The Bumiputera Divide

While reading through a book known as “IBM & The Holocaust“, I found some interesting parallels between the Third Reich, and sad to say, the Malaysian Government. As we all know Hitler was convinced that the Jews were to be blamed for Germany’s hard times. He instituted  the idea of a master race into most of the German population’s hearts and minds  which caused what we know know as World War II. The persecution and wholesale slaughter of Jews in the hands of Germany numbered in the millions (the validity of the figures is disputed by some quarters but that is a story for another time).

According to the book, not only did they do racial profiling but they did religious profiling as well. All this was to benefit those deemed true “Aryan” Germans because German Jews, like a certain minority here in the present, held a lot of important professional, business and financial positions in Germany. Jews there controlled a substantial chunk of the German economy. During the hard times on post World War I Germany, people needed someone to blame and the Jews were a great target due to the fact that antisemitism hads been around for centuries in Europe. The wealth of the Jewish people didn’t help since they easily became the object of hatred for the unemployed and underpaid Germans. This made the German SA or Stormtrooper Brigades very popular and made them commit acts of violence to the Jews in the hopes of displacing them so that “pure blooded” Germans can take their jJobs.

In the present, the Malaysian Government does religious and racial profiling of its citizens possibly so that they can dispense economic & social aid to the “Bumiputeras” who are the indigenous people of Malaysia(that again is disputed but lets leave that out for the time being). This is akin to the policies of Nazi Germany albeit a less extreme one since we of the minority races live relatively comfortably and we co-exist with the bumiputeras relatively well. I, personally, have very good Malay friends whom I consider more closer than some of my relatives.

The priorities given to the Malays are a necessity in fact. They are still a tad behind when it comes to economic and academic stuff. They are much better off in those two aspects today but they still have a long way to go. What concerns me is that they seem to be taking it for granted and relying heavily on Government help. This is despite the fact that the incentive program should have ended some twenty one plus years ago but yet  the plan keeps going on. This is all well and good when times are great but when push comes to shove in bad times, all we need is one maverick radical racist on either side of the bumiputera divide to incite violence.  It may or may not be a repeat of May 13th, which happened because of race politics. The politics of some of today’s politicians seems scarily similar to what Hitler did. I really feel that the government should start trying to integrate Malaysians into a single cohesive race rather that profiling people via the bumiputera divide. They could easily revamp it for the less fortunate Malays, or even better,for the  less fortunate Malaysians. I do agree that the NEP must still go on but it needs major changes since the conditions when it first started out were very different from today’s. I do not believe labeling some people more Malaysian than others does anybody any good except for the politicians.

As for religious profiling, I have nothing against it since it just says what we believe in, it also assists with the implementation of Syariah Law. While it does bear some resemblance to the religious profiling done by the Nazis, I have enough faith in this government not to commit genocide based on religion. It may even help the government to do a proper census so that they can plan ahead and not affect it’s citizens religious sensibilities. Although some people have likened the zealousness of the Syariah enforcers to Nazi Stromtroopers but I feel that it is a isolated case and religion does make people do stupid things but lets leave that out from this post as well.   

I really do hope that cooler heads prevail and yes I do agree that this post is a little too far fetched  but then again, people thought landing on the moon was far fetched…

I really hope I do not get my ass in jail for this. In my humble opinion, what I wrote is no different from   what a political science student might have written in a tutorial but  if I get into detention for this , says a lot about my rights now doesn’t it?

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Gender Segregation in National Service

All-female training camps for National Service may be available soon. This idea was apparently suggested by parents. Yep, you heard me – PARENTS. These concerned guardians think that gender separate facilities are not good enough. The gender separation needs to be complete and encompass the whole camp. Female trainees, in their eighteenth year of life, undergoing national unification and integration programmes, will soon be made to do it in an all-girl environment by their parents. Will boys be given the same privilege? Or rather, will the parents of male trainees be given the choice of whether or not their sons go to male-only camps? Right now, the trainees do not have a choice whether to go for the service or not (with exceptions). For the majority, if you’re picked – you go. For a national programme desgined for unification and integration, the authorities are going to allow parents to impose segregation and separation.

The objectives of NS, according to the website, are to increase patriotism, promote racial integration, build good character, encourage volunteerism and to produce an active, intelligent and confident generation. Patriotism is to love and support one’s land and country, together. Racial integration cannot happen without gender equality. Good character, involves appropriate behaviour around everyone. Volunteerism in an equal society means you have to interact with people of both sexes! And lastly, an active, intelligent and confident generation should be able to display all three traits in everyday life. If we women are not cormfortable in the presence of men, how are we to be active, intelligent, and confident? Unless we segregate everyone and everything we do from birth till death (which will be a disaster for national unity and integration), segregation in national service will NOT benefit anyone.

