Pro-Lynas thugs too have police ‘protection’

Malaysiakini Your Say

‘Only in Malaysia can violent gatecrashers forcibly end a peaceful protest even under the watchful eyes of the police.’

Uninvited guests crash anti-Lynas protest

Swipenter:
 “We are from Kuantan, this is the Malay land!” said a man who identified himself as Azman Attar.

How stupid can these ‘uninvited guests’ be. Even protesting against the deadly effects of radiation, the issue of race has to come into the picture. Maybe these ‘uninvited guests’ think that the radiation from the Lynas plant has the intelligence to discriminate who can suffer or not to suffer from the effects of radiation from its radioactive waste.

These are definitely not ‘uninvited guests’ but invited guests of some interested party trying to stir things up. The clue lies in when they uttered “this is Malay land”, and that it is the usual modus operandi of the one political party and/or its outsourced organisation that likes to play race game.

FellowMalaysian:
 This is where things fall out of line. It was a peaceful protest and a sensible way displaying public outrage over a matter of grave concern to citizens.

Why must racial runts and slur be engaged by this unprovoked group of cohorts? And why are the police keeping their eyes closed?

And where’s Kuantan MCA chief Ti Lian Ker when we need him as this kind of situation is where he can contribute something positive and make a name for himself as the champion of Lynas issue.

Dood:
 Only in Malaysia can violent gatecrashers forcibly end a peaceful protest even under the watchful eyes of the police. Instead of arresting the gatecrashers who were getting violent and protecting the harmless protesters, the police let the abuse continue and even told the protesters to disperse.

One also wonders who these so-called ‘Kuantan locals’ are really working for.

Quigonbond:
 Reading to the end of the article gives me the impression the police did another ‘Bar Council’ job on the protestors – letting them fend off a violent crash party. Does this signify a change in Home Ministry tactics? We will not stop you from protesting, but we won’t stop someone else from beating you up either.

It’s just as good as using FRU against the protestors, and is in fact morally far worse because you are aiding and abetting in criminal violence, which is quite a different class of offence altogether from not having a police permit to hold an assembly.

EugeneT: May I suggest that these arrogant and ignorant pro-Lynas supporters, who at best can only reply with silly retorts such as “This is Malay land!” and brute force, be moved near to the rare-earth plant. Let’s see if they are still supportive of it in time.

Kenneth_2585:
 It is so easy to get emotional once you turn it into racial issue. I pity the people who fight for their future generation’s future and yet being harassed.

If you are not being appreciated, why not just move out of the state or better still out of the country? It is sad but the most practical thing to do if you are not of the right colour in this country.

Ghkok:
 We all have a duty to fight gangsters like these. They are a threat to our country. They are threat to all Malaysians – Malays, Chinese, Indians, Ibans and Kadazans.

They are willing to allow rare earth factory to pollute the surroundings and the land, and threaten the health of residents of that area – whether Malay, Chinese or Indians. Put simply, they are the enemy of the rakyat.

MySecret:
 It is obvious these type of modus operandi is so similar to many other gate crashers when the ultra privilege of the existing ruling elites are threatened by the rakyat, be it from toll concessionaires right up to the state assemblies.

Is it any wonder we have thugs in the Dewan Rakyat and MPs who act like its their serfdom to lord over?

Sulaiman:
 This is an Umno group for sure. What has this country turned into? We now have ‘terrorists’ to come in every time a group protests a government project.

Are we being ruled by ‘errorists’? I think we need urgent international help. Till today the damage done in Bukit Merah has not been acknowledged. People have died as a result of it.

Ong Guan Sin:
 We start to see a new trend. It used to be ‘illegal assembly’ – through the Police Act – utilised to crush dissent.

And now that it’s proven too tedious to fight in court and courage cannot be dampened, we see gangsters, most probably hired by whoever that is, to stop dissent. Is it authoritarianism for hire? What has Malaysia become?

AnakBangsaMalaysia:
 These thugs are obviously Umno/Perkasa thugs planted there to intimidate the peaceful anti-Lynas demonstrators.

Their Umno/Perkasa memberships give them automatic immunity against arrest from the police despite uttering threats and attempting to physically assault the protestors and journalists. How pathetic the police have become.

Azman Attar and his thugs should undergo an immediate medical checkup. It sounds as though their brains have already been subjected to a massive dose of radiation.

Mikey:
 Those of you who are for this Lynas plant, just ask yourself why the Australians won’t build it on their own land. The last time I checked, Australia has a lot more land than Malaysia.

After all, it is safe, right?

                This entry was posted on Wednesday, 1 June 2011, 10:21 am and is filed under
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Putrajaya’s inflation forecast ‘delusional’, says Guan Eng

By
Yow Hong Chieh
 | June 01, 2011

The Malaysian Insider

KUALA LUMPUR, June 1 — The government is fooling itself and lying to the people if it thinks the recent round of subsidy cuts will have a negligible impact on inflation, Lim Guan Eng has said.

The DAP secretary-general said the 0.27 per cent inflation increase expected by the government following diesel subsidy cuts and power rate hikes was not borne out by the facts on the ground, where prices of basic necessities have gone up more rapidly.

He pointed out that the withdrawal of diesel subsidies has already led transport operators to announce a rise in transport costs while the price of fish has “soared” because fishermen now found it too costly to put their boats out to sea.

“For BN (Barisan Nasional) to state that inflation will only rise by 0.27 per cent is not reflective of reality and is typical of rich men quoting meaningless statistics to justify wrong policies that hurt the poor and ordinary Malaysians,” he said in a statement today.

Lim also said the government’s refusal to ask independent power producers (IPPs) to bear some of the burden not only taxed the poor in favour of the rich but promoted price distortions that would negate any gains in efficiency derived from the subsidy cuts.

He added the government would be better off terminating its contracts with IPPs and allowing Petroliam Nasional Bhd (Petronas) sell its gas at market price instead of the highly subsidised rate it now offers to the private power sector.

“How, then, can the prime minister develop an innovative culture for Malaysia if such crony capitalistic and anti-competitive practices are permitted in the country,” he said.

The Najib administration announced yesterday it will raise electricity prices by an average of 7.1 per cent from today onwards.

The price charged by Petronas to power companies for the natural gas will rise to RM13.70 per mmBtu from RM10.70, and go up by RM3.00 every month until December 2015, after which market rates apply.

