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.

How you wish there were no heaven and hell

Saturday, 20 June 2009 16:15 Sheesh! So not only will you not go to heaven if you support Barisan Nasional. You will also not go to heaven even if you support PAS. This is because PAS is also involved in an un-Islamic system of government. PAS is as un-Islamic as Umno or Barisan Nasional is. NO HOLDS BARRED Raja Petra Kamarudin Mad fish?: scientist warns that farmed fish could be a source of mad cow disease Jeremy Hance, news.mongabay.com June 17, 2009 In a paper that shows just how strange our modern world has become, Robert P. Friedland, neurologist from the University of Louisville, warns that farmed fish could be at risk of Creutzfeldt Jakob disease, or Mad Cow Disease. Currently, farmed fish are fed cow by products—a food source they would never find natural environment (unless society started dumping cow carcasses in oceans or lakes). Friedland and co-authors raise the issue in the Journal of Alzhemier’s Disease and call on food regulators to ban feeding cow bone or meat to farmed fish until it can be determined if the practice of feeding fish cow-parts is safe. “We have not proven that it’s possible for fish to transmit the disease to humans. Still, we believe that out of reasonable caution for public health, the practice of feeding rendered cows to fish should be prohibited,” Friedland said. “Fish do very well in the seas without eating cows.” Mad Cow Disease is a fatal disease that can be contracted by eating parts of a cow infected with bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE). After an outbreak in Britain due to infected beef, 163 people died. “The fact that no cases of Creutzfeldt Jakob disease have been linked to eating farmed fish does not assure that feeding rendered cow parts to fish is safe,” warns Friedland. “The incubation period of these diseases may last for decades, which makes the association between feeding practices and infection difficult. Enhanced safeguards need to be put in place to protect the public.” Along with cow, farmed fish are also fed significant amounts of antibiotics to keep them disease-and-parasite free. Farmed fish pose additional health hazards due to the possibility of mercury contamination. http://news.mongabay.com/2009/0617-hance_madfish.html ************************************************* So there you have it. You thought that by avoiding beef and by just eating fish you can avoid being inflicted with Mad Cow Disease. Then you suddenly wake up one morning and a scientist or doctor tells you that you can still get Mad Cow Disease by eating fish, not to mention mercury poisoning. So what do you do? You become a vegetarian. But just as you thought you are now safe and will live to a ripe old age of 100, another scientist or doctor tells you that the vegetables you are eating have been sprayed with insecticide to prevent plant pests from attacking them. And these insecticides can’t be washed off even if you soak the vegetables for hours before cooking them. No wonder the vegetables looked so perfect and when you buy your vegetables you always choose the most perfect looking ones and avoid those that look like they have been attacked by plant pests. Now you find out that the more perfect they look the more harmful they actually are. Okay, I have a solution, you may think. I will grow my own vegetables in my garden plot and will make sure that they are not sprayed with anything harmful. I will also rear my own chickens and goats and feed them with natural food that do not contain any chemicals. This will ensure that only the safest food gets into my belly. That will offer me the guarantee that I get to eat only contaminated-free food. Then a Blogger starts writing articles telling you that the food you are buying and eating may be medically safe, but they are not halal. They are still ‘contaminated’ with elements of haram. “How can they be haram?” you argue. You never touch anything that does not have a ‘halal’ sticker on them. But lo and behold, you suddenly discover that the halal turkey costs more than the turkey that does not have a halal sticker on them. You then ask the turkey supplier whether this is a conspiracy to discriminate Muslims. Why is the halal turkey more expensive than the non-halal turkey? The turkey supplier then whispers a little secret into your ear. They have to pay the people who issue these ‘halal’ stickers under-the-table money. Yes, that’s right. Those Muslims in white robes and skullcaps take bribes. You have to bribe them to get them to certify your turkey as halal. If not they will not give you permission to stick those ‘halal’ stickers onto your turkey. So now you avoid halal food altogether. Instead of buying your food from the halal section of the supermarket you buy them from the non-halal section. The turkey, chicken, lamb and beef mixed amongst the pork, ham and bacon is more halal than those sold with ‘halal’ stickers on them. Okay, they may not have been slaughtered the ‘correct’ way, but at least they are not ‘contaminated’ with bribery, which is worse than eating ‘not properly slaughtered’ meat. You want to be a good Muslim. You want to avoid anything that is considered haram from ever touching your lips. You avoid food that will endanger your health because Islam is against you doing anything that endangers your health, smoking included. You also avoid food that is considered haram from the Islamic perspective. So you avoid food that have ‘halal’ stickers on them knowing that the supplier has to bribe the government officers to get this halal certification. You are a good Muslim. So you are now assured of going to heaven. To strengthen your