like investors must be below the age of 30 and the presence of many other investment schemes for the community.

Time and again this sort of things are played up in the mainstream and must be stopped.

We always talk of reforms needed in the country. This must be the first reform, change of mindset from “we and they” to “we all”.