Ketuanan Melayu

The question that was recently raised by our former PM's daughter Marina Mahathir was whether the mass protests which are now taking place in Tunisia, Sanna and Cairo might one day take place in Malaysia given the situation prevailing in Malaysia.

As a loyal citizen of Malaysia having witnessed and survived the past 53 years since independence, I am surprised that the present leadership is trying its evil best to wrest control of the country through its various racialistic policies.

I never dream and have never dreamt that a day like now would ever take place in my country and my fellow citizens.

I am most certain that when our Papa Merdeka raised his voice and shouted, "Merdeka, Merdeka, Merdeka", when the clock struck 12 midnight on 31 August 1957, none of our leaders ever thought that a half a century later, the Malays would want to usurp the absolute control from the other races.

Since May 13, 1969, the social economic policies are becoming more and more racialistic and discrimatory which benefit in the main the Malays. The Chinese and the Indians have been sidelined ever since.

Most if not all the industrial sectors are already in the hands of the Malays. They are not satisfied and have also failed to realise that the NEP must cease to apply after 40 years. The primary objectives of the NEP were to eradicate poverty and to correct the enomomic imbalances among the races. Despite the fact that so much have been done for the Malays, the UMNO controlled BN failed to achieve the objectives of the NEP. How could they now blame the Non-Malays for their failure?

Now some extreme leaders are raising the questions of Malay supremacy and that Non-Malays must recognise the Malays as the natives of the country. Through the discrimatory social economic policies, the non-Malays have been deprived practically in all fields of the economy.

The worst things that ever happen before our eyes is gerrymandering - election rigging and unlawful usurpation of state's government through sheer barbaric and underhand tactics like what happened in Perak and Selangor. The purpose is due to the UMNO greed for power which has been stymied during the 12th General Election.

There is a Chinese adage which says that "If one is forced to the wall, the tiger will jump over the wall". This adage is being fulfilled in MENA. If the social economic situation persists in Malaysia whereby the educated adults are jobless, the prices of food are escalating, business opportunities are limited and the resources are being squandered to the detriment of the people, I am not surprised that one day what Marina proposed might happen in Malaysia.

What happen and are happening in MENA are not pleasant and should never take place in Malaysia which is so endowed with rich resources which are enough for everyone.

It is only hoped that our UMNO leaders learn a lesson from the situation in MENA and desist from squandering the country resources for their own aggrandisement.

Interreligious Dialogue

Malaysia is a multi-racial, multi-cultural and multi-religious country. Yet the citizens and people at large do not often engage in or fight shy of engaging in interreligious dialogue.

There are many reasons for this state of affairs. Some of which include the following:

1) Inadequate knowledge of one's religion and teaching;

2) Afraid of being influenced and converted into embracing another faith;

3) Lack of confidence in partaking in interreligious dialogue;

4) Discouragement from religious teachers.

From my own observations and experience, many people tend to forget that they are firstly human beings and secondly their religions. For examples, Christians and Christianity; Hindus and Hinduism; Buddhists and Buddism; Muslims and Islam; Jews and Judaism etc. Here we can see the difference - Christians, Hindus, Buddhists and Muslims are all human beings but they are unfortunately divided by their respective religions.

As human beings, we must remember that God made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on the face of the earth. He has determined their preappointed times and boundaries of their dwellings so that they might find Him one day. He is near and is in each and everyone of us since we are all His creatures.

As fellow human beings, we must recognise the love and purposes of God for humankind; in so doing, it has the effect of shaping our attitudes towards adherents of other religions and faiths.

Faiths are not mere systems. Majority of us however tend to see and assume that our faiths and religions are one and the same.

One thing we fail to realise is the important aspect of relationships that are associated with people of faiths.

In order to live in harmony, peace and harmony, we need to relate and share with one another our faiths and religious teachings so that we can appreciate that we are in the first instance children of the Almighty God.

We need to appreciate this basic fact of life. With this attitude of mind, it will help many to engage in dialoguing with one another. Interreligious diaolgue helps strengthen the faiths of our fellowmen.