case when you one day die and finally get to meet your Maker, you do not drink or gamble as well. You lead a very pious life. But hold on a minute. You work for the government. And the government taxes gaming and liquor. And this money is used to pay your salary. So you are actually ‘eating’ haram money, money procured from taxes on gaming and liquor. Furthermore, according to one-time Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, 90% of the personal and private businesses taxes is paid by the Chinese. And the Chinese are involved in all sorts of non-halal businesses. They run lotteries and gambling outlets. They run bars, pubs, nightclubs and discos. They run brothels, massage parlours and karaoke centres that are actually fronts for the ‘China Dolls’ racket. They run banks, finance companies and money-lending businesses. You name it and the Chinese run it. And all these are haram according to Islam. And they pay taxes on all this and this tax money is used to pay the salaries of the government employees. Sheesh, what do you do now? There is only one option open to you. You resign from the government and run your own but small business. You set up a driving school. But none of your students pass their driving test. They will never pass unless you pay the Road Transport Department tester a bribe, the usual under-the-table money. So you will have to bribe the tester or else none of your students will pass their driving test and you will eventually have to close down because no one will come to your driving school any longer. So you close down your driving school and open a tuition centre instead. But you can’t get a licence to operate a tuition centre unless you also pay a bribe. Okay, forget about the tuition centre. You will instead set up a small stall selling cakes and nasi lemak. But you can’t get your hawker’s licence unless you also bribe the local authorities. Sheesh, forget about the whole thing. You decide to go back to your kampong to become a padi farmer. Your late father left you a piece of land, which he used to grow padi on. It has of course been neglected all those years because you chose to work for the government instead of becoming a padi farmer. Now you decide to grow padi on that neglected land. You also sell your house and car and surrender your credit cards to avoid having to pay haram interest on your loans and credit cards. You will become a true Muslim by just planting padi. You apply for fertilizer from the government but are told you need to become an Umno member to qualify for fertilizer aid. If not you will have to buy your own fertilizer from the Chinaman supplier and that would mean your production cost would be too high. The only way to keep your cost down would be to get a fertilizer subsidy but you must first become an Umno member. Furthermore, you need to sell your padi to Bernas and they will pay you a low price if you do not pay the purchasing officer a ‘commission’ and show him your Umno membership card. It troubles you that you must become an Umno member to get government subsidies. It troubles you even more that you must bribe the purchasing officer to get a fair price on your padi. Your late padi-farmer father once told you that you must support PAS if you want to go to heaven. Now you have to become an Umno member to get the fertilizer you need for your padi field. And you still can’t escape bribery even as a padi farmer. Will that mean you will be going to hell instead? Lo and behold, the Deputy Prime Minister said you could still go to heaven even if you vote for Barisan Nasional. You need not vote for PAS to go to heaven after all. Barisan Nasional too can help send you to heaven. You just pray that it will be later rather than sooner. Halleluiah! Your soul has been saved. You can now safely become an Umno member to get your fertilizer and still go to heaven. You need no longer support PAS. Allah is most kind and merciful after all. Then you discover something most depressing. The Westminster form of government and western-style parliamentary general elections are not Islamic after all. The so-called western concept of democracy is an un-Islamic concept. There are no such things in Islam. Islam does not choose its leaders in this manner. This is most depressing. Islam says you are not supposed to choose kufurs, mushriks, fasiks and whatnot as your leaders. And in the Westminster system of general elections the worst kind of people are elected as the country’s leaders. You are supposed to choose noble and pious people as your leaders. The current system allows only slime-balls and scumbags into office. Sheesh! So not only will you not go to heaven if you support Barisan Nasional. You will also not go to heaven even if you support PAS. This is because PAS is also involved in an un-Islamic system of government. PAS is as un-Islamic as Umno or Barisan Nasional is. Aiyah! So better you don’t become a member of any political party. And better still, you don’t vote as well. But if you don’t then you are allowing bad people to get into power. By doing nothing you are aiding and abetting sin. So you must do something. But what can you do? Every option available to you is haram and un-Islamic. What a dilemma! The whole problem is you were born a Muslim. No, the real problem is you were born, full stop. If not then you would not be faced with any dilemma. This is actually the REAL Malay dilemma. You can never be a proper Muslim in this modern world, especially not in Malaysia. You start to wonder what it was like in the old days before we saw ‘progress’. You always suspected that progress is bad for you, especially as far as your soul is concerned. Source : Malaysia Today

Sarawak for Sarawakians !

