Hak Melayu Dipersoalkan?

By Carolyn Hong
The Straits Times

IN A move that will spark new controversy, the government yesterday clarified that the Malays only owned 21.8 per cent of listed companies, and not 36.6 per cent as disclosed last week.

The higher figure was given in a parliamentary statement by Deputy Finance Minister Awang Adek Hussin on Nov 7, and caused confusion as it suggested that the Malay corporate ownership was higher than previously thought.

The Malay Chamber of Commerce questioned the data, and called it 'puzzling'.

Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Effendi Norwawi said in a statement yesterday that the 36.6 per cent figure was inaccurate because it was derived by wrongly categorising certain shares as Malay-owned.

It had assumed that about half the shares held by nominee companies belonged to Malays, and also included shares held by the government.

He said an Economic Planning Unit study showed that only 8.3 per cent of shares in nominee companies are owned by Malays.

Overall, taking into account the 609,595 registered companies, the Malay ownership figure is only 18.9 per cent, Datuk Seri Effendi said.

This much-disputed statistic, which forms the foundation for the continuation of pro-Malay policies, became contentious after a think-tank said last month that Malays owned 45 per cent of business equity in Malaysia.

This is way ahead of the government's target of 30 per cent by 2020.

The study provoked political outrage as it was seen as challenging the government's affirmative action policy to help the Malays, and the issue was expected to be raised at the Umno assembly this week.