We as a nation of people have come a long way from the days when each and every one of our forefathers immigrated to Malaya. The only people of the soil are the aborigines. The question of nationhood and national identity should now be beyond reproach. This is owing to the fact that Article 14 of the federal constitution provides for citizenship by operation of law and Article 8 provides for ‘equality’ of all persons and there shall be no ‘discrimination’ of any person.
Thus arises the burning issue - why is it that after 52 years of independence, we the people, have to face an arena of ethnic conflicts? Who is the cause of these conflicts? Are there ethnic chauvinists who are barring the mingling of the people? Why is it that on a day-to-day basis no sensitive problems arise when the people are intermingling at every workplace?
Or are these ethnic conflicts caused by political mobilisation of a certain political party which disrupts the impact of social cohesion? It is a sad state of affairs that we as a nation of united people have to be of the realisation that after 52 years of attaining independence, our government leaders in Umno are still talking in terms of ethnic groups such as the Malays, the Chinese, the Indians, the Kadazans, Muruts, Dayaks and so forth.
On a closer examination of the different categories of people, it would be revealed that they are themselves a mixed group and are much more diverse culturally within the given group.
As for the ethnic Malays, they are a cocktail of Middle Eastern descent, Indians and such people from Indonesia that is the Acehnese, the Boyanese, Bugis, Javanese, Minangkabau, Rawa, Mandailing and from many other islands that surround Sumatra. But they may have a common faith and belief in Islam. Nevertheless they still do maintain considerable intra-group cultural differences.
In respect of the ethnic Chinese, they could be sub-divided into at least nine major ethno- linguistic groups such as the Hokkien, Hakka, Cantonese, Teo Chew, Hainanese, Ho Chiew, Kwangsai, Henghua, Hockchia and several other minor ones. The ethnic Chinese are also diverse not only due to their linguistic differences but also due to differences in customs, historical experiences and other cultural attributes.
As for the ethnic Indians, they could be sub-divided into the Tamils, Malayalis, Telegus, Kanaras, Oriyas, Hyderabadis, Mysoreans, Punjabis, Sikh Punjabis, Pathans, Bengalis, Gujaratis, Maharattas, Sindhis, Rajputs, Marwaris, Parsis and Goans. The Sri Lankans and Pakistanis are generally not considered Indians. All these South Asian groups display enormous intra-group cultural variations.
Then we have the people of Sabah and Sarawak where there are about 55 ethno-linguistic groups. These people have been commonly labeled as Kadazans, Muruts, Dayaks, Ibans and Orang Hulu. This group conceals the enormity of their cultural diversity. They have been labeled as bumiputeras, whilst the ethnic Chinese and Indians are not.
As we are all citizens, we go to the polls once in five years to elect the government. The government derives it power to govern us from the constitution. The constitution inter alia provides that all the citizens are equal and that there shall be no discrimination. So after 52 years, the government through its responsible policies should have achieved cultural homogenisation and we, the people, should be living in a state of cultural pluralism.
But that does not seem to be the case as there seems to be an artificially created inter-ethnic instability within our communities and in society at large. There seems to be some form of inherently flawed policies which have been diabolically conceived and executed by the government and that is causing a great deal of damage to efforts by the people to live in cultural peace and harmony on a day to day basis.
Recently it has been exposed in the media that the government has since the year of 1980 or thereafter introduced through the Biro Tata Negara (BTN) courses to brainwash ethic Malay students at the public universities by indoctrinating into them the concept of ‘Ketuanan Melayu’.
It is now apparent that the government has grossly violated the doctrine of the mandate we gave them to govern. They have instead focused their attention on instilling fear in the consciousness of the ethnic Malays which is to make them hate other ethnic communities. In actual fact, based on divine justice, the ethnic Malays have themselves realised that the enemies of the ethnic Malays are the Umno leaders.
The technique of Umno has been to colonise the consciousness of the ethnic Malays through a technique that was pioneered by Barzakov and Lozanov in the 1970 called ‘suggestopedia’ which is a method used to instill a deep sense of fear for oneself and hatred of others.
With the growth of a new ethnic Malay middle-class and with the people applying their native intelligence and commonsense to the attempted indoctrination by the mediocre Umno political leaders, the people have now realised that the days of ‘master and slave’ is an outdated concept.
The current middle-class in society realise that the only way forward is to forge proper economic partnerships where there will be interplay between knowledge, experience, ideology and technology and which has to be developed to function productively for the mutual benefit of the partnership.