First of all, Sarawak Headhunter wishes to make it clear that he is only anti-BN Malayans and not Malayans in general. All references to "Malayans" here and in his other postings should therefore be read accordingly.

Sarawak has contributed more than its fair share to Malaya, and the Malayans have messed things up. Not only have the Malayans messed things up, they have ignored Sarawak's contributions and have never even acknowledged the same or shown any gratitude to Sarawak or Sarawakians.

Even worse, they look down on Sarawak as being backward while enjoying and wasting the fruits of Sarawak's natural resources, especially its petroleum. It is as if the Malayans refuse to invite or even allow Sarawakians to sit at the banquet table and eat the food that the Sarawakians themselves have provided. This is of course a typical colonial and feudal mentality and attitude, even if the Malayans may deny it.

Must Sarawakians beg to be let into the banquet hall? Or do they grace the festivities only as performing artistes showing off the purported multi-ethnic culture of Malaysia? Do the Malayans really know anything about the culture of Sarawak and Sarawakians? Do they care or even bother?

Can Sarawakians expect anything different from PKR, a Malayan-based political party whose main aim it would appear is to get Anwar Ibrahim to become Prime Minister of Malaysia?

These are some of the tough questions Sarawakians themselves have to answer.

Sarawak Headhunter has increasingly come to the opinion that the sooner Sarawak parts ways with Malaya the better off it will be. Not even a purportedly born-again Malaysia should deter this from happening. The Malayans will never understand Sarawakians because they are too lazy to make any real effort. Sarawakians have made it too easy for them by allowing them to live the good life at Sarawak's expense, so why should they bother? Enough is enough!

Sarawak will then be in a position to adopt a more representative form of government, along the lines of a Presidential system, where every citizen will have a right to vote for the head of the nation, unlike the present system where a few hundred and at most a couple of thousand people (at the UMNO General Assembly) decide who is going to be the Prime Minister. How will anyone who is not from UMNO or not a Malay get to be Prime Minister? Impossible or only with very great difficulty.

In fact there is nothing to say that even the Chief Minister of Sarawak cannot be elected in this manner - by popular vote. All it needs is a few constitutional changes, which of course we cannot expect the BN government to make and which is why BN needs to be overthrown in the next state elections or earlier.

Sarawak Headhunter believes that Sarawakians should have full control of their own government without having to answer to the Malayans, whether Pakatan Rakyat or Barisan Nasional.

Many of the Dayaks (effectively the Ibans) believe that Sarawak's problems can be overcome through "Dayak Unity" and that Taib can be overthrown through such "unity". This is misconceived and they are wrong. Other than for the fact that this idea is not shared by all Dayaks, it also ignores the Non-Dayak races of Sarawak and this is a mistake.

Taib Mahmud and the Sarawak BN government can only be overthrown only through a unity of a majority of Sarawakians, Dayaks and Non-Dayaks alike.

It is also a fallacy to believe that only a Dayak Chief Minister can solve the problems of the Dayaks. What would happen if a Dayak Chief Minister were to behave like Taib Mahmud and get away with it? What would happen if he were to discriminate against the Non-Dayaks? Sarawak does not need this and it would be another disaster.

In reality, it is only necessary for whoever is chosen to be the Chief Minister of Sarawak to be fair to all Sarawakians, irrespective of race or religion. Sarawakians must choose the best man for the job, not because of his race or religion.

Finally, Sarawakians should stop looking to the Malayans for solutions to their problems. The Malayans only know how to create problems, then offer their own self-serving solutions as if they were doing us such big favours.

Sarawakians can look after themselves, and the first thing they should do is to kick Taib and the BN out, and preferably limit the role of PKR in Sarawak.

