The party is over!

Mariam Mokhtar
16 December 2009

Malaysians are living in an Age of Denial and fast speeding into the Age of Desolation. I hesitate to say the Age of Despair, for despair suggests loss of hope.

And I have faith. Faith, in my fellow Malaysians, moved by a groundswell of anti-racism sentiment.

Over the past few years, the voice of racism has reached a crescendo. Our society does not dare utter the R word. And I blame politicians for not addressing this issue head on. Each expects the next wave of leaders to tackle it. They didn't or wouldn't. So, now we succumb to conflict and confusion.

Malaysia is supposed to be the bed-rock of multiculturalism. But the horrid slogan ketuanan Melayu (Malay supremacy) is throttling the other soundbite - '1Malaysia'. I don't like the former and I dislike the latter even more.

Without qualifying ketuanan Melayu, the term is impotent. Similarly '1Malaysia' remains another empty slogan - sounds good, but lacks substance and definition.

Our politicians live in a world pretty much divorced from reality. For decades, they used the race card to divide and rule us. With lives to lead, careers to pursue and mouths to feed, we simply ignored them and carried on earning and living. But things have come to a head. Many working and middle-class Malaysians can no longer contain their disgust.

Ketuanan Melayu = Malay supremacy; 1Malaysia = national unity and ethnic tolerance. You can't insist on the latter while still persisting with the former. It is a contradiction in terms.

The world is getting smaller but not in the Malay universe. Other nations have dismantled their barriers for a more cohesive society, but we Malays are building our walls faster than we can mouth the words ketuanan Melayu. If we are not careful, we'll build our walls high enough and thick enough to hem ourselves in. Bricked up from the real world.

It is all a question of perception. The Malays are misguided if they are convinced by the fallacy of ketuanan Melayu. The politicians who expound this idea are self-serving.

They sell this idea to the poor and poverty-stricken Malay, saying that an equal and fair Malaysia will only encourage the non-Malays to remove what little wealth they have. Recipients of this news become petrified, and cling on firmer to the farcical ketuanan Melayu.

As for the privileged Malay, it would be financial suicide to forego the status, prestige and recognition he's accustomed to.

In reality, politicians are doing more harm to the ordinary Malay and all Malaysians. They only protect their own interests and the interests of those who pander to their wishes.

Cycle of discontent

The wealthy Malay probably constitutes only 3 percent of the Malay population. In relative terms, little, if any, wealth has filtered down to the ordinary Malay.

Gaudy mansions, fast cars, designer clothes, international schooling, holidays abroad, first-class travel, overseas properties, offshore bank accounts, private jets and helicopters are de rigueur for the wealthy Malay.

Of course, the poor Malay aspires to have all these and more. He assumes that the NEP has accorded the rich Malay his correct station in life and rightful place in society.

Can he be so gullible or naïve as to believe that corruption did not figure in any of these vulgar displays of wealth? Those at the top will never relinquish their position. At best, or when it suits them, they will appease those beneath them with a scattering of crumbs.

Thus, from the top and right down to the bottom-feeders, these people are content. But contentment breeds complacency. And complacency breeds contempt.

For every inch that the Malay is entitled to under the current rules, the non-Malay has had to fight for limited spaces in education, job opportunities and wealth creation..

Whilst the Malay has only to sit back and watch things land on his plate, his non-Malay counterpart has had to use his ingenuity to succeed.

Competition brings out the best in people and only the best get selected. But think of the others who are also able but are not chosen. They feel disillusioned and trapped in a system that is unjust and unfair. Disillusionment gives rise to discontentment, which in turn, raises discord..

For every argument that some errant politician makes about non-Malay Malaysians, patronisingly referred to as 'immigrants', the non-Malays feel immense betrayal.

No one doubts the allegiance of non-Malays to King and country. But when your sense of loyalty is questioned and tested, then those whose ideals are shattered will emigrate. Much talent has already been exported. It is Malaysia that suffers.. Malays too feel the pain of injustice and discrimination. Many have also jumped ship.

We need to strike a balance between a just and fair social system, economic growth and job creation. We cannot have one section of society maintaining a separate, inward-looking community that feels it is a cut above the rest of mainstream life and whose values are at conflict with it.

How can the marginalised be expected to inculcate a sense of pride in their national identity? Removing their dignity and worth, removes their sense of belonging. Is this the game plan then?

I fail to understand why our leaders refuse to acknowledge that mistakes have been made by others before them and also by themselves. Do they not comprehend that they too can be part of the solution?

There are signs that our politicians and certain institutions are strongly resisting change. They do not wish to inflame the hyperactive sensitivities of certain groups of people. But in doing so, they hold the rest of the country to ransom.

We need to get our country back on track - we need strong leaders. Not those who swan abroad on one pretext or another. We do not need international statesmen.

We need someone here and now, to address pressing domestic issues - maintaining good and harmonious race relations is no longer an optional matter for the majority group.

Education: A little dose of reality

M H Harun
15 December 2009

I refer to the letters SPM Limit: Why Not Pick Japanese and French Too and SPM: 'History', 'Moral Education' Should Be Optional.

Many years ago in the University of Western Australia, Perth, a final year philosophy undergraduate was sitting for his final exam.

One of the questions asked was: 'What is bravery?'. Many students wrote pages and pages of elaboration citing theories and case studies but he only wrote two words: 'Bravery is.'

He raised his hand after the 15-minute compulsory minimum attempt time and left the examination hall. He scored an A. The others didn't.

Can this happen in Malaysia? Sorry, never in a 100 years. I was skimming through some sample STPM history papers the other day and was shocked to see that our A-level equivalent questions rewards memorisation instead of understanding.

Good questioning should apply the higher levels of Bloom's taxonomy such as "discuss", "predict", or even "analyse". Learning history should be about reading between the lines.

In my opinion a good question would go: "Discuss the implications if the Malayan Communist Party succeeded in its struggle to gain independence from the British."

Answer should go like, "If the Malayan Communist Party succeeded in its struggle to gain independence from the British then this would end the era of the Malay sultanate as what had happened to the last Chinese emperor, Pu Yi after World War II. Malaya would have become a republic".

Continue writing until you exhaust your capacity to answer intelligently.

In most cases our education syllabus is as good as those of developed nations but the assessment method especially examinations are somewhat disappointing.

For example, writing a formal letter is an essential communication skill and thus should not be an optional question in the Bahasa Malaysia and English papers. It should be an assignment that carries 10 percent weightage.

Remembering historical facts is good but it would be better to assess it in the form of a multiple choice test that carries 20 percent weightage. And I agree that some compulsory SPM subjects are not worth taking.

The ten SPM subject limit is a good move by the government. But students should have the liberty to choose which subjects he or she wants to take.

In my opinion, the only compulsory exam subject (to take) is Bahasa Malaysia. Students choose the other eight or nine subjects based on certain rules.

For example, you shouldn't take both Pendidikan Islam and Pendidikan Moral and you must take at least one mathematical subject.

Perhaps it is time the government reintroduce examination fees. If you want to take more subjects by all means take them. But you have to pay. That's one way of making sure that students don't overload unnecessarily.

As a teacher, I do not fancy the exam-oriented approach in our education system. I'm probably biased in this view but that's probably because I have been teaching indigenous kids for many years.

No matter how much effort I give, their exam results do not reflect my sacrifices and dedication throughout the whole year.

I was screaming my lungs out in frustration while driving home the day we obtained their UPSR transcripts. I tried to look at the positive; these people grow up to be excellent fishermen and farmers.

They barely have any criminal records. They are never arrogant. Some managed to gain employment in the public sector. My colleagues and I might have done something right somewhere.

You see the master product of our national education philosophy isn't that astronaut with pinup boy looks. And by far it's not those kids who took 10 extra SPM subjects and "coincidently" scored As in every one of them.

Success in school does not equate to success in life. And failure in school does not equate to failure in life.

Bumi varsity quota not racist, says Dr M

Malaysiakini

14 December 2009

Keturunan Malaysia:

Please Tun (Dr Mahathir Mohamad), no one is saying we should not help the "poor" but what we are saying is why at the expense of those who are more than well-qualified but have to unfairly suffer from the lack of a level-playing field. Most are poor too but their only sin is because they are not "sons and daughters of the soil".

Ahmad Kamal:

(1) Affirmative action policies are temporary special measures as a matter of principle. (2) It is quite difficult to justify continuous affirmative action for an ethnic grouping that constitutes a majority of the population. (3) Are Malays and natives of Sabah/Sarawak equal in their bumi rights?

