Sunday, December 25, 2011

Malays will never disappear from this earth: Don't be too sure!

By: Hussien Hamid

From : Malaysia Chronicle

I was in Singapore the last few days for work. Have not been to Singapore for over 20 years. The driver of the taxi that drove me from the airport tomy hotel was Malay. On the ride to the hotel he pointed out that all theland along the coast that was now fully developed was reclaimed land. Hesaid that Singapore could no longer buy sand from Indonesia or Malaysia –so Singapore now buys its sand from Vietnam.

He suggested that maybe the Malaysian government should consider letting Singapore mine all the sand itneeded from the Pahang and Perak river so that floods would not occur asfrequently as they do now – this way Singapore would have their sand andMalaysia gets two strikes against Singapore: Payment for the sand and floodprevention!

I quietly smiled at his logic. If only our politicians couldthink that clearly!

At night I would watch TV as I ate dinner and what I saw on Singapore TVgave me some explanation as to why Malaysia is so far behind Singapore. NoI am not just talking about the physical aspect of development where acomparison between the two countries would be an exercise in futility:Where would you begin?

From Changi airport, the taxis I took, the buses andtrains that I used to the presence of a city confident in its growth andsecure of its place globally, Singapore is everything that Malaysia is not!

Singapore TV is filled with programs that provides you with information ofworld events, knowledge about anything that you would care to know andlearn about and many programs that tells Singaporeans that life out thereis to be lived and enjoyed responsible. No politicians in sight on theirTV. Nothing that would allow any sensible, intelligent Singapore TV viewerto be upset at any attempt by the Singapore government to try and influencethem on matters political.Malaysian TV is pathetic and an embarrassment to watch. Talk show hoststhat are so condescending to their guests that it makes me cringe!

We havecrowds of people being told about the latest government projects that willbenefit them and the nation. What passes for Television programs is inreality government propaganda - pure and simply drivel and unmitigatedspew of useless information that benefits no one – not even the governmentbecause all it does is to turn the thinking viewer against such blatantpropaganda of a BN government desperate to win a coming general election.

I remember one episode where this Malay politician was opening a show orseminar of some sort by unfurling a banner with a giant size portrait ofhimself! It makes me want to spew!What was more disturbing to me is thinking how all this rubbish onMalaysian Television will affect those Malaysian watching Malaysian TV. Ifthat is the only TV they watch then what chance do these people have ofdeveloping into a better human being?

We have been told that we are what weeat…well I think what our government allow our people to watch on TV andread in the media is what we will be: a people blinkered and oblivious tothe world outside.

But as a Malay what saddens me is that the politics within UMNO defines usMalays as we have never been defined before. Before this the Malays sawthemselves as a people who went about their life with a quiet dignitysecure in the knowledge that as a people, they had the respect of the otherraces and felt themselves worthy of being Malays – son of the soils. Moreimportant we had a sense of self worth.Today the ugliness of the Malay persona is now no longer a matter than canbe kept within the confines of family and the Malay community. How can itbe kept from the public domain when Malays are ridicule and laughed at asthey try to walk along the path where others have walked – and in trying todo so they have failed miserably.

Failed because they are ill equipped tocompete on a level playing field with the other races.This is not something that UMNO can sweep under the carpet anymore.Today it is the Malays themselves who have realized the dire situation thatthey are in.

This is what the Malays now know of themselves.There are no great Malay leaders in this country of ours any more. All ourleaders, without exception, has in one-way or another, failed us – and yethaving failed they still insists that their right to remain a Malay leaderis unaffected. The Malay leaders of today are a joke!

The education of our young has not prepared or equipped them to compete ona level playing field against non-Malays in Malaysia and against otherswhen they go overseas. They have failed miserably from their ability tomaster the English Language to their ability to interact and handle theintricacies of living amongst non-Malays.I have been shamed countless times when in conversation with Malay studentsin Australia – not only by their woefully inadequate ability to speakdecent English but more worrying in the blinkered approach to educationwith the ‘them’ and ‘us’ approach to everything – from social interactionsto having no understanding that we must celebrate diversity – not treat itas a threat to our Malay ethnicity, to our religion and to our way of life.That they have failed to do so is painfully obvious to me as a Malay – whatmore to the people they meet.