Sarawak for Sarawakians!

Source : Sarawak Headhunter

Obama's exciting victory and the boredom of 'Ketuanan Melayu'

Thursday, 06 November 2008 00:30

Azly Rahman
http://azlyrahman-illuminations.blogspot.com/

'O people! Your God is one and your forefather (Adam) is one. An Arab is not better than a non-Arab and a non-Arab is not better than an Arab, and a red (i.e. white tinged with red) person is not better than a black person and a black person is not better than a red person, except in piety. Indeed the noblest among you is the one who is deeply conscious of God.' - a saying of Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon Him)

Malaysia - to whom does it belong? To Malaysians. But who are Malaysians? I hope I am, Mr Speaker, Sir. But sometimes, sitting in this chamber, I doubt whether I am allowed to be a Malaysian. This is the doubt that hangs over many minds, and ... [once] emotions are set in motion, and men pitted against men along these unspoken lines, you will have the kind of warfare that will split the nation from top to bottom and undo Malaysia.' - Lee Kuan Yew, now Senior Minister, Republic of Singapore

Instead of defining Ketuanan Melayu as 'Malay superiority' which is quite meaningless, philologically inaccurate, and philosophically arrogant, I think the word 'dictatorship' is closer in meaning. As you read this piece, please refrain from value judgment and from bring trapped in the prison-house of language pertaining to the word 'dictatorship'.

To dictate connotes to tell, which connotes to narrate. To narrate means to weave a story based on an ideology. To ideologise means to encapsulate. To encapsulate means to be trap. Dictatorship, here might also mean an entrapment. Instead of acknowledging one's freedom to rule, one is acknowledging being in an entrapment - and to rule out of that condition. This is a form of false consciousness.

Words, as a literary theorist Raymond Williams might say, must also be contextualised/situated within the economic condition they emerge in. Marx's famous dictum that human beings' existence is defined by the economic condition they are in and that this condition is already predetermined. This is a deterministic view of human history.

I first read heard the phrase "Tuntutan Melayu" in the mid-1980s from a book by one Malik Munip. I was reading his work, at the same time reading Lim Kit Siang's 'Malaysia in the dangerous 80s', to get a sense of the argument. I was an undergraduate reading Literature, Education and International Politics.

I also heard that Malay students were discouraged from reading Kit Siang's work and encouraged to read 'Ketuanan Melayu'. I love banned books and books that others tell me not to read. There is a sense of intellectual challenge to be able to read banned books.

I read Mahathir Mohamad's 'The Malay Dilemma' and Syed Husin Ali's 'Malays: Their Problems and their Future' and Syed Hussein Alatas' 'The Myth of the Lazy Native' at the same time. Again, to get a sense of balance.

I read Malaysian official publications on economic outlook, juxtaposing them with a close reading of analyses on the political-economy of the Malaysian capitalist state.

I read the work of Freud and Marx to see where some of the major authors of the Frankfurt School of Social Research are going with their arguments on totalitarianism. I read the Quran and the Bhagavad Gita, the Ramayana, and the Mahabharata to see where the arguments on race superiority lie and what the fate of humankind will be.

The idea of social dominance and racial superiority might all be primarily about economics, if we are to read the history of the development of ideologies of superiority. But my question is - who has the right to claim that this or that land belongs to this or that group of people. At what point does culture and citizenship meet and negotiate the issue of egalitarianism? When does 'the truth of one's culture' reach its limit and the question of 'the truth of citizenship' dominate?

This is a very complex question Malaysians must answer after 50 years of Independence. We must open up the dialogue on this issue.

Lyrical propaganda

Let us look at how the idea of ketuanan Melayu is disseminated to the young. One way is through indoctrination camps in which songs are used.

Over the decades, perhaps millions of Malay students like me were taught the dangerous propaganda song, 'Anak Kecil Main Api'(A Child Plays with Fire). One verse concerns the power of the Malays::

… kini kita cuma tinggal kuasa

yang akan menentukan bangsa

hasil mengalir, ke tangan yang lain

pribumi merintih sendiri…

My loose translation of this 1980s propaganda song by the Biro Tata Negara reads:

… political power is what we are only left with

one that will determine the fate of our nation

wealth of this nation flows into the hands of others

sons and daughters of the soil suffer in solace...

