Of meaningful comments and voices of disagreements
I'm really excited to see my post receiving so much attention. 10 comments! That's by far the largest number of comments that I've got in my blogging life. And they are not one-liners on top of that! Thank you, guys. As a token of appreciation, a whole post dedicated as a reply.
San, I can't say much about discrimination. But I do know that I reject all kinds of discrimination (being a victim myself, victimized by fellow Malays). And I'm taking your advice about getting recommendations before interviews (although I've got a couple myself).
Vesewe, I couldn't agree more about the people running the country. To be honest, I'm getting bored with the old faces in the Parliament. We need new people with new ideas. I can name some, though they are all Malays. And I can assure you that they are smart people who are smart.
Ruyom, I believe that the rights to special privileges should have been reserved for and only for the Orang Asli as well as the native people of Sabah and Sarawak. They are, after all, the rightful owners of these lands. And if you have taken a lesson in our history (pre-colonial era), early Malay settlers were indebted to these native inhabitants.
While you are right about the well-fed Malays (and Indians and Chinese who got their shares by licking the Government's backside), you have to be aware that there are Malays who shouted for changes to be made, only to be stamped as traitors and put behind bars. Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim was one of them, though I can warrant that there are things that I disagree with him.
Yuking, you actually said the same thing my friend Vincent said to me. And guess what, it's not just non-Malays who felt that way; the younger, educated Malays feel the same way, too! (After all, they are considered to be minority within the majority). I remember my sessions with one of my clients, Ms. Deneille Sutton from Australia. She urged me to, "get the hell out of this country; you are not meant to be here!" The environment and conditioning of Malaysia is not suitable for intellectuals. Banning of books, restriction of freedom of speech, religious and racial confusion, injustice towards various races; these are not conducive elements to grow intellectuals. Therefore I'm not surprised that we have a critical brain drain at the moment, and that people don't feel the sense of belonging to the country.
Aston, "talibanized" is a bit too strong a word. Besides, "talibaning" means "to impose religious values on people without considering the actual meaning and the future impact". What's happening in Malaysia is more or less a combination of "Turkization" that was done by the Ottoman Empire, and the measures taken by the founder of the Qin Dynasty to establish legalism in the unified China Empire; impose one identity and culture on all people, and block them from any sources of other ideas, other than the ones permitted by the Government (ooh, I might get in an hot soup for this).
Kok, I've been thinking about what our forefather intended when they first designed the so-called social contract/Federal Constitution (or whatever it is). If the objective is to bring the Malays at par with other races (refer to the colonial segregation rule policy), then the special privileges should have been given to the Chinese and Indians as a "carrot" to help out their Malay counterpart. In return for those "privileges", the Chinese and Indians are to help out in developing the then left behind Malays; training, teaching, sharing of capital and technology, etc. Once the Malays are at par with them, abolish the privileges, and have everyone treated the same; all of them become "Bumiputera", rightful citizen of the country. It's a weird thing that even after 50 years of independence, the Chinese and Indian born and bred in the country is still not considered as Bumiputeras. Giving special privileges to the Malays was a bad idea to begin with; making that policy perpetual spells the downfall of the objective itself.
Miya, even if it's the best rubbish of all rubbish, it is still rubbish. There's no point justifying.
Fargoman, congratulations for your children's achievements. It is a good thing that they didn't suffer what the majority of Malaysian graduates are facing at the moment (me being one of them). What would make it better is that they help some of those unfortunate graduates out. Good deed, good life, they are meant to be paid forward to other people.
Reek, we should meed someday, and you will have to show me the graffiti haha. The UMNO party and it's Youth section is not needed in this era, IMHO. They make the matters worse. In fact, any racial or religious-based political movements will lead to the country's downfall. We are living in a multi-racial, multi-religion country; therefore the objective should be how to integrate the various identities into working towards the same objective, not how to separate them.
Samp, Pak Lah (Badawi is his late father, FYI) should take a cue from Shahrir Samad, teresa Kok and Lim Kit Siang, and start a blog. That way he'll get to know about this ASAP, along with how people reacted to it.
You know, the Government can be managed professionally, too. Just like a private company; incompetent, begone! That way, our country will have a hybrid ruling system that integrates both the private entity's efficiency and public entity's security.
Again, thank you for your responses, although I have to admit, it's not the kind of response I'm expecting. As an end note, tonight I'll be heading to KL for a pre-interview test for a position as a sub-editor. Wish me all the best. Hopefully this is the path I've been searching for.