The phenomena of cotton wool parents is a common one, and while I can comprehend it, I cannot empathise with it. The national service trainees are in their 18th year of life. At least half of them will turn 18 before or during their service. These trainees are only a few months away from becoming legal adults. The service program is as much about preparing them to face life and its adversities as it is about unificaton and integration. What sort of message are we sending them through gender separation? That the world is divided into male and female? That while the city and its building are moving to the future, society is moving to the past? Are we? Please let us not return to the days when doctors examined patients by poking around with a pencil because they were of the opposite gender.

Excerpt from original article:

Training camps for girls only?

25 Mar 2007
Alang Bendahara

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KUALA LUMPUR: Female trainees for the National Service may soon have the option of checking into an all-female training camp.

This is provided the proposal by NS Training Council chairman Tan Sri Lee Lam Thye is accepted by the government.Lee said he had submitted the proposal to Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, who is also Defence Minister.”The council decided the idea is feasible and has suggested an experimental camp be established soon,” Lee said after attending the Malaysian Crime Prevention Foundation annual general meeting in Bukit Aman yesterday.

Lee said the idea was mooted by parents who felt it was wise to have an all-women NS camp.

He said the proposal called for all trainers and even the camp commandant to be women.

 

“Better Life” for Foreign Spouses?

The topic of foreign spouses appeared in the news again today. This time the government is granting them 5 year visas (as opposed to 1 year previously). Apparently it’ll enable them to live a “better life”. The visa will enable the foreign spouses to be employed here for longer periods, allegedly facilitating the transfer of knowledge and skills. BUT the foreign spouses are warned that this move will not ease obtaination of PR status. Especially for foreign husbands.

Why the sexism? And why the analness in allowing PRs? Maybe the better question would be, what is big brother afraid of? Sure, foreign spouses can bring both bad and good things to the country. Mail order brides wouuld be a good example of a problem. But I can think of more advantages than disadvantages.

Women married to foreign husbands, who WANT to return home are normally educated and financially stable. They didn’t ‘marry out’ because they were lured by promises of “a better life”, those who did won’t want to go home. The foreign husbands who are happy to follow the wife to her homeland are good people with skills that enable them to work anywhere. Burdens of society they are not. In all likelihood, they or their wives could be experts in their fields.

Five year visas with no prospect of a permanent residency will do nothing to lure professionals and experts. These people are leading well-paid lives in developed countries. Many do indeed WANT to return home, but they aren’t willing to give up everything to have a short stay here only to have to uproot when their visa runs out. A chance to bring up their family here would be nice – and that take more than five years.

Big brother complains of brain drain yet makes it impossible for professionals who genuinely want to come home to do so. Five year visas are an improvement over 1 year visas, but it won’t do anything to encourage working professional Malaysians to return home. They need something more than that. Big Brother are so afraid of competition that they have built a wall around the country, keeping away the very people who can and want to move the country forward. Are they doing this for the “skills and knowledge” of professionals? Or the skills and knowldge of labourers and servant girls?

Exerpt from original article dated 16/03/2007:

PUTRAJAYA: Foreign spouses of Malaysians living in the country will be given visas valid for five years instead of requiring yearly renewals. Those working will also be granted five-year employment passes as the government moves to give them a better life, saving them the trouble of having to travel out of the country every year to process a new visa.

19 subjects for SPM

Our society seems to be emulating Singapore. We are on an expressway to development, and everyone is busy working the gears, tuning and oiling the machinery to achieve Vision 2020. We are working to develop the nation, but to what end? The people holding the reigns now are either die-hard businessmen and women who learnt success via the University of Hard Knocks, or colonially educated men and women who had an excellent education, and are capable of holding their own next to the UHK graduates. It should be safe to say that these people are currently living the second half of their lives. The people set to take over them, the adults now aged 30 and up, had them for teachers. They have the same values, the same instinct for survival that our parents have. Because they learnt from them. But what of the children of today? Are the younger generation equipped with the basic skills of survival?

The news a couple of days back highlighted SPM candidates who took 19 subjects, candidates who got 18 As. Every year when the SPM results come up, we are faced with apparently high achievers, scoring more As than anyone in history ever had. Is this just evolution proving itself? Are future generations really smarter than before? Or is it a product of an academic-heavy society, equiping its young with academic kiasuness unmatched except in neighboring Singapore? An academic kiasuness that has no place in tertiary education, much less the real world.