The people are no longer keen to devote their attention to Umno brutes or xenophobia in respect of other ethnic groups who are the citizens of this nation where these chauvinistic brutes only want to cling on to power to enrich them selves.
MK
10/03/10
Thus arises the burning issue - why is it that after 52 years of independence, we the people, have to face an arena of ethnic conflicts? Who is the cause of these conflicts? Are there ethnic chauvinists who are barring the mingling of the people? Why is it that on a day-to-day basis no sensitive problems arise when the people are intermingling at every workplace?
Or are these ethnic conflicts caused by political mobilisation of a certain political party which disrupts the impact of social cohesion? It is a sad state of affairs that we as a nation of united people have to be of the realisation that after 52 years of attaining independence, our government leaders in Umno are still talking in terms of ethnic groups such as the Malays, the Chinese, the Indians, the Kadazans, Muruts, Dayaks and so forth.
On a closer examination of the different categories of people, it would be revealed that they are themselves a mixed group and are much more diverse culturally within the given group.
As for the ethnic Malays, they are a cocktail of Middle Eastern descent, Indians and such people from Indonesia that is the Acehnese, the Boyanese, Bugis, Javanese, Minangkabau, Rawa, Mandailing and from many other islands that surround Sumatra. But they may have a common faith and belief in Islam. Nevertheless they still do maintain considerable intra-group cultural differences.
In respect of the ethnic Chinese, they could be sub-divided into at least nine major ethno- linguistic groups such as the Hokkien, Hakka, Cantonese, Teo Chew, Hainanese, Ho Chiew, Kwangsai, Henghua, Hockchia and several other minor ones. The ethnic Chinese are also diverse not only due to their linguistic differences but also due to differences in customs, historical experiences and other cultural attributes.
As for the ethnic Indians, they could be sub-divided into the Tamils, Malayalis, Telegus, Kanaras, Oriyas, Hyderabadis, Mysoreans, Punjabis, Sikh Punjabis, Pathans, Bengalis, Gujaratis, Maharattas, Sindhis, Rajputs, Marwaris, Parsis and Goans. The Sri Lankans and Pakistanis are generally not considered Indians. All these South Asian groups display enormous intra-group cultural variations.
Then we have the people of Sabah and Sarawak where there are about 55 ethno-linguistic groups. These people have been commonly labeled as Kadazans, Muruts, Dayaks, Ibans and Orang Hulu. This group conceals the enormity of their cultural diversity. They have been labeled as bumiputeras, whilst the ethnic Chinese and Indians are not.
As we are all citizens, we go to the polls once in five years to elect the government. The government derives it power to govern us from the constitution. The constitution inter alia provides that all the citizens are equal and that there shall be no discrimination. So after 52 years, the government through its responsible policies should have achieved cultural homogenisation and we, the people, should be living in a state of cultural pluralism.
But that does not seem to be the case as there seems to be an artificially created inter-ethnic instability within our communities and in society at large. There seems to be some form of inherently flawed policies which have been diabolically conceived and executed by the government and that is causing a great deal of damage to efforts by the people to live in cultural peace and harmony on a day to day basis.
Recently it has been exposed in the media that the government has since the year of 1980 or thereafter introduced through the Biro Tata Negara (BTN) courses to brainwash ethic Malay students at the public universities by indoctrinating into them the concept of ‘Ketuanan Melayu’.
It is now apparent that the government has grossly violated the doctrine of the mandate we gave them to govern. They have instead focused their attention on instilling fear in the consciousness of the ethnic Malays which is to make them hate other ethnic communities. In actual fact, based on divine justice, the ethnic Malays have themselves realised that the enemies of the ethnic Malays are the Umno leaders.
The technique of Umno has been to colonise the consciousness of the ethnic Malays through a technique that was pioneered by Barzakov and Lozanov in the 1970 called ‘suggestopedia’ which is a method used to instill a deep sense of fear for oneself and hatred of others.
With the growth of a new ethnic Malay middle-class and with the people applying their native intelligence and commonsense to the attempted indoctrination by the mediocre Umno political leaders, the people have now realised that the days of ‘master and slave’ is an outdated concept.
The current middle-class in society realise that the only way forward is to forge proper economic partnerships where there will be interplay between knowledge, experience, ideology and technology and which has to be developed to function productively for the mutual benefit of the partnership.
The people are no longer keen to devote their attention to Umno brutes or xenophobia in respect of other ethnic groups who are the citizens of this nation where these chauvinistic brutes only want to cling on to power to enrich them selves.
MK
10/03/10
Posts
0 comments:
Post a Comment