San, I can't say much about discrimination. But I do know that I reject all kinds of discrimination (being a victim myself, victimized by fellow Malays). And I'm taking your advice about getting recommendations before interviews (although I've got a couple myself).
Vesewe, I couldn't agree more about the people running the country. To be honest, I'm getting bored with the old faces in the Parliament. We need new people with new ideas. I can name some, though they are all Malays. And I can assure you that they are smart people who are smart.
Ruyom, I believe that the rights to special privileges should have been reserved for and only for the Orang Asli as well as the native people of Sabah and Sarawak. They are, after all, the rightful owners of these lands. And if you have taken a lesson in our history (pre-colonial era), early Malay settlers were indebted to these native inhabitants.
While you are right about the well-fed Malays (and Indians and Chinese who got their shares by licking the Government's backside), you have to be aware that there are Malays who shouted for changes to be made, only to be stamped as traitors and put behind bars. Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim was one of them, though I can warrant that there are things that I disagree with him.
Yuking, you actually said the same thing my friend Vincent said to me. And guess what, it's not just non-Malays who felt that way; the younger, educated Malays feel the same way, too! (After all, they are considered to be minority within the majority). I remember my sessions with one of my clients, Ms. Deneille Sutton from Australia. She urged me to, "get the hell out of this country; you are not meant to be here!" The environment and conditioning of Malaysia is not suitable for intellectuals. Banning of books, restriction of freedom of speech, religious and racial confusion, injustice towards various races; these are not conducive elements to grow intellectuals. Therefore I'm not surprised that we have a critical brain drain at the moment, and that people don't feel the sense of belonging to the country.
Aston, "talibanized" is a bit too strong a word. Besides, "talibaning" means "to impose religious values on people without considering the actual meaning and the future impact". What's happening in Malaysia is more or less a combination of "Turkization" that was done by the Ottoman Empire, and the measures taken by the founder of the Qin Dynasty to establish legalism in the unified China Empire; impose one identity and culture on all people, and block them from any sources of other ideas, other than the ones permitted by the Government (ooh, I might get in an hot soup for this).
Kok, I've been thinking about what our forefather intended when they first designed the so-called social contract/Federal Constitution (or whatever it is). If the objective is to bring the Malays at par with other races (refer to the colonial segregation rule policy), then the special privileges should have been given to the Chinese and Indians as a "carrot" to help out their Malay counterpart. In return for those "privileges", the Chinese and Indians are to help out in developing the then left behind Malays; training, teaching, sharing of capital and technology, etc. Once the Malays are at par with them, abolish the privileges, and have everyone treated the same; all of them become "Bumiputera", rightful citizen of the country. It's a weird thing that even after 50 years of independence, the Chinese and Indian born and bred in the country is still not considered as Bumiputeras. Giving special privileges to the Malays was a bad idea to begin with; making that policy perpetual spells the downfall of the objective itself.
Miya, even if it's the best rubbish of all rubbish, it is still rubbish. There's no point justifying.
Fargoman, congratulations for your children's achievements. It is a good thing that they didn't suffer what the majority of Malaysian graduates are facing at the moment (me being one of them). What would make it better is that they help some of those unfortunate graduates out. Good deed, good life, they are meant to be paid forward to other people.
Reek, we should meed someday, and you will have to show me the graffiti haha. The UMNO party and it's Youth section is not needed in this era, IMHO. They make the matters worse. In fact, any racial or religious-based political movements will lead to the country's downfall. We are living in a multi-racial, multi-religion country; therefore the objective should be how to integrate the various identities into working towards the same objective, not how to separate them.
Samp, Pak Lah (Badawi is his late father, FYI) should take a cue from Shahrir Samad, teresa Kok and Lim Kit Siang, and start a blog. That way he'll get to know about this ASAP, along with how people reacted to it.
You know, the Government can be managed professionally, too. Just like a private company; incompetent, begone! That way, our country will have a hybrid ruling system that integrates both the private entity's efficiency and public entity's security.
Again, thank you for your responses, although I have to admit, it's not the kind of response I'm expecting. As an end note, tonight I'll be heading to KL for a pre-interview test for a position as a sub-editor. Wish me all the best. Hopefully this is the path I've been searching for.
12 comments:
We will be celebrating our day of independence but somehow or other, that sense of joy or pride is totally absent in me, and I guess with many others too.
