The Malaysian Insight

A YEAR after the government’s congress on the future of Bumiputera and the nation (KBN2018), nothing concrete has come out from Pakatan Harapan’s plan for the community, said Malay entrepreneurs.

This has led Malay entrepreneurs’ associations to ask whether the lauded congress itself was just another ploy to win over more Malay support.

This is since only about 17% of the country’s biggest ethnic group voted for PH in the 14th general election.

The Malay entrepreneurs said, to date, not one action plan has been announced to execute the 51 resolutions passed at the congress, which featured top PH leaders, such as Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad and prime-minister-designate Anwar Ibrahim, as keynote speakers.  

The promise to establish a body to fine tune and implement the resolutions remains only that – a promise, they said.

Supporters of the congress, however, said the government has unveiled plans to help entrepreneurs although these steps did not specifically come under the KBN2018 label.

KBN2018, held last September, was the government’s own agenda to assist Bumiputeras as it pledged to break away from the abuses and failures of the former Barisan Nasional administration to help them.  

KBN2018’s 51 resolutions comprised six focus areas: values; ethics and morality; education and human resources; invention and wealth accumulation; commerce and entrepreneurship; affirmative action and strategy and direction.    

The resolutions were forwarded to Economic Affairs Minister Mohamed Azmin Ali.

Malay Consultative Council (MPM) secretary-general Hasan Mad said the council has met with the Economic Planning Unit (EPU) to discuss setting up a body to implement the resolutions.

“The government promised to set up a lab to refine the resolutions into action but until today, it has not been implemented,” Hasan told The Malaysian Insight.

“We’ve had a series of discussions with EPU after the congress but they are waiting for a mandate from the ministry to act further. There’s no word about it till this day.”   

Hasan said the lack of further action makes it seem like the congress was more about getting Malay support.  

“It looks that way because there is no further action. It is possible that someone pressured the government to organise KBN2018. It was probably done out of pressure and not out of need.”

Malay Chambers of Commerce deputy president Don Nazwin Don Najib described the government as only “good at talking” but weak at following through.

“What are the steps to implement the resolutions? The National Entrepreneurship Institute (INSKEN) and the Small Medium Enterprise Development Bank Malaysia (SME Bank) have their own programmes on digitising entrepreneurs. But there’s no plan to work together among the different agencies.”

Nazwin said KBN2018’s ideas were recycled and reused for the government’s new National Entrepreneurship Policy (DKN2030) launched last week.

“Entrepreneurs were hoping for a working framework for KBN2018 but going by DKN2018, the same problems were repeated,” Nazwin added.

In fact some entrepreneurs who attended KBN2018 felt that the resolutions were a repeat of the older ones.

Shahril Sufian Hamdan, a youth leader for opposition party Umno, accused KBN2018 of being a publicity stunt.

“PH appears to be after publicity. When it was launched it had media publicity. But what has been its impact? There has been no announcement on the 51 resolutions,” said Shahril, who is Umno Youth deputy chief.

“PH only makes policies that do not meet their aims. They abolished the GST (goods and services tax) but the prices of goods have not come down. They hosted KBN2018 but nothing came out of it.”  

However, other associations believe such criticism of KBN2018 overlook what the government has done for entrepreneurship development as a whole.

Malaysian Entrepreneurs Economic Chambers (DEUM) Khairul Khuzaini Zamsani said one example is the re-establishment of the Entrepreneur and Cooperatives Development Ministry.

The ministry was set up in 2004 under the Abdullah Ahmad Badawi administration but was shuttered and its functions absorbed into other departments in 2009 under Najib Razak.

“Tun Mahathir had revived the ministry to oversee entrepreneurship development and in a year they have started programmes such as DKN2030 and PROTEGE.”

DKN2030 outlines the broad strategies and guidelines for government bodies involved in entrepreneurship development.

PROTEGE (Professional Training and Education for Growing Entrepreneurs) is to train budding entrepreneurs. This is a rebranding of the previous government’s 1Malaysia Training Scheme (SL1M). – July 17, 2019.