I do not think we have a clear understanding of what the lyrics mean. I doubt if the songwriter even understand what a 'people's history of Malaya' means. It is a song based on racist intents; its lyrics penned by one who does not have a good grasp of the political-economy of Malaysian history, let alone the latest advances in the field of psychology of consciousness.

The training programes that encapsulate the theme of this song are meant to instill fear of the Malays, not of others but of themselves, and to project hatred onto other ethnic groups without realising who the enemy of the Malays really are.

Using relaxation techniques to bring the brain waves in the alpha and state (conducive for suggestive and subliminal messages), trainees were put under 'half-asleep' conditions to get the ketuanan Melayu message to colonise the consciousness. The technique pioneered by Russian brain scientists Barzakov and Lozanov in the1970s, called 'suggestopedia', is used to instill the deep sense of fear for oneself and hatred of others.

History is a complex syntagmatic pattern of interplay between technology, ideology, culture, inscription and institutionalisation not easily reduced to simplistic lyrics as such sung to the tune of pre-war German-nationalistic-sounding compositions.

History is about the complex evolution of the ruling class which owns the technologies of control. As Marx would say, at every epoch it is the history of those who own the means of production that will be written and rewritten. The winners write history, the losers write poetry or study anthropology, some would lament.

Back to the lyrics. After 50 years of independence, who is suffering in Malaysia? Who has become wealthy? Who has evolved into robber barons? What has become of our judiciary system, our universities, our city streets, our sense of public safety and security, our schools, our youth, and our entire socio-economic arrangements at the eve of the 12th general election. How has the idea of ketuanan Melayu contributed to this state of affairs?

Language of power and ideology is at play in those lyrics. The definition of 'bumiputera' is at play. It has become a problematic word in this age of deconstructionism; an age wherein as the poet WB Yeats said, "the centre cannot hold".

Rock musicians will recall the Scorpions' famous song 'Winds of Change' to serenade the fall of the Berlin Wall and the beginning of the breakdown of the Soviet Empire. We have to face the 'wrath' of the word.

Put an end to Ketuanan Melayu

For Muslims in Malaysia, this saying by Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) is familiar: 'Your descent is nothing to be proud of. Nor does it bring you superiority. O people! All of you are the children of Adam. You are like equal wheat grains in a bowl ... No one has any superiority over anyone else, except in religion and heedfulness. In order to consider someone a wicked person, it suffices that he humiliates other people, is mean with money, bad-tempered and exceeds the limits…'

I would say that ketuanan Melayu is a dangerous concept that is threatening race relations. It is an arrogant interpretation of selective history; of a history that is largely benefiting those who profits from the ideology.

Those promoting this concept are not well-versed in the matters of philosophy of history. I do not think thinking Malays these days subscribe to the idea of 'Malay dominance and dictatorship'. If there is a ketuanan of one race, then the rest are 'slaves' and 'serfs' and 'sub-citizens', if we are to analyse it from the point of view of 'Master-Slave' narrative?

As a Malay wishing to see the withering of and an end to the concept of "ketuanan Melayu" and the birth of a new consciousness that will respect the dignity of all races and the humility of all ethnic groups, I call upon Malaysians to continue to be critical of any attempt by any race to project their own sense of false superiority that would only breed dangerous ethnocentrism bordering on xenophobia.

We should work together to deconstruct all forms of race-based political arrangement and work towards establishing a new order based on a more egalitarian economic design that takes into consideration the basic needs and dignity of all races.

We should teach our schoolchildren how to deconstruct such sense of racial superiority, through the teaching of not only tolerance but social egalitarianism - via peace education strategies. We will have a lot to gain for generations to come.

Let us learn from the message of multiculturalism, peace, and reconciliation
crafted in the victory speech of Barack Obama and work towards the kind of
Malaysia all Malaysians want.
For -- is not Malaysia too a land of immigrants?

Bariah Ishak, Marina Lee & the rest of the heroes

By : kickdefella

Meqna, my three years old daughter, gently push her small finger against my ribs, trying to wake me up. As I open my eyes, she asked me in her baby slang, “abah kena tangkap?”

This is the first time she saw me since we were separated on the evening of September 17, 2008.

Earlier, during sahur, Al, my eldest claimed he has been bullied at school because of my detention while Wef relates how he cried when he saw me on TV, being handcuffed and escorted by the police.

