Quote:
Originally Posted by kip Foss
I was in Malaya in the early '70's when the government initiated a program called "bummy putra" (sp). It means 'sons of the soil' and was designed to take the wealth away from the Indians, who controlled the mercantile side of the economy, and the Chinese, who mostly controlled the banking, and give it back to the Malays. To make a long story short, and, as one might imagine, it didn't take but a couple of years for the Indians and the Chinese to get all the money and more back from the Malays.
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It still goes on. Supposedly it was a version of our Affirmative Action. It was a 10 year plan to get things on an even keel. How many years since then? BPs could simply get loans at next to nothing for interest, all kinds of freebies but they decided not to farm the land and rent it to the chinaman. AT that time, the Ringgit(sp) was equivalent to the Singapore dollar. Today it is worth about $0.44, and consider that they have oil, tin and many other natural resources.