经济学人下载:马来西亚种族优待:畸形的议案(2)

Singapore, too, has been free from race riots since 1969.
而新加坡自1969年以来，也没有再出现种族暴乱。

If the benefits of cosseting bumiputeras are not as clear as they first appear, the costs, alas, are all too obvious.
如果优待马来西亚土著得到的好处没有一开始那么明显的话，那么代价实在是太高了。

As schools, universities and the bureaucracy have become less meritocratic, Chinese and Indians have abandoned them, studying in private institutions and working in the private sector instead.
现在很多华裔和印籍人已经离开了不再精英化管理的学校，大学和官僚机构，转而选择在私人机构学习，在个体行业工作。

Many have left the country altogether, in a brain drain that saps economic growth.
还有的人举家离开马来西亚，这样的人才流失对经济是个不小的打击。

Steering so many benefits to Malays—developers are even obliged to give them discounts on new houses—has created a culture of entitlement and dependency.
福利政策已多倾向于马来人，房地产商甚至有义务给买新房的马来人打折扣，这也创造了一个补贴帮扶的社会氛围。

Malays have stopped thinking of affirmative action as a temporary device to diminish inequality. As descendants of Malaysia's first settlers, they now consider it a right.
作为马来西亚第一代定居者的子孙，马来人不再认为《平权法案》是一个减少不平等的临时工具，而是他们的一项权利。

The result is that a system intended to quell ethnic tensions has entrenched them.
旨在平息民族矛盾的种族优待体系导致马来人处于了有利地位。

Many poorer Malays vote reflexively for UMNO, the Malay party that introduced affirmative action in the 1970s and has dominated government since then, for fear that another party might take away their privileges.
唯恐其他党派会掠走他们的特权，很多贫困的马来人一而再地给巫统投票，巫统在20世纪七十年代执行平权法案，并自那以后一直主宰政府。

With these votes in the bag, UMNO's leaders can get away with jaw-dropping abuses, such as the continuing scandal at 1MDB, a development agency that mislaid several billion dollars, much of which ended up in officials' pockets, according to American investigators.
因为手握特权，所以巫统的领导人不会因为滥用职权而受到处罚。据美国调查员调查，巫统的领导挪用马来西亚政府投资基金几十亿美元的公款，其中大多数的钱都进了这些官员的腰包里。

Minorities, in turn, overwhelmingly support parties that advocate less discrimination against them.
少数民族反过来会极度支持那些不歧视他们的政党。

The ambition to improve the lot of Malaysia's neediest citizens is a worthy one.
改善马来西亚贫困公民生活的志向是非常有价值的。

But defining them by race is a mistake.
但是把这个定义成种族问题是错误的。

It allows a disproportionate amount of the benefits of affirmative action to accrue to well-off Malays, who can afford to buy the shares set aside for them at IPOs, for example, or to bid for the government contracts Mr Najib is reserving for them.
《平权法案》造成福利的分配不成比例，就像那些可以买得起上市公司股份的马来人都可以得到福利，或Najib先生给这些人投标政府合同的机会。

It would be much more efficient, and less poisonous to race relations, to provide benefits based on income.
如果以收入为标准来发放福利，那么这样做会更有效率，并且对种族关系不会有害。

Most recipients would still be Malays.
接受福利的主体人群还是马来人。

And defusing the issue should pave the way for more nuanced and constructive politics.
解决这个问题是为了在提出细致和有建设性政策前做好准备。

Perhaps that is why UMNO has resisted the idea for so long.
这也是巫统一直坚持这个想法的原因。