Meanwhile, both Al and Wef told Guli, “Abah kena tangkap pasal bunuh banyak sangat polis dalam GTA”, referring to Guli’s favourite PS2 game, the Grand Theft Auto.

While I cherished the luxury of being with my kids and hear their reflections on the matter, my heart is with my brother Raja Petra Kamaruddin.

Pete is now in Kamunting Detention Centre in Perak. The Minister of Home Affairs had signed the detention order of two years. What will happen if Najib Razak became the Prime Minister during the two years? Do we believe Rosmah The Terrible will not interfere and force the next Home Minister to extend the detention order till the end of her hubby premiership? This is the bad thing about such law we called ISA.

While I still stand my ground on such preventive law but as always, I keep on questioning the manner such law allows for so much of abuse.

Will Pete be there when his youngest, Sarah met her Mr. Right? Doesn’t Pete has a right as a father to be there with his daughter during her growing years? For years, Pete has been there for us without failed to amuse us with his insights. Perhaps time has come for us to be there physically for Pete. This time around no Paypal or US Dollar can free our Pete but perhaps our intelligences and strengths.

Should we just go there and take Pete and other sixty plus detainees out of the detention centre? Why not. If we have the number we can do that. We just need 0.001% of the population to make the plan a success. In a worst-case scenario, maybe 0.001% of those who will march to Kamunting to release Pete and friends will be dead. Yet, surely Pete and friends will be free and due to the number of those martyr, the government will crumbled and UMNO and BN will be kick out of Malaysia forever.

Then why are we not doing it? The answer is because we are Malaysian.

Our forefather and he is The Tunku’s and his buddies, not Rashid Maidin, Ching Peng, Shamsiah Fakeh, Ahmad Boestaman etc, has taught us that we fight and got our independent via a friendly manner and that is by each and everyone of them toasting the champagne glass while flirting with the bourgeoisie.

Friendly manner? Isn’t it a case of lembu punya susu sapi dapat nama? Isn’t those archived documents and the transcript of debates in the British Parliament already proved that British were forced to expedite Malaya’s independence because of the armed struggle by the Communist Party of Malaya and the tendency of the Malay leftist to support the so called Chinese Terrorist. And when our Government put its signature on the Hatyai Agreement with the CPM, we agreed to acknowledge their roles in getting the independence for Malaya.

So truly Malaysian we are, we will rather relax and enjoyed our forthcoming holiday sipping Earl Grey in the balcony of the resort and yes, we will have no problem seeing our once beloved fella rotten in the Kamunting Detention Centre. Well, he is not the first, right?

I have said before, and I shall repeat it again, we have become a society who enjoys masturbating ourselves more that venturing into the real sex. Thanks to UMNO and its friends, we rather fantasise with all the symbols. We are easily aroused by the biggest and the longest, we rather save billions of Ringgit to sent one Malaysian to tour the space than spending two or three billions on petrol subsidies that can surely help the poor to buy things cheaper.

Our fantasies will bring us to bed with anybody, but it can never conceived.

I wish to congratulate the Special Branch for only taking about ten days to wrap their investigation on my brother Pete. By sending Pete to Kamunting will make a whole lot of different to him. Pete is now living in a community consisting of Political Detainees and those deemed as the threat to the Nation. He has his own bed, reading material, access to other detainees, proper medical care, access to sports and etc. Kamunting must be the heaven if we compare it with those days when he is held under investigation at an undisclosed location in a solitary confinement. The torturing part has end, now is the rehabilitating period for our man.

But why should Pete be rehabilitate? Is our Pete a threat to the nation? Ask ourselves this question, when we were told that he is a threat because he has been inciting unrest by insulting Islam, is this another meal for masturbating or this is the real one?

How money people who actually qualified to talk about Islam has felt insulted by what Pete has written. How many Mufti has crucified Pete for what he has written? How many Imams have been butchered by his jamaah after they read what Pete has written? How many Muslim girls have liberate their virginity by indulging into free sex due to what being written by Pete?

I do not know about you, but personally I haven’t seen any glaring differences in the Muslim community since Pete published the so-called inciting unrest by insulting Islam article.

