经济学人下载:马来西亚种族优待:畸形的议案(1)

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Racial Preferences in Malaysia: Deformative Action
马来西亚种族优待：畸形的议案

State help for ethnic Malays may seem to have worked. But its benefits are debatable and its costs calamitous.
国家帮助马来少数族裔人群可能确实有帮助，但其优点仍有待商榷，且代价惨重。

What government would not like to reduce racial disparities and promote ethnic harmony?
没有哪个政府不想减少种族差异，促进民族和谐。

The tricky part is knowing how.
但是关键问题是如何实现。

One country that claims to have found a way is Malaysia.
而马来西亚声称自己已经找到了解决方法。

Since 1971 it has given preferential treatment in everything from education to investing to bumiputeras—people of indigenous descent, who are two-thirds of the population but poorer than their ethnic-Chinese and -Indian compatriots.
自1971年以来，马来政府就给予当地有土著血统的人群从教育到投资各方面的优待，马拉西亚土著人口占马来总人口的三分之二，但他们比当地的华裔和印籍人口的生活境况都要差。

On the face of things, this system of affirmative action has been a success.
表面上来看，平权法案制度是成功的。

The gap in income between Malays (the biggest bumiputera group) and Chinese- and Indian-Malaysians has narrowed dramatically.
马来人（马来西亚最大的土著部落）和华裔、印裔马来西亚人之间的收入差距已经显著缩小。

Just as important, there has been no repeat of the bloody race riots of 1969, when Malay mobs burned Chinese shops in Kuala Lumpur, prompting the adoption of the policy.
此外，类似于马来暴徒在吉隆坡烧毁中国商店的种族暴动行为，自1969年起，再也没有出现过，这推动了政策的通过。

And the economy—typically an instant victim of heavy-handed government attempts at redistribution—has grown healthily.
经济通常会受到政府在重分配方面实行即时高压手段的影响，但是马来西亚的经济却在稳健的增长。

Small wonder that some see Malaysia as a model.
有些小国家开始模仿马来西亚的做法。

South African politicians cited it when adopting their plan for “Black Economic Empowerment” in the early 2000s.
南非的政客们在21世纪初期通过《黑人经济振兴法案》时，就援引了马来西亚的《平权法案》。

More recently Indonesian activists have been talking about instituting something similar there.
最近，印度尼西亚的积极分子一直在讨论推行相似的政策。

Malaysia, meanwhile, keeps renewing the policy, which was originally supposed to end in 1991.
同时，马来西亚也不断革新这个实际应于1991年就废除的政策。

Just last month Najib Razak, the prime minister, launched the latest iteration: the catchily named Bumiputera Economic Transformation Roadmap (BETR) 2.0, which, among other things, will steer a greater share of government contracts to bumiputera businesses.
就在上个月马来西亚总理Najib Razak又推出了这个法案的最新版，新版法案的名字很吸引人：《土著经济转型路线图2.0版本》，除了其他方面的原因，这个法案将给马来西亚土著生意人带来更多的政府项目。

Yet the results of Malaysia's affirmative-action schemes are not quite what they seem.
然而，马来西亚的《平权法案》并没有完全得到预期的结果。

Malays in neighbouring Singapore, which abjures racial preferences, have seen their incomes grow just as fast as those of Malays in Malaysia.
马来西亚的邻国新加坡拒绝了种族优待法案的实施，但是经济也照常增长，并且其速度不亚于马来。

That is largely because the Singaporean economy has grown faster than Malaysia's, which may in turn be a product of its more efficient and less meddling bureaucracy.
出现这种局面大部分是因为新加坡的经济增长速度比马来西亚快，而这也许因为新加坡的高效和干涉力度较小的官僚机构。