Cover image via The Malay Mail Online
Nancy Shukri says the 'Bumiputera' statement an old one and is being twisted to create racial tension
According to a report in the New Straits Times Online, *de facto* Law Minister Nancy Shukri will not be taking action against those attempting to smear her name by circulating an old statement initially made two years ago. Nancy, who is Minister in the Prime Minister's Department, believed that the attack on her by certain quarters was due to the upcoming Sarawak by-election.
The Law Minister said she was sad and disappointed with the incident. However, she believed not everyone would be fooled by the false information.
Image via The Star Online
Earlier, a story by The Malay Mail Online quoted Nancy as saying:
Image via Malaysiakini
Although, the actual news was reported back in November 2013. However, it was shared over the Internet over the weekend.
The de facto law minister was speaking at a public forum on International Covenants organised by the Malaysian Bar where she defended Putrajaya's move to reintroduce a race-preferential economic policy that drew the ire of Malaysia's minority Chinese and Indian communities, reported The Malay Mail Online.
A former civil society activist, the Sarawakian MP for Batang Sadong said the public was unable to understand the necessity for such policy to reverse the imbalance in distributing wealth
"As a politician now, I understand why there is a Bumiputera New Economic Policy… The Bumiputera, they are very marginalised in terms of economy. They're very much lower than other groups. If there is no such policy to balance the economic distribution within Bumiputera and non-Bumiputera, there could be a difficult situation as well," Nancy was quoted as saying by The Malay Mail Online.
While Nancy admitted that the Bumiputera cannot forever depend on help from Putrajaya, and the New Economic Model (NEM) itself does not just simply gift the ethnic group cash handouts, she said:
"If you don't help… social ills will be happening. Because they will be left very far behind, there will be social problems. That's the situation, if they don't have money, what will they do? They will start stealing."
Image via Saw SIow Feng
According to The Malay Mail Online, in September, PM Najib Razak had detailed the far-reaching NEM that is set to offer the dominant Malay community access to tens of billions in aid and contracts
Image via 1MDB
