Covid-19 set Malaysia back a decade, Malays among most affected, says Umno No. 2

Delegates at the launch of the Umno Women's, Youth and Puteri wings general assembly at World Trade Centre, Kuala Lumpur. — FAIHAN GHANI/The Star

KUALA LUMPUR: The Covid-19 pandemic has cost Malaysia a decade’s worth of development and progress, with Malays are the most affected group, says Datuk Seri Mohamad Hasan.

The Umno deputy president listed several important indicators showing how the Malays were affected by the pandemic, including 90% of bumiputra entrepreneurs who were at risk of bankruptcy and business failures due to Covid-19 restrictions.

He said bumiputra corporate equity ownership declineds and was at 17.2% in 2021 compared to 23% in 2011.

Unemployment rate among the bumiputra rose to 4.5% in the fourth quarter of 2021, or 416,000 jobless individuals, he said.

“Just imagine, in a span of 10 years, bumiputra equity has dropped 5.8% and this will continue if drastic measures are not taken,” he said in his speech at the opening of the meetings of the Umno Youth, Wanita and Puteri wings on Wednesday night (March 16).

Mohamad also said retirement funds were also draining, adding that following withdrawals through i-Lestari, i-Sinar and i-Citra, about 4.4 million or 54% of the Employees Provident Fund contributors among the Malays now have less than RM10,000 in their savings.

As a result of decline in income and increase in cost of living, absolute poverty among bumiputra is expected to increase between 12% and 15% this year, from 7.2% in 2019, he pointed out.

“All these facts and figures are a cause of concern and Umno, as defenders of the Malays, cannot just stand at the side and see how all this will kill the future of the race,” he said.

Mohamad said the reason why the Malays were facing all these problems was because they had lost political power when they rejected Umno in the 2018 elections.

“Until now, despite the victories in the Melaka and Johor elections, Umno has still not recovered fully from the harsh punishments meted by the Malays,” he said.

The position of the Malays continued to decline as during the Pakatan Harapan administration, many of its policies were not in their favour, he said, adding that after 22 months, the Malays realised that they could not depend on Pakatan to fight for their interests.

“The time has come for the Malays to place their trust back in Umno. Let us lean on each other, depend on one another,” he said.