“Many public policy changes or u-turns by different governments happen when there is a huge backlash, which shows that the people’s power starts with the ordinary Malaysian,” he said at a panel discussion on social justice.
“Shutting our eyes and ears today merely postpones the problem but it does not absolve us of the guilt and responsibility to change Malaysia together as a collective community,” he said.
Syed Saddiq said the 2018 general election (GE14) was a tipping point for the nation as politicians learned that they could be easily voted out if they did not listen to the people.
“GE14 wasn’t a win for a particular coalition but for the liberation of the people’s minds, knowing that they are the ones in control, not politicians,” he said.
He said there must be a call to action for all Malaysians regardless of race, religion, creed, or politics, to speak up for communities that are underprivileged “because as fellow Malaysians, our lives are largely interconnected to one another”.
Equal opportunities, with equity
Syed Saddiq also called for affirmative action policies to be “retuned” to a hybrid model based on merit and equity, where equal opportunities would be given to all Malaysians regardless of race and religion, while socio-economic factors would be taken into account.
This “hybrid model” must be data-driven in order to identify who are benefitting from these programmes, he said at the Projek Amanat Negara forum organised by the United Kingdom and Eire (Ireland) Council of Malaysian Students.
He said affirmative action policies so far had been abused to benefit the wealthy Malays while leaving the poor ones behind.
“If we look at the 51% Bumiputera equity, who does it benefit? Not the low-income Bumiputeras,” he said, referring to the heavily-debated requirement proposed last year by the government for 51% Bumiputera equity in local freight forwarding companies.
Syed Saddiq also lambasted the current “Malay vs Chinese” discourse among Malaysians, where the Malaysian Chinese are often branded as the wealthy race because they dominate the list of top ten wealthy Malaysians.
Such discourse was bizarre as it ignores the poor Malaysian Chinese, he said.
Stay current - Follow FMT on WhatsApp, Google news and Telegram