I like being a Malay. no to racism, no to stereotypes, no to prejudices, NO to all bad things

My interest in Malaysia was invigorated recently when I recently started work with a company in the UK which have 57 branches worldwide. I was absolutely astounded by how many Malaysian there are just in the London office, I am a Malaysia National although I have live my entire adult life outsde of Malaysia. I stumbled on this website and that rekindled my interest and certain posting in the YouTube again reinforced my interest.

I can see social discontentment with the Malaysian I work with, with regard to their very negative views about Malaysia. When I left Malaysia to begin life abroad at 15 years of age, Malaysia was very much a country where opportunity for the indigenous Malays is prominent. I can understand why that is. I have alot of Malay friend then, and I can see why the NEP was implemented, I was in secondary school, and I was very surprised to see that there are Malay students who are alot older than the rest of the students in the same class. I began to question why? The school I was at requires that you pass you end of year exam before going to the next form. These Malay studens have been at it for years thus their retention. If you are of another race, you will be asked to leave the school if you fail you final year exams.
The NEP was implemented to give the Malays a better playing field. However, this was seen by the Malays as an opportunity to have it easy in life, at least for most of them. The Malays never bothered to excel themselves in any field, in the mean time the Chinese and Indians worked harder, and the successful ones leave the country, myself included. The not so successful Chinese and Indians left behind were of course working to aspire to those that have been successful. The Malays on the otherhand remained as they are, I am not saying that all Malays adopted the same attitude. I have Malay friends in the UK too, and guess what, they are very successful individuals too, and I am proud to call them my friends. We still see ourselves as Malaysians despite the fact that we are 6000miles from home.

Success in life is very much dependent on the individuals and also the opportunities and the environment that they are exposed to. The Chinese and the Indians that are not too successful in achieving their flight from Malaysia resorts to other means of being successful, because the NEP is denying them the equal opportunity. The Malays have no worries. This fostered resentment, and I use the word resentment here and not hatred. This is prevalent in an entire generation and coming on to the next generation. I feel really disappointed about this as a Malaysian.

In 2003 the Government appears to conceed to the fact that NEP is not working after 30 years but appears to have caused issues in certain sectors of society, futher to that the world with USA and UK at the helm is fighting ‘Islamism’, after Sept. 11. Muslim governments worldwide saw this as a threat to their power base. So a change is needed in Malaysia, to promote racial harmony and also unity. This I think is long overdue, however, the seed of resentment have been sowed for 30years plus, and trying to ‘fix’ this is going to be some challange.

I believe in helping people who help themselves, and I believe the government can do alot to help communities throughtout Malaysia harmonise and to bridge the racial divide fostered by a policy that has done more harm than good for the nation. With the ever polluting and expanding population in Malaysia, the first steps have to be put in place to ensure that all ethnicity can work harmoniously for their communities and also improving the environment that they are living in.

I feel that there is a good opportunity for Barisan Nasional to bridge this gap and it can be achieved with no or little cost. For instance, providing Carbon foot print free electricity and water, and get the community to work for it themselves but give them the technical know how, and that will take the ‘Mat Rempit’ out of the society that they terrorise with a name and shame policy and to ensure that, that is rigidly enforced with the help of the Army and Police, and this will provide role models for the next generation of Malaysians. I have put my money where my mouth is as I am currently investing in a region that is very deprived in Malaysia, and with technology and knowhow, I will want to regenerate the area. I have had help form Govt.
Organisations, and I am very pleased to have initiated this investment. It is early days, and I hope that in the next five years my aim will pan out and the people’s life in the region will be improved.

We must remember that we are all Malaysians and we must be proud of who we are. Malaysians have a very good reputation abroad, and lets improve on that and make Malaysians proud of Malaysia.

Eid mubarak
Concern Citizen
via email

No comments: