Some Malaysians need a dose of reality. Many non-Malay Malaysians, especially those in the middle- to upper-classes, are completely deluded about discrimination in our country.
Yes, there is apartheid in Malaysia.
Yes, there is racism in Malaysia. But the standard prescription of simply ending government preferences for the bumiputra, believe it or not, will end neither apartheid nor racism in this country.
First, let us talk about what apartheid is.
Under apartheid in South Africa, the government violently relocated black South Africans to “reserves” with terrible living standards and zero economic opportunities. Every important public facility was reserved for whites, with substandard accommodation for blacks.
The blacks had virtually zero political representation — no right to vote, no right to hold public office. Blacks could not own land in most of the country.
Now, discrimination in public sector employment, the disbursement of government contracts, and admission to university all exist in Malaysia.
But I would love to see all the whining middle-class Chinese and Indians go up to a black who suffered under apartheid — a black who was driven out of his own country, forced to give up all prospect for political or economic advancement — and tell him that they too know what apartheid is.
Let us be clear about our real problems here, as far as discrimination goes.
The first problem, which is almost always clear to the non-Malays, is that yes, the government discriminates against us. I needn’t elaborate—you know exactly what I mean when I talk about discrimination in the public sector.
But a second problem is private discrimination. Many private employers refuse to hire Malays, arguing that Malays are lazy, stupid, and ignorant. You cannot paper this over by arguing “It’s a free country, so let employers do as they like.”
In the first place, if Malays really lack the competency or qualifications to do the job, employers should not be afraid to make it clear that this is why they rejected a particular candidate.
And in the second place, assuming that these stereotypes are true, we need to fix the root of the problem — we need to better train and educate the Malays.
Our third and most galling problem is that we actually have apartheid—apartheid which makes complaints about the previous two problems pale in comparison.
The Orang Asli, the indigenous peoples of East Malaysia, and the Indians living on our estates all suffer what is basically apartheid. They have little, if any, access to schooling or healthcare — many are illiterate, sickly, and have no prospect of ever sharing in the prosperity which most middle-class Malaysians enjoy.
In East Malaysia, the state and federal governments are content to let wanton development destroy native customary lands — and when the natives protest, they face brutal repression and the rape of their women.
Many Orang Asli are not even free to practice their own religion, with the government tearing down their houses of worship. Just like the blacks of South Africa, these Malaysians lose their homes, lose any hope of economic advancement, and are confined to a life of despair in dwindling estates or thick jungle, safely hidden away from the contentedly ignorant middle class.
The standard non-Malay prescription for fixing “discrimination in Malaysia” is to abolish the New Economic Policy, and maybe repeal Article 153 of the Constitution.
Let me address the issue of Article 153 first.
The spirit of Article 153 is ensuring each community has an equal opportunity to participate in economic life—at the time of independence, and even now, most of our economically-impoverished were and are bumiputra. The point of Article 153 is to help an Iban girl from a longhouse without electricity or running water to go to university, or help the son of a fisherman from the East Coast go to business school.
There is nothing wrong with Article 153 or the principle behind affirmative action — Singapore, of all places, has Article 152 in its Constitution entitled: “Minorities and special position of Malays”.
Nowhere does Article 153 specify that Malays are the masters of Malaysia, or that government racism is acceptable—indeed, it tasks the Yang di-Pertuan Agong with protecting the interests of all Malaysian communities.
In its broadest reading, unlike what the government might tell you, Article 153 does not just protect our bumiputra—it protects the struggling Chinese in the New Villages, the frustrated Indians in the estates, and the beleaguered Orang Asli in our rural interior.
Meanwhile, the non-Malay obsession with abolishing the NEP has gone far beyond the point of rationality—it now often borders on the insane. Many non-Malays are content to believe that the only reason the Malays are “lazy, stupid and ignorant” is because the NEP makes them complacent.
I would be the first to agree that many Malays are complacent because they got rich on government contracts reserved for bumiputra — but I would like to see you call lazy my Malay schoolmates who worked the night shift at fast food restaurants during Aidilfitri, just because overtime wages made the difference in supporting their families.
There are millions of Malays who deserve opportunities and assistance. Right now, maybe 90 per cent of the NEP’s aid goes to undeserving, wealthy bumiputra, and maybe some crumbs, like 10 per cent, go to the truly deserving. But if you abolish the NEP right now, these struggling bumiputra will not even have the NEP’s crumbs to survive on.
Abolishing the NEP is the right move — it will go a long way to eradicating the problem of discrimination in the public sector.
But this abolition must be part of a policy package meant to fix our other two major problems of discrimination. We need to give hardworking, honest and intelligent Malays more avenues to advance themselves; we need to outlaw discrimination of any kind in the workplace; we need to end apartheid in our estates and in our rural heartland.
We cannot abolish the NEP and leave it at that — we need to reform our national schools, to ensure we can prepare our Malay young well for the rigours of university and the workplace. We need to abolish private sector discrimination on the basis of race if we want a real meritocracy. We need to implement an aggressive land reform policy giving control of their land back to the indigenous East Malaysians, and bring development to every corner of the country, from the longhouses to the estates.
The non-Malays, especially the chattering middle-classes, need to stop being so self-centred, and wake up to the realities of discrimination in our country. Abolishing the NEP and talking about vague plans for some sort of poverty-related affirmative action is weak sauce. If you want a real meritocracy, put your money where your mouth is — start talking about rewarding our Malays who deserve better, ending racism in the private sector, and eradicating the apartheid in our rural interior.
