KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 8 — Poor Bumiputera will resort to theft, minister Nancy Shukri said today in her defence of the government’s recent move to reintroduce a race-preferential economic policy that has drawn the ire of Malaysia’s minority Chinese and Indian communities.

The de facto law minister told a public forum on international covenants organised by the Malaysian Bar here that the Bumiputera Economic Empowerment Policy was needed to help fix the unequal wealth distribution among the races that remains prevalent half a century after the country was formed, and which she claimed could lead to a potential spurt in social ills and crime.

“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 said.

A former civil society activist, the Sarawakian MP for Batang Sadong said the public at large was unable to understand the necessity for such policy to reverse the imbalance in distributing wealth.

“If you don’t help… social ills will be happening. Because they will 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.”

Even so, the minister 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.

– See more at: http://www.themalaymailonline.com/malaysia/article/bumiputera-will-steal-if-left-unaided-says-law-minister#sthash.vhtt4dMB.i7FGZmsP.dpuf