From: chuah@sail.cc.u-tokyo.JUNET (Chuah Yeow Chiang)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.asean
Subject: Re: Malaysia's racial policies
Date: 16 Nov 92 06:08:00 GMT
Organization: Department of Electronic Engineering, University of Tokyo

In article <1992Nov14.055829.19796@ntuix.ntu.ac.sg> eoahmad@ntuix.ntu.ac.sg (Othman Ahmad) writes:
>Chuah Yeow Chiang (chuah@sail.cc.u-tokyo.JUNET) wrote:
>: only give special privilege to the needy Malays(not to mention those well to
>: do Malays who benefited from the policy), but not those needy from other races?
>: 	Now, don't give me the crap about Malaysia government also give
>: scholarships to non-bumi's,...etc,.. Yes. We all know that. But just look at
>: the proportion of the number awarded. Do you think it is proportional to the
>: needy population of the respective races in Malaysia? As T.P.Loh has pointed
>: out, for eg. only 5% or less of the Malaysian government scholarship for
>: tertiary study in Japan are given to non-bumi. Do you think that the number of
>: needy Malays are 20 times as much as those from the other races? There are also
>
>Why not? Have you got figures to prove your view? You also forgot to take
>into account the excess effort needed to "catch up". Someone who is behind,
>needs much more effort to finally catch up.

	Alright, I admit that I don't have any figure to back up my argument
here about the proportion. (Just using my common sense, as you have once fond
of doing it, remember?) However, I can't agree with you about the "catching
up" reasoning. You still haven't give us the reason why the government have
to give the scholarship/assistance according to race, but not need. If it's
based on need, then the poor non-bumi's also need much more to catch up the
others(including Malays!) So I don't see how this can explain the unbalance
of the allocation.

>: the government should have noticed this reverse-effect already(e.g. the news
>: clip about Mahathir's critic towards bumi's,...) Just that they don't want to
>: admit the failure yet.
>
>Which failures? They have already admitted a number of failures and they are
>changing their styles to correct these errors. We learn from our errors but
>giving financial assistance to bumis is not one of the failures. There may be
>some misuses but the concept itself is not a failure. It is just not enough
>because of the cost involved.

	Okay, maybe the concept itself is not a failure, but we do not call
a project a failure/success from its concept! It's the achievement and the
results that we use to judge,... After seeing so many reverse-effects, side-
effects, I certainly can't call it a success. 

[Comment about building more universities in M'sia deleted. Agreed]

> : 	Okay, my 2cents about NEP if I were to help Bumi's to achieve a better
>: situation,...  In fact, I feel that it's the way of thinking,
>: the mental value(hmm,... how should I say it?) that's the origin of the problems.
>
>Is that ALL. Could this mental attitude be "cheating at all costs".
	Please! I seems to sense something here,...
>Do you think WORKING HARD is ALL THERE IS TO IT.
	Of course, it's not all, but it's a very important part!

>: The government is trying their best to benefit bumi's, for example by setting
>: the quota of 30% of business shares, creating the Amanah Saham National,...etc,
>: but after all, what happened? The bumi's sell it away to get instant profit.
>It seems as though you do not know how to get maximum money out of shares.
>
>: In other words, they don't really know how to exploit the chance, the benefit
>: that the government is providing them. This attitude, I feel has nothing to do 
>: with those tertiary courses like Engineering, Medicine which the government is 
>: setting heavy quota in. In fact, if you want people to understand that, will
>: be better to stress on economics,... However, personally, I feel that more
>
>Well I agree with you here.
	Glad that you do. I am one of the very rare netters who got this honour!
>
>: important will be the stress on primary and secondary education. It's the
>: problem with their attitude, not the technical knowledge. If they have the
>
>You don't get this attitude from high school.
>: right attitude, they will work as hard as the other races are to achieve
>
>Do the successful people really work hard? Or was it work smart?
>The Malays work harder than chinese in terms of expenditure of energy, mentally
>or physically. But productivity has nothing to do with human effort.
                ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
	Do you like to rephrase this? I guess very few people will agree with
you about this comment! Personally, I feel that both hardwork and smart
mind are two indispensable factors for one's success. In fact, I feel that 
hardwork is more important. If you work hard to gain experiences, you will get 
smarter and smarter! I am not going to argue with you who works harder when
Malays and Chinese are compared. There's no standard for you to really compare.
Besides, you'll never agree with me on this,...:(

>	You should read my article on productivity.

	Sorry, didn't get the chance.
>
>: a better situation, with or without the government assistance. But I would
>: strongly against the way of civics lesson which tends to stir up racial
>: conflict as Mee Teng has stated what he heard of,...
>: 	Well, anyway, that's just my opinion. You can always disagree with it!
>: But please, stop comparing who is poorer, who makes more bucks,..etc. If you
>: think you know the problem of the situation we are facing, try to state it out,
>: and try to suggest a solution to it. Don't let the thread to follow its same
>: old path to flaming, name calling, net-war again.
>How many potential solutions had been overlooked? Instead they want to focus
>on their lies. If it were true, they will be accepted.
>
	One advice is, try to soften your tone while answering to other people's
comments. Sometimes, I really wonder why you are always that agitated while
writing to this net. I am not refering to your replies to some of your "obvious
opponents" who use as hard a tone as you are using. But sometimes even to those
who were trying to really discuss the topic. Maybe it's the flame that you 
carry over after replying to the other explosive articles?
	Well, afterall, I am quite satisfied with your reply to my article though
I feel that you can still make it much better. Keep it up and have a nice day!

Y.C.Chuah