Some years ago when Tun was in government, there are already views that Malay support to university places should be restructured in terms of private financial support and not government support per se. Get back to the drawing board please. The 13 general election is on the horizon.

Jbss:

Mahathir has conveniently forgotten that it was because of this racist policy that prevented good non-Malay students from entering state-run universities/institutions so more private institutions were forced to be set up to cater for the growing demand for places of learning in higher institutions and at great expense to the non-Malay students.

The demand for places in private institutions has grown so much and enrolment has multiplied, this old cunning fox now uses this as the basis for the 'apartheid' policy which has been in place for decades!

Rationalise it in whichever way you like, it is official discrimination, racist, apartheid-like because it deprives other citizens (based on their ethnic origin) of equal opportunities to enjoy education at state-run institutions of higher learning financed by the taxpayers' money.

Kee Thuan Chye:

Not all non-Malay parents can afford to send their children to private universities. Many are forced to work harder to earn the money to provide higher education for their children. This has been their unenviable lot especially from the time Mahathir took over as PM. It's easy for him to talk; he does not know first-hand the plight of non-Malay parents.

Kgan:

"Mahathir added that the extra attention and opportunities given to the bumiputeras did not mean that the other races were sidelined."

This is like saying that the apartheid system in South Africa did not marginalise blacks. Non-Malay parents have to save and scrimp to send their children to private universities because opportunities in public universities are so lacking for them. Even if they can get in, they are given less desirable courses. Is this discrimination or not?

Mahathir, you bloody racist, the time when you can spew out some rubbish and expect it to be accepted wholesale by a fawning press is over. If you can't say anything right, keep your mouth shut and save whatever dregs of your tainted legacy is still left.

Doc:

The issue of bumi quota in the public universities has not been such a hot topic as in the past. Public perception of public universities are to mass produce graduates where quantity is important not quality.

Non-bumis over the years have realised the importance of a good education. They save their earnings to put their children into good and reputable universities (locally or overseas) for two reasons. The first is in ensuring their children are better qualified and have the edge when entering the job market, thus earning a higher salary. The second is for migration purposes.

Louis:

TDM said that the bumis cannot afford fees in private institution. He must be joking. Why must a bumi want to spend his own money when he could easily get scholarships? I am very much poorer than many Malays, but I managed to put my children through tertiary education with my meagre income.

I have witnessed with my own eyes, bumiputeras driving Mercs, BMWs, Volvos and Honda Accord are using scholarships to put their children to universities. I bear no grudges if such scholarships are given to poor Malays in the kampung.

The irony is that it is those rich Malays who are manipulating the political system so that they will enjoy those privileges while hoodwinking the poor in the kampung to support them.

Multi Racial:

How could a former PM talk like this? If we want to help those weak in their study, this is not the way. You will only make thing worse for them. Unfortunately there are those Malays who can compete with non-Malays anytime and anywhere but are now seen as part of those who were helped by the government in their education.

The time has come for the government to put things right. All the mistakes done by past administration has to be stopped before it is too late. Focus on quality and not quantity. Focus on Malaysians, and not just one race.

Boonpou:

If there is a level-playing field, do you think the private universities in Malaysia would have such high non-Malay enrolments. Do you think non-Malay parents enjoy borrowing money from whichever sources to send their children to these private universities?

It is sad that a man of your age are still trapped, to borrow a phrase from the late Syed Hussein Alatas, in this "myth of the lazy natives [Malays]" mentality. Of course, we know that you are not entirely that stupid or have gone senile. All along you have capitalised on this myth to advance your own political career and racist agenda.

At the end of the day, how much longer could you indulge yourself in such immoral agenda? Most decent Malaysians are no longer haunted by this colonial myth. We do not need to have a Malaysian Oxford, Cambridge or Harvard in order to feel that we can think.

Foo Wy Len:

Dr M, please explain that to my daughter who has all As in her SPM, and yes, she is in a private university, and yes, every single sen is paid by me from my saving as a poor school teacher!

Colour of the Wind

"Think you own whatever land you land on
Earth is just a dead thing you can claim
But I know every rock and tree and creature
Has a life, has a spirit, has a name
Think the only people who are people
Are the people who look and think like you
But if you walk the footsteps of a stranger
You learn things you never knew
You never knew

Have you ever heard the wolf cry
to the blue corn moon?

or ask the grinning bobcat why he grinned
Can you sing with all the voices
of the mountains?

Can you paint with all the colors of the wind?
Can you paint with all the colors of the wind?

Come run the hidden pine trails of the forest
Come taste the sun sweet berries of the earth
Come roll in all the riches all around you
And for once, never wonder what they're worth
The rainstorm and the river are my brothers
And the heron and the otter are my friends
And we are all connected to each other
In a circle, in a hoop that never ends

Have you ever heard the wolf cry
to the blue corn moon?
or ask the grinning bobcat why he grinned
Can you sing with all the voices
of the mountains?
Can you paint with all the colors of the wind?
Can you paint with all the colors of the wind?

How high does the sycamore grow
If you cut it down, then you'll never know
And you'll never hear the wolf cry
To the blue corn moon
Or whether we are white or copper-skinned
We need to sing with all the voices of the mountains
Need to paint with all the colours of the wind
You can own the Earth and still all you'll own is earth
Until you can paint with all the colors of the wind"

A song by Vanessa William

'Keling' - they helped make this country great

Mohd Idris Hassan
11 December 2009

I refer to the Malaysiakini report Of noisy Indians and 'keling' blood: Utusan strikes again.

The attacking of fellow Malaysians by the mainstream media Utusan Malaysia because of their race is unwarranted and most uncalled for. I remember in the late forties when I was a little boy living in my hometown of Raub, Pahang.

I used to pass road gangs of Tamil labourers toiling in the midday's scorching sun from dawn till dusk. Armed with only picks and shovels, they would be hacking at solid rocks to carve out roads along the mountain side.

They had no proper attire, just a withered white towel tied in turban form on their heads. They would wrap rags around their spindly legs to prevent the hot molten tar from scalding them as they went about their chores.

Yet they had time to smile and wave at passing cars. They used to be referred to as 'coolies' and their slave-like living quarters as coolie lines. My late father used to tell us that most of the roads in Malaya at the turn of the century were built solely by Indian labour.

They toiled in the malaria-infested rubber estates, living with their families in filthy inhuman conditions. The white 'tuan' treated them like slaves and allowed them to indulge in drinking toddy to forget their woes .

Yet again it was the same coolies called 'toties' who serviced our bucket system latrines until the early sixties as there were no takers for this job from the other races. I have seen for myself these 'toties' cleaning the rubber tubs at a stream not far from my house with their bare hands.

In short, when there was any dirty, menial job to be done, it was this Tamil coolie, then often called by the derogatory term 'keling', that did it for us.

Now times have changed and their offsprings have made much progress in all fields and want to take their rightful place in our society .Let's not pour scorn on them and laugh away their pride.

As a soldier I know that many of my Indian/Tamil friends who fought and died for this country . They all are a part of those who stood by us during the good and bad times, they have helped make this country great.

A country which rightfully belongs to all Malaysians.

Let's talk about racism

Sim Kwang Yang
12 December 2009

We all know that the politics of race has always been the bedrock of Malaysian political culture in the last six decades. The success of the early Alliance and then the Barisan Nasional coalitions comprising race-based parties was due in large part to the electorate's acceptance that Malaysian power-sharing was based on the negotiation between races.

Politicians and their parties fighting for the rights and interests of their race have been the ideological orthodoxy all these while. Nobody would think of calling any ministers or political parties 'racist”, because racism was perhaps deemed politically correct.

Things must have really changed when we witness in recent days the great Malay nationalist icon Dr Mahathir Mohamad and senior Umno cabinet minister Mohd Nazri Abdul Aziz trading personal insults in public, calling each other “racist”.

All of a sudden, the terms “racist” and “racism” have become bad words, as they should be long ago. The question is: What makes a person a racist, and what is racism?

Wikipedia gives the following definition of racism:

“Racism is the belief that race is a primary determinant of man traits and capacities and those racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race. In the case of institutional racism, certain racial groups may be denied rights or benefits, or get preferential treatment.

“Racial discrimination typically points out taxonomic differences between different groups of people, although anyone may be discriminated against on an ethnic or cultural basis, independently of their somatic differences. According to the United Nations conventions, there is no distinction between the term racial discrimination and ethnic discrimination.”

