[ Laman Ehwal Semasa ReformIS ]
Date: 24 Aug 1999
Time: 21:25:02
Remote User: -
Will slower growth create political problems, by making it difficult to create "Malay millionaires"? It is not just making millionaires. You have to have bumiputras [Malay sons of the soil] at every level. If you have Chinese millionaires you must have bumiputras. If bumiputras are only selling cakes by the roadside that is not good enough. If there is a Chinese middle class then there must be a bumi middle class. We will find a way around it [slower growth]. Despite our economy going down, you don't see Malays fighting Chinese in this country. In 1969, Malays came out to burn houses and cars on the street, absolutely certain that the houses and the vehicles they burned belonged to the Chinese. Today if they burn the cities, they would be burning their own houses and cars. So they don't do that anymore.They have a stake. That is our belief and we work toward it.
Newsweek International, August 30, 1999