There was one famous poet from Persia named Saadi who wrote:

All men are members of the same body
Created from one essence.
If fate brings suffering to one member
The others cannot stay at rest
You who remain indifferent to the burden of pain of others
Do not deserve to be called humans

Interrreligious dialogue helps strengthen our own faiths and it has the positive effect of edifying our spirituality and relationship with our fellowmen.

The Lesson From Interlok

The dust has settled. The Indian leadership and the UMNO politicians had met and came to an agreement that the offensive section of the book, 'Interlok' will be edited and if necessary removed so as to mitigate the unpleasantness and ill-feeling among the people of the country.

In my opinion, I am not too sure it is the best of wisdom to change the opinions of the book's author who through his conviction at the time of writing 40 years ago might have strong belief that what he wrote actually represented the 'right and real' situation as he saw fit.

I am not too sure it is the right thing to do to seek the consent of the author to review and edit his book. By so doing, it will have a psychological impact of the morality of the author. Any amendment implies that what he wrote was morally wrong and that he had to change so as to suit the school children.

The matter is settled. But perhaps the educationists should learn a lesson from this exercise and to ensure that such a situation should not happen in the future.

If I may suggest, there should be a multi-racial committee within the education ministry comprising experts, academicians and communal leaders to go through any proposed school texts and submit their opinion and recommendations to the Education Ministry for his decision. In this way, there is less likelihood and an assurance that a situation like Interlok might not recur in the future.

A solution to the Interlok dilemma is to withdraw the book and choose a more appropriate book for usage by school children. Any book for its suitability must satisfy certain basic criteria such as: comprehensiveness, updatedness, free from ambiguities, racialistic overtures, religious biasedness and social prejudice etc.
Those in the committee must be people who should be aware their important role that whatever they recommend will have a profound effect on the minds of the young school children.

Let us ensure that we do not make a boo-boo in the near future.

JAWI have Overstepped their Boundaries

A few months ago, there was someone who reported in the blog that his restaurant had been raided by officers from one religious organisation called JAWI.

The complainant as well as the restaurant owner was a muslim. The JAWI officers told and rather warmed him that he could not display any koranic verses in his restaurant since his restaurant did not have the halal certificate.

Despite his strong protest and objection to the irrational actions of the JAWI officers, the said officers just ignored him and took down from the walls all the framed-up koranic verses.

I am not too sure when the regulation was mooted and enforced to require a muslim to apply and display the halal certificate before being allowed to decorate his shop with koranic verses?

If this regulation is necessary, then JAWI must ensure that all muslim car owners should also apply for halal certificates to be hung up and displayed on their car screens before affixing the koranic verses on their cars!

Now Indian banana leaf restaurants are complaining that JAWI officers are harassing them in that they must not install or remove all Hindu dieties' altars or pictures in their shops otherwise muslims may be barred from patronising their shops! What sort of divisive policies that JAWI are coming out with to divide the already divided country.

I dread the day when JAWI disallowed our muslim friends to visit our homes decorated with pictures of our Dieties or God they worship.

Come on, what is our PM doing about his 1 Malaysia Policy. Is this another of his rhetorics - not walking the talk.

All Malaysians who love the country must stand up and oppose such anti-national policies that tend to drive the country to greater disharmony, disunity and misunderstanding.

Why Are We Changing our Country's History

It is really surprising that leaders of our country are doing things that tend to destroy the heritage of our rich country by attempting to change its history. A question was recently posed to me while I was on holiday by a foreigner who happened to fight the commmies during the emergency in the late 40's. I was stunned by the question.

Upon returning home after my vacation, I tried to read the past weeks' papers and found that there were complaints indeed made by teachers and history writers in respect of the changes made to our history by our education ministry. And, it is blatantly ignoring all the public complaints and introduced regardless to our children in the national and government aided schools. The DPM cum Education Minister commented that it was too late to change the book due to time shortage.