Earnest Gellner would argue that there are differences between the idea of “race” and “ethnicity”, the former emphasising on the mythical bond of blood ties and the latter relying on common cultural heritage. But that is another topic for another time.

Emergence of racism

Looking back in history, the first time that racism first assumed political significance must be when European powers encountered strange peoples from other cultures in far away lands at the beginning of empire building a few hundred years ago.

It also coincided with the beginning of the emergence of the modern nation-states and the fall of the old empires in the European continent.

The technologically and militarily superior Europeans were certain to be Eurocentric in their judgement of these so-called “barbaric, primitive, and pagan races” in Africa, North and South Americas, and finally Asia, New Zealand, and Australia.

Towards the end of the 19th century, Social Darwinism was already in vogue in Europe, with thinkers trying to apply the Darwinian theory of natural selection to human races and individuals, when the theory was originally used in reference to animal and plant species. Fortunately for our human species, this faulty theory is all but abandoned today.

Then, in late 19th century Europe, Dr Francis Galton practically invented the science of eugenics, the study of selective breeding so as to improve the human stock.

Eugenics gained a respectable following in the 20th century, and the core idea of the genes somehow determining the moral and intellectual character of the human individuals was accepted en masse by Hitler's Nazi ideology.

That is the underlying philosophy of racism - that some races are superior to others by virtue of their superior genes.

For fear that their superior German Aryan blood may be polluted by the inferior blood of the Jews and other minority groups, Hitler ordered his Final Solution that saw the genocide of six million people.

Partly because of the global guilt over the holocaust, the United Nations formed after World War Two made it a point to pass the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and made it morally incorrect for any nation or groups to persecute or discriminate anyone based on creed, religion or race.

But the political appeal of primordial tribalism was still too great to be resisted. As an instrument for mass mobilisation, as an anchor for personal identity, and as a mythical pointer to the collective destiny of the community, “race” hits at the nadir of our guts immediately.

After World War Two, the survival and glory of the race were the rallying cry of many groups in those former colonies of the Western imperial powers all over the world. They used the ready-made ideology for their brand new nationalism in Africa, Asia, and South America, alongside the revolutionary slogans of the communists.

Out of Africa II

It was thus that the early founding fathers of Malaysia were drawn into the power of racial equations, and Malaysian politics has always been racial since then.

The person who laid down the theoretical groundwork for the Malay nationalism as narrated by Umno is none other than Dr Mahathir Mohamad through his magnum opus 'The Malay Dilemma'.

In his article 'Racism: Towards Year Zero', Dr Kua Kia Soong has this to say about Dr M's theoretical work:

“Mahathir is obviously not familiar with the philosophy of the social sciences; otherwise he would have known that 'race' as a concept has been discredited in social science years now and any social scientist worth his/her salt would not dare to air such racial theories in respectable centres of learning.”

Kua is right of course. Not only is racism banished from the social science, it is also exiled to the margin in politics in developed liberal democracies, and ultra-right nationalist groups seldom get the public support to take government power.

The tenets and dogmas of racism have also lost much of their credibility because of the advance in the physical science, especially in the science of genetics.

Until today, there is no scientific proof that our genes have any determination over our intelligence, our moral character, or our mental capabilities. I would even posit that scientists will never succeed in this mission impossible as long as humankind cannot resolve Rene Descartes' bifurcation of the human individual into mind and matter.

In contrast, recent studies in genetics have shown that the genetical differences that determine the physical variations among the various races are negligible in our collective genome!

Two recent studies also show that all human races are descended from a small band of homo sapiens in the plains of Africa.

One study named Out of Africa II traced the footsteps of all humans to a small group of new human beings in Africa slightly more than one million years ago. Through archeological and other evidences, they trace human's migration over land bridges made possible by climate conditions from Africa to other parts of the world.

The other theory called the Eve Theory takes advantage of the fact that the chromosome materials are transferred unchanged from the mitochondria of the mother to the daughter. By studying and comparing the mitochondrial genes of all women all over the world, these scientists claimed that they can trace the ancestry of all human groups to one woman in Africa, whom they named Eve.

This is the latest paradigm concerning the origin of our human species.

It exists only in our minds

In short, “race' and “ethnicity” are cultural construct; they exist in our language and our mind only. They do not exist objectively like the sun or the moon, or like the living species called homo sapiens.

That is not to say that the terms “race” and 'ethnicity” have no meanings and should be discarded. They have rich meaning in our cultural history, and have allowed us to build up a beautifully diverse depository of cultural and historical narratives that form our collective human civilisation.

But as the ideological basis for political action, the temporary success of racism and racial politics is exceeded only by their intellectual and theoretical poverty. They may prevail for a while, but in the long run, racial prejudices and racial hatred will not be able to stand the test of historical time.

The sooner Malaysian politicians, community leaders, public intellectuals, commentators and opinion makers veer away from racist and racial conversation, the better it is for the democratic future of all Malaysians.

After all, we are all brothers and sisters of one human race.

Forum speakers flay 'Ketuanan Melayu'

Aidila Razak
12 December 2009

The concept of Ketuanan Melayu (Malay supremacy) and the Social Contract is a political ploy used by the ruling coalition to remain in power, argued DAP vice-chairman Tunku Abdul Aziz Ibrahim.

“If there is such a thing as a Malaysian social contract, it is one that has nothing to do with (Malay) privileges but instead outlines the government's responsibility to protect its people,” he told an audience of about 80 people at the Annexe Gallery in Kuala Lumpur today.

Abdul Aziz were one of four speakers at a 90-minute forum alongside UKM social scientist and Sisters in Islam stalwart Noraini Othman, Malaysian history expert Clive Kessler and Petaling Jaya city councillor Richard Yeoh.

The forum entitled 'The Myth of Malay Supremacy' was organised by Research for Social Advancement (Refsa), which is also headed by Yeoh.

According to Abdul Aziz, what people perceive as the social contract is actually an understanding by the country's founding fathers that to “live together, we must work together”.

“Our founding fathers were men of liberal ideas and never thought of special privileges for Malays,” he said.

Abdul Aziz also noted that Malaysia, as a nation, is still a work in progress as the country has yet to find its own identity due to non-inclusive policies.

“There is only a reasonable chance for everyone to have a common Malaysian identity if we all feel fairly included by the policies which govern us… not when people feel that Malaysia is largely a Malay-centric place,” he said.

1Malaysia concept 'vague'

When asked if the 1Malaysia concept addresses the issue of a shared identity, Abdul Aziz said the idea championed by Najib Razak is very vague and that even the prime minister has failed to explain.

Tunku said that DAP's 'Malaysian Malaysia' is one that “does not discriminate nor endorses the torturing of its citizens.”

He however added that while the phrase has been used heavily by DAP, it has been his personal belief even before he joined the party last year.

Tunku also said that the Malaysian Malaysia concept when it was first introduced by then People's Action Party leader Lee Kuan Yew in the 1960s, there was still a lot of distrust among the various ethnic communities due to vast economic disparity.

This is a view shared by Noraini, who said that the concept is appropriate now as there is a large proportion of middle-class Malaysians who are “ready… to be a part of a nation as equal citizens.”

She conceded however that there is still a psychological barrier, in which many Malays still feel they are not ready to let go of their crutches.

This is a vicious cycle where people are kept in a sort of feudal captive mindset,” she said.

Noraini, who is the co-author of the book 'Sharing the Nation', added that the very concept of Ketuanan Melayu make her cringe as it evokes “notions of enslavement”.

In Malay classical terms, the word 'ketuanan' implies lordship over captives, which is a pre-feudal concept that is out of sync in 1957, 1963 and today,” she said.

Like Abdul Aziz, she warned against falling into the “trap” of Ketuanan Melayu, which she deemed as a “political project.”

Origins of Ketuanan Melayu

According to Yeoh, the term 'Ketuanan Melayu' first came about in a speech by former aide to then prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad, Abdullah Ahmad, who in 1989 said that Malays should be dominant in political leadership.

"It was a fairly benign speech and most of us have no problem with it, but it has been to mean Malay supremacy by some Umno leaders who don't necessarily know what it means,” he said.

He also said that the term should also be taken in context, as it came at a time when Umno was "at the throes of dispute” with Tunku Razaleigh Hamzah actively challenging Mahathir's leadership.

Yeoh added that the constitution only provides for special privileges for Malays in areas which already existed prior to independence, and that no new special preferences were to be added.

