With your head buried in the sand

I speak to Malays here in the UK -- professionals who work in the UK, say for the last 10 or 20 years, and whose children were born and now school in the UK -- and they still ask me whether what I am propagating is wise. Do you think we really should end the New Economic Policy (NEP) in favour of meritocracy? What will happen to the Malays if we do that? Won’t we ‘lose’ the country to the Chinese?

NO HOLDS BARRED

Raja Petra Kamarudin

Yesterday’s article, Malaysia at the crossroads, is a most interesting experiment in comprehension. There were more than 100 comments and none answered the point of that whole article: which is, how is the opposition going to woo the Malay voters? That is what the whole article was about and which no one addressed.

I understand, and at times even appreciate, that readers are taking the opportunity to post comments merely to lepas geram (let off steam). They are not really interested in debating or to enter into any discourse. They just want to vent their anger and frustration.

It is like going to the gym to punch the punching ball because you are sexually frustrated and/or your job is a dead-end job with no real future. So you need to hit out at something. Some kick the cat, some punch a ball, and many of you post nasty comments in Malaysia Today.

The 2008 General Election is said to be a landmark for Malaysia’s opposition. We would like to believe that a new political culture has emerged. Some say that, finally, the racial divide has been bridged and today people think as Malaysians and no longer as Malays, Chinese and Indians, or as one of the natives of East Malaysia.

Is this true? Many of you who post comments in Malaysia Today appear to think so. But what is the average age of those who post comments in Malaysia Today? 30? 35? 40? How many of you who post comments in Malaysia Today are 65 or 70? How many of you who post comments in Malaysia Today were born before the Second World War, or before Merdeka, or before 1970?

Okay, let us just look at Malaysians who live, work and/or study, say, in the UK. We have Malaysians here in the UK from all the races. UK is an advanced society. Racism is a crime in the UK and you can get sent to jail even for the mildest of racial slurs. If that same law was applied in Malaysia and was strictly enforced, probably 80% of Malaysians would end up in jail.

There are Malaysians who have lived in the UK for 20 years or more. Some were married in the UK and some even born in the UK. Hence these Malaysians in the UK should not have been exposed to Malaysian-style racism and should by now be insulated from racism.

But this is not so. Chinese mix with Chinese. Malays mix with Malays. In fact, most Malays in the UK only want to live in certain residential areas that are monopolised by their ‘own kind’ -- fellow Malays and in the absence of fellow Malays at least in areas which are predominantly Muslim. And don’t tell me that the Chinese are not like that because if this were true then there would not be so many Chinatowns all over the world, the UK included.

Now, these are Malay professionals who are doing well in the UK not because of the NEP but because of merits. They got their positions not because of the colour of their skin but because they are qualified. Their children are in a local Mat Salleh school and are top of the class or at least in the top ten or top five.

You are doing well, I tell them. Are you doing well because the UK has an NEP and you got your job because you are Malay or because you are good at your job and/or qualified for the job? Your children are doing very well in school and can compete with the ‘whites’. Is this because of the NEP or because they have brains?

They agree that the NEP has nothing to do with it. Maybe in the beginning it was because of the NEP -- and because of the NEP they managed to receive a good education. But from thereon it had nothing to do with the NEP. They compete on a level playing field and they excelled, as did their children in school, entirely on their own merits and with no handicap or advantages.

Okay, I tell them, in short, you are who you are has nothing to do with the NEP and the only benefit that you can see from the NEP is that you received an education. However, judging by how well your children are doing in school, even without the NEP you would still have made it in life just as long as you were allowed the opportunity of a good education.

In short, I ask them, if Malaysia did not have any NEP but had enough schools, colleges, universities, teachers, lecturers, etc., you would have still made it even without any quota system and the only reason you need a quota system is because of a shortage of educational facilities?

They agreed that that is correct.

So we do not need the NEP, right? We need more institutions of learning so that the quota system can end.

When I summed it up that way they hesitated. As logical as this argument may sound, they were not too sure. They still felt that removing or abolishing the NEP would not be good for the Malays.

My wife, Marina, would listen to this exchange and later, when we are alone, she would express her awe at the mind of these Malays. They live and work in the UK. They and their children are doing well. And they are doing well not because of the NEP. So they do not need the NEP. And yet they are not prepared to let go of the NEP in spite of the fact they do not need it.

That is how the mind of the Malay works. And these are Malays in the UK. What about Malays in Malaysia? Would they not also be thinking like this, or worse?

Earlier this year I gave a talk in Cambridge called For God, King and Racism (lifted from the saying ‘For God, King and Country’). It was a one and half hour talk about the history of racism in Malaysia, mainly the ‘three Rs’ that I had written about before more than once -- race, religion, royalty.

As I had explained before, these are the concerns of the Malays -- even Malays who have lived/worked 20 years in the UK and who should, therefore, not be concerned about such matters. And Umno is aware of these concerns. And Umno knows how to play on these concerns to garner Malay support.

The non-Malays in the opposition, however -- many of you who post comments in Malaysia Today -- are not sensitive to these concerns. Instead you do the opposite. Rather than address these concerns you engage in Malay-, Islam-, and/or Royalty-bashing.

Do you really think this will ensure that the opposition is going to get Malay support?

Look at the results of the 2008 General Election. Look at where the seats that DAP won are. Look at where the seats that PAS won are. Look at where the seats that PKR won.

Is it merely a coincidence that the seats that DAP won were mostly in areas where the Chinese voters were more than 50% or the Malay voters were less 40%? Of course, there were some seats that DAP won where the Malay voters were higher than the Chinese voters, mainly in the cities or main towns, which were ‘delivered’ by PAS.

PAS won seats where the Malay voters were predominantly Malay while PKR did well in areas where it was about 50:50 Malay:non-Malay.

In short, the voting pattern was along racial lines. Race still very much determines how people vote. As much as we would like to believe that the 2008 General Election was a landmark election where Malaysians no longer voted along racial lines, this is not true.

Many of you who comment in Malaysia Today make the Malays saki hati (hurt the feelings of the Malays). Hell, even I saki hati with the DAP Chinese supporters and can no longer tahan the arrogance in your comments (in case you are too stupid to realise that). No, Umno did not win us over, as many of you allege. Instead, your foul mouths have sent us away. And this is the feeling of many Malays who voted Pakatan Rakyat in the last general election.

In 2008, many people screamed ABU (asal bukan Umno or anything but Umno). Today, these same people are screaming ABC (asal bukan Cina). Is this how you want to face the coming general election?

As I said earlier, many of you are in your 20s, 30s or 40s. Some of us who were born before the Second World War, before Merdeka, or before 1970 have seen what it was like in the old days. And what is frightening is that we seem to be seeing a repeat of that era. And yet even more frightening is that many of you just do not see this. And when we point this out and try to caution you that the situation is not at all healthy, you respond with allegations that we are serving Umno’s agenda and are trying to play up the fear factor.

That is what is called denial syndrome.