Super diesel subsidies to nine categories of commercial vehicles and Zone C2 fishing vessels will also be terminated starting this month.

                This entry was posted on Wednesday, 1 June 2011, 4:34 pm and is filed under
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RM450m Tambatuon dam controversy – Why MP Kota Belud never visited kampong? (2)

This is twitter sequel to
“RM450m Tambatuon dam controversy – Why MP Kota Belud never visited kampong?”:

29th May – 1 June 2011

mpkotabelud Abdul Rahman Dahlan

Baru landing di KK. Buka phone, timeline dan DM saya flooded wt tweets abt @limkitsiang’s visit to my beloved Kota Belud. Ish..

29 May

mpkotabelud Abdul Rahman Dahlan

Saya dah bermesyuarat &trima memo JK Bertindak Empangan Tambatuon dua bulan lalu. Kluar dlm paper. @limkitsiang playing spin doctor lagi ke?

29 May

mpkotabelud Abdul Rahman Dahlan

Tak payah main politik dgn I. U all pun sama. RT @kaikiok:

29 May

mpkotabelud Abdul Rahman Dahlan

Saya dah jumpa JK Bertindak Kg Tambatuon dua bulan yg lepas. RT @shook1974: Apa takut nk tag @mpkotabelud apek? Tanya direct la

29 May

mpkotabelud Abdul Rahman Dahlan

No worries. I am aware. He pretended not to know I met the kg folks already RT @giamsk: @mpkotabelud LKS invading your constituency

29 May

mpkotabelud Abdul Rahman Dahlan

saya dah jawab. RT @Iskandarbak:

29 May

mpkotabelud Abdul Rahman Dahlan

I met them two months ago. RT @drhairul

29 May

mpkotabelud Abdul Rahman Dahlan

I have been to Tambatuon. Infact gave projects there. Err.. How many times u visited Ipoh timur again? RT @limkitsiang

29 May

mpkotabelud Abdul Rahman Dahlan

@limkitsiang Why didn’t u sleep overnight in Kg Tambatuon as planned. U left hurriedly and the 35 ppl u met were hugely dissappointed.

29 May

mpkotabelud Abdul Rahman Dahlan

Truth is u don’t care abt the dam and the purpose. U just care abt ur politics! U jadi PM, semua org mati tak makan! RT @limkitsiang

29 May

mpkotabelud Abdul Rahman Dahlan

I don’t mind if dinasour politicians visit my constituency. I really dont. But to use village ppl for divisive politics, I will fight u!

29 May

limkitsiang Lim Kit Siang

C yr informant did’nt tell u everything. I wan 2twt u: Y nvr visited KgTbtn? @mpkotabelud Y didn’t u sleep overnite KgTambatuon as planned.

30 May

limkitsiang Lim Kit Siang

Yes u received memo, but nvr visited KgT RT @mpkotabelud: Saya dah bermesyuarat &trima memo JK Bertindak Empangan Tambatuon dua bulan lalu

30 May

mpkotabelud Abdul Rahman Dahlan

U want Msia 2forever depend on foreigners re:rice imports. Dare u 2state PR’s rice policy. Or u just half past 6 politician? RT@limkitsiang

30 May

limkitsiang Lim Kit Siang

YB @mpkotabelud said hv visited T, but hv u visited KgT? Or are u say’g KgT ppl telling lies? Din u say watever happens, T dam must b built?

30 May

mpkotabelud Abdul Rahman Dahlan

W/out a dam, no water 4the jelapang padi 2feed ur granchildren in the future. But u dont gv a damn abt the future isn’t YB? RT @limkitsiang

29 May

mpkotabelud Abdul Rahman Dahlan

U and ur Dear Mentor Leader! RT @billtay25: Good 4 some1 pocket? RT”@limkitsiang

29 May

mpkotabelud Abdul Rahman Dahlan

The honours go to him. RT @StanleyWTW: @mpkotabelud @limkitsiang Haha…! One of you must be a useless liar!

29 May

limkitsiang Lim Kit Siang

Tambatuon Saga: A Village fights for its life | By Dr Edwin Bosi http://bit.ly/l32vSb

30 May

limkitsiang Lim Kit Siang

YB KB don’t hide run away from T dam issue @chean_nasution Y afraid?Tell truth @mpkotabelud LKS made blatant speech HarvestFestival dinner

30 May

mpkotabelud Abdul Rahman Dahlan

Bring it up in parliament this 13th June. We debate it there. RT @limkitsiang: YB KB don’t hide run away from T dam issue @chean_nasution

30 May

mpkotabelud Abdul Rahman Dahlan

@limkitsiang As a political junkie u just wnt ur political fix. Thts it! U don’t gv a damn if Msia hv anothr rice crisis like 2008! Shame!

30 May

limkitsiang Lim Kit Siang

Evasion T dam issue. Downright irresponsible. R u MP 4Kg Tambatuon 2represent ppl or MP 4 T dam interests agnst ppl wishes? @mpkotabelud

30 May

mpkotabelud Abdul Rahman Dahlan

Don’t worry YB, tak ada yg perlu nak di counter. Tak ada kesan. RT @ybz99: Tadi masuk kg Awadnir. Bila @mpkotabelud nak pi counter?

30 May

mpkotabelud Abdul Rahman Dahlan

I am talking abt national rice self sufficiency policy. We import 30% of our rice needs. Not rights to import. RT @YouTiup

30 May

mpkotabelud Abdul Rahman Dahlan

I am sticking to my debate on the dam for the time being. RT @YouTiup: @mpkotabelud dare we talk abt land reform?

30 May

mpkotabelud Abdul Rahman Dahlan

You shadow boxing again YB? RT @limkitsiang: Every1 can c thru u run hide from T dam issue. @dredwinbosi

31 May

Limitsiang Lim Kit Siang

Is RM250m 4tunnel in T dam project additional 2RM450m dam cost, cost of T dam is staggering RM700m! @mpkotabelud shd declare interests

31 May

limkitsiang Lim Kit Siang

YB KgT ppl x shadow-boxing but “life-n- death” battle 2defend way of life. U shld b their champion x agnst them.@mpkotabelud @dredwinbosi

31 May

limkitsiang Lim Kit Siang

YB seems 1 of 3 or 4 ppl who know any/every thing abt RM450 mil (or RM700m?) T dam project. RM6mil Q is Y @mpkotabelud x sharing w KgT ppl!

