First up I believe intrinsically everyone is racist to some degree, every single person. It's human nature, people fear what is different from them and are generally most comfortable with their own 'kind'. Granted it varies hugely (From Nazis and skinheads with pure hatred for non Arians to Positive racism). I mean here's an example, you would agree that Africans/Carribeans/African-Americans are the best atheletes in the world right? Well it's true, they are, but that's a racial stereotype, and well it just happens to be true, and yes it's a positive thing, but it's still a judgement based on race, thus racist. Positive racism in some cases however as gone so far, that is another rant for another day tho..
People of every race tend to whine about other races, it's normal. Whites in UK moan about pakistanis, eastern europeans, the french, the germans and vice versa.
When I was in UK I had Chinese, Pakistani, Bengali, Black and Burmese friends, so I tasted many sides of the equation.
There is a big problem with racism in Malaysia, it's mostly in the sense of positive racism and the 'Bumi' status (cheaper houses, lower interest rates, easier acamedic lives and so on)..
Malay folks get many easy breaks and advantages solely based on their race, which in turn makes them lazier as they aren't required to work so hard as the other races to acheive the same thing. The sad thing is the policy was a good one initially, it's just too out of date now and it's doing more bad than good..
Jordan Macvay also wrote something interesting about this called Malaysia's Two Solitudes, he also has a leg in each culture, being married to a Malay lady and working mostly with Chinese.
Pick Yin also followed up on this..
It's mostly like an open secret, it's always discussed, but never openly, always without the same racial group.
Here also I have a diversity of friends, Malay, Baba, Nyonya, Chinese, Sino-Kadazan and Indian (Both Indian Indian and local Indian), so I also get to hear many sides of the story...
There has also been books about the issue, the most recent one being The Chinese Dilemma, in part this book is a follow up or revisit of Mahatir's famous first work The Malay Dilemma..
The power of the Chinese is exaggerated and the laziness of the Malays is overrated, they still both exist in pockets but apparently the field is more even nowdays..
What sparked this off anyway? Hmm shall I just cuss everyone?
Some dude in this office eating like he's a third world tree ape, wtf man, no one wants see your half digested food, shut your mouth when you eat and stop smacking your lips. I don't know why it just causes the rage to rise in me and I start mumbling insults under my breath and feel like punching the guy in the face.
Anyway...I find a lot of Malays in the business world arrogant, and yet they have nothing to be arrogant about, they have no skills, the work they produce is poor, they are in the position due to a family tie, someone they know, and mostly because of their race. Do they realise this? And do they care?
The Tidak Apa attitude still prevails, mostly born from the all the easy breaks the Bumi's get, from the education system, through into the work place. The civil service in Malaysia is a joke and many mostly Malay companies are the same, they work short hours, do little work and when you expect them to do some work they do everything to get out of it. Mostly it's not their fault, it's the systems fault, the government, the establishment, the society, the culture...not the individual, but every individual could work to change it, but due to the problem itself, they wont.
An example is customer service in Malaysia, it's still non-existent, it's still secondary, take the money first, fuck the service, fuck the return business. The big companies are monopolies here so they don't care..I will say however, Maxis customer service is getting pretty good.
The work place is still fairly segregated too, most big companies in Malaysia are Malay..
Like where I am now, this floor has 0 Chinese, >5 indians and 1 matt salleh (me)..The whole company from what I've seen so far (1000+ employees) has less than 10 chinese, probably less than 50 indians, the rest Malay.
Look at all the small start up companies, those fighting for business, those people making money, those people taking risks, are any of those companies Malay companies? Very, very few...they are mostly Chinese and Indian.
The Malay start-ups only start up when they can get a lucrative government contract that they don't have to work hard on through a contact. It's like the way tenders and proposals are done here for the big companies, generally it's who you know, or how much you bribe, not who does the best work and has the skillset for the job (Look at the MRR2). This is changing somewhat, but the whole system still stinks, and it's actually bad for the country..
Most of the talented people in the country leave, because of this exact problem, the smart Malays have two options, they can use their skills abroad, do something interesting, exciting, innovative, or stay in Malayia, learn to abuse the system and their family ties and make shit loads of money.
Many of the late twenties Chinese also go overseas to earn more, and have qualms about coming back, an interesting E-mail was posted on Jeff Ooi's blog recently.
The reasons keeping Malaysians away from Malaysia..
As I read all this, I tremble with fear. I love my country and long to return. I am willing to take a 70% pay cut. I am willing to face a demotion. I honestly want to contribute my expertise in complex financial services and capital markets. But really, is there a future for me, for my children and for their children? I am truly frightened.
I can deal with the lack of democracy, the lack of press freedom, the ISA, our inefficient and bureaucratic civil service, our awful manners and even a little corruption. But I cannot deal with racism in my homeland.
There are also cases like Dr Gomez having no reason to return to Malaysia because of stupid short sighted views.
The lack of meritocracy in the Malaysian education system is frightening, the problem is it creates more disparity and continues into the work place..
The Chinese and Indians have to work much harder to get the same results, by doing this they are also improving themselves, the Malays however can sit back a bit so when they both reach the corporate world, even tho the non Bumi's have been at a disadvantage, they actually end up better of, so in the end the system is hurting everyone.
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