IN my two-hour speech throughout the tabling of Funds 2022 within the Dewan Rakyat on Oct 29, I made practically 30 references to Keluarga Malaysia. The frequency of this phrase in one among Parliament’s most necessary speeches demonstrates how central this theme is to Funds 2022.

Keluarga Malaysia is the brainchild of Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob. It’s also a precept that I wholeheartedly assist. It refers back to the sense of inclusiveness and togetherness that has held this nation’s vibrant cloth collectively since even earlier than Independence.

Funds 2022 is formulated to embody this noble spirit, in addition to the precept that no member of a household needs to be left behind. The truth is, since I turned Finance Minister, we on the Finance Ministry (MOF) have all the time crafted the annual funds based mostly on wants, not race, faith or creed.

That is why, over the weeks since its tabling, it has been disheartening to see how some quarters of our society have cherry-picked parts of the speech to insinuate how the Funds prioritises the bumiputra neighborhood on the expense of the non-bumiputra beneficiaries. In my humble opinion, advocating such a distorted view shouldn’t be solely irresponsible, however can be bordering on hate instigation.

I can guarantee Malaysians that our Budgets are by no means formulated by means of racial lenses, and the discuss in regards to the measures favouring one group over one other is full nonsense, not least due to the intensive stakeholder engagement that we carried out.

Previous to the formulation of Funds 2022, MOF had sought stakeholders’ views by means of 28 focus teams with captains of industries; 80 engagement periods with varied stakeholders together with the Opposition, and turun padang to Johor, Kedah, Pahang, Penang, Sabah, Selangor and Melaka. Different states have been additionally lined by my Deputies.

The MOF acquired over 1,200 responses from the Public Session Papers, over 1,000 memorandums from 105 entities, and over 50,000 recommendations by means of our Funds 2022 portal. All of those have been completely thought of and evaluated.

However right here’s an indisputable fact: near 70% of Malaysians are bumiputra, who embrace indigenous teams from Sabah and Sarawak, in addition to the Orang Asli. Keluarga Malaysia should assist its members who’ve fallen behind economically, simply as dad and mom would ship their kids to tuition lessons for topics they’ve but to grasp.

Admittedly, that is partly attributable to legacy points, which MOF is intently wanting into, however this deserves a completely separate dialogue.

Naturally, because the numerically dominant phase in our wealthy and vibrant racial tapestry, these folks would obtain probably the most help. The logic is simple: if the dominant neighborhood continues to be left behind, so will the nation. By the identical token, ought to the dominant neighborhood thrive, the nation will thrive, too.

However right here is the tough actuality: As of 2018, bumiputra fairness possession was solely 16.9%. When it comes to absolute poverty, bumiputra make up 7.2%, in contrast with the Chinese language at 1.4%, and Indians at 4.8%. In 2019, the median family earnings for the bumiputra was RM5,420, in comparison with RM7,391 for the Chinese language, and RM5,981 for the Indians.

Moreover, because the twelfth Malaysia Plan (12MP) has highlighted, there’s trigger for concern, as bumiputra households accounted for 65.1% of complete nationwide households in 2019, with 71.4% of them falling into the B40 earnings bracket. The Covid-19 pandemic has had a fair higher influence on bumiputra earnings development, wealth possession and job alternatives.

In 2020, bumiputra unemployment was 57.1% of complete unemployment, with nearly all of them aged between 15 and 30.

Nevertheless, simply because the bumiputra phase receives particular consideration, it doesn’t indicate that different races obtain much less. Simply as there are poor Malays, the Authorities recognises that there are additionally poor Chinese language, Indians, Kadazans, Ibans and others.

For instance, the RM8.2bil Bantuan Keluarga Malaysia (BKM), which might profit 9.6 million recipients. This might be based mostly on knowledge from the BKM’s predecessor, the Bantuan Prihatin Rakyat, whose recipients have been recorded as 58% Malays, 19% Chinese language, and eight% Indians. There are not any prizes for guessing why the chances are as they’re: they roughly mirror our inhabitants demography.

Certainly, Budgets 2021 and 2022, in addition to the eight financial stimulus and help packages embrace plenty of initiatives whose main beneficiaries are non-bumiputra.

A working example is the assorted SME funding below Financial institution Negara Malaysia’s amenities totalling RM11.2bil in Funds 2022. Primarily based on earlier data, roughly 20,000 SMEs are anticipated to profit from these initiatives. And, based on the Division of Statistics Malaysia 2016 Financial Census Survey, non-bumiputra personal 80% of the small and medium enterprises, whereas bumiputra are primarily concerned within the casual and micro segments of the nation’s enterprise neighborhood.

Regardless of this, the survey discovered that solely 44% of the five hundred,000 micro enterprises are owned by bumiputra.

On condition that MSMEs make use of 70% of the nation’s workforce, it is just pure that the Authorities needs to help this phase in getting again on its toes as quickly as doable.

Wage subsidies are one other necessary monetary assist rolled out in earlier stimulus packages, and included in Funds 2022 for particular sectors. The Authorities has put aside RM20bil for this programme, which assists employers in retaining employees to maintain their companies afloat. Naturally, given our SME demographic, non-bumiputra corporations are anticipated to type nearly all of this measure’s beneficiaries.

Briefly, simply as there are lots of measures that assist the bumiputra, there are additionally many initiatives that profit the non-bumiputra.

Funds 2022 has all the time prioritised wants. It was by no means based mostly on race, faith or creed, and so long as I’m the Finance Minister, it by no means might be. Our Budgets for 2021 and 2022 are colour-blind. Proper now, the one “race” we needs to be involved about is the “race” to full financial restoration, which would require each member of Keluarga Malaysia to be equally colour-blind and be part of arms in solidarity.

Tengku Datuk Seri Zafrul Tengku Abdul Aziz is Malaysia’s Finance Minister. The views expressed listed below are the author’s personal.