He contended that such affirmative policies may have actually weighed the Malay community down.

“Malays would achieve all that they have achieved, and maybe even more, without this divisive term that is Ketuanan Melayu,” he said.

Meanwhile, Kessler added that what the country is currently experiencing is the third dispensation of the Merdeka agreement made by the founding fathers, the first of which came in 1969 and the third in 1972 with the New Economic Policy.

“(The second dispensation) began to die in 1999… but continued to live on unnaturally from 2004 when the government thought all was forgiven, until what happened in (the) 2008 (general election),” he said.

It is therefore the hope, he said, that this third wave will “embody the spirit of the Merdeka agreement”, which had the purpose of developing an “inclusive and pluralistic” nation.

Indeed, Klesser argued that the second deputy prime minister, Dr Ismail Abdul Rahman had once said that “the unnatural continuation of (affirmative policies in aid of the Malays) would be an affront to Malay dignity.”

Home Ministry virtually encouraging tragedy to happen

Richard Teo
8 December 2009

Racist Remarks by Utusan
Any other mainstream media writing what has been written by Utusan Malaysia would have lost their licence to publish a long time ago. For some time now they have been writing inflammatory articles to incite the Malays to riot and perhaps cause another mayhem similar to the one that happened on May 13 1969.

But this Umno-controlled media seems to have a carte blanche right to publish articles that are seditious and inflammatory and yet does not even receive a warning from the Home Ministry.

This ploy to incite the Malays to hate the non-Malays on the one hand and to preach the '1Malaysia' concept to the non-Malays on the other hand is a desperate strategy by Umno to unite the Malays against the perceived threats of the non-Malays while subtlety reaching to the non-Malays with their rhetorical concept of a '1Malaysia' merely for electoral support.

One cannot imagine that Utusan Malaysia could have taken the bold step to write its inflammatory articles without the tacit support and agreement from the Home Ministry.

By condoning and allowing Utusan Malaysia a free rein to publish racist and inflammatory articles, the Home Ministry must bear full responsibility should any untoward accident occur as a result of their publications.

An impartial and responsible Home Ministry would have nipped in the bud this wanton act of sedition rather than allowing it to continue inciting hatred . By allowing Utusan Malaysia to continue fanning racial hatred through its publications, the Home Ministry is virtually encouraging a tragedy to happen.

The Legend of Dr. Mahathir
And looking back at Dr Mahathir Mohamad's 22 years of tenure at the helm of the nation, it is not difficult to comprehend why we lost so much money through looting by his family and his cronies.

His favourite moneymaking trick was to launch mega-projects and privatisation of government companies. His many mega-projects were fronts to dish out negotiated tenders to his children and cronies whereby sweet deals were quoted with price many times its actual value.

The more projects he launched and the more expensive the projects, the higher and better the profits which were accrued by the beneficiaries. And when his son's venture in the shipping business failed, he unhesitatingly used a government vehicle - the Malaysian International Shiping Corporation (MISC) - to bail his son out.

Bank Bumiputra which was a government-owned bank gave millions of unsecured loans to Mahathir's cronies and in the end all of them ended up as non-performing loans (NPL). In the end Petronas' oil money was used to bail out the bank. Similar bail-outs were later repeated for MAS, Bank Rakyat, Perwaja Steel and countless other GLCs.

His lack of business acumen saw the country lose heavily when he tried to corner the world tin market. It was conservatively estimated that his brief foray in the speculation on the tin market cost the nation a loss of RM20 billion.

There are still a lot of Malaysians who are foolishly ignorant of Mahathir's woeful tenure. He was not only a corrupt dictator who would not brook any dissent but he was also a racist too. Many of the instituitions which were created during his tenure had racist overtones. The Mara colleges (MRSM), UiTM and Biro Tatanegara were all his creations.

They all had one thing in common - they all catered for only one race with the exception of Mara colleges (*only matriculation course but not university courses) which later opened its door to allow a 10% non-bumi entry. The rest all had a racist agenda.

In short, time and history will not judge Mahathir favourably. His 22-year tenure saw the crumbling of all our government institutions which were once the pride of Asia. The judiciary, the attorney-general's department, the police force, the ACA, the civil service and virtually every instituition which was the cornerstone of a democracy became subservient to the executive.

Not only did they lost their independence and became servant and slave to the executive but they also lost whatever shred of integrity that they had.

It would not be wrong to credit Mahathir as the PM who destroyed the very fabric of Malaysia's democratic institutions which till today still bear the 'hallmarks' of his imprints.

How racist are we all really?

By P. GUNASEGARAM
11 December 2009

The answer to and the reasons for that will provide real clues to what we should do to reduce racism in our midst.

THAT tirade and tiff between former Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad and Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz, does little to illuminate things in the ongoing debate about whether to change the curriculum of the Biro Tata Negara (National Civics Bureau) courses.

But their ongoing conversation – if you could call it that – over the media does provide some clues as to the underlying problems over those so-called “unity courses” that NCB has been conducting over the years.

In his typical style, Mahathir attempted to turn the tables on Nazri, who had called him a racist in response to Mahathir’s comments that the contents for the NCB course are, well, suitable for all Malaysians.

Malaysian politics have been rather racial right from the start. The three parties in the original Alliance which gained independence represented the Malays, Chinese and Indians, with Umno being the most dominant.

After the race riots of May 1969, the politics of race became much, much more pronounced especially with Umno’s attempts to redress the imbalance against Malays by drastic measures. It was that which laid the basis for those NCB courses, which often had the agenda of raising awareness of Malay rights, often to the exclusion of Malaysian ones.

It was, according to some of those who attended these courses, rather racial if not racist and while there were some non-Malays who attended these courses, the composition was predominantly Malay and dealt mostly with Malay rather than Malaysian issues.

There could have been yet another agenda. Umno derives its power from Malays and it was necessary for it to continuously court that from the Malays. There is little doubt that the NCB courses were used for this as well. If Umno’s coalition partners did not object, it was because Umno was dominant.

But things are changing. An increasing number of Malaysians are realising the dangers of racial division and lack of unity and feel the need to do something about it – something that will make all Malaysians feel they belong.

Somewhere along the line, we must realise that fighting for Malay rights (or Chinese, Indian, Kadazan, Orang Asli etc rights) does not ever make us more nationalistic — fighting for Malaysian rights does. There is no such thing as a Malay nationalist just as there is no such thing as a Chinese or any other but a Malaysian nationalist.

The day we all realise that, that is the day we will start thinking of ourselves as Malaysians first before anything else. That’s not an easy mindset to build because you have to destroy first the false edifices of more than half a century which extolled championing the rights of individual races.

History teaches us that all of us were at some time or other “pendatang” – it’s a question of when. Even the orang asli came here from elsewhere. Science tells us that we may have all descended from the African Eve tens of thousands of years ago.

And genetics tells us without a doubt that there is no inherent difference in our genes that makes us different in terms of intelligence or ability from anyone else.

Under our skin, our language, our religion and our culture we are much more similar than most of us realise. Education should make us realise all these beyond a shadow of a doubt.

When these are the true lessons that we choose to impart to our children, the process of integration becomes so much easier – we simply point out to them that we re basically the same and that our differences are artificial and perfectly surmountable.

You can debate about how much to help Malays and other disadvantaged communities and how you should go about this so that there is maximum benefit to the community as a whole instead of privileged groups and individuals.

But you should not have to debate about whether you or I or the other is more Malaysian. You are either Malaysian or you are not. The Constitution provides for only one class of citizenship. Measures put in there for the sake of social redress don’t count in terms of citizenship. Period.
A complete revamp of not just the NCB course is necessary but a dire need to change the entire way we look at race and Malaysians. We must emphasise national aspirations and de-emphasise racial ones. We must treat Malaysians equally.

If we help all disadvantaged Malaysians we automatically help disadvantaged communities more. That should be the basic thrust of policy — to help all Malaysians irrespective of race so that eventually race matters little and racism dies.

P. Gunasegaram believes in this quote from Freidrich Nietzsche (1844-1900): Insanity in individuals is something rare – but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule.

Of noisy Indians and 'keling' blood: Utusan strikes again

Abdul Rahim Sabri
10 Dec 2009

The Umno-owned Malay daily Utusan Malaysia has once again trampled on racial sensitivities, earning it another two more police reports.

The reports were filed by MIC Youth's racial integration bureau chief MT Padmanathan and PKR Batu Youth member V Ravindran with the Sentul police headquarters in Kuala Lumpur this morning.