Why did our leader do what they did? In my view, they were either not happy with the past developments of Malaya/Malaysia which they could not accept or they did not have the self esteem to recognise the significance of the past events or they are just racists and try to belittle their fellow citizens.

I have been informed that UMNO have been trying to claim credits for shaping country social economic landscape after 31 August 1957. History about Hang Tuah and Hang Jebat has been obliterated when researchers found out that they were of Chinese origin. BN leaders must realise that Malaysia was not formed by UMNO alone or the Malays. It was the hard work and dedication of all the races that made Malaysia happen.

If my memory does not fail me, that is not what I learned about Malayan history. The Indians were brought into Malaya through the "kangani system" to work as indentured labourers. At no time, was the term, 'pariah' being applied to these labourers.

Can we call or refer to all our emigratory workforce as pariahs for various adverse social and economic conditions that force them to leave their countries for the sake of survival? If this is the criterion, then all can be said to be pariahs in some ways since they did not stay back to help fight revive their respective social econonmic conditions at home, ran away from their own contries, anti-national, disloyal and what not...

At our juncture of development where we need to address the racial problems and proliferations prevailing, we do not need people like Datuk Abdullah Hussain, the author of Interlok to fan the fire of racialism and causing unnecesary unrest in the country.

On the other hand, we have sycophantic writer like Baradan Kuppusamy saying that by calling the pioneering Indians as pariahs does not in any way mocking or ridiculing any race, why not use the term on the Malays and the Chinese and others in the country? If this were done, I bet you see firework the very next day.

Were the 'pariah Indians' brought into Malaya during the 17th and 18th Century similar in status to the those who were recently brought in by the millions from Bangladesh, Myanmar, Cambodia, vietnam and Indonesia to work as labourers in the factories, estates and farms and construction industries? Leaders of today must not forget their respective roots and the factors contributing to their forbears taking the hard decision to leave their countries for Malaya in search of a better life.

For those who would like to know more about the status of the Indian labourers, one may refer to the book entitled "Trade Unionism in Malaya" by Dr Gamba.

It must be borne in mind that not all Indians brought into Malaya were from the 'untouchable caste'. Many belonged to the higher castes. By lumping all Indians as pariahs may not be right. It is too sweeping! We need not use the term to convey the message.

Is there any necessity to address our Indian brothers and sisters as pariahs brought into the country by the British colonialists from various parts of Southern India to work in the estates, plantations and railways. Unfortunately the UMNOputras fail to understand that those who were born during and immediately after the WWII are still living and will not forget the happenings that occured. How could the UMNO/BN Government be so shameless as to change the country's history in the face of so many in the country whose memory is still very much alive.

Any change at this juncture is likely to face much criticism and resistance. So why rock the boat and reinvent history! Why try to feed our children with half truths?

Free Transport to Bayan Lepas and Back

I must commend upon the Penang State Government for conceiving and implementing the free transport system for the benefit of those residing in Perai but working in factories in Bayan Lepas. I must say, "Syabas" to Lim Guan Eng, LGE, for such brilliant idea that will benefit thousands of low wage factory workers plying between Penang Island and Butterworth and Prai.

For the past decades, BN have failed to recognise the hardship that it had created for the people by raising taxes in practically all services and goods. Gasoline and diesel prices have been revised upwards at least four times in 2010 and the BN Government have hinted that it would increase further the current prices of petrol and diesel in the near future.

I am sure economists would agree with me that average increase of wage level over the past decade is very much disproportionate to the increase in the CPI. In view of this, the living standards of the people in the country have taken a serious dive. The net take home pay of majority of the workers has fallen short of enabling them to maintain the status quo. Each year that passes by sees the average person tightening his belt tighter.

A cup of Milo now costs RM2.10 while a plate of ordinary Wan Tan noodle costs between RM4.00 and RM5.00 depending on which food-court one goes to. A poor man's drink is kopi-o which costs now RM1.20 or RM1.30. A piece of roti-canai is no longer priced at RM0.50 It has gone up to RM0.80 because of price increases of flour, sugar and ingredients.