As usual, government leaders will be coaxing the public to be patriotic by flying our flag and yet, until today, I don't see many doing it unlike past years.
In any case, I am writing this letter with a sense of despondency that independence day has hardly raised any excitement in me anymore, and perhaps I know the reason why.
As a citizen and a non-malay, we have been branded with all sorts of names - 'pendatang', terrorists or extremists.
As a non-Muslim, I live in apprehension everyday because for some rhyme and reason best known to Umno, we have suddenly been declared an Islamic state even though our sacred Constitution states otherwise.
When we question the Islamic state declaration, we are told that if do not like it, we can get out. I am wondering what our East Malaysian brothers (Ibans, Kadazans, etc) have to say about this.
We have an Umno leader who has to go on a 'keris' wielding spree during the recent Umno general assembly. Would it not have been appropriate if Umno leaders - on the first day of their meeting - release white doves as a symbol of peace and wish all Malaysians well?
We are not getting any more united than 10 years ago. Today the racial divide has gone from bad to worse and if that is not all, religious divide has also encroached into our way of life.
It is such a big let down knowing that I am not even considered a part of the Malaysian community on this auspicious day.
One thing I am looking forward to this independence day is to sleep late, have a good rest and be ready to toil again after Aug 31 just so to put food on the table for my family.
"The malays are lazy, the Indians cannot be trusted, and the Chinese are greedy………."
The above statements said a lot of things about the unity in this Malaysia country. The statement implied a great failure on the part of government through the government policies in share, education (the major one), contract giving, and so on. You can name it.
Through the "divide and rule" policies, each race become suspicious to one another and result was the above finding.
After 50 years, the nation is more divided and a lot of money wasted due to bad and irresponsible decisions.
The past administration policies are divisive and failed in most areas. Wealth not properly distributed. Backbone of the economy, being the small to medium size businesses, ignored.
Our Malaysia reporters and editors all do great injustice to us and to our future generations. We no longer publish the truth but half-and-no-truths, propagandas and slants. The press misinforms. They all have secret agendas. A noble profession has turned into the oldest profession. Oh woe!
See, journalism is no more a profession in this Malaysia country. It is just another occupation for BN pet poodles, hangers-on, mercenaries, and profit motivated businessmen.
Bottom line is all 50 years under the cover of representing their communities, they have forged the faustian bargain of public positions for a share - even crumbs - for a seat on the gravy train, not daring to push for their constituencies interest beyond the point of the other side's showing displeasure so as not to jeopardize the other side's patronage in dispensing a bit of the power, largesse and influence.
That I submit is the real public immorality. Not kissing or hugging on the parklands.
Isn't this a shame that with all the multitude of handouts, the malays are still lagging, I mean very far behind.
While the malays are fighting tooth and nail to get what they call their share of 30%, the Chinese are not talking such numbers. While the malays are looking to the Malaysia government which incidentally, is a government of the people, to attain this 30%, the Chinese are going about their business as usual.
If the attitude is going to be one of "receiving rather than earning" - then not for another hundred years or even thousand years can the malays ever stand on their own feet. It is not that the malays have not received. When they get preferential dues and get handouts, all they think is to sell them and make some quick bucks.
Of course, if they are still bent on looking forward to handouts, then by all means carry on with what they are doing, just gleefully spent and waste the money away. For most malays in Malaysia who seem to "show off" their so-called proud achievements of standing tall in business or profession, I have every reason to cast doubt whether they would have become what they are without government help.
If these views are honestly analysed and understood, then the malays would confidently and openly say "no" to handouts. The days of doom and gloom are not far-off as other stronger economies are emerging to pose a threat to our standard of living.
The Indians are no better. A friend of mine recently joked that Indians have become the major crime menace including gangsters because they have a leader who behaves like a thug himself. A classic example of leadership by example.
I can henceforth and very confidently too, say that Pak Lah will definitely fail in his mission as he is certainly going in the wrong direction.
That does not bode well. So, it is again nothing more than a piece of paper. Almost everyone entrusted with the implementation are vultures. The talk has to change. The style has to change. The methodology in its entirety has to change, otherwise there is no hope.
If Pak Lah is going to change them by asking them to wear badges and the like, well, anyone would know what the end result would be.
It is no fun to see this country blessed with abundant natural resources, diverse yet marginalized or underutilised talent, and great climate go down the tubes because of poor and weak leadership, and the NEP mentality.