Both parties were incensed by a column published yesterday under the heading 'Alkishah India di India dan India di Malaysia' (The tale of Indians in India and Indians in Malaysia).

Among others, the writer Zaini Hassan said Indians in India and Malaysia are "loudmouthed and always making noise."

He then zeroed in on DAP MP M Kulasegaran for 'making noise' over the special privileges accorded to the Malays.

Zaini penned: "Dia tahukah apa yang dia cakap? Tapi yang pasti kenyataannya itu cukup sensitif dan akan membuat kumpulan lain marah. Tapi seperti biasa orang Melayu marahnya tidak lama."

(Is he aware of what he is saying? One thing is for certain, his statement is very sensitive and will anger others. But as usual the anger of the Malays will not last for long).

"Tak apalah. Orang Melayu tidak seperti orang India, walaupun ada juga Melayu yang darah keturunan keling (DKK), tapi darah Melayu yang lembut banyak menguasai mereka."

(Never mind. The Malays are not like Indians, although some of them have 'keling' blood, but the 'soft' Malay blood in them is more overwhelming).

Noisy...that is their culture

In the article, Zaini also related his experience in visiting India recently, where he witnessed the hustle and bustle of the densely-populated nation.

"India tetap India. Orang India ialah masyarakat yang begitu unik. Jika kita sering tengok wayang Tamil atau Hindi, itulah budaya mereka. Kecoh, kecoh dan kecoh."

(India is India. The Indians are unique. If we watch Tamil or Hindi movies, that is their culture, noisy, noisy and noisy).

"Namun, kita di Malaysia pun ada orang India. Kecohnya pun lebih kurang sama. Mereka ini rata-ratanya terdiri daripada ahli-ahli profesional, peguam dan kini menjadi ahli politik."

(There are also Indians in Malaysia, and the noisiness is about the same. These are the professionals, lawyers and now politicians.)

Last year, Zaini had also attacked DAP MP Teresa Kok, whom he accused of ordering a mosque to lower the volume of its Azan prayers.

The issue had even led to her brief detention under the Internal Security Act.

Kok, who denied the allegation, subsequently filed a suit against the writer.

Public apology sought

In his police report, Padmanathan said the article contained elements that degraded the Indian community.

"Utusan Malaysia has crossed the line. Such statements not only ridicule the Indians, but have the potential of stirring racial unrest," he said, adding that Indian Malaysians are enraged by this.

Padmanathan urged the writer to publicly apologise to the Indian community here.

Meanwhile, Ravindran stated in his police report that the article reeked of racism and went against the 1Malaysia concept espoused by Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak.

Also present was DAP's Teluk Intan parliamentarian M Manogaran.

This morning, Human Resources Minister and MIC vice-president Dr S Subramaniam also criticised the daily for using offensive words.
Hindu Sangam also upset

In another development, Malaysia Hindu Sangam president RS Mohan Shan also urged Utusan Malaysia to apologise over its insensitive report.

"We want a public apology," he said.

He also countered Zaini's statement that Indians here were troublemakers.

"We are not troublemakers. We are willing to work with anyone. Zaini is the troublemaker," he said.

Mohan also defended Kulasegaran as a legislator who was defending the rights of the Indian community.

"You cannot consider him as a troublemaker. He and the rest of the Indian legislators were only defending our rights."

Small case, sick joke

Dean Johns
9 Dec 2009

Try as I do every week to poke fun at the antics of Malaysia's clownish Umno/BN government and its cronies, I confess that, as my old blogger buddy Ktemoc recently pointed out, I sometimes lose my sense of humour. Like this week, for example.
However hard I strain to see the funny or 'punny' side of outgoing MACC chief commissioner Ahmad Said's comment that "Teoh Beng Hock's case is nothing. It's a very small case", I'm afraid I can't raise so much as a ghost of a smile.

In fact the best I can manage is a snort of contempt. As if it wasn't shameful enough to serve as the figurehead of Umno/BN's latest fake corruption-fighting body, Said has further personally and professionally disgraced himself with this crass attempt to make light of a case of suspected murder by his MACC henchmen.

At least I'm not alone in my failure to get a giggle from this gruesome remark. Lim Kit Siang, for example, blogged that Said's statement was "heartless and grossly insensitive", especially following his earlier and equally outrageous comment that "if people investigated could not withstand the pressure and jumped from the building, there was nothing that MACC could do".

Said might well be jumping early from his job, and laughing all the way into prosperous retirement, but if he lives long enough the joke could eventually be on him. Come the day that enough of the Malaysian people stop choosing to see the Umno/BN regime as some harmless national and international joke, and finally vote or force it out of office, chances are the nation will finally get a government that's serious about investigating and prosecuting 'small' cases of political homicide.

And as every law officer should know, there's no statute of limitations in cases of murder, or any amnesty either, for that matter, and this applies not just to the actual killers but also to their accomplices and accessories.

So for those of us who get a chuckle out of seeing politically-protected criminals getting their just desserts, there's a touch of gallows humour in the prospect of someday seeing some Umno/BN murder suspects go on trial.
'Small' cases, indeed

I'll personally die laughing the day that the 'small' case of Teoh Beng Hock's killing case is opened for genuine investigation followed by the trial of genuine suspects in front of a genuine court.

Ditto the small case of Altantuya Shaariibuu about which the elusive private investigator P Balasubramaniam, aka Bala, is still making "frivolous" allegations against Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak.
And then, of course, there are countless cases to be made against members of the 'royal' Malaysian police concerning suspicious deaths in 'shoot-outs' and in custody.

But of course the eventual outcome won't be as jolly as the one I'm envisaging, as the moment a respectable government looks like gaining office in Malaysia, all the Umno/BN goons with the guiltiest consciences will use their ill-gotten gains to fund their getaways to greener pastures.
Meanwhile, the grim comedy grinds inexorably on, as horribly hilarious as ever, with Najib endlessly repeating his ridiculous 1Malaysia slogan and the irrepressible Dr Mahathir regularly stealing the limelight with his customary madcap remarks.

The latest inspiration for Dr M-style drollery, it seems, has been somebody's suggestion that Australia be asked to supervise the conduct of future Malaysian elections.
While no doubt well-intended, and motivated by a well-founded distrust of Malaysia's Umno/BN-biased Electoral Commission, I must say that I'm with the Mahathir in considering this idea ludicrous. Not, as the good doctor typically does, on racial grounds, but for purely practical reasons.

Intervention in any nation's internal affairs is a job for the United Nations, not for Australia or any other individual country. And in any case, Australia has enough problems keeping tabs on its own crooks and opportunists, especially those in property development with friends and contacts in state and local government, without taking responsibility for anyone else's.

The best Australia can do, in my opinion, is to welcome as many Malaysian migrants, students and visitors as possible, for as long as they're happy to stay here. Which brings me to one thing about Umno/BN that I've recently found at least mildly amusing: Najib's call for Malaysian expatriates to return home and help build a better nation.

I asked a young student I know whether he planned to move back when he finished his course, and he was so shocked, taken aback and lost for words he just laughed. Thereby expressing how a great many fellow overseas Malaysians must feel about repatriating to the kind of place where law-and-order and justice are a standing joke, the press is a pack of lies and evasions, and organisations like Biro Tata Negara (BTN) are paid with public money to promote racial division and distrust.

However, as much as I sympathise with Malaysians, including my wife and daughter, who wouldn't go back to live there if you paid them, I think it's a terrible pity. Because many of those who have returned, or have chosen to stay despite everything, may well prove the nation's salvation.

If serious journalists like Steven Gan and Prem Chandran hadn't come back, for example, there would be no honest alternative to the laughable 'mainstream' media. And if all the opposition politicians, bloggers, activists and other serious opponents of the joke Umno/BN government hadn't either come back or stayed put all along, Malaysia would be in an even more desperately derisory state than it is now.

A situation that's admittedly hard to imagine when the government's such a basket-case that its so-called 'anti-corruption' commission can get away with calling the death of a suspect in his officers' custody a 'small case'.

But I fancy that more Malaysians are, like me and my old mate Ktemoc, finding it increasingly difficult to see the funny side. And looking forward more than ever to the eventual day when we all enjoy the last laugh on the jokers of Umno/BN.

BTN: Divisive, racist, politically-motivated

Mariam Mohktar
5 Dec 2009

For me, the seeds of poison were planted decades ago.