31 May

limkitsiang Lim Kit Siang

Thus raises Q whthr YB MP 4Kota Belud (inc KgT) or MP 4 RM450 million T dam interest agnst KgT/KB. KgT ppl have right 2know @mpkotabelud

31 May

mpkotabelud Abdul Rahman Dahlan

RT @Zuhri: @mpkotabelud toothless lion.continue wht u r doing in KB. The divisive &extreme views of the toothless one hv no place there

31 May

mpkotabelud Abdul Rahman Dahlan

@Iskandarbak I will post my explanations in my blog. I will let u know once it’s up. Nak jawab kat twitter susah.

22 hours ago

limkitsiang Lim Kit Siang

YB x qualified 2debate in Parl on T dam if no mandate from KgTambatuon voters RT @mpkotabelud I am sticking 2my debate on dam 4time being.

15 hours ago

limkitsiang Lim Kit Siang

In what capacity will YB b speaking in Parliament on T dam? 2represent voice of KgT/KB voters or betray their rights/interests? @mpkotabelud

14 hours ago

mpkotabelud Abdul Rahman Dahlan

Hold ur horses YB. I can’t explain agriculture policy in 140 chctrs. I am writing my blog now 2call ur bluff. So b patient. RT@limkitsiang

13 hours ago

mpkotabelud Abdul Rahman Dahlan

Betrayal is your middle name. Not mine. RT @limkitsiang: In what capacity will YB b speaking in Parliament on T … http://tmi.me/aU9f2

13 hours ago

limkitsiang Lim Kit Siang

4days already but YB unable 2rebut facts: 1 YB never visited KgT 2 KgT ppl never consulted on RM450m dam 3 KgT ppl oppose Tdam @mpkotabelud

mpkotabelud Abdul Rahman Dahlan

R u running away meh YB? Lol! RT @limkitsiang: YB x qualified 2debate in Parl on T dam if no mandate from KgTambatuon voters

13 hours ago

mpkotabelud Abdul Rahman Dahlan

Aiya, I was thinking 2propose a motion to make u oppo leader to replace tht useless fella. Change my mind. Sama saja. Lol. RT @limkitsiang

13 hours ago

limkitsiang Lim Kit Siang

No excuse MP cannot visit/dialogue KgT 4two yrs re T dam. I can arrange meeting 4YB in KgT b4 Parl meets.Game? @mpkotabelud @dredwinbosi

4 hours ago

limkitsiang Lim Kit Siang

@mpkotabelud This is 1June – another 12 days 2Parl. Don’t tell me u cannot spare 1 – 2 hrs 2dialogue w yr voters in KgTambatuon on T deam?

4 hours ago

limkitsiang Lim Kit Siang

@mpkotabelud Will x embarrass u so I will x b present. Will just arrange T dam dialogue in KgTambatuon as u have no contact w yr KgT voters

3 hours ago Favorite Reply Delete

limkitsiang Lim Kit Siang

@mpkotabelud If this is too embarrassing @dredwinbosi can arrange dialogue/meeting in KgT on T dam 4 u. Edwin’s article http://bit.ly/lShWa0

limkitsiang Lim Kit Siang

“See How They Run” latestproduction in Sabah/Msian politics casting @mpkotabelud -running away from KgTambatuon 2Parliament re T dam issue

1 hour ago Favorite Reply Delete

                This entry was posted on Wednesday, 1 June 2011, 3:21 pm and is filed under
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Through my aging eyes: Kaamatan – A Blend of Politics and Culture

By
Dr Edwin Bosi

DAP Sabah State Secretary

Borneo Post

1.6.11

If my recollection is right the planting season used to be from February to May of each year. I remember the meticulous preparation from clearing a plot of land for the nursery to transplanting and harvesting. Each family had a fenced-up plot where every bit of herbage was removed, and using a sharpened pole my mom would plunge it into the ground, making sure the small holes thus created were in a neat roll. Then the best quality padi grains were placed into the tiny holes and buried by racking the soil at the surface. Up on the trees, little “pipit” or brownish sparrows were waiting to salvage whatever grains were found scattered on the plot. The size of the plot depends on the acreage of ones padi field.

The seedlings upon reaching about a foot tall were ready for transplanting onto the field. While the seeds grew the padi land was prepared by ploughing with the assistance of an obedient and trained buffaloes. The bunds were repaired and made strong enough to hold the water. The soil was then broken or harrowed before the seedlings were transplanted. Usually there were few people involved in the planting in unison using a short small sharpened wood to make the holes in the soil and then sticking the seedlings into them. The job was executed by stepping backward to ensure a straight line was achieved. If I can recall the planting distant between two seedlings was about 18 inches.

The padi would grow with frequent weeding to remove grasses and non-edible water plants between the rolls of padi. I remember also the abundance of small “karuk” fishes called “tundongih” in the field. My mom would look for edible plants called “kakatung” which went well with the green frogs. The “tundongih” was perfect in “pinasakan” with “takob-akob” which gave it a aromatic delicious taste. The bigger “karuk” were nice when boiled in soup.

During the harvesting it was also time to look for padi rats that lived inside the bunds and fattened from stealing the grains. I vividly remember scrambling to hunt down these rodents, smoking them out of their holes and chasing them around in the field. The dogs came handy and would also be rewarded. They were great when barbequed using the empty padi stalks for fire.  The other local delicacy was the green grasshoppers. Toss them onto the fire for a minute and they made good snack after a tiring harvesting and “mongogik”. The latter is pretty unique because the two feet must coordinate well to separate the padi grains from the stalks.

The pre-planting, planting and harvesting are very ritualistic for the Kadazan Dusun community. The “Bobohizans” play a very crucial and important role in the society before Christianity was accepted. This ritual continues till today and is played and re-played every year on 30 and 31st of May. It is officially known as Kaamatan.

The padi planting among the Kadazan Dusuns has been reduced to negligible level especially when imported rice is so cheap and easily available. Many padi fields have been made redundant while others have been converted into residential area. In Penampang, along the Penampang By-Pass a huge padi field has been developed for the city’s sewerage plant. This is one BN project that stands out very prominently in Penampang.

With such background why should we continue to celebrate Kaamatan. I was tasked to chaired the DAP Sabah pesta Kaamatan this year. As an opposition in Sabah, it is basically a fundraising dinner. We just do not have the money to provide free food, drinks and entertainment for the general public. Ours is the opposite of the State-sponsored Kaamatan at the KDCA.