But yes, Pete is a threat to UMNO. Pete is a threat to Najib. Pete is a threat to Pak Lah. But no, Pete is not the threat to the nation.

Pete is not a threat to us. Period.

My father once told me, British made a grave mistake to put Gandhi behind bar. They have created a hero out of the small man. When my eldest sister rushes to hug me at Jalan Duta magistrate court, she tells me, ‘If only Abah is here! If only Abah is here Azidi! He will be proud of you’.

I was left confused. I am not the hero. They are the heroes. You all are the heroes. Because my strength lies in yours.

All the way through my journey to the Kota Bharu Magistrate court to be remanded for the first time, I stared at the handcuff and pray to God that my wife will remain strong. I knew if she starts to cry, I shall too.

As I walked out of the car, I saw her in a distance smiling at me. That is why you have my photos smiling all over the papers next day. She is the hero.

A person like Pete is not the hero if we do not give him our full support. If we want to make him our hero, it will have to begin with us.

Marina Lee Abdullah has been a constant hero for Pete. But this is an un-chartered territory for our sole hero. Pete has been investigated under ISA before but never being sent to Kamunting. This time around we will need more than one hero to save our Pete.

So, can we stand to be a hero?

Fuel Price Hike.....Mayhem !!

shan, writes on malaysia-today, June 10, 2008 01:15:17

My friend send this to me and told me to do him a favour by letting Malaysia read about our leader.Yea, is little rude but worth to read and fwd it to all of our friends, really ass hole PM and those dog, bastard / idiot are still supporting him!!!

Dearest Prime Minister...

FUCK YOU!! Since the disastrous March 8 elections, I haven't bothered attacking you much. Well, why should I when the Pakatan Rakyat, Raja Petra and your own Ministers are already doing such a thorough job. And oh, not forgetting all the salivating vultures waiting to push you down the UMNO ladder. There's also the issue of this bloody old mamak who used to be your boss... but that's a different story.

I may scorn at your intelligence (or lack thereof), amaze at the voodoo spell your Son In Law has you under, laugh at the blind arrogance of your Government and shake my head at your cluelessness in private, but as far as this blog is concerned, I took a break from whacking you and all that you stand for.

Well it ends today. Coz I'm fuckin' pissed. Like REALLY motherfuckin' FUCK YOU BASTARD sort of pissed, you backwater retard.

Today I spent 2 hours caught in a fuckin' traffic jam coming back from work.. As I sat in the fuckin' snarl watchin' the faces of other drivers who looked like they were ready to break stuff, I realised that how every single fuckin' thing that went wrong today all points at you. Like a fuckin' Night Shymalan movie or finale of LOST, everything is related and all dots connect to spell a FUCK YOU BN.

Realisation hits me that the fuckin' 2 hours of my life that I could NEVER get back boils down to one simple fuckin' fact: The country got it SOOOOOOOO fuckin' wrong in 2004 when they put you as the gaffer of this country. Cibai. How, you ask. Shut the fuck up and listen.

It rained today. REALLY heavy.. As a result, all roads in Kuala Lumpur came to a standstill. Why? Is it because all cars in the capital of Malaysia is made out of paper and will disintegrate in the rain? Fuck no. Everything came to a halt because any downpour more than 15 minutes causes 'flash floods' in the most traffic-heavy parts of the city. As fast as money disappears under Khir Toyo's administration, water levels will rise whenever it pours in KL. Causing many parts of the big city to become inaccessible. And jammed. Filled with angry motorists and stranded commuters.

We have a SMART Tunnel. Which 'supposedly' helps to drain water out during floods. We have public transportation. Which 'supposedly' means less vehicles on the road. We have mega criss-crossing highways littered with toll booths. Which 'supposedly' provides easy access to different parts of Klang Valley.

But that's all our country is good for. Launching something and letting monkeys run it. NONE OF THOSE FUCKING THINGS WORK PROPERLY. Or at all. Is it so surprising? No. When they fuck up the basics like having a proper drainage system so that water does not accumulate during heavy rainfall, what more can you expect? Simply put, heavy rains are beyond our control. How we deal with it is not. Or shouldn't be. Fuck all the talk about 'winning the 5 States back' when you can't even address the problems blowing up in your own backyard one by fucking one. So with the fucking rain causing enough havoc as it is ... then came the fuckin' announcement that effective from 12am midnight, petrol prices will increase to RM2.70 a litre from RM1.92.