Just before I went overseas to study, I was sent for ‘orientation’ at a Mara hostel to ostensibly prepare myself for life abroad.

That weekend was a blur, and I recall four things:

1) Blocked toilets and flooded communal bathrooms.
2) Basic food, thus a friend’s sister dropped off much needed rations of chocolates and ‘kacang’.
3) How to wash your ‘smalls’ (underwear) in a cold country and have them dry by the next morning.
4) We assembled in small groups for out-of-door talks, in the school grounds. We were told that the Malays were the most supreme race in the world, we were God’s chosen few, that the others were insignificant. We were warned about certain elements in our society and abroad, determined to undermine Malay excellence.

It was never meant to be a question-and-answer session and the lecturer omitted to qualify his contentious and contemptuous statements.

Just like my peers, my mind was focused on going overseas. In essence, we simply 'switched off'. Moreover, we hardly experienced any racial issues at our convent school.

Did I come out of that orientation a better person? Did I pick up new skills and ideas? Of the four things, the first two are just facets of Malaysian life; the third has been extremely practical, whilst the fourth left me disturbed and has lain fallow, until now.

After reading about the BTN (Biro Tatanegara or National Civics Bureau), I fear that much venom has been perpetuated. I may also have unwittingly experienced the inception of the BTN.

Ties have eroded
I am reminded by my grandparents and parents that after the last of the midnight chimes had heralded the arrival of Aug 31, 1957, everyone was ecstatic. It was a stirring moment.

Malays grasped the hands of Chinese, Indians embraced Malays. With ‘Merdeka’, Malaysians felt energised.

Fast forward to present-day Malaysia and the scene is stupefying. Malays eye the non-Malays with contempt and derision, whilst the non-Malays are consumed with frustration and resentment. A never-ending nightmare.

The ties that cemented us 52 years ago have eroded. Instead of acting as one, our differences have been emphasised; our similarities have all but diminished.

The new slogan, 1Malaysia, is a vain attempt to patch-up our differences. There is little point in using this sticking plaster to mend a wound that is deep and suppurating.

If we are instructed to be ‘one’, then something is wrong. If we are drilled to behave in a particular way, to be seen to be united, then this is a veiled and tacit acknowledgment that all is not well.

Somewhere after independence, we lost our focus. We took our eye off the ball.

We allowed ourselves to be massaged and manipulated into submissiveness by those who purported to lead us, but who have done us much damage - physically, spiritually, morally, financially, emotionally.

We are now a bunch of apathetic people who have to be led by the nose, who grumble only in private but hide any dissent in public. We are cowed into inactivity, resigned to our fate.

Why do we allow racism, corruption or inequality, practices which are unacceptable in the wider world, to prosper here? Why do we accept that when something goes wrong, no one is made accountable? Why is there a poor system of checks and balances? What happened to leadership by example?

The silent majority
The BTN is alleged to be divisive, racist and politically-motivated. The public is outraged; but politicians seem blind to these facts.

The deputy prime minister and the women, family and community development minister both deny the allegations. But what do ministers from the other component parties of BN say? Their silence speaks volumes.

Some ministers claim that the courses instil patriotism and are harmless. In their view, segregating participants into specific groups of race and ethnicity, followed by humiliation, is considered not divisive. They may need to reassess their values.

Others say that the BTN is being revamped. Or upgraded. Or changed. Whatever. The truth is, the BTN runs counter to the ideals of a united Malaysia. It is time we dispensed with our politicians’ knee-jerk reactions in their pathetic efforts to ameliorate the breakdown in public confidence.

How can the Umno information chief assume the role of BTN programme head? This is a conflict of interest. How does he isolate his political affiliations? He cannot possibly assume neutrality.

I have not experienced the BTN programme and hope that I never will.

When questions with political and religious undertones are incorporated, that is reason enough for the BTN to cease to operate and function.

When non-Malay Malaysians are chastised for their ‘immigrant’ status and are condescendingly told to be grateful to the Malays, that is wrong.

When only the contributions of the Malays are recognised for bringing peace and prosperity to the nation, that is positively abhorrent.

When Malays are warned not to mingle with non-Malays, when only Muslims are to be respected, that is despicable.

It is a mockery that 1Malaysia has boiled down to mean 'belonging to only one race'. And the shocking thing is that many Western-educated middle class Malays believe it.

Like the vines of our jungles, the BTN is strangling the ideals, aspirations and uniqueness of all Malaysian peoples.

I have been accused of being a traitor to my race, and religion just because I state what is obviously unfair, undemocratic and lacking in morals and principles.

I suspect they disapprove of me, mostly because I am a woman and a Malay, and dare to speak up about prickly issues. But I admire these people. At least, they are willing to express their views, however vile they may be. Unlike, the silent majority.

For these are the ones I appeal to, and who I wish would make a stand and do more to champion change, if only for the good and love and future of our nation.

In the final analysis, ‘1’ more person, might make all the difference

Attack of the killer kleptoids

Dean Johns
2 Dec 2009

Trying to make sense of the political scenario in Malaysia is always a surreal experience. But at times it all seems so far-fetched and flat-out fantastic that I think I must have lost the plot.

Or else that I've actually been asleep all this time, trapped in some bizarre nightmare based on replays of all those hair-raising old Hollywood horror movies I used to frighten myself silly by sitting through.

At times like these I get desperate for some kind of reality check. So you can imagine how grateful I feel to the likes of Barry Wain, with his new biography of Dr Mahathir Mohamad, for reassuring me that the doctor isn't some scary childhood movie memory or figment of my fevered imagination, but is actually, if incredibly, the former long-time prime minister of Malaysia.

And that the Frankenstein monster the doctor created isn't just some filmic fable, but a real-life political machine that's still rampaging around the country wreaking havoc wherever it goes and indulging its insatiable appetite by devouring whatever it can get its hands on.

If you'd believe Barry Wain, and why wouldn't you, as long as he works for neither the Malaysian nor Singapore mainstream press, the BN machine has swallowed RM100 billion of Malaysians' money in the past 25 of its 52 years in power.

And according to Time magazine, economist Daniel Lian of Morgan Stanley Singpore estimates it's consumed about three times the amount estimated by Wain, or US$100 billion.

Here, in case you missed them, are a few highlights of this saga of monumental theft, fraud and embezzlement:
· Bumiputra Malaysia Finance (BMF) swindle: US$1 billion.
· Bank Negara foreign-exchange fiasco: RM20 billion.
· Extra BMF bailouts: US$600 million.
· Perwaja Steel bankruptcy: US$ 800 million.
· Maminco tin market manipulation: US$500 million.
· Bank Islam non-performing loans scam: RM2.2 billion.
· Highway concessionaire bailouts: RM38.5 billion.
· Mirzan Mahathir's MISC rescue: RM600 million.
· Port Klang Free Zone scandal: RM12 billion

If that's not enough plundered billions to make you bilious, don't worry. It's just the tip of the iceberg. Or should I make that ‘heistberg'? Whatever, it's a considerable quantity of loot for a government to steal from its citizens.

Heart-breaking human cost

How the Malaysian people have tolerated being robbed on such an epic scale for so long I can't begin to guess. Why so many millions of them never stopped voting for the doctor or his successors, or never chased any of them, King Kong-like, up to the top of the Twin Towers to his downfall and doom is a total mystery.

Unless, of course, that like me they've been assuming that the whole thing was so unbelievable that it must be just a movie, and gone on scoffing their popcorn and kuaci as though the horror would eventually end and they could safely return from this harsh reel world to an altogether happier real one.

Or maybe they were thinking that, as long it was only money the monster was after, they'd be safe if they let it have its fill, and that with luck they might score their share of any small change that happened to slip through its fingers.

What they failed to realise, however, is that the BN money-chomping monster's been in league all along with those other fixtures of this long-running Malaysian fright-flick, the werewolves of the police and MACC, the body-snatchers of the internal security ministry, the vampires of commerce, contracting and the civil service, and the droids of the mainstream media.

With a monster cast this creepy to contend with, it's no wonder so many otherwise potentially sentient citizens have been turned into such political and ethical zombies.

With the watchdogs of the law at their throats, thousands of blood-suckers with their fangs in their necks and hundreds of make-believe journalists busy blinding their eyes, deafening their ears and dumbing their minds, some people are bound to get somewhat confused.

Which brings us to the fact that the tragedy is not so much the amount of money, land and other public property that BN and its minions have stolen and continue to steal but the heart-breaking human cost of it all.

