50 years after Independence, the people of Malaysia are still searching for an identity. Are they malays or Muslims first; are they Chinese, Indians or Malaysians first?
This identity crisis is a result of the failure of the BN government, which has ruled Malaysia since independence in 1957, later as the expanded Barisan Nasional.
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.
Another argument put forth by the pro-malay special rights group is that, they made a compromise by giving the non-malays their citizenship and in exchange the malays must be given their special privileges.
This argument is the most ridiculous I have heard thus far but in their ignorance some Malaysians still think that citizenship is for a certain race to give. This logic would mean that the minorities will always be seen as foreigners who will never be equal to the malay bumis.
The Chinese and Indians must accept they are immigrants and they were given citizenships in 1957 on the agreement that the malays are given special rights and privileges.
Stretching your logic a bit further, are you also suggesting that in America, the Negroes continue to be slaves to the whites otherwise they give up US citizenship and go back to Africa?
This is stupid idiotic logic. Even if the so-called contract was valid, it was so only in the 50s and 60s.
We are nearly 50 years after Merdeka and all Chinese and Indians have begun citizens. They are no more bound by the so-called social contract which enslaved their ancestors.
Umno is afraid to give up Ketuanan melayu because it is bankrupt of ideas in competing with others in this 21st century democracy.
Umno's warped logic is that it is better for country to be backward so long as malays benefit than for country to prosper, where malays are marginalized.
This warped logic is in fact the beginning of the end of the malays who will never progress and compete with others on equal footing and level playing field, so long as they subscribe to Ketuanan melayu and have crutch mentality in forever relying on special privileges……….
Malays will crumble from internal weaknesses and disappear in era of globalization……….no need for others to colonize them as Mahathir had constantly raised this bogey.
My dad is a racist; so is my mom. Similarly racists are my brother, sister and relatives. All the Malaysian friends I now have are, and those I had were or at the least had been, racists too.
Well, perhaps thanks to all these people, I have become - and remain - a racist as well.
You see, we are the members of a much larger community: Malaysia - the racist nation!
The term community is somewhat misleading. We are not united as such as a nation should be. We are only united by the fact that all of us - at one time or other - had been are or will become, racists......
All of us formally became racists in the year of 1971, when racism was institutionalised in Malaysia. Not that racism didn't exist before: it did; it lurked underneath, which --- as everyone knows --- erupted as the May 13 ethnic riots. Hence came the New Economic Policy, set up to divert the winds off the sails of racism. Ballasting the boat, and listing it in favour of the economically disadvantaged malay-Malaysians may lead to Malaysians seeing each other as equals, it was thought.
Then came the 80s, which also gave Dr Mahathir.
Still, racism remained somewhat otherworldly to me. All of us practiced racism, on the streets, in shops, in schools and in the house, but racism was never blatant - at least in my life. That changed as the 80s came to a close.
malaysian via email
PEOPLE'S POWER
No comments:
Post a Comment