Revisiting the topic of Malay rights from one side of the fence but in view of all.
We (and when I say we, I mean the non-Malays) often complain of the different privileges received by the different races. We condemn frequently organisations such as PERKASA, the “Ketuanan Melayu” mentality, and all the privileges that we see our Malay contemporaries get. We express disgusted disapproval of the inequality.
We whine that Malay is the national language and Islam is the national religion as opposed to our preferred language. Ah! We can also go on about how much sacrifice it is to go to a halal restaurant, because you have a Malay friend with the group.
So, one day say, the Prime Minister tells us that he has the mandate from the Malays and wants to negotiate a compromise. Mr. PM will ask of our dissatisfaction, and we will give him a long list: we want our children to be admitted to all public universities, we want to be given more business licenses, we want to either take away the Bumiputera discount or get the same discount, we want to be given the privilege to buy special shares so as to earn money, and the list goes on.
Mr. PM says, “Fine, we can come to a compromise and I can agree to at least half of your requests, but will you agree to give up vernacular schools and make our education system a one-school system?” Funnily enough, before he can explain how the individual vernacular language will be taught as an elective subject in all schools (private or public) and that it will eventually delete one of the many causes of racial disunity, the strongest protesters of that proposal will be the same persons who claim injustice in the first place.
If change is indeed a goal, there are sacrifices we have to make. We can argue until the cows come home that we are giving up our right to learn our mother tongue and our roots, but we are Malaysians and it is about time we should start acting like Malaysians. Our roots are all here in Malaysia, not in China or India. Do we really expect them to give up what they have been enjoying for more than five decades in the name of change without us making an effort at the same time? If we do, how then can we advocate for fairness?
As many would remember telling me in their wisdom to look at the big picture, and the big picture here is that giving up vernacular schools will mean lesser racial disunity. The usual trend is that the cliques are racial based and that barrier is language. Really, be honest, you would have used the excuse of not being able to have more friends of other races because of language. I have that problem.
The big picture is that if we can accept each other, we can learn from each other and the troubling PERKASA will not exist to protect the rights of the Malays.
The big picture is that there is hope for change.
1) " but will you agree to give up vernacular schools and make our education system a one-school system? "
What has that got to do with unity at all?
2) We whine that Malay is the national language and Islam is the national religion as opposed to our preferred language.
Don't put words into other people's mouths. Most of us never had an issue with national language or national faith.
3) The big picture is that if we can accept each other, we can learn from each other and the troubling PERKASA will not exist to protect the rights of the Malays.
What are you going on about? The issue is CORRUPTION, cliques and proxies allowing parasite behaviour, writing unconstitutional laws in what should be a free enterprise economy.
Eunice, how about endorsing :
1) Freedom from Apartheid/Fascism
2) Freedom from Religious-Persecution/Religious-Supremacy.
3) Equality for all ethnicities and faiths in all aspects of policy, Law and Constitution.
;so we might not mistake what could be ambivalence for lapdoggery spin to justify maintaining status quo?
@Naj
1) They drive around in big cars, they can wake up at 8.00 for a meeting at 9.00 in the city capital because they have escorts making sure they arrive in time. Rakyat biasa on the other hand would have to move aside, and fight for whatever space still available on the road.
Am with you on that. They should consider using helipads or live at their luxurious workplaces. They certainly can afford to.
2) I am disgusted at the amount of hatred directed to the Malays. If you’re angry at something or someone, direct it properly. I am disgusted at how some spell the Malay word using small caps and Chinese using capital C. What, are Malays low class?
There are many structural issues and lapses in the current socio-political environement that amount to apartheid. 2 wrongs do not make a right, but the onus is upon the host race to ensure that equality can be given to all and disenfranchisement via economic discrimination does not occur. It is the protectionist policy and regressive attitudes as well as prohibitive atmosphere that cause these people to communicate their unhappiness. Don't respond to it Naj, they are not doing things in a constructive manner!
But try to consider that all should be equals as in the 3 items below :
1) Freedom from Apartheid/Fascism
2) Freedom from Religious-Persecution/Religious-Supremacy.
3) Equality for all ethnicities and faiths in all aspects of policy, Law and Constitution.
It's just equality and everyone should have their own spaces even while neutral spaces accomodative of everyone must also exist.
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Another case reported that would drive non-Muslims away from National School:
http://www.malaysiakini.com/news/147399
A 10 year old got canned for bringing non-halal food into school. Now, how is bringing non-halal food for your own consumption be deemed insensitive to the Muslim?
A 10 year old traumatized by a racists. The sad news is we have many more such racists running our National Schools.
Wow what an intensive reply Naj, I do apologise that I did type Malay out in small lettering in my previous post but that was not intentional, I think if I typed Chinese it would have been in Little letters too due to the fact that it is easier to type faster without using Caps, so my bad.
To me, I guess I never really notice or was oblivious to the existence of Racism in Malaysia, I just live my life day to day, and Knew all the words to the National anthems and whatever other songs that were sung each morning at the assemblies. It was only of recent years that my parents emphasized the existence of Racism in Malaysia to me. So really I do not regard as any one race above the other, And I did not really observe that from all the other post, that tries to set straight a point rather than displaying any superiority, besides the ones that emphasised their Melayu ness.