WHAT A FUCKING JOKE. They couldn't have timed it better. Only days ago one of the lackeys from the PM's office gave a press statement saying the prices will increase by August. PM himself said before earlier this year that there won't be a price hike. But I guess we all know this is the same guy who CONVINCINGLY DECLARED on Tuesday that Parliament won't be dissolved on Wednesday when it actually did came the day. If he was Pinocchio he could represent Malaysia in pole vaulting in Beijing using his blower only. So right after the Govt assured us that petrol prices won't go up, it did. And the timing of it. Announcing it will go up tomorrow. It's like a man coming into a building shouting, 'HEY GUYS RUN. I HAVE A BOMB AND ITS BLOWING IN A FEW SECONDS'.

The announcement, as predicted, sparked a fuckin frenzy on the roads. Every bloody motor owner drove out all their vehicles to quickly fill up their tanks while it's still pre-hike price. This caused the laws of the jungle to quickly emerge as lines after fuckin' lines zig-zagged into jam-packed petrol stations amidst the blaring of horns and cursing of profanities in a multitude of languages. Snarling, bustling and frenzied traffic from every petrol station overflowed onto highways and unflooded roads already under massive burden of having to carry extra vehicles as a result of other flooded roads which become the link between a tired worker's office to his home. The result?

A FUCKING ROYAL RUMBLE OF ROAD MADNESS which lasted 2 hours for me when it usually takes me 20-30mins to reach home from office.

FUCK THE PETROL HIKE. Unfuckinbelievable jam is but the beginning. Inflation is bound to hit hard at everyone's pockets. Granted the price of oil is escalating globally. Granted the American economy crisis is having some spillover effect to world economics.

But we're a FUCKING PETROL PRODUCING NATION!!! Like Saudi. It's 40cents a litre over there. We're a fuckin nation that produces motherfuckin' oil. OIL!! And yet we're saying we can't do a thing. Simple economics dictates that if you PRODUCE OIL, and OIL prices go up, you GET BIGGER PROFITS DON'T YOU?!?!

Petronas rakes in billions EVERY fuckin' year. Yet the government says it can't subsidies us without major cutbacks in other areas like healthcare and shit. FUCK YOU ALL. Just cutback on the kickbacks and under counter money and we'll have enough to subsidise petrol to be under RM1 per litre.

This is what happens when you take village-like, count-up-to-10-with-fingers fuckers to fill in top posts in the Government and Cabinet. This is what happens when you have a despotic party overstaying its fat stay at the top of the food chain. This is a fuckin' joke I tell ya. First the price of flour. Then cooking oil. Then price of pork. Now petrol.

CIBAI KHEONG KAN LEMA KA CHAO CIBAI. FUCK YOU, you and you. All of you. YES BARISAN NASIONAL, UMNO and the ENTIRE Badawi Administration. This is your encore. GET THE FUCK OUT

Change your lifestyles !!!

The hottest discussion topic on everyone's lips these few days is of course non other than the drastic increase in retail prices of petrol and diesel.

After announcing the 40% petrol and 60% diesel price hike, our PM dished out this piece of advice to Malaysians ...."change your lifestyes" ... to cushion the effect and to make life less painful. But how? What concrete suggestions and ideas does he have to offer?

I think we should take the advice seriously and think about how we can go about changing our lifestyles.

Perhaps, as a sign of good leadership, the PM and all the ministers can set a few good examples on changing lifestyles and saving money on fuel.

Here are a few options they should seriously consider:

With immediate effect, they should all drive Kancils to work; gas guzzling monster cars are a definite no-no these days.

Better still, since Kancils are not versatile enough as they also get stuck in traffic jams, thereby wasting precious fuel, they should abandon four-wheelers and instead zip around on Modenas Krisses.

But, that's not good enough. The best example they can show would be to use and personally experience the effectiveness that the combination of the public transport system (buses, kereta sapu, taxis, LRT, monorial) delivers our VIP commuters to their destinations in the course of performing their duties to the rakyat

And make sure the above actions of leadership by example get a good splash all over the mainstream media. It may hit home and the rakyat may learn a few fast lessons on how to conserve fuel and do what the government is telling them to do.....change your lifestyles.

It sucks !!! big time.