Bumiputra privileges both enshrined in Article 153 and as set
out by other acts of law, remain in force. Many opposition parties
including, the DAP and Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR), have pledged
themselves to undoing the NEP. The DAP has argued that it does not
have anything against the special position of Bumiputras as set out
in Article 153, but seeks to undo the government's policies such as
the NEP that they believe discriminate unfairly against the
non-Bumiputras. The PKR, which was founded to fight for the release
of former Deputy Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, who had been
detained for charges of corruption and sodomy after he publicly
opposed Mahathir's policies, also has criticised the NEP. After
Anwar's release in 2004, he criticised the NEP as having failed the
Malays and stated that he would seek its replacement by a more
equitable policy.
The NEP and other privileges accorded to the Bumiputras or Malays
under Article 153 have been noted for not explicitly seeking to
eradicate poverty among the Malays, but instead largely aiming to
improve the Malays' overall share of the economy, even if this
share is held by a small number of Malays. However, the NEP has
also been defended as having been largely successful in creating a
Malay middle class and improving Malaysian standards of living
without compromising the non-Bumiputra share of the economy in
absolute terms; indeed, statistics indicate that the Chinese and
Indian middle classes also grew under the NEP, albeit not as much
as the Malays'. It has also been contended that the NEP defused
racial tensions by eradicating the perception of the Chinese as the
mercantile class and the perception of the Malays as mere
farmers.
Article 10 (4) of the Constitution permits Parliament to make it
illegal to question, among others, Article 153 of the Constitution.
Under the Sedition Act, questioning Article 153 is indeed illegal
even for Members of Parliament, who usually have the freedom to
discuss anything without fear of external censure. The government
can also arbitrarily detain anyone it desires theoretically for
sixty days, but in reality for an undetermined length of time,
under the Internal Security Act (ISA). In 1987 under Operation
Lalang (literally "weeding operation"), several leaders of the DAP,
including Lim Kit Siang and Karpal Singh, were held under the ISA.
It is widely believed this was due to their calling for the NEP and
other Malay privileges to be reviewed. Others have questioned the
constitutionality of the NEP.
In 2005, the issue of the Constitution and its provisions were also
brought up by several politicians within the government itself. Lim
Keng Yaik of the Gerakan party, which by now had joined Barisan
Nasional, the ruling coalition, asked for a re-examination of the
social contract so that a Bangsa Malaysia (literally Malay for a
Malaysian race or Malaysian nation) could be achieved. The social
contract is a term used to describe the Constitution's provisions
with regard to the different races' privileges those who defend
it and Article 153 often define the social contract as providing
the Indians and Chinese with citizenship in exchange for the
Malays' special rights or ketuanan Melayu.
Lim was severely criticised by many Malay politicians, including
Khairy Jamaluddin, the Prime Minister's son-in-law and Deputy
Chairman of the UMNO Youth wing, and Ahmad Shabery Cheek, a
prominent Malay Member of Parliament from the state of Terengganu.
The Malay press, most of which is owned by UMNO, also ran articles
condemning the questioning of the social contract. Lim was adamant,
asking in an interview "How do you expect non-Malays to pour their
hearts and souls into the country, and to one day die for it if you
keep harping on this? Flag-waving and singing the 'Negaraku' (the
national anthem) are rituals, while true love for the nation lies
in the heart."
A year earlier, Abdullah had given a speech where he mentioned the
most "significant aspect" of the social contract as "the agreement
by the indigenous peoples to grant citizenship to the immigrant
Chinese and Indians". Although Abdullah went on to state that the
character of the nation changed to "one that Chinese and Indian
citizens could also call their own," the speech went largely
unremarked.
In the end, Lim stated that the Malay press had blown his comments
out of proportion and misquoted him. The issue ended with UMNO
Youth chief Hishamuddin Hussein warning people not to "bring up the
issue again as it has been agreed upon, appreciated, understood and
endorsed by the Constitution."
It should be noted that the social contract is not always used with
regard to the provisions regarding rights and privileges of the
different races; in the 2004 general election, the DAP ran on a
platform of defending the social contract in the context of an
Islamic theocracy, which they alleged was forbidden by the
Constitution, but was endorsed by Mahathir, Lim Keng Yaik and by
PAS, the second-largest Malay-based political party in the
country.
