Why Malaysians are racists?

I am a racist? Well, maybe I am. Could you blame me?

I was brought up in an education system that differentiated me based on skin color, religion and race. Every time you fill up a form in Malaysia, for a college education or for employment, you have to write down your race. Your skills and qualifications comes second to your race in most selection process.

So if I am a racist, so are you. And everyone else who are adhering to the Malaysian style of governance. Heck, even our very government is based on political foundation with coalitions of race-based parties. Not to mention the fundamentals of our Malaysian constitution!

These are a few of my principles. I am against institutionalized racism. I am against racial prejudice. I support societies and parties that try to fight against discriminations, whether they are based on race, gender, or sexual orientation. Supporting such causes does not make me a racist, or sexist; it just means I am against discrimination.

For me, equal rights and human rights are of utmost important, for a civilized society. You may have survived the discriminative policies of this country. So have I. Bravo. But for every success story, there are hundreds of failure stories - people who lost the battle going against discriminative policies.

Every time you read about a dead body, or family member getting snatched by religious authorities, or statistics on the percentage of Indians or Chinese or XYZ refused University seats due to 65% quota for bumiputra, you should hurt - for the country, for your community and for the sake of humanity. I am not asking for special preferences for Indians alone.

I am demanding for special preferences for those who are truly in need.

05/07/09