The financial toll taken by the police, MACC and judiciary in corruption is chicken-feed compared with the priceless protections and trust that they've stolen from the people, not to mention the countless lives they've stolen from ‘suspects' in staged ‘shootouts' and ‘questioning' in custody.

Revenge of the voters

The billions looted and squandered by the government and its cronies are nothing compared with the human rights, educations, opportunities, hopes, dreams and futures they've stolen from Malaysians born on the ‘wrong' side of the screen that the ideologues of BN have erected between the races and religions on which to play their wayang kulit of 1Malaysia.

And now, having skinned the Malaysians alive in every conceivable fashion from financial to spiritual, they've had the hide to introduce a goods and services tax, thus adding even more to the swag of oil and tax revenues that BN has traditionally siphoned-off from behind the impenetrable screen of the official secrets act.

They're also, I see, still paying Najib Abdul Razak's airfare and considerable expenses to go around the world robbing Malaysia of even more of its Mahathir-ravaged international reputation with remarks like his recent one in New York that "Malaysia's message of reforms and transformation must be told to foreign investors".

Who does he think he's kidding about Malaysia as long as it's still business as usual for him and his gang of BN bandits? Doesn't he realise that embassies and high commissions report the truth back to their home governments?

And that trade commissioners and reputable global financial media keep investors informed of the larcenies of national governments like Malaysia's?

Sometimes I think Najib's recited his script so often he's started to almost believe it himself.

I certainly hope so. Because the more over-confident that he and his coalition cronies become that their ‘Attack of the Killer Kleptoids' production is set to run permanently, the more shocked they'll be by its inevitable sequel, ‘Revenge of the Voters from Hell'

Sad road to Seetha's suicide

HELEN ANG is a Malaysiakini columnist. Below is her article in Malaysiakini

I wrote the article below before news broke of Seetha's passing. May she rest in peace. My prayers for her.

Words cannot hope to convey the plight of R Seetha (photo) who is in critical condition after her suicide bid. Mine are hopelessly inadequate and I can only offer them in sympathy hearing that Seetha might die. Ingesting paraquat like she did causes liver, lung, heart or kidney failure within several days that can result in death.

In 2006, another young Indian woman M Sanggita took her four children to Sungei Gadut near Seremban to wait for the train to Singapore. The family was not going for a holiday but to their deaths.

Can you imagine such a state of mind where having the train run over you seems better than living? Sanggita, 30, and two of her children were killed that July day lying across the railway tracks.

“There is no use for all of us to live. I pity my kids. They have no future here. Let us be with God,” pleaded Sanggita in her suicide note.

She lamented that she could find no solace. “If given the opportunity, we would all come back as angels to help those in need,” the note ended. Like Sanggita, Seetha lived also in Negri Sembilan and perhaps angels did watch over her four children. Thankfully, they will – we're hopeful – pull through after sipping the weed killer given by their mother.

Some people have called for Seetha to be charged with attempted murder.

It's been reported that Seetha promised her children that if they drank the poison, they could meet their youngest uncle again who had been gunned down by police. I don't think Seetha had it in mind to brutally kill her children – certainly not in the same way that police had done her brother Surendran.

Doubtless, I cannot claim to fathom what was going through her mind that tipped her over the edge. But neither can those condemning her imagine what Seetha has had to endure in her short life thus far. From the story fragments that have come to public knowledge, we can at best speculate.

A closed Tamil society

Seetha's husband M Manimaran said his wife had told him that she wanted to see the departed Surendran and be with him.
Her father R Rampathy (far left) in his police report had said: “Seetha terlalu sayang kepada Surendran. Dia selalu nangis di hadapan gambar Surendran yang meninggal.”

The picture they paint is one of a woman consumed by inconsolable grief. For most of us, we lose our loved ones to old age or they succumb to natural causes. For the Tamil underclass like Seetha, death can visit a male sibling in a hail of bullets or occurring in the police lock-up. This comes about due to the chronic socio-economic deprivation of the community.

So, no, those comfortable armchair critics of Seetha can't even begin to comprehend her anguish and the perennial dark cloud hanging when one is mired in poverty. Her father is a security guard; her husband a lorry driver. Both are low status and low pay jobs.

Seetha is a housewife; her mother is a housewife. A feminine shroud encloses homemakers in the still highly patriarchal Tamil society. The women's limited life experience may not have allowed them to acquire the coping mechanisms that our 'survival of the fittest' advocates, preaching fortitude, would like to think everyone else should possess.

The defeatist proletariat, denied access to empowering education, does not enjoy the buffer zone that better-off Malaysians have when it comes to confronting adversity and despair. Not just the shock of violent, sudden death but the depression that daily dampens their dispiriting environment.

Worlds apart, chasm between

A poor family earns a combined income of under RM1,092 monthly. This amount is all that a household – usually calculated as a unit comprising five members – has at their disposal to cover all expenditure including housing, utilities, food, schooling expenses and transport.

On the other hand, an affluent young couple may spend more than a thousand ringgit a month on milk powder alone for two young children, what with the price of things skyrocketing nowadays.

I've given the example above of two sets of people whose finances are at opposite ends. Wouldn't their thinking norms be very different too? Seetha's critics simply have no inkling of the facets of her world.

Do you know how many percent of Indians earn only around a thousand ringgit? The answer is 108,000 households ... five years ago (certainly more poor people today). These 540,000 souls make up the bottom 30% of the 1.8 million total Indian population, according to the Social Strategic Foundation report of April 2005.

More data: From the Household Income Survey 2004 by the Economic Planning Unit and Department of Statistics. On the incidence of urban poverty, Bumiputera register 4.1%, Chinese 0.4% and Indian 2.4%.

Now compare with their respective population ratio that same year: Bumiputera was 61%, Chinese 24% and Indian 7% out of 25.6 million Malaysians. Indians who comprised a mere 7% of this country in 2004 showed a disproportionately high poverty rate in stark contrast to Chinese and Malays.

“You are on your own. Don't hold out your hand because nothing will fall into it.” This quote is attributed to long overstaying MIC president Samy Vellu in the book 'The Malaysian Indians' by Muzafar Desmond Tate.

Heck, not only are the poor Indians refused help, even what little they had was taken away from them.

Rendered jobless and homeless

In 1980, plantation workers still accounted for over half of the entire Indian community, wrote Muzafar. What has been happening since then is that the plantations have been fragmented and their workers evicted from the labourer quarters.

The Putrajaya mega-project dislodged estate workers too (Golden Hope plantations among them) and in Mahathirville's 4,580 hectares, there is no room for the Indians; you don't see them in this shiny new administrative capital.

Rubber estates like Golden Hope, Guthrie, Sime Darby and Boustead had been colonial enterprises.

Then, government agencies like Pemodalan Nasional Berhad took over Sime Darby (today merged with Guthrie and Golden Hope) while Lembaga Tabung Angkatan Tentera acquired a controlling equity interest in Boustead. Now owned by government-linked Malays and managed by Malays, these corporations are developing the previously plantation land into lucrative real estate properties and new townships.

Oh well, too bad for the hapless Indians. Its displaced young generation drift to urban settlements and create slums.

As mentioned earlier, about 7% of the Malaysian general population is Indian but in their making up 16.1% of squatters, the ratio is double, not proportional. It's hardly surprising that the Indian quota for low-cost rented accommodation with KL City Hall is always exhausted.

Meanwhile in Penang, a report submitted to the state government by the Socio-economic and Environmental Research Institute (Seri) in November 1998 revealed deplorable housing conditions.

Five percent of the survey respondents lived in containers while in Sungai Tiram, the majority of respondents lived in shacks which used to provide shelter for animals before. Ten years down the road, Penang kindly gave Indians the Kg Buah Pala saga.

The poverty trap led Surendran to his fateful meeting with destiny and trigger-happy cops. Seetha is the collateral damage. Can't their circumstances and they too be considered hostage to the Indian condition?

Uthaya vows to bring body to Parliament

Human Rights Party pro-tem secretary-general P Uthayakumar has intimated that should she die, he will bring her body to Parliament to drive home the point that police shootings of racially profiled and so-called 'suspects' must stop.

Uthaya's threat recalls the self-immolation or suicide by fire, of Buddhist monks to protest the Vietnamese regime in the 1960s.
Perhaps it will take a drastic measure like a frail, pretty corpse brought outside Parliament under the glare of international media attention to finally open Malaysia's eyes. A deliberately neglected community is at the end of its tether, if only you knew.