MI
15/11/09
Yes, there is apartheid in Malaysia.
Yes, there is racism in Malaysia. But the standard prescription of simply ending government preferences for the bumiputra, believe it or not, will end neither apartheid nor racism in this country.
First, let us talk about what apartheid is.
Under apartheid in South Africa, the government violently relocated black South Africans to “reserves” with terrible living standards and zero economic opportunities. Every important public facility was reserved for whites, with substandard accommodation for blacks.
The blacks had virtually zero political representation — no right to vote, no right to hold public office. Blacks could not own land in most of the country.
Now, discrimination in public sector employment, the disbursement of government contracts, and admission to university all exist in Malaysia.
But I would love to see all the whining middle-class Chinese and Indians go up to a black who suffered under apartheid — a black who was driven out of his own country, forced to give up all prospect for political or economic advancement — and tell him that they too know what apartheid is.
Let us be clear about our real problems here, as far as discrimination goes.
The first problem, which is almost always clear to the non-Malays, is that yes, the government discriminates against us. I needn’t elaborate—you know exactly what I mean when I talk about discrimination in the public sector.
But a second problem is private discrimination. Many private employers refuse to hire Malays, arguing that Malays are lazy, stupid, and ignorant. You cannot paper this over by arguing “It’s a free country, so let employers do as they like.”
In the first place, if Malays really lack the competency or qualifications to do the job, employers should not be afraid to make it clear that this is why they rejected a particular candidate.
And in the second place, assuming that these stereotypes are true, we need to fix the root of the problem — we need to better train and educate the Malays.
Our third and most galling problem is that we actually have apartheid—apartheid which makes complaints about the previous two problems pale in comparison.
The Orang Asli, the indigenous peoples of East Malaysia, and the Indians living on our estates all suffer what is basically apartheid. They have little, if any, access to schooling or healthcare — many are illiterate, sickly, and have no prospect of ever sharing in the prosperity which most middle-class Malaysians enjoy.
In East Malaysia, the state and federal governments are content to let wanton development destroy native customary lands — and when the natives protest, they face brutal repression and the rape of their women.
Many Orang Asli are not even free to practice their own religion, with the government tearing down their houses of worship. Just like the blacks of South Africa, these Malaysians lose their homes, lose any hope of economic advancement, and are confined to a life of despair in dwindling estates or thick jungle, safely hidden away from the contentedly ignorant middle class.
The standard non-Malay prescription for fixing “discrimination in Malaysia” is to abolish the New Economic Policy, and maybe repeal Article 153 of the Constitution.
Let me address the issue of Article 153 first.
The spirit of Article 153 is ensuring each community has an equal opportunity to participate in economic life—at the time of independence, and even now, most of our economically-impoverished were and are bumiputra. The point of Article 153 is to help an Iban girl from a longhouse without electricity or running water to go to university, or help the son of a fisherman from the East Coast go to business school.
There is nothing wrong with Article 153 or the principle behind affirmative action — Singapore, of all places, has Article 152 in its Constitution entitled: “Minorities and special position of Malays”.
Nowhere does Article 153 specify that Malays are the masters of Malaysia, or that government racism is acceptable—indeed, it tasks the Yang di-Pertuan Agong with protecting the interests of all Malaysian communities.
In its broadest reading, unlike what the government might tell you, Article 153 does not just protect our bumiputra—it protects the struggling Chinese in the New Villages, the frustrated Indians in the estates, and the beleaguered Orang Asli in our rural interior.
Meanwhile, the non-Malay obsession with abolishing the NEP has gone far beyond the point of rationality—it now often borders on the insane. Many non-Malays are content to believe that the only reason the Malays are “lazy, stupid and ignorant” is because the NEP makes them complacent.
I would be the first to agree that many Malays are complacent because they got rich on government contracts reserved for bumiputra — but I would like to see you call lazy my Malay schoolmates who worked the night shift at fast food restaurants during Aidilfitri, just because overtime wages made the difference in supporting their families.
There are millions of Malays who deserve opportunities and assistance. Right now, maybe 90 per cent of the NEP’s aid goes to undeserving, wealthy bumiputra, and maybe some crumbs, like 10 per cent, go to the truly deserving. But if you abolish the NEP right now, these struggling bumiputra will not even have the NEP’s crumbs to survive on.
Abolishing the NEP is the right move — it will go a long way to eradicating the problem of discrimination in the public sector.
But this abolition must be part of a policy package meant to fix our other two major problems of discrimination. We need to give hardworking, honest and intelligent Malays more avenues to advance themselves; we need to outlaw discrimination of any kind in the workplace; we need to end apartheid in our estates and in our rural heartland.
We cannot abolish the NEP and leave it at that — we need to reform our national schools, to ensure we can prepare our Malay young well for the rigours of university and the workplace. We need to abolish private sector discrimination on the basis of race if we want a real meritocracy. We need to implement an aggressive land reform policy giving control of their land back to the indigenous East Malaysians, and bring development to every corner of the country, from the longhouses to the estates.
The non-Malays, especially the chattering middle-classes, need to stop being so self-centred, and wake up to the realities of discrimination in our country. Abolishing the NEP and talking about vague plans for some sort of poverty-related affirmative action is weak sauce. If you want a real meritocracy, put your money where your mouth is — start talking about rewarding our Malays who deserve better, ending racism in the private sector, and eradicating the apartheid in our rural interior.
MI
15/11/09
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