I have been trying to find an angle in the Kaamatan for DAP. As we are bringing in National leaders from Kuala Lumpur in the person of our National Advisor Lim Kit Siang, the Kaamatan has to be a blend of politics and culture. The story of legendary Huminodun who offered herself as sacrificial lamb to appease the spirit in order to stop the severe famine that struck her village is at the back of my mind. Here, Huminodun’s body was chopped into pieces and scattered all over the land. When the rain finally arrive food plants such as padi, tapioca, maize and so forth sprouted from her flesh and bones. Her community was thus saved.

Thus during our DAP Kaamatan at Putera Ballroom in Bukit Padang on 27th May, I had managed to combine three elements – beauty contest, body building and cultural shows to reflect on the Kadazan Dusun Murut community. The beauty contestants or “Unduk Ngadau” gave emphasis on the role of Huminodun, the beauty among the beauties who without hesitation came forth to offer herself to be a sacrificial lamb to save her people from sure death from starvation. We showcase our fine men who took all the pain to build their body to become known as the incredible hulks. They represent the strength of the Kadazan Dusun Murut society. The singing, “sumazau”, music and gongs were there to represent the fine quality, civility, friendliness and resourcefulness of the Kadazan Dusun Murut people.

On the political front, I tried to show the political awareness and awakening of the Kadazan Dusun Murut people. Their support and presence at this DAP function together with the equally strong Chinese community is a good indicator of unity and braveness to face the future together in the wake of the incredible strong surge in illegal immigrants legalised and entered into the electoral roll by the UMNO BN government. The political speeches from our State and National leaders in particular Sdra Kit Siang provided the “electric shocks” to the targeted community.

Kaamatan should also be viewed by the practicing community on how far they have fared since the formation of the Federation of Malaysia in 1963. With a commanding 60% of the population in 1963 to become just 30% is not something to be happy about. There is now 3.2 million Sabahans in which 50% is not local Sabahans. The economy is sluggish the poorly educated and trained local youth are leaving for Kuala Lumpur, Singapore and Brunei. In their absence, illegal immigrants fill the vacuum, legalised and now become voters. This group is only good for the constructions and plantations and with a sluggish economy they will turn into crime to survive. They will soon touch everyone’s life including UMNO and BN members. Unemployment will create social upheaval and a security concern. They are now staring right in front of our faces.

My wish for Kaamatan is to see Sabahans taking control of our destiny. Genuine Sabahans should be given an opportunity to feel and share the wealth of this State irrespective of their racial and religious background. The government of the day has and is not receptive to this idea as seen from their action when it comes to the problem of illegal immigrants. The Kadazan Dusun Murut community must respond and rise to the challenges that besieged them. Unity, one heart, one mind and one soul are an elusive dreams but this is the only way forward. While we still have the strength and beauty, the civility and intelligence we are lacking the political clout. We are sidelined, marginalised and disarrayed. I thought of Devine intervention and it struck me that Huminodun that we hope to come forward has always been with us. I see Pakatan Rakyat as the Huminodun, and if our community can unite under its banner for once I can see there is light at the end of the tunnel.

(Published in The Borneo Post, 1st June 2011)

                This entry was posted on Wednesday, 1 June 2011, 10:39 pm and is filed under
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Umno’s unfinished revolution

By
Sakmongkol AK47
 | June 01, 2011

The Malaysian Insider

JUNE 1 — Umno’s unfinished revolution: One step forward and two steps back.

We can’t go back to 1946 and wished the motivations and inspirations that awoken the Malays remained unchanged. That wish would have to assume that every leader is born at the same time and is of similar constitution — boldness in character, dedication to public service, possessing selfless dedication.

Let me illustrate the stark contrast in character constitution that I refer to.

When Tun Razak died, he had little money. His only liquid asset of any merit was the Magsaysay Award. He didn’t have enough funds to finance his medical bills in England. After he died, the government had to step in to give his wife a home for her and her children.

When Tunku Abdul Rahman died, he, too, had no money. A few times he was saved financially by Tun Datu Mustapha.

Let’s take the case of a more plebeian leader — Khir Johari. When he was alive and in power, all sorts of accusations were hurled at him. I remember looking at a picture of him and his wife donning traditional Chinese costumes wishing the Chinese, Happy New Year. It was probably done in good sport.

Towards the end of his life, every one found out he had only one house in Bukit Damansara. Those rights over that house were disputed. In the end he had to leave the house and moved into an apartment. He died in that apartment.

What these examples show is that, by and large, these first generation Umno leaders were actually of selfless material, enjoying the trappings of power indeed while in office, but taking none after they leave.

Present-day Umno leaders are a world apart. The majority are loud in every sense of the word.

This difference can only be explained by one factor. Umno has been taken over by leadership of different material who is conditioned by different experiences having less service to the public motives.

This may be a shocking admission, but I hope the present-day Umno leadership is aware of the general perception that is getting stronger by the day, that present-day Umno leadership consists of a bunch of sly politicians intent on making hay while it shines.

But certainly, what we could expect is to have those motivations and ideals behind the Umno of 1946, refined and enhanced. From closed mind to openness, from debilitating traditionalism to modernism. These must the founding principles behind the “betulkan orang Melayu” drive of Onn Jaafar.

Sad to say, Umno must bear the primary responsibility over the more or less unchanged mental landscape of Malays in general. Umno alone is responsible for the regressive ideas of Malays. If they have been sleeping over eons, they now have been given sleeping pills to slumber along while the world passes them over.

Over the years, Umno leadership has caused the motivations and inspirations that moved an entire nation to degenerate into besieged paranoia and parochialism.

So before I go on, maybe it’s timely for me to remind Malay readers especially of what Zaaba said some time ago:

I tell you not in mournful numbers,

That the Malays are a dying race,

I only want the soul that slumbers,

To wake and work in these bright days. — sakmongkol.blogspot.com

*
Sakmongkol AK47 is the nom de plume of Datuk Mohd Ariff Sabri Abdul Aziz. He was Pulau Manis assemblyman (2004-2008).

                This entry was posted on Wednesday, 1 June 2011, 1:19 pm and is filed under
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Umno anti-1 Malaysia, Kit Siang tells Soi Lek

By
Clara Chooi
 | June 01, 2011

The Malaysian Insider

KUALA LUMPUR, June 1 — DAP’s Lim Kit Siang told Datuk Seri Dr Chua Soi Lek today to observe Umno’s refusal to discard racial politics before defining 1 Malaysia as the government’s “Malaysian first, race second” vision.

