THEY SAY MALAYSIAN MALAYSIA, I HEAR…

What is the true state of a Malaysian Malaysia? What I been hearing lately fills me with dread and disgust. We have Chinese uncles, aunts and brother in law, Indian/Ceylonese grandparents and quite a bit more in our ancestry to qualify me and my wife as a truly ‘rojak’ Malaysian we are so mixed in our ethnicity that the technical definition of race is mere formality.

A true Malaysian Malaysia is a dream I think all Malaysians want to see in their lifetime. But the terrible truth behind the situation today is some of those fighting for a Malaysian Malaysia have an underlying sentiment which is VERY much racially oriented and nobody ever dares meet it head on.

Our leaders are sweating bullets trying to defend the 30% slice of the economic pie for the Malays and nobody ever talks about the 70% dominated by the non-Bumis and this is not counting the so-called Bumi companies with Malay figureheads being controlled by non-Bumis, Ali Baba is still around and not admitting that doesn’t make it go away. A level playing field doesn’t exist and our forefathers who came up with this arrangement should be commended for having the foresight and guts to do something CONCRETE about it instead of simply mouthing off populists sentiments when the reality everywhere else has always been the rich get richer and poor starve. The Russians and even the Americans today are living proof of this, there’s a very nasty distinction between utopia and reality called the human nature survival instincts. Those with economic power will want a social structure that benefits them and they will pay anything to get that. Just as those here who have it will always want more for themselves. Wake up and see the truth, Malays…the ONLY way of true survival is not to depend on others. For every successful Malay, there is still a thousand struggling to eat, lest we forget the poor unfortunates regularly featured on ‘Bersamamu’ and other such programmes. . And Malays who have made it thanks to the system seems to forget this and loudly talk about how we should take away the subsidies/crutches ….hmmmm and the multi million unpaid MARA debts remain unpaid even though they can afford to pay because “hey, ini tanggungjawab kerajaan” never mind that the money is for the next generation of students. It is time for us to help each other instead of depending on the political system because everybody else is getting tired of doing so and our political leaders have sold their soul for power.

The poor should be helped and they should be helped without regard to race or creed. My problem is the best solution our newly elected revolutionary leaders can come up with is to take away Malay rights. How does taking away help from the poor Malays help the poor non-Malays? So they can be poor together? My main point is the fact that this approach is the ‘solution’ du jour for the people fighting for a Malaysian Malaysia show how racially driven they are and in the most malicious way. Wealth is generated and created, one shouldn’t have to rob Peter to pay Paul. At least if we had true thinkers and problem solvers as leaders. This is being proven true everywhere around the world, even when the economy is struggling new millionaires are made every day. Yet the people we have put our faith in can only see competition between the races and any problem is used as an excuse to remove more Malay rights and protection. It is a sickening selectiveness and rather than compete regionally, internationally and globally, they advocate robbing their neighbor to fatten their pockets. My non-Malay genetics hang its sequence in shame. Malaysian Malaysia indeed…

One of the best ways to redress the socio-economic imbalance is education and what do they say? Let’s open up UiTM for the non-Bumis. Last I checked every other IPTA in Malaysia: that is UKM, UM, UPM, UTM, USM, UUM, UNIMAS, UMS, UPSI, IIUM and ALL others except UiTM is open to free competition based on meritocracy (albeit a little quota thrown in to avoid monopoly) and this should be the way for an education/ academic institution. But UiTM is NOT just a university. It was created primarily and solely to help those poor Malays stuck in economic twilight zone thanks to the colonial masters. And we have created many successful individuals at national, regional and even international levels. Go check their webpage and see just EXACTLY what the facts are. Again this automatic perception that anything Malay is mediocre and substandard tells us more about the people thinking it rather than UiTM itself. And despite some successful Malays there are still thousands out there for whom UiTM is their one and only hope to escape poverty. How do I know this? My Indian friend who is a UiTM lecturer and her Chinese colleague verified this, they go all over the country for interviews because some candidates are too poor to even have money to travel for it. There are still Malays who earn less than RM5 a day and the one child out of 8 is their only hope. I would say my friends are truly those who make the change they wish to see. These leaders could learn from them.

Those championing a Malaysian Malaysia talk of competition, yet for every one spot in UiTM there’s 25-200 applicants vying for it depending on the courses. All Bumis, ALL competing to get in. Is that not enough competition? Is that not meritocracy? Yes we need more space in UiTM to accommodate these candidates. Why must competition be against racially divided lines? Seems oxymoronic that they advocate fostering unity by forever bringing up racial differences and highlighting specific issues known to cause discontentment. I see students in schools and others universities STILL being birds of a feather flocking together. Even within the races themselves like tend to be with like…and they are still trotting out that tired old line? When the truth is there are many other ways of fixing the problems, these people keep harping on taking away Malay rights at every opportunity, the only conclusion I see is they themselves are racially oriented with nothing positive on a bigger picture. And the sad thing is many Malaysians whether they are Chinese, Malays or Indians and the DLLs are buying this. A poor neighbor beggars us all and anyone who wants to pursue their agenda at any cost will only lead us down a path of discontent and destruction. We really need to start solving the problems instead of always finding people to blame, committees to form and principles/souls to barter. And the only way political double talk and selling out on the little people will stop is when we ALL TOGETHER start putting the collective good first and egos and agendas last.