Plans will remain plans, but the 9th Malaysia Plan (9MP) is not even a plan; it is just waffle, an attempt to do everything including going back to agriculture purportedly with biotechnology and ICT. Without focus, there is no way we can win. Say goodbye to lot billion.
Just ask the minister what he did with nearly million in public funds for innovation and research in biotechnology and herbal science. Why was he not held to account for giving away taxpayers money to his friends and political cronies?
That is why I have said time and time again that Pak Lah has no courage to deal with his cabinet ministers and civil servants. They can ignore him with impunity.
What this kind of a leader in charge, we will be left behind even by the likes of Indonesia and Vietnam in the next half a decade. By then our man would have retired, or is kicked out by his Umno party or the voters. We all have to live with his follies.
Why do not he just step down and our grateful nation will honour him, and give him a very handsome gratuity and a great pension? It is a cheaper option for us. He can then live like a Sultan. Right now, it is painful to see him grapple with matters above his head.
I am not a racist and it is the fact of my experience that sad to say many of them (malays) have the habit of blaming others for their own failures to gain success in many aspects of life - and keep on blaming others for their own prideful (which could be "inferiority") of not able to accept others corrections, constructive criticisms for their weakness (don't want to be challenged in order to be improved, competitive and better) and being jealous of others success.
Always thinking that they have the sole ownership over Malaysia and others do not have even though born in Malaysia.
Never remember that it is God who created all of us in this land (those who born in Malaysia - no matters what races) and shall be given equal right to live on this land. (If not so, it means God is not fair! But God is fair and just!).
So why Umno/malays whom self proclaiming themselves is God-fearing people but still embrace such an unfair and discriminating policy (they have no shame to say it is a positive discriminating policy) in this nation which taking advantages of others races results of hard works and efforts for their own benefits.
To whom embrace such policy is a true liar, injustice and hypocrite group of people - Shame on this group of people (always ask people to leave the place where we born)!
The (mis)interpretation of history is a viable tool to promote and pursue political and ideological domination or colonisation. We have heard arguments that the mainstream version of history should be adopted and accepted, without question.
In contemporary term, this practice is known as 'absolutism' - which is unfortunately a distortion and manipulation in itself.
The most dominant version of history may not necessary represent absolute truth but it is merely a viewpoint or an opinion presented by the majority.
A version of history promoted as a dominant viewpoint argues that the contract was primarily about the exchange of Malaysian citizenship for the two immigrant (Chinese and Indian) communities and in return they recognise the rights of the malays as the natives and the masters of the land.
Hence, proponents of this viewpoint argue that other communities, especially the present generation particularly those of Chinese descent, must accept these rights - both political and socio-economic - unquestionably.
Any social contracts or agreements made between communities in a particular time period cannot continue to bind generations to come without adjusting to the transformations and developments of a society.
Proponents of the dominant viewpoint have some serious questions to answer. Are those who are bred and born in Malaysia, especially non-malays, still considered as immigrants? Since they are born as Malaysians, the social contract is not relevant to them.
Furthermore, Malaysians of all races, post-independence have contributed significantly albeit through their own ways and means to the country's progress and development. All races have had a hand in the making of a modern and developed Malaysia. Surely this means more than a mere exchange of citizenship. What is the worth of a citizenship if it does not come with equal rights?
The creation of a truly Bangsa Malaysia (Malaysian race) cannot be achieved through a master-servant relationship model. What is obviously needed is a condition where a shared common identity can be fostered through the existence of socio-political equality and justice.
In a global village, all communities in Malaysia are minorities. Our experiences in facing the forces of globalisation or in trying to make ourselves heard on international platforms where our presence is dwarfed by much bigger and dominant countries should have taught us well that the above concepts or misconceptions are not suitable for us.
We need to promote a new and all-inclusive national agenda to foster greater unity and to capitalise on our rich diversity in order to stand up to the challenges of globalisation.
This can only materialise if we can discard our old mindset and destroy these dormant perceptions of majority might and master-servant relationship.
People like you make me sick.
You can't differentiate between right from wrong, sacrifice from theft, short-term betterment from long-term disaster.
People like you are the reason why the clowns at BN continue to pillage and rape, and why you are happy to drive a Proton when certain Umno malays have their private helicopters and jets!
You can go on supporting the BN, the rest of us will press for regime change.
There are Malaysia A and Malaysia B.
One is the rich people A and the other is the poor people B.
Where is the fairness and justice for B irrespective of race?
