In plural societies, everything’s clouded by race, says Nazir

[superadmin]

PETALING JAYA: Malaysia’s plural society is by nature “difficult to manage”, according to former CIMB Group chairman Nazir Razak, who says the problem has led to matters of race clouding other issues and the push for reforms.

Nazir said that the problem of racial and religious narratives holding back reforms is not unique to Malaysia, and is a speed bump that many similar, young democracies have faced.

“What we have seen all over the world is that in plural societies, when democracy tries to evolve, it has difficulty because every reform or improvement gets attacked by vested interests, and the attack becomes effective because it is invariably wrapped in race and religious narratives.

“We saw this with Najib’s (Najib Razak) proposal for a needs-based affirmative action back in 2009. That was major, and it was killed at the beginning,” he said, referring to the policy initiative of his elder brother Najib when he was prime minister.

”And then we had fairly benign reforms, like under PH we had the (recognition of the) UEC (Unified Examination Certificate), you had the desire to sign ICERD (International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination) for instance, pretty benign reforms, but still they could not be done as they were attacked because one community felt they were disadvantaged.”

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