From: eoahmad@ntuix.ntu.ac.sg (Othman Ahmad)
Subject: Re: MY: Think Malaysian, not Malay, Chinese, Indian.
Organization: Nanyang Technological University - Singapore
X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.1 PL6]
Date: Tue, 10 Nov 1992 06:14:49 GMT

Kok-Yong Tan (kytan@mantra.fia.dmg.ml.com) wrote:
: >Malaysia is fortunate that the misuse of power is only in giving scholarships
: >to Malays who hold the political power in Malaysia. It is better to be
: >governed by intelligent educated masters than stupid ones.
: 
: A tyrant is a tyrant, educated or not.
Maybe you'd loved to be under an uneducated tyrant like Genghis Khan?
: >he is the absolute power in USA.
: >	   Everyone must obey him. If not, there will be chaos as in other
: >nations. Malaysia is still young, we have never DIE for democracy. We never
: >have to confront the problems of DEMOCRACY.
: 
: He is NOT the "absolute power in the US!!!"  The Senate and Congress can
: override his authority if they have a sufficient majority (two-thirds, if I'm
: not wrong.)  Even if he wants to declare war, he still has to provide
: justification to both Houses.  Remember Nixon?  Well, he was President and look
So is Malaysia, but He can do a lot more things by himself like declaring
Martial Law, Push the Nuclear button etc. than a Malaysia prime minister.
Just look at President Marcos.
: your research before you shoot your mouth off and yourself in the foot!!!
Who shoots whos mouth? Why don't you do your research more? At least learn
the Malaysian and Singaporean constitution first.
: 
: >	   With so many dictators and potential mass murderers in Malaysia and
: >Singapore, I just pray that we are all right. 
: 
: I take that as a veiled insult.  Of course, you are an absolute paragon of

Are you one of them?
: virtue and hypocrisy never enters your mind.  Yeah, right!!!  You seem to think
: that we oppress Malays in Singapore and would harm them in any way.  Since you

I never mention in any way about Malays in Singapore. In fact I should remind
a lot of Malysians that the Singapore Constitution also has the 
"Malay Special Privileges" which are actually touched lightly by Edmund.
In fact I'm so surprised that Malaysian Chinese in Singapore do not know that
it exists.
: are in Singapore, you should be able to see that the average Malay (I'm not
: even talking about the better-off ones) lives a great deal better than the
: average Chinese in Malaysia (and even some of the Malays in Malaysia!!!)  There
: are no "Chinese-only" scholarships in Singapore.  Everyone gets where they are

This I agree completely but have you ever talk openly to any Malay in Singapore?
I have and it is certainly not what you want to convery it here. Secretly
I believe you know what it is, but you're just trying to mislead people.
: by merit alone, regardless of race: if you've got the smarts, you make it.

If you carefully look at the entrace qualifications at Raffles' institution,
you may wonder. I got a very informative data from Pillay who was formerly
at Raffles Institution.

In fact the cost of the Special Privileges in Singapore could be higher than
in Malaysia given the much smaller Malay population.

Was it S $50 million for 200 thousand Malays? Has it increased?
The strange thing is that this is not well known.
: Even in the military: we had our first Malay fighter jock some time back.
: 
: >	   Remember that Philippines were peaceful for so many years although
: >they have no apparent racial tensions.
: 
: You obviously have had your head stuck in the sand like an ostrich.  Even when
: Marcos was in power, there were Muslim and other rebellions.  Since he had

what makes you think I do not know? I'm from SABAH, neighbours and relatives
as well. I'm a Suluk, which is a race in Tawi-tawi islands.
	Those other rebellions? Why don't you elaborate? You think I do not
know? I believe you know but just not wanting to tell the whole truth because
the half-truth supports your argument.
	Your honesty in getting a solution is suspect. Your racist tendency
is very apparent here.
: total control, he could also control the news media!!!  Think what that means
: and why so many South-East Asian governments control their news media with an
: iron hand!!!

Don't you know that about 30% Philippinos still support Marcos and his
cronies. Why do you think Aquino government is so scared to let his descendents
stand for election? Unless they have reasons to be scared or whatever.

: 
: >	   I TELL YOU, if there are no chinese, malay, indian divisions, people
: >will find other DIVISIONS. Just to get excuse to be DIFFERENT.
: 
: I suppose absolute conformity is to your liking?  Especially if everyone were
: to conform to your ideals.  Jeez!  Talk about egocentric!!!
I thought I meant very clearly the opposite. Why do you think I argue that
the real issue is not trying to get people into ONE style/form, but other
more important ones. Why do you think I bring up the Thai and Phillippine
cases?

What a clouded brain?
	If you misinterpreted my examples and arguments, you can easily 
misinterpret "my attempt at conforming to my ideas". Why don't you study my
style. Is it a preaching or confrontational style?
	Who could persuade any fool to belive me if I "confront" them. Well
I'm targeting to more intelligent people to give me more sound feedback, or
witty attacks.

--
Othman bin Ahmad, School of EEE,
Nanyang Technological University, Singapore 2263.
Internet Email: eoahmad@ntuix.ntu.ac.sg
Bitnet Email: eoahmad@ntuvax.bitnet