It seems the capability of a leader is based on what the leader could bring for the supporters, legally or morally right or wrong is secondary.
No wonders there are plenty of immoral, undesirable and unscrupulous people holding position of influence, power and trust.
The society is really sick.
It is better that you leave Malaysia. This country is full of crap. Everything is crap here. There is racism and lots of red tape bureaucracy. Malaysia don't practise meritocracy.
If a malay is not even capable in comparison with a Chinese or Indian, he will still get all the goodies and left the shit to the other races. I advise the government not to help the stupid malays but to give equal rights to everyone and also judge a person based on his merits, and not his background or race.
If the government continues to help those incapable malays and not cutting those red tapes, I think Malaysia will not meet its 2020 vision. Also my advise to those malays: To the Hell with you!!!
There has been a survey done to investigate whether Chinese, Indians and Malays are hardworking. They found out that malays are the ones to be lazy. Lazier than Chinese and Indians. They do not have the motivation to strive harder.
Most of Malaysia's success come from the hard work of other races while the malays just reaped the fruits that the Chinese and Indians sowed. The Malaysia government know about this fact and that is how they implemented to protect those malays from lagging behind the other races.
If you agreed with what I had said, you know that this is making sense. However if you disagree on my views, here is 2 possibilities:
(1) you are a malay that is receiving help from the government and hence you don't make any contribution to the society. (2) you are a corrupted, biased person that is easily influenced, just like our police force. Think about it.
It is true that in the face of competition especially global, our corporations can thrive only when run efficiently by the brightest and the best.
Anyone on the street can dissect clearly that our government's current scholarship system is flawed. Clearly not everyone who gets it deserves it but what make it worse is that it's given to people who are not returning the good deed.
The theory is simple. If one knows that he will get what he wants handed on a platter, one will never need to work as hard as his other counterparts. Hence, the reason why malays fail to excel in their studies.
We live in a country where education is for the rich and influential. Money and contacts are the major key players in determining our educational regime. The poor become poorer and the rich become richer. Scholarships handed out to the rich. But when we seek other educational opportunities we are reprimanded.
We live in a nation that throws out educated, experienced and loyal teachers to be replaced by ones that only have the right political connections. Our notion of education is not to educate the young to think critically, or to be constructive and mature.
In the true sense of the word as articulated by the nation's founding fathers, the Malaysian agenda should always be the national agenda, not the Malay, Indian or Chinese agenda, whatever.
But sadly, over the years since independence in 1957, this major premise has been hijacked with push giving way to shove after the May 13 riots. Since then, over a period of 36 years, the Umno elite in power have been systematically been using the zero-sum game theory to brainwash the malay mind of whatever commitment it still has towards multi-racialism.
It is evident their goal is to revert back to the status of Tanah Melayu even if this were to make the country slide backwards to the status of countries like Zimbabwe or Bangladesh. The present political struggle between Umno and PAS with Islam as its main focus has made the situation even worse.
Now more and more malays are coming up openly to reject the Malaysian multi-racial society. The time will come when the word Malaysian will be deemed seditious and anti-national just like the slogan 'Malaysian Malaysia'.
I don't see a Malaysia that I would want to be a part of. A Malaysia that has stopped caring. A country that has fallen prey to the profit motif. To power. I pray that Malaysians will wake up and realise what a mirage our 'advancement' has been.
There are push and pull factors involved. An emigrant is both trying to escape something and advance towards another thing at the same time. For instance, a scientist who cannot flourish in his own country will want to go somewhere where his expertise is appreciated. Perhaps he finds the anti-intellectualism in his milieu too stifling (unfortunately, this is very true in Malaysia), or the government of the day too partial when it comes to resource allocation.
You see, the major problem with a not insignificant number of Malaysians is that there is a lot of false pride around. This is a vestige of Mahathirianism. Small achievements are overblown so as to build up national pride. It is Malaysia Boleh this and Malaysia Boleh that.
Anyway, I say cheer the emigrants on. Let people do what they want with their lives - they should not be beholden to the country. Do not blame their lack of patriotism for not staying - patriotism is poor persuasion.
Well, special rights are for the equitable share of bumi wealth. The opportunities are also there for the cronies who have enriched themselves tremendously.
The kampung people remain poor. They continue to eke out a living farming rice and fishing. They are kept shackled by their religion with their lives resigned to fate. That's why we have the opposition. Getting their support means there has been a failure to equally share wealth among the malays.