And I understand that stereotyping any one race is really not a very accurate depiction of that particular race, Imagine to my horror the one day that I brought home a guy of Indian decent to meet my parents, they made him feel so out of place that I feel so bad that my parents automatically stereotyped him just because of their comprehension of the Indian race. Although it was probably a good thing they scared him off cause he ended up a Multi-Millionaire and my mum would have totally sucked him dry :P.
Errm I probably side tracked heaps, but nonetheless Naj, your post was an interesting Read.
Politicians, especially big shot ones have all the privileges. They drive around in big cars, they can wake up at 8.00 for a meeting at 9.00 in the city capital because they have escorts making sure they arrive in time. Rakyat biasa on the other hand would have to move aside, and fight for whatever space still available on the road. There are lots of people who annoy me on Malaysian roads; people who seem to think that them getting to their destination is way more important than others getting to theirs, people who took up emergency lanes during jams and cilok at the very last minute, you get the idea. And if you have to go to work every morning like I do, you’ll really be able to relate. We the rakyat biasa have to fight for scraps, it has always been like that.
Do racial based parties really look out for their respective races? Or is it just a perception, so that they are relevant to their respective communities, so that everyone keeps voting them?
There are more rakyat biasa then there are politicians, why are we dancing to their tunes of divide and conquer?
There are lots of rakyat biasa who are poor. I’ve seen Chinese men on EX5 (not X5, the beemer, EX5, the Honda kapcai) and God knows how many Indian and Malay men I’ve seen on these kapcais. I drive an EX5 myself. I wonder, when you tell Malays to go eat pork, when you tell the Malays to go balik to Indonesia, when you speak of how disgusting the Malay race is, are you referring to the hardworking kampung folks who ride on these EX5, or the dirty politicians and/or “kabel guys” who ride the X5? Not all Malays get all these so-called privileges, not all Malays have all the kabels, not all Malays work in the public services, not all Malays receive a business license on a silver platter, not all Malays are lazy.
I am disgusted at the amount of hatred directed to the Malays. If you’re angry at something or someone, direct it properly. I am disgusted at how some spell the Malay word using small caps and Chinese using capital C. What, are Malays low class? Do you know how hard it is to not rely on any kabel to get employed where “kebolehan bertutur dan menulis dalam bahasa Cina diutamakan”? I did, I survived, and I do not deserve to be mentioned in such a disgusting manner, and nor do I believe the majority of my race, the rakyat biasa Malays deserve this same disgusting treatment.
And it is Ulik Mayang, not Mayang Ulik. Please learn our national language properly. I am disgusted when one of our doubles won an international badminton championship some time ago but was not able to sing the national anthem!
About language as a barrier, I see it this way; if you do not speak the national language (and by some bizarre coincidence do not know how to sing the national anthem despite regarding yourself as Malaysian, which was the case with several people I know back in my undergrad days in a PUBLIC university IN MALAYSIA), how are you different from Hong Kong, China or Taiwan nationals? If you cannot even comprehend let alone embrace the spirit of this country; its national language, the official religion, toleration between race and religion, how can you be Malaysian? Please everyone just ask ourselves this; are we fighting for a fairer environment, or are we just merely fighting for more (more scraps left over by politicians and kabel guys)? Because I sense that some people are not really looking for justice and/or fairness, they are just fighting for more.
About halal food, anyone can eat halal food. Muslims cannot eat non halal food. If you’re non-Muslim, you can eat anywhere. Islam prohibits its followers from eating non-halal food. Even having ONE non-halal food outlet would be unfair to the Muslims, no? Did anyone ever see this as unfair? I don’t think so. This despite the official religion being Islam. I am not suggesting that non-halal food be banned or anything. My point is, think again; are there nothing at all that you are enjoying and which you treat as normal and not a privilege, which cannot be seen as a disadvantage to the other religion and/or race?
Ahhh, 1969. There was one incident where a Malay policemen was killed, laid in the middle of the road and painted red. This happened near my kampung. It was not documented, of course, to not give rise to racial hatred. All parties were guilty in the 1969 incident, please do not point any fingers to any races in particular.
About unfairness; do you know how many Malays have died (or, were killed) in prison, khidmat negara etc? These are not highlighted in the media compared to the deaths of people of other races in the same environment. I personally know of two sets of parents who’ve had their sons die during police interrogation. Malays just plainly suck at claiming their rights. Especially the kampung folks. That’s why voices of reason need to prevail. Stop speaking of all Malays, or all Chinese or all Indians as lowlifes, guilty, stupid, lazy or whatever. We all have our weaknesses, then again we all have our needs and wants. Fight for the poor and needy, disregard the race. And please, just stop highlighting why YOUR race deserve more. Kita semua rakyat biasa, stop saying your race is better than mine or deserve more.
And I must admit, it took me quite some restraint after reading all that have been written about the Malays.