Lim pointed out to the MCA president that Umno’s repeated attempts to lure PAS into forming a unity government with Barisan Nasional (BN) was in itself against the concept of 1 Malaysia.

“Why is it that Umno has to try to entice PAS for the sake of Malay unity? If you want to talk about 1 Malaysia, why not BN instead lure PR to form a unity government?” he said when contacted.

Since Election 2008, Umno has made numerous attempts to draw PAS into its fold, ostensibly using Malay unity to bargain with the Islamist party.

Lim reminded Dr Chua of his party’s constant criticism of DAP’s partnership with PAS in the Pakatan Rakyat (PR) pact and asked the former minister why MCA has yet to strongly condemn Umno for courting PAS.

Referring to a recent report in an online news portal, Lim noted that Umno had purportedly offered three federal ministerships and five mentri besar posts to PAS if the party were to agree to a unity government.

“What is MCA’s position on this? MCA has been attacking DAP for co-operating with PAS but Umno is trying to do the same. MCA should issue an ultimatum to Umno or immediately quit BN now,” he said.

Lim also questioned if Dr Chua, by his definition of 1 Malaysia, was predicting an end to race-based parties in BN.

“When will BN dissolve all communal-based parties and form one party that is open to all Malaysians?” he said.

Lim said most of BN’s Cabinet ministers have failed to accept the “Malaysian first, race second” concept, despite Dr Chua’s definition of 1 Malaysia today.

“It has taken Dr Chua two years and two months to realise that we should be Malaysians first and our races, second. But in any case, he is yet to convince all MCA leaders to state the same.

“And what about our Cabinet ministers? Our own DPM (deputy prime minister) has already said he is Malay first and Malaysian second,” he said.

Lim added that Dr Chua’s statement was likely borne of the latter’s struggle to find his footing in the “maelstrom of Umno’s racial politics” and his attempt to save MCA from losing relevance.

                This entry was posted on Wednesday, 1 June 2011, 4:36 pm and is filed under
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Using history to make us intelligent, not stupid

By
AB Sulaiman
 | May 30, 11

Malaysiakini

Some years ago, a concerned parent and friend drew my attention to the peculiar case of the current History textbooks for Forms 4 and 5 students. He hinted that apparently they were decked with omissions, errors, half-truths, an exaggerated role of the Malay ethnic group, and minimising or omitting altogether the considerable contribution of non-Malay individuals.

The texts furthermore exaggerated the role and influence of Islam toward the development of human civilisation and the country. His daughter had found the subject unbelievable, bordering on the ridiculous, and also very boring, but had studied on because she had to.

Immediately after this awareness, I got hold of the books and read them. True enough, their contents were far and away from the history that I learnt during my school days. They contained even lies to which a non-academic and non-historian like me could detect. For example, it claimed that Parameswara died as a Muslim, while my recollection stated he died a Hindu.

I felt concerned over this revelation. For it is obvious that the mixture of lies, omissions, half-truths, errors and hyperbolical narration about race and religion had two features. One, it’s the deliberate departure from truth (otherwise known as intellectual dishonesty); and two, the numerous amounts of prejudice, emotion, sentiment and blind religion to fill in the gap. Put together, I am certain they’d not nurture intellectual honesty, but instead produce a lot of prejudice, value judgments, and more lies and deceit.

I can say with confidence that a mind built on lies, suppositions and half-truths would indeed yield imprecise and subjective prejudices and value judgments, but seldom, if ever, the truth. Such thinking just does not grow healthily or go far.

Looking for lies

Let me quote an example of two people who thrive on half-truths and deceit.

One is Ibrahim Ali, the Perkasa president. He has been calling for a ‘perang sabil’ or crusade against the non-Muslims, a statement that would normally be deemed highly seditious by the government. But he was ‘untouched’, he got away with it. Why was he ‘untouchable’? His answer as oh, no, it’s not him who’s untouchable, it’s Anwar Ibrahim.

I don’t quite know how the logic works, but my simple mind says it’s utterly flawed.

Second is Gagasan Anti-Penyelewengan Selangor (GAPS) president Hamidzun Khairudin, who claimed a few days back (Malaysiakini May 28) that ‘the federal constitution only states that the Malays and bumiputera have the right to receive a scholarship’.

In this case, he is still on the opportunistic assumption that Article 153 of the Constitution quoting the ‘special position’ means ‘special right’ of the Malays. Law expert Abdul Aziz Bari whacked Hamidzun well and good. If the latter has any sense at all, he should delete this issue from his mind.

My concern multiplied when bearing in mind the government’s intention to make history a compulsory subject in schools as already declared by the Education Minister Muhyiddin Yasin. I have been saying to myself this could be another rather sad expression of twisted Malay nationalism, so frequent they are these days.

Is it wise for our leaders to teach intellectual dishonesty to our young?

I do not think so. I am a believer that we should educate our young with the best weapon of survival in this highly competitive post-modern era, and that is to enable and equip them with clear, logical and critical thinking.

The young should be taught to be able to intellectualise, to be able to deduce and induce and come to solid conclusions. In this way they’d make good decisions and the best way to start is to teach them to be intellectually honest.

Raising the alarm

Some members of the public like Dr Ranjit Singh Malhi have raised the alarm and alerted the public of this sorry situation. Some other members of the public like Dr Ramlah Adam, however, had defended this government policy stating that teaching History in this way is something ‘positive’.

Then early last month, a group of citizens and NGOs met when several eminent personalities relating to this issue. All of them were echoing the same thing that had caused my initial concern. All of them were confirming with facts, figures, names and dates where current history texts were pregnant with lies, omissions, half-truths and of hyperbolic and exaggerated roles played by race and religion.

Truly this cannot go on for everybody will be the loser in the long term. It is not good for the mental health and well-being of the student and by extension the future of the country. Which individual, community or country progressed and prospered on deceits, lies and half-truths?

So the group felt it had to do something. It has established a people’s movement to inform the government of this chronic, unhealthy, unsavoury situation. This movement is known as Kempen Sejarah Malaysia Sebenar (SMS). It has set up a committee and, in fact, has initiated a signature campaign, noting that several thousand of such signatures have already been collected with more coming in.

They are now devising other courses of action, including perhaps influencing the government to be aware of the silliness of this case and hopefully to agree for a complete revision.

