As I have mentioned in my previous post, the British colonial powers during their time here strategically marginalized the Malay community by displacing them from Malaya’s economic hubs in towns, effectively keeping the Malay community poor and easier to control.

The wealth gap between the Malays and the other ethnic communities became more apparent after we obtained independence, this caused discontent and instability in the country which led to riots and loss of lives.

In addressing this problem left behind by the British, our Malay leaders at the time formulated a plan to uplift the Malay community and at the same time drastically reduce the wealth gap between our ethnic communities to prevent such events from happening again.

In later years, although the critics argue that the NEP marginalizes the non Malay communities and should be reexamined, they can’t discount the fact of it’s achievements with the Malay poverty rates dropping from 64.8% in 1976 to only 5.4% in 2019, resulting in a significant increase in the Bumiputera middle class.

That is not a small feat and deserves to be acknowledged.

In the spirit of honesty, I will unfortunately have to admit that in the recent decades, some Malays blinded by greed have abused this privilege to continuously enrich themselves, sidelining the non Malay communities which has led to further resentment.

This is why I propose a transition from the New Economic Policy (NEP) to a Halal Economic Policy (HEP).

This transition is on brand with Malaysia’s dominance in the global halal industry, with Malaysia consistently ranking #1 in the Global Islamic Economic Index (GIEI).

My proposal is that we formalize the halal industry as part of a national agenda with leadership pairing of Malay Islamic Scholars + Malay Technocrats in cooperation with the Chinese and Indian businesses who have proven expertise in manufacturing, logistics, legal and more.

Unfortunately I will have to explore idea this further in another post later because my wife told me my previous post was too long and that I should split them, haha.

JAUHARI JOHAR
19th May 2025