What does a string of As prove? I read a commentary on Zewt, where there was mention of students doing 3 sciences, plus general science, plus applied science. Then there was the students who took English, English for S&T, and English Literature. In fewer words, students are taking easier versions of the subjects they are already taking to get extra As. Does this prove academic prowess? I don’t think so. It proves a system that is overly result-oriented and lacking in check & balance. As few as 5 years ago, the maxium number of As was 12. Students took extra subjects because they enjoyed it. Some did it to provide extra options when they leave school. Whatever the reasons were, they did it because they had a genuine urge to learn. From what I can see, that’s not true anymore. People just want As and more As and more As. No one cares about the person, they just care about the As.

I was an SPM student once, and I took 10 subjects, which was one more than the school average. I took English Literature outside of school, because I enjoyed it. My mum, under the influence of younger colleagues who constantly compared their children’s grades, put pressure on me to change teachers, to one who guaranteed an A. Did I? Nope. I didn’t take literature to get an A, I took it because I enjoyed the classes, and there was no way I’d have enjoyed going to the other teacher. I knew I wouldn’t get an A yet I was happy with it. The trend is for younger parents to be more kiasu in academic achievements. This transfer to younger students being put under increasing amounts of pressure to perform academically. These students leave school with unrivalled academic kiasuness. A quality that proved useful in achieveing a string of A’s but will it come in usefull elsewhere? A string of A’s may help you to get into college, but will it help you succeed at work? Will it help you communicate? Will it help you run a business? Will it help you in life, in marriage and in bringing up the future generation?  We should be the generation of thinkers.  Instead we are the generation of robots.

How many hours of sunlight did you enjoy per week when you were 13? How many hours of sunlight do current 13-year-olds get?

A Cease and Desist Letter (or at least a not too legal one)

The Cease and Desist Letter

A fellow Malaysian blogger got a extralegal cease and desist letter from none other than our much loved ISP known as Streamyx or at least one of their employees.

This really saddens me since the government now has to deal the card of fear to keep us in line, this dude probably has been dealt that card too many times indirectly thus making him think this way. He should have just taken what the blogger said for what it is, the open secret that you can bribe a cop to let you off minor offenses. To those pro government bucket heads don’t even bother trying to defend “the nation’s image” since foreigners, particularly expatriates are very aware of these things. One expatriate spreads this knowledge, slowly it becomes two, tree and so on ’till they have a comunity probably the size of a small town knowing it. Then two small towns, then three as time goes by and by the way they can spread this when they go back without you bucket heads even knowing it and if I am not mistaken the almighty ISA has no jurisdiction there to put a bona fide real cease and desist letter to those folk the expat know back in their own country. America in the past tried to hide behind the facade of “every man being equal” for awhile and guess what? They aren’t equal and open racism was removed when they embraced the truth, NOT silencing it.

The moron who posted the mail should have just told his supposed relative and the cops taking proper action to sooth such sentiments rather than silencing it like some KGB directorate by creating fear based on several well publicized public examples such as high profile arrests. The police is meant to protect and serve the people, not arrest people for speaking the truth. I admit its not as bad as Soviet Russia or the fictitious “finger men” from the V for Vendetta movie but such dissatisfaction is not doing the police any good. My mom was forced to pay a cop a sum of money to let her off the hook and the cop took her only 50 dollar note leaving 2 dollars behind in her wallet when she showed him her wallet. Why we did not report you might ask? Well, it is simply because there is this impression that the blue boys look after their own @ the blue wall, so what is the point?

Folks, do not judge our cops too harshly. They are frankly speaking one of the best law enforcement outfits in Asia and they have been internationally recognized for their prowess in stamping out major crimes such as drug trafficking, murder cases, armed robberies, etc. They were even kind enough to help calm my mother down when a burglars stole things from my house. The actions of a few (although seemingly large) unscrupulous individuals should not tarnish the people who actually do their jobs which is to bring the hammer of justice to those who break the law. There is no such thing as a perfect law enforcement organization as they are manned by people prone to human nature. I just hope the PDRM (Royal Malaysian Police Force) can stamp out this problem and make these corrupt officials less ubiquitous and make them more of an abnormality rather than a norm.

p.s –

pohhar@stramyx.com, you are welcomed to defend your relatives on the net since we are all equal here but we bloggers who are under attack do not take kindly at being intimidated and it does not help your “letter” sounds…..weak to say the least. If you just stuck to defending the police force for all the good it does, it would have been a great way of making Amy take back her coments on the force.

Once Upon A Time….

some young souls were disenchanted by what was happening in their homeland. They love the land and they love the people. But changes were happening and they weren’t sure if they could live with some of these changes. A few of them from similar yet different walks of life, have set out to record their observations and opinions on the ever-changing colours of the land they call home – Malaysia. We, the contributors of this blog, are no strangers to blogging. We all have our own, separate blogs, but here we join hands on one common theme.  Join us to see Malaysia through the eyes of young adults, barely released from our mothers’ apron strings, as we step away from studenthood to join the ranks of professionals.