And now we have bumis who are more equal than others. I know that the bumis in Sabah and Sarawak are not equal to those in the peninsula.
Why is it that after 50 years of independence we need to perpetuate these special rights for special people? Why are these rights entrenched in the fabric of life to the extent we have seen an exodus of other races to foreign countries? And no one is to question such rights unless they get thrown into jail.
The NEP is upheld for the rich and not the poor in Malaysia.
Inevitably, special rights will be abused because this is a blunt tool that can never be efficient. The more people benefit from it, the more it will be abused.
The real issue about special rights is how long we can afford for it to be abused before we have to remove it. This was the main point of argument by our founders.
There can never be equal footing - not even among people of the same race. The point of affirmative action is not equal footing but rather more to create a reasonable safeguard against not being excluded, i.e. marginalised.
Diversity is a strength and benefit to society and this must be the goal rather than equality. This is also why quotas are illegal as affirmative action in other countries.
The truth is that the malays of this country partly owe their independence to the non-malays. The reason was that the British refused to give independence without an agreement from the non-malays.
Given the leverage of the non-malays, there was no reason to give up equal rights.
It is a shame that our history has been constantly twisted so that our younger generation has no understanding of Malaysia's foundation and its true aspirations.
The world is very small this day, and with the concept of globalization which is unavoidable, anyway goes to where an equal opportunity is available if you can.
Education is an important investment, and there is only a certain time frame that your children could utilize it at the best. So do not waste that time! There is more assistance than you could imagine if your kids do find difficulties on the path.
There is a thing called "quality of life". It means that there is a place where children have equal opportunity to develop themselves to the fullest, and the children believe that they are not prejudiced and could achieve what they want to be as opportunities are just there.
Good social order and hence personal safety (not so much of snatch thieves, robbers, road rages, rapists, pirates, etc), good living environment (safe water and clean air), good and efficient government administration (you get your income tax refund not more than six weeks after your submission, etc), educated society (people say "thank you" and "please" more often) and up to date medical care.
But you must be prepared to earn an honest living, as the laws are very strict against any illegal acts, which many underdeveloped countries utilize to make money under the name so called as "business".
Success or failure is not measured by its size but rather an effort to make the best out of oneself, and for that, fair and equal opportunity must be available.
So consider ourselves as "global citizens" and if we are good, we still can contribute a lot to the humanity and the world community where your effort is appreciated.
Racism and racial discrimination have been part of Malaysia social, political, economic and cultural realities ever since colonial times.
Today, race has been so deeply institutionalised that it is a key factor determining benefits from social policy, government development policies, entry into educational institutions, education policy, discounts for purchasing houses, cultural policy, bids for business contracts and other official policies.
Practically every aspect of Malaysian life is permeated by the so-called 'bumis policy' based on malay-centrism. This is unabashedly spelled out by political leaders in the daily mass media in Malaysia.
It is an established fact that racial polarisation is prevalent in various Malaysia institutions. A survey by University Malaya shows that 98 percent of malay students do not mix with non-malays while 97 percent of Indian students and 99 percent of Chinese students do not mingle with the other races.
While the government tries to account for this problem by blaming other extraneous factors such as the existence of vernacular schools, it is clear that the roots of polarisation lie in this institutionalisation of racism and racial discrimination.
The ruling party Umno prides itself on the supposedly 'successful' affirmative action in favour of bumis. Bumis literally means 'princes of the soil', the official epithet for malays and other indigenous peoples but which excludes the original peoples, i.e. the Orang Asli of Peninsula Malaysia. This has been the cornerstone of development plans since the New Economic Policy was started in 1971.
Consequently, while this populist bumis policy has been applied to the benefit of bumis as a whole, the new malay ruling elite is strategically placed to reap the full benefits of this racially based policy.
Totally committed to capitalism and to privatisation, this policy has ensured that the non-malay local and foreign elite have also gained from the New Economic Policy since 1971. This class cohesion among the Malaysia ruling elite underpins the racialist politics which has characterised Malaysian society since independence.
Racial discrimination in the realm of culture is seen not only in the education policy but also in the discrimination against non-malay cultures and religions in the National Cultural Policy. Non-Muslims face obstacles in their freedom to build places of worship and access to burial grounds, among other complaints.
Racism and racial discrimination have dominated Malaysian society for far too long. Now that the malay ruling elite has clearly gained control of the Malaysia economy, it is high time for a new consensus based on non-racial factors such as sector, need and class to justify affirmative action.
Post a Comment