Transport cost has gone up while the road tolls have gone up tremendously. How does the Government expect the average people to make ends meet?

Meanwhile we continue to see our UMNO/BN Government squandering the country's resources unabated through inflated project costing, corruption, fund-outflow, bailing out annually GLCs for their sustained losses, unprofitable investments overseas etc.

It has been reported somewhere in the blog that during the past ten years, about 300 billion ringgit had taken flight from the country into the various vaults of tax haven countries. And this is most telling on the country's economy.

Even though what the Penang Government is doing might be small in comparison to the budget for the ETP projects, the money benefit the small men of Penang. They certainly appreciate the kind gesture of LGE's administration.

When the LGE's administration decided to award the senior citizens of Penang RM100 each, the UMNO/BN leaders were obviously envious. Their eyes just popped out. Instead of applauding LGE for his kind consideration, they condemned him by stating that the money dished out to the elders was haram. What about the corrupt money they that they have received? Are they haram or halal? Have they been so laundered that they have become legit to be siphoned out of the country?

This is what the people look for. Small things. It is hoped that the leadership of UMNO/BN emulate what Penang is doing.

The Controversial Appointment of State Secretary

It is indeed a sad day that the appointment of the Selangor's State Secretary has been executed and blown out of proportion by the BN contolled mass media.

Let us be a bit more sensible. It is the PSC, as we now know, which appointed Mohd Khusrin according to the prevailing procedure and in consistency with the State's Constitution. But one thing we must admit is that Selangor is not under the BN but rather under the PR. For any State appointment, it is only prudent and advisable to seek the advice of the Menteri Besar concerned, whether PSC likes it or not. It cannot act in isolation.

According to the State Constitution of Selangor, there exists a provision of the establishment of a state public service commission which is empowered to appoint the State Secretary. In my opinion, the appointment by the Federal PSC is wrong in law and therefore the appointment of Khusrin must be void and of no effect.

I am afraid that if this matter is being referred to the local court for judicial review, it will not be surprising if the verdict will be one in favour of the BN Government. I hope the Perak saga will be sufficient to open the eyes of the public.
BN is resorting to the same dirty strategy here to involve the sultan and uses the sultan position to shut up the public from expressing any opinion.

After all, the incumbent is not going to work with the PSC but with those people's respresentatives in the State Government. And, this point is important and the PSC just cannot ignore the people's factor by just telling the people that it had obtained the permission from the Sultan, who denied that he had anything to do with it.

How the BN accused the PR for not respecting the Selangor Sultan was most uncalled for and unwarranted. Where my opinion goes, the appointee needs to take the oath of office before the Sultan as per the Constitution of the State. The selection is not done by the Sultan but by the PSC. By dragging the Sultan into disrepute is most irresponsible. It is even more irresponsible to organse a protest among the NGOs against the objection of the PR Government to Khusrin's appointment.

What the BN did was akin to the high-handed usurpation of the power of the PR State Government in Perak. I dread the day when the BN Government attempt to take over the Selangor Government. In my view the appointment of the State Secretary is just the beginning of a long term plan to upstage the PR Government in Selangor. All I can say is, PR elected representatives be alert and stop the inter-party squabbles among the coalition members and work towards the welfare of the people like in Penang.

It must be remembered that the PSC is merely performing a staff function. As such it must realise that in human recruitment exercises, the success of which is often based on the human factor or chemistry between the incumbent and his immediate superior. This practice is prevalent in the private sector.

PSC has the sole responsible to ensure that the right person with the right qualifications and experience is being recruited for the right job. On the relational aspect, it must be left to the line management to decide on the right candidate to be given the appointment.

If only PSC has done the right thing, the controversies would not have arisen. Much time and pains are saved for productive work.

What PSC has done in my view is not consistent with sound human resource management practice. The power conferred upon it is slightly misapplied.

Let us learn the lesson from the above incident. Do not let others perceive that big brotherlism is being exercised to shut the voice of those elected by the majority of the electorate in Selangor.