If possible, the SMS would also help re-write Malaysian history to be more reflective of the facts and truth, i.e. more aligned with the facts and evidence, so as to become closer to intellectual honesty, accuracy and integrity.

Perhaps Malaysiakini readers too should keep your eyes and ears, your mental antenna, open to the activities and programmes of SMS, and wherever possible to also lend support. That would be great and goes far in realising the 1Malaysia spirit.

As for me, I support this movement and am happy to be closely associated with it.

My reason for lending support is simple enough, and I quote a wisdom made by Bertrand Russell: ‘We are all born ignorant not stupid. Education makes us stupid.’

I am happy to be a part of a movement that strives to ensure our young, naturally born ignorant, are educated and become intelligent, not stupid.

—-

AB SULAIMAN is an observer of human traits and foibles, especially within the context of religion and culture. As a liberal, he marvels at the way orthodoxy fights to maintain its credibility in a devilishly fast-changing world. He hopes to provide some understanding to the issues at hand and wherever possible, suggest some solutions. He holds a Bachelor in Social Sciences (Leicester, UK) and a Diploma in Public Administration, Universiti Malaya.

                This entry was posted on Wednesday, 1 June 2011, 10:23 am and is filed under
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We are in this together

Y. Khairil

The Malaysian Insider

May 31, 2011

MAY 31 — I am a not-so-young Malaysian male of the majority type. You know, the type who people always accuse of being pampered by the government, being coaxed with many affirmative-action niceties and other stuff.

I have lived here all my life and, contrary to the standard image of the constitutionally-protected people, do not have the opportunity nor the money to even step out of my state border, let alone the national border.

I went from primary to tertiary education in government institutions, since it was the only viable choice for my poor family. Until a few years ago, I worked as a lowly factory operator earning just slightly above the officially recognised poverty-level income, although you and I know that “official” things are rarely dependable and practical.

No other employers would take me for some unknown reason, despite my degrees and several language proficiencies. I think I might have been deemed too rebellious for Malay firms or the civil service, and I’m definitely not “leng zai” enough to be courted by Chinese firms. I spent four to five hours of my life daily wasting away in morning and evening rush traffic. What a great life.

However, my time for ranting is over. Here, I will only specify the reason I like it here in the briefest way possible, despite the crappy situation I’m in. Secondary reason; it’s my home and I love it. Furthermore, it’s my ancestral land as well, and it’s not like I have any other ancestral lands out there (unless I extrapolate it anthropologically, in which case Africa and South China are also my ancestral lands).

Apart from the racism and corruption, Malaysia is like a heaven on earth. Where else can you find a place where there’s no brutal natural disaster (almost), where there’s variety in food and in people, and where there is no terrorism (as yet)? Despite the grave situation now, Malaysia is still relatively peaceful.

It’s small enough not to exhaust you during journeys, but big enough for you to go around. Malaysian life is anything but monotonous, definitely. For example, can you imagine a teenage boy’s life where you can only hit on girls who look blandly similar to you? Or a life where you know only curse words of your own language? Or a life of facing the same type of food day after day? Nightmarish, that’s for sure.

Even the media is wonderfully mixed up. Just look at the recent explosive mix of racist expletives and religious zealotry in the mainstream papers. It’s wonderful, really.

I think other people can explain better what makes Malaysia their home forever. I’m not going to dwell on it further. Instead of ranting on the shortcomings of Malaysia, I’m going to offer my view on how to drag Malaysia out of its quagmire:

1) Make government leaders accountable for their work and make transparency a standard operating procedure

The problem with our leaders is not how much public fund they have in their hands, but rather how they use it. Currently, transparency is very far from our leaders’ minds. Just look at the Lynas issue, where deals are done clandestinely without public purview even when it concerns the health of the citizens.

They are not required to tell everyone what they do with the public funds. Hence, they are free to spend it on anything, including things like entertainment trips to Europe, London mansions, luxury parties and by-elections, all without the knowledge of the public.

Then comes the time for things considered citizens’ welfare such as subsidies and utility costs, and they say that public funds is decreasing, justifying the need for less subsidy and increased tariffs. Just like that, no details or proof whatsoever.

Just make them work under a performance-based payslip and make their daily work so visible and transparent it would make the human rights zealots cry. After all, everyone else worked under performance supervision, so there’s no reason why government leaders shouldn’t.

This will require a total neutrality of the civil service though, to ensure that there will be no bias. Probably private sector leaders’ help will be needed, to provide a check and balance as well as a good trump card; after all, they pay the largest percentage of taxes.

2) Restructure our urbanisation process and decentralise all urban activities

Jobs propel urbanisation, but it is clear from the agony of everyone stuck in KL traffic jams that our main cities have long exceeded their capacity. Given that the nature of employment is fluid and ever changing, more buildings are built to anticipate the fluidity, but usually only a few are fully utilised.

Most of the time, they are built without even considering the access to transportation pathways, causing the buildings to be built far from public transport hubs and making the traffic in the area worse.

But whether used or not, they still need to be maintained, applying considerable market force brought on by maintenance cost upon property sales and rental prices. Combine that with the detrimental effects of property speculation games played by the wealthy, and you’ve got yourself a city full of buildings that only the filthy rich can buy. This makes city workers choose either to risk paying high rentals to live in the city, or to use less expenses by staying far away at the expense of time and tolls.

The buildings leave little space for city improvements, causing bottlenecks in transport pathways into the cities during rush hours. This causes our already pathetic road-based public transport to be even less effective, and forces everyone to take out loans to buy vehicles, even for those who can’t afford it, like me.

The combined effect of high personal transportation costs and household debts drains the life out of everyone, and results in the curses and rants and migration whims you’ve been hearing about.

The simplest thing to do is to encourage business activities to relocate to towns or small cities further away from the main cities. This will gentrify the sleepy towns and rejuvenate them, making them the satellite cities of the main cities. People can afford the cheaper properties closer to their workplace and be happier.

Heck, even the companies can be happy if they chose well, for there could be less competition and more market coverage in the gentrified towns. There would be no more impediments to company growth; reduced traffic will ensure less interruptible supply chain, and greater morale among workers coming in to work in the morning.

GDP will be increased, and our PM will be happy and boast about it to his peers.

At the same time, this will clear out the traffic in the main cities, improving our public transport flow and reduce the need for expensive vehicles. People will have more money to spend, increasing their purchasing power. City planners can then bulldoze unused infrastructure to make way for city improvements, like bigger roads, revamped public transport routes or green recreational parks. This creates a healthier, greener city, and a happier you and me.

