Sunday, January 11, 2009

Can you believe this?



Here's a man reasoning that the bumiputra population deserve their special rights because they have oh-so-generously bestowed upon the non-malays the WONDERFUL GIFT OF CITIZENSHIP.

I hope he is not representing the general view of the malay population because it would be a slap to the face knowing that for all these years the only reason why there exists biased socio-economical policies that favour the malays are simply due to the fact that they "were there first".

I am surprised this clip has not caused public outrage.


--start analogy

Can you imagine: I rent a house that has 3 rooms. I sub-rent it out to 2 people who I do not know. They cause no problems, they pay their rent on time and after 5 months of living with them they have brought positive changes to the house. They took effort to re-paint the living room, to vacuum the carpets, to throw out the garbage, to clean the oven. They even re-furnished the house on their spare time so it becomes a beautiful place to live in.

I however implemented the rule that: 1) if they are sitting on the sofa at a particular spot, I get to ask them to move 2) if they are eating a deliciously cooked piece of steak, I get to stop them halfway and demand that I have it 3) if we all share to buy a new TV, I am allowed to demand that it be placed in my room 4) if they are in the middle of the toilet and I want to brush my teeth, I have every right to ask them to leave the toilet now.

And how dare they complain that these rules are unfair? I am the bumiputra of the house and I have given you citizenship so I deserve special rights. SERIOUSLY, how can you argue with my wonderful justification for imposing such amazingly and humanly inequal laws?


--end analogy

Why is this man the leader of a university's student body? People like them are the future leaders of the nation and what would it mean for everyone else if one day he has a role in the legislation of our country's laws?

"We granted them citizenship so we are allowed special rights" - is the dumbest thing I have heard in my life.

Racism is part of human life. No where in this world is racism not evident in homes, communities, and societies. It is the very core of human instinct to be wary of a foreign looking entity. My view is, we are biologically engineered to be racist. But a millenia and more of cultural awakening has taught us that we can be better than animals because we are capable of idea and emotion. And unless we favour the lives of cavemen, then we must keep racism regressed.

Malaysia is the only country that officiates racism and puts it in the framework of her policies. It is in our homes, our schools, our tertiary centres, our economical avenues - and they mask it all behind "developing our impoverished rural population".

I remember the history of Malaysia when it was taught in school: once there was a point in time that the Chinese and Indian immigrants were negotiating a deal with the Malay people to live in the country and the consensus was citizenship but they get special rights. As a child I remember thinking, wow what a good deal because trust me, history lessons were sugared so that they made the Malay leaders of old such generous and kind people to look out for the poor Chinese and Indian immigrants that REALLY WANTED to live in Malaysia SO BADLY.

(Maybe the problem was an acute large bulk of immigrants. If our ancestors entered the country slowly, then the bumiputras would not have panicked so. hah.)

TO be fair, everybody wants to look out for themselves. But it has been 4-5 generations since and these were generations that witnessed people like Martin Luther King, Gandhi, events like the abolishment of apartheid, the segregration of black v white in America and so on. If anything, we should have learned from the world's mistakes and build upon them to be better people.

But the government wants to remain backward - for selfish purposes that need not be explained by me to you. And for that we will destroy ourselves one day unless we make a few changes around here.

The first one should be to do something about that man in the video.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

you should think harder.

theycallmecruel said...

maybe you should have more guts and not hide behind an anonymous comment.

Azman said...

Cmingo,

You're right. This does not represent the general view of the Malays. But sadly, these are the pockets of Malays that speak the loudest (simply because mainstream media holds the remote control).

Recently I commented on someone's blog on his views of things, which is quite similar to this UiTM head of student rep. He also used the 'House for Rent' analogy, which I think is a bad one.

Since what we're discussing here are very similar, I'll just cut-and-paste what I wrote in that blog, coz it's quite panjang lah. Names have been canceled out because I think they're not important.

[Start cut-and-paste]

If this was discussed in 1940's I would somewhat understand with what being said.

But brother, we are years ahead of that time. And with the progression of time, our mentality should go in hand.

****, I simply can't except your argument, and worse, I'm disappointed with the mentality you have right now. I don't blame it on you per se. You're younger than 21, and I guess maturity hasn't kicked in. I am sure once you're older, see more of the world and more importantly the people, you'll have a better view and say on things.

Let's go back in time, way back in 1950. Barisan Nasional was known as Pakatan back then. Their logo was a sailboat, with 3 people on board. The 3 represents the ethnicity that form the bulk of Malaysia; the Malay, Chinese and Indian.

Wouldn't that itself be a better (if not the best) analogy of what Malaysia is all about? 3 sailors on a boat set sail into the open sea. If one becomes a freeloader, the boat will sink. If one tries to be a hero, the boat would pretty much meet the same fate. Everyone has to work together. Only then we can survive as a nation.

If there's one change I want you to make, it's the mentality that Malays own Malaysia. My friend, we don't own anything. To me, Ketuanan Melayu is the worst thing that Malays have ever come up with. And I'm surprised that this concept is at its peak at times like these. Why? Because I find it an irony that we proudly recognize Ketuanan Melayu and boldly reject Zionism. Look hard, brother. For both are one and the same.

I however, do recognize the need that Bumiputeras still do require some assistance, but I will not let it go at that. While Bumi still require some help, the mentality needs to be set that one day, this has to go. Bumis can't be receiving help forever. Sooner (I hope) or later, the concept of Bumiputera has to go, and assistance then should go across the board. Some Chinese in Malaysia had their lineage in Malaysia since the 15th century. Roughly, that translates to 18 generations. How many generations does it take for them to become the Children of the Soil (the definition if Bumiputera).

As a take home message, hear this, ****; Yes, our ancestors have been here for eons, but I'm sure they came from somewhere. Then the Chinese came on junks, and the Indians on British ships. We all came using different boats, but now we're on the same ship.

Don't get discouraged by this. Instead, I want you to be more motivated. Facts are easy to obtain, but maturity requires experience and some aging. Keep on discussing.

[End of cut-and-paste]