But ignorance is bliss and these students areunable to comprehend that they are looked upon as an object to be pitiedrather then laughed at. And so these students go about their educationoblivious to their failings. Katak di bawah tempurong!

The Malays can no longer ignored the reality that the non-Malays are wayahead by leaps and bounds in all things Malaysians: Business, Education,civil society and even respect and dignity of their own race.How is this possible when the Malays have complete control of governmentsince Merdeka and should and did have control over all aspects of life inMalaysia?

How is this possible when the Malays have 9 Sultans and numerous Governors as the constitutional head of state?

How is this possible when the Malays numerically overwhelmed all the other races put together?

And yet all this advantages have made the Malays into a people that can nolonger hold their head nobly whatever their circumstances simply becausethe Malay dominated Barisan Nasional government has failed in their muchstated purpose of Ketuanan Melayu.Failed not in the getting of the Ketuanan Melayu but failed in the mannerin which Ketuanan Melayu is used to further NOT The Malay interest but tofurther UMNO’s interest.And therein lies the tragedy of the Malays!

AN UMNO that takes for themselves what should really be for the Malays.And it is in the leaders of UMNO that we see the worst of the Malays acting out what the Malays have now become! These UMNO leaders are the epitome of greed, corruption and thievery of the nations wealth for their own pockets.That the Malays have now lost their sense of pride and dignity because of the misdeeds and abuse by UMNO politicians of the public office they hold is of no concern to these UMNO Malays.

The behavior of these UMNO leaders now mirrors ...... who have long ago surrendered any dignity they might still have and any claims to being Malay leaders by their decadent lifestyle that they lead on the money they get from the Rakyat.Are they Malays powerless to stop their leaders from taking them further down the road of lost respect and lost dignity.

How not to lose respect fora Malay leader like Najib? In fact look at the families of all the PrimeMinisters of Malaysia bar Tunku : Malays all of them: And all of them inone way or the other have profited hideously from the office of PrimeMinister.

And with Najib he goes a step further. The emergence of a wife that thinksthat being the wife of the Prime Minister entitles her to be styled FirstLady of Malaysia!

What these Malays leaders are doing are being aped by other Malays inposition of trust and power – where the getting of wealth by any meanspossible have brought into existence of at least two generations of Malaysthat have been brought to believe that Malaysia owes them a living: ask notwhat you can do for your country but ask what your country can do for you!

Two generations of Malays totally spoiled and weaken to expect somethingfor nothing by a UMNO totally devoid of any interest in furthering theinterest of any Malay what more other Malaysian, other then ofthemselves!

I am ashamed of being Malay. Ashamed because of the deeds and actions takenby UMNO in the name of the Malays.

How can I not be ashamed that a Malay Minister of Defense have seen it fit to allow a good friend of his to profit RM$500 million merely by arranging for the Malaysian government to buy French Submarines?

How can I not be ashamed of these Malay leaders when a Malay Prime Minister– well almost a Malay Prime Minister! – saw it fit to use the people’smoney - to the tune of RM$1 billion - to bail out the shipping company ofhis son!

How can I not be ashamed when a Minister, no less, is sent as ourAmbassador in Washington after being caught out for outraging the modestyof a waitress serving him!

These Malays do more damage to the Malays at large then to themselves.The Malays had Dato Onn, Tunku, Tun Razak, Tun Hussein Onn, Tun Dr IsmailAli, Ghazali Shafie …all great Malay leaders whose duty was to the Malaysa nd to Malaysia and all Malaysians!