3) Get rid of the deals, agreements and whatnots that are draining public funds

Everyone in the car industry knows how much profit the AP hoarders can generate from air with little effort, and every ex-TNB CEO knows how much profit IPPs are leeching out of TNB, and subsequently public funds.

These lopsided agreements benefit the few at the expense of the many, and create a large economic gap in society. Look, with our “tak apa” attitude, we even agreed to take in Australia’s radioactive crap and refugees that the Aussies don’t want, no questions asked. These shady deals are also one of the reasons why there is so much money outflow in the country.

However, breaking an agreement could lead to internal and regional conflict. The dominant IPPs and their multitude of subsidiaries in various fields could stage a corporate boycott if their agreements are breached. Singapore may threaten us with war if we breach their severely lopsided water agreement.

But if Malaysia can’t show its stern stance with regards to its sovereignty and integrity, it would forever be played for a fool by bad people and exploited by regional peers. Sometimes, we do need to wave the big stick. There is no point in honouring an agreement that leaves us on the losing end. It’s funny to see how some leaders vehemently protect these lopsided agreements, while at the same time “forgetting” their own promise to do some beneficial work for the people.

4) Revise and restructure our education system

To be frank, I find our education system to be a puzzling maze of bureaucracy and vested interests. We have separate management policies and cultures for national, vernacular national and private institutions. To top it all, the education policy changes with every passing education minister. Despite all its glory, our current system succeeded in making a student score the most As, but it failed in creating a good individual and citizen.

From a nationalistic point of view, I consider the vernacular education a good potential for our citizens, since it can enrich their skills and broaden their views. Sadly, it has now become a thorn in our national integrity.

Instead of vernacular education being an option to our students, it has become a sort of racially-exclusive rights. I don’t recall anything in the constitution stating that vernacular education is restricted to a relevant race, but sadly it is so. I know that vernacular education is constitutionally guaranteed, but right now the race attribute and the culture attribute of vernacular education is not yet separate.

Who would think that, for example, Chinese schools are for all Malaysians, rather than all Chinese Malaysians? None, sadly. This has made our education system racially polarised, endangering the social integrity of our young citizens.

Thus, it is time to discard all the old framework and reintegrate everything into a single national stream. National and vernacular stream’s curriculum should be integrated, reducing bureaucratic overheads and allowing smoother resource management, as well as opening up the curriculum to broader access.

It should be compulsory for everyone to learn core national values in the national courses, but a merit for students to pursue additional vernacular courses. The system should reward the effort of those pursuing both national and vernacular education as an incentive for their attempt in understanding the culture of their fellow citizens and enriching their soft skills.

Integration would also mean merging of the infrastructure, enabling better utilisation of resources and forcing the students to mingle in an ethnically-mixed community early in their childhood, as opposed to the single-ethnic crowds often found in national and vernacular schools now. This will aid their integration, since it is relatively easier to discard racial barriers and stereotypical assumptions among young children.

The children would have an easier time absorbing a vernacular curriculum, since they would have fellow peers with native proficiency in the relevant subject just a stone’s throw away. In time, this will create a generation who identify themselves on a national level, instead of ethnic level, a generation who would readily work together to develop Malaysia regardless of each individual’s differences.

5) Uphold meritocracy and recalibrate affirmative action

Have you ever experienced the feeling that you could do better than your boss? I think this is probably what everyone here feels about the current leadership. I don’t think it’s because the leaders are not trying, but it is because there are incompetent people dragging the rest of the team down.

Unfortunately, the problem of lack of meritocracy is widespread in Malaysia, both in the public and private sectors. For example, the affirmative action policy that is part and parcel of NEP was abused by some Malay elites to garner influence and power. In the private sectors, dominant business circles held by exclusive Chinese business associations favour only those of their own and closed their door to anyone of other ethnicities, even if the other options are better than the one they favoured. This created a government led by people who are clueless, and a racially-polarised economy.

Affirmative action policy has been the point of contention for every non-Bumiputera in the country, and the primary reason behind the wave of emigration. What made it so hard for the affirmative policy to be redefined? Not every Chinese is a cousin or daughter of Robert Kuok or Lim Goh Tong. Not every Malay is a poor sunburned farmer indebted to Felda.

Perhaps it was relevant during its initial launch, but now poverty is rife across all racial divides, given the state of the world right now. The wealth coverage is now quite different from the post-independence era, where Bumiputeras and non-Bumiputeras were really a world apart.

The statistics are different now, and to allocate affirmative assistance solely on racial basis is now wasteful and impractical. For example, when a son of a wealthy Malay businessman can get free scholarship while the son of a Chinese can-picker is denied one, surely it would create discontent.

The scholarship could be just another excuse for late-night partying by the businessman’s son, but it could mean an extra meal on the table for the can-picker’s son. From this, you can see that blind prioritising purely on racial basis can deliver wrong results even if it was made with the same goal in mind.

Meritocracy and affirmative policy are two opposing sides of a coin, but I think they must go hand in hand in Malaysia. Ensure that only the best get the position in the public and private sectors regardless of race, so that these talents can steer the nation towards the best direction.

The affirmative policy, on the other hand, needs to be redefined and reconfigured so that it applies to those that really need it based on concrete factors, namely poverty level, merit and special circumstances, instead of racial factors like what is done currently. It would need more research to get all that data, sure, but it would ensure justice for all Malaysians.

The arguments provided above represent the primary reason I stayed on; there is still hope for Malaysia, no matter how horrible the situation is, but only if you think deep enough, and only if you are game enough to face the challenge from the inside, instead of viewing passively from a comfy penthouse in Hong Kong.

Identifying our own country’s weakness and finding the way to suppress it is one way of showing I still care. The migrants always said that they migrated to find greener pastures, but then, when would there ever be greener pasture here if we don’t try to weed out the pests in our own backyard ourselves?

Some people might be scared of a few weeds and bugs and decided to go to another farm, but I know that lots of you out there still care for our own farm that is called Malaysia, no matter how smelly or how beaten up it is. Nothing beats eating produce from your own farm, right?

The arguments above are only the tip of the iceberg of what caring Malaysians can do for their country. Of course, not everyone can just meet the PM and say they want to do this and that (except Saiful Bukhari maybe?). However, you readers out there come from various fields, and you can do whatever you can to achieve the effects described above in your own ways. After all, change is not about one person, it’s about a whole nation working as one.