Do you remember the unforgettable Hindraf rally images of Indians passively allowing themselves be drenched by chemical-laced water fired by the FRU cannons? How would an ordinary robust individual react in the same circumstances? You'd run.
So how did a swathe of marginalized Malaysians come to such pass that they squat wet in the street like martyrs with nothing else to lose?

Some have slammed Seetha for attempting to take her own life. Can these censorious people please try to plumb the question that plagued one who deserves only our compassion: 'What's there to live for?'

Vernacular schools not the ones causing disunity

Norman Fernandez
4 Dec 2009

I refer to the Malaysiakini report Single stream schools a thorny issue.

Recently, Prof Emeritus Khoo Kay Kim proposed a restructuring of the national education system, including the implementation of a single stream to ensure attainment of the goals of a '1Malaysia'. As often the case, vernacular schools and principally Chinese schools have been singled out as being the root cause for polarisation and the lack of national unity. However, to fault vernacular schools for the cause for polarisation and disunity is premised on multiple fallacies.

Many urge the government to follow in the footsteps of Singapore which has abolished vernacular schools. However, they conveniently forget that in Malaysia, vernacular education is a right guaranteed by constitution and by acts of Parliament. Vernacular education is part of the social contract.

That right ought not to be questioned and the right to vernacular education is the right of the non-Malays and cannot be compromised. Thus, to call for abolishment or to call for a single stream is uncalled for.

Those who continuously fault the vernacular schools ought to be reminded that it is the desire and wish of every parent to see their children mix, study and play with children of other races. After all, the parents themselves were often the products of national schools where students of different races and religions studied, played and interacted together and forged friendship which extended long after they left school.

What those calling for single stream education and proponents for abolishing vernacular schools fail to admit is that vernacular schools in the past were not necessarily the schools of first choice for the non-Malays. Non-Malay parents sent their children to English-medium schools simply because the education was in English.

The schools had good teachers and English-medium schools provided school-leavers better career opportunities. In fact, Chinese schools such as Han Chiang High School in Penang were on the verge of closing down because of falling attendance and in the 70s, had to depend on students from Indonesia and Thailand to survive. Now the reverse has happened.

According to statistics, Chinese parents who send their children to national schools have fallen from around 50% in the 1970s to about 6% in 2006. The media has reported that 9 out of 10 Chinese send their children to Chinese vernacular schools. Today, there are approximately 630,000 students studying in 1,288 Chinese primary schools. Those blaming vernacular schools and particularly Chinese schools ought to know that there are almost 60,000 non-Chinese students studying in Chinese schools and a substantial proportion of these students are Malays.

Even more alarming is that Tamil parents and particularly Tamil professionals who were educated in national schools are now beating a path to the Tamil schools. Today, approximately 100,142 students study in 523 Tamil schools despite the fact that many Tamil schools lack the facilities national schools or Chinese schools have.

With Chinese and Indian parents abandoning national schools for vernacular schools, the national schools - not by choice - have taken on the image of 'sekolah Melayu'. Those advocating single stream never bother to ask why have the non-Malays abandoned national schools and they are no more the schools of first choice.

Rightfully those advocating single-stream education or proposing the closure of vernacular schools ought to ask the parents of the 60,000 non-Malay students (a substantial proportion of them being Malays) studying in Chinese schools, why did they as Malays abandon the national schools which have better facilities and teachers and students of same race and religion.

Why did they instead choose to send their children to Chinese vernacular schools where their children are a minority and will be exposed to Chinese culture, Chinese religious beliefs and having to eat in the school canteen which is more likely to serve food which may not be 'halal'.

Malay parents, seeing the benefits of a Chinese education, are also the abandoning national schools for Chinese schools. If Chinese schools are indeed the root cause of disunity then questions must be asked why the Malays are beginning to see Chinese schools as schools of first choice.

Instead, they repeat the decade old polemic blaming vernacular schools for causing racial polarisation and disunity. Further, they also conveniently choose to ignore that there are also schools which are exclusively for a single race, religious schools for a particular religion, universities catering to a single race and universities with religious orientation of a single religion. Are not the existence of these schools and universities equally divisive?

What logical justification is there to call for single-stream education in primary schools and then allow divisive secondary and tertiary education?

Malaysia is unique with its multiracial, multi-cultural and multi-religious population. The role of a school is not only to create a learning atmosphere. In Malaysia, schools have an added responsibility in that it ought to be a place where students are taught to value and celebrate diversity.

Students should be taught to acknowledge and respect each other's culture, language and religion and to be imbibed with a sense that each other's cultural, language and religious diversities are part and parcel of our national heritage and that this uniqueness should be treasured and protected by all. Schools must inculcate multi-racialism, multi-culturalism and multi-religionism. The question is whether the national schools are doing this.

The character of national schools have changed and they have become overtly and overwhelmingly Malay-Muslim. Malay-Muslim centred actions and policies have caused the exodus of non-Malays from the national schools.

School administrators and the principals in some national schools have turned the school and the school's culture's into one dominantly of Malay-Muslim. While great effort is taken to continuously remind the non-Malay students about respecting Malay cultural mores and religious sensitivities, the same is not done when it comes to non-Malay cultural and religious sensitivities. Even worse, they are blatantly indifferent to the sensitivities of the non-Malays.

Here is a letter which appeared in a news portal where a parent wrote: 'In my children's Sekolah Kebangssan school, the Hari Raya holidays are stretched to well over a week to accommodate the Malays. Replacement classes are planned months ahead and notification letters are sent out very early. However, when it comes to Chinese New Year, not a single extra day is given - not even for the kids who have to travel to make it to their hometowns. Mind you, Malays make up roughly 50% of the student population.'

Razak Baginda who was then the executive director of Malaysian Strategic Research Centre is quoted in the International Herald Tribune on June 7, 2005 as saying that his 'daughter complained that the religious teachers are the culprits. They inculcate very negative views of the other religions. They are always have a 'them and us' attitude that is very destructive.'

This is merely one example. Many non-Malay parents also complain that while the school has religious and religious activities for Muslims students, it is a near impossibility to have the same for the non-Malay-non-Muslim students. In some schools, classes are segregated according to race and religion giving 'time-table convenience' as an excuse. Some schools even forbid their students from wearing shorts for physical education.

Thus, it was not a surprise when in 2002, the then prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamed, without mincing his words, said that the national school system had been hijacked by obscurantists interested in Islamic practices that emphasise form over substance.

To add to the changing landscape of national schools, is a perception problem. Many parents lament that the standard of teaching in national schools has deteriorated. A lecturer at the teacher's training college in Johor Baru once lamented about the quality of the trainee teachers.

According to him, many of these trainee teachers hardly have a passion for teaching and that teacher-training was their last choice after having failed to secure a place in the universities or other colleges.

Thus, the attraction to teaching is simply its perks - half-day sessions, five-day week and the long term breaks and more importantly, job security. Many have the perception that in the national schools, many of the teachers seem to be disinterested and unmotivated and some instead are more interested in moulding the children for the hereafter.

Rightly or wrongly, many believe that vernacular schools and particularly the Chinese vernacular schools have dedicated teachers with a reputation for quality, rigour and working their students hard. Could this be the reason why more than 60,000 non-Chinese students now study in Chinese schools ?

I believe the exodus in such droves from the national schools to the vernacular schools would not have happened had the government been farsighted and been quick to arrest the problem. Why did the government wait until almost 90% of the non-Malay students abandon the national schools before recognising that there was a problem

Surely the government ought to have known about the overzealous school administrators with their own agenda and about teachers who permeate ill-feelings and racism? The government must have known about the gradual Malay-nisation of these schools. There have been cases of non-Malay students who were racially abused to the extent of being called 'monkeys'. Such teachers rightfully out to have been dismissed with criminal action initiated. Instead, they were sent for 'counseling'.

Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak has rightly pointed out that any move to a single-stream education would require a big paradigm shift and it will only happen if the people are ready to make a change and if the society is not ready, the government will carry on with the existing system.

That paradigm shift, I believe must come from the government. If only the government can walk the talk of a '1Malaysia', take the necessary steps to overhaul the standard of national schools, enhance the quality and standard of teaching, ensure that schools are free from zealots and racists, employ teachers and administrators who truly subscribe to multi-culturalism and multi-religionism, make the teaching of vernacular education mandatory and recreate the atmosphere of yesteryears (ie, pre- Merdeka), it is possible that the national schools could regain their past glory and their rightful place