Who do we have now? Malay leaders whose idea of being great is having thelatest model Mercedes and living in mansions paid for by their thieving ofthe people's money and taking actresses or singers for their wives andmistresses! And the Malay singers and actresses who thinks that these ageing lotharios is a good catch probably defines the materialistic mindframe that permeates too many Malays everywhere.

It pains me to see the Malays like this. It pains me even more when the most concerned of people are not the Malay leaders but the other races who are witness to the Malay fall from grace. The non Malays worry for the Malays more then the Malay leaders because they know that until the Malays are energized to do something for themselves by getting rid of these useless Malay leaders, then they too would have to bear the brunt of the corruption and the rape and pillage of their country by these UMNO leaders.Let us all realize that we are all in this together.

What the Malays are now enduring the other races are also enduring and we can only get out ofthis impasse by working together.The irony that I as a Malay is mocking and putting down my own race is notlost on me. Cutting off my nose to spite my face! For me UMNO has cut ofthe Malay nose a long time ago. PKR is not far behind because here again is a Malay dominated political entity that is run by Malays who presumes it istheir right to do as they please in PKR because they are the leaders ofPKR. If UMNO has cut of the nose of the Malay face then PKR is working onthe ear!

I say all this because it needs to be said. It cannot be ignored that theMalays have now lost their way in a country they call their own. If theycannot see themselves being so then I will point that out to them. If youwant to assail me for being a turncoat to my own race by living inAustralia – let me tell you this. A Malay is still a Malay wherever he orshe is.Open your eyes, engage your brains. Think and ask yourself if you are proudto be a Malay in Malaysia today. I am not. I no longer wish to refer tomyself as a Bumiputra because being a Bumiputra does not make me any more aMalay as a Chinese would be more a Chinese if he lives in China or anIndian in India!

Being a bumiputra is an embarrassment to anyone today because it denotes anunfairness within a society that tells you that birth, race and religionentitles you to being someone else other then what you are not – a firstamongst equal.

Today privileges of birth no longer hold any sway overcivilized societies - be you a Sultan or the son of a Prime Minister.

Everything that you want to be must be earned through hard work and decentlabor. And this is why the position of the Malays in Malaysia have long agobeen compromised by an UMNO government that sees the Malays only as a toolto further their hold on power in this country.But having had power for the last 53 years UMNO has not discarded theMalays - no they still have need of the Malays to win the next generalelections and the next and the next! The question now is whether we Malayswill let them use us anymore!

My fellow Malays look around you and ask yourself why we now like this? Weallow our leaders to engage in gutter politics! They no longer talk aboutextra marital sex as being against Islam – today it is sodomy! Today it isMalay leaders who take second wives without the knowledge of their firstwives. Today it is about using religion to threaten and cowered the otherraces into threading softly in their own country on pain of being brandedanti Islam and anti Malays.

Takkan Melayu hilang di dunia!Let me tell you Malays this. We Malays were never on the world stage! TheChinese were.

The Indians were. Not the Malays. So please wake up from theUMNO induced slumber that our people have been in for so long. Fifty-threeyears to be exact! Our Malay Prime Minister today does not have half therespect the Malay Penghulu used to have in the days when the Penghulus inthe kampongs were leaders of the Malays in the ruralareas.But this I know. As a human being we are responsible for who we are and who we want to become.

Against all odds the Chinese and other races havesurvived in Malaysia. Survived better then the Malays. It is time we Malayscast aside these useless Malay leaders that lives off our ethnicity to onlyfurther their own vested interests not the Malays.They are Malay leaders amongst us now that can provide us with an enlighten leadership to take not only the Malays but also all Malaysians towards abetter Malaysia.

Nurrul for one. But only because she has not had the timeto be what her father and so many Malay leaders have now become : UMNO in their thinking, UMNO in their actions and UMNO in the promotion of no otherinterest but their own. The worry is that given time Nurrul would be what her father is today – a man who held so much promise for the future of ourrace and our country and yet delivered so little. Let us make sure that Nurrul will not fail.