                This entry was posted on Wednesday, 1 June 2011, 12:44 am and is filed under
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Why I left Malaysia

PJ

The Malaysian Insider

May 30, 2011

MAY 30 — Some time in the middle of 2006, I walked out of the Majlis Perbandaran Seremban after another meeting with its pengarah. After two years of countless correspondences and meetings, I officially gave up on them picking up my household rubbish in a proper and timely manner. They were not capable of undertaking even these simple tasks. It was a lost cause.

That was the turning point of my life in Malaysia, and it left me exhausted. It put everything into perspective for me. Once again, the bureaucratic system in Malaysia failed me. Once again, it deprived me of a simple need in my life. A need I was already entitled to as a Malaysian.

I never asked for much, and regarded myself as a good example of a first-generation Malaysian.
 I grew up in a small town in Johor, and still speak Bahasa Malaysia articulately. At the end of my school days, I did not whine when lesser deserving friends earned scholarships to undertake professional courses overseas. I was happy to crawl into a local university. I dismissed my first encounter of racism there, and continued to embrace the multicultural life I was accustomed to. I tried complaining that scholarships for local studies were also disbursed unequally. It slowly dawned upon me that this was something I will need to get used to. But university life was too much fun, and there was no reason to worry about my future, at least while I was there.

After graduating, I worked for one local company. These were good times, where mediocrity was the rule of the day. I realised then that in Malaysia, you can survive by using only 10 per cent of your mental capacity. Not a bad deal actually. Life could not get any better at that point. But I was slowly creating a vacuum between my ears. Wanting to keep some grey matter intact, I left and joined a foreign company. This would be one of a string of foreign companies I worked at in Malaysia.

Life continued to be fun. I was enjoying decent salaries and kept paying a small fortune in taxes. I even contributed to the economy by purchasing several Protons, and changed their power windows regularly. But I was tired of the traffic jams and the floods in Kuala Lumpur. I tried everything, from taking public transportation to buying a motorcycle for work. Nothing worked. I even moved to Seremban.

By then I had worked more than a decade. The mediocrity I thought I had left behind was also catching up with me. I had to once again deal with the same people, who were now in positions of authority, and were making decisions in projects I was working on. Many of them were basically idiots. Some knew there were not the sharpest knife in the drawer, and listened to the opinion of others. But some were so dumb they actually thought they were smart. Life started getting to be less fun. But I did not complain. It was easier just to butter them up and get the projects started. You knew the projects will never fully meet their objectives due to bureaucracy, but you just did what you were paid to do. Thankfully nothing is actually audited in Malaysia.

As much as I thought I didn’t care, I slowly started looking at the negative aspects of my work. Perhaps it was mid-life crisis. I became a huge pessimist. This began to spill over to my personal life. Let me tell you one thing. It is not easy being a pessimist, especially when you are not too smart and not at all enterprising.

I had always wanted a simple life. But life was becoming increasingly difficult for me. The people I was entrusted to deal with in the public service irritated me. I became a very bitter person, and had very little patience. I did not like being surrounded by incompetence. I just wanted to pay my taxes (without all the complications), and receive the basic necessities I am entitled to as a taxpayer.

All this while, the wife and I could not tolerate the fact that our kids were being schooled by teachers who were only good at making straw baskets or dealing with Amway products. These thoughts kept us awake at night.

As I walked out of Majlis Perbandaran Seremban that day, I knew what had to be done. It was not an easy decision to make, but our surroundings made it unbearable for us to live in Malaysia. Our needs were simple, but it was obvious that these needs could not be met in Malaysia. Not in my life time anyway.

We left Malaysia more than two years ago. Australia is not only a nice place to live in because of its beautiful surroundings, but the systems and processes in place make every day life so easy. My kids also actually enjoy school because teachers here accept them for what they are, and treat them with respect.

I do miss Malaysia. Not the Malaysia I left behind, but the Malaysia I grew up in.

                This entry was posted on Wednesday, 1 June 2011, 7:13 am and is filed under
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A dream of Malaysian unity

 –
CKL

The Malaysian Insider

Jun 01, 2011

MAY 31 — I have read with sadness the many letters you have published regarding Malaysia’s brain drain. I am one of those, who left Malaysia for many reasons, chiefly, because I did not see any future for my children in a country which had become increasingly racist, moving from moderate to fundamentalist Islamic and also increasingly intolerant.

 To those who say that I am unpatriotic and that I should stay on to help change the country, I tell you that it cannot be changed! Whilst working as a professional in Malaysia, I also served for 14 years in the Territorial Army of Malaysia (Rejimen Askar Wataniah), rising to my last rank of Major.

Rejimen Askar Wataniah is the army reserves of Malaysia and we undergo weekend military training every fortnight. During those years, not only was I prepared to risk life and limb for King and country, but I also initiated and helped set up Askar Wataniah societies in mainly Chinese tertiary institutes which recruited Chinese students into the Askar Wataniah. Every year, those societies recruited some 100+ Chinese students into the Rejimen Askar Wataniah, compared with a miserly 10+ in the regular army.

I expected nothing from my efforts because I enjoyed my time in the Askar Wataniah and I was patriotic, then! But I certainly did not expect brickbats and every effort being made by my fellow Malay officers to run me down because they were jealous (my efforts in recruiting such large numbers of Chinese into the Askar Wataniah had caught the attention of the military top brass and also assorted politicians, in particular MCA politicians) or as one of them told me, “perasaan dengki” which Malays always seem to have for those who are more successful than they are.

Perhaps they thought I was taking their rice bowl away from them. Whatever their reasons, it was made very clear to me that I was not one of them, even though I had sweated and toiled with them during military exercises in the jungle and training courses.

That was when I realised that no matter what I do or try to do, I would always be to them, and legally too, firstly a non-Malay, secondly a non-Bumiputera, thirdly a non-Muslim. I was not a Malaysian to them first and foremost!

However, I was lucky. I was a successful professional with skills and experience which could be transferred overseas. I have been working for the past few years in the Middle East, which although fully Islamic, treats me first and foremost, as a Malaysian!

There are only two types of people here, locals and expats. Yes, locals have better conditions and benefits but it is their country, isn’t it? And they certainly don’t discriminate amongst one race or another amongst their citizens.

For those who have been here, you would know that there are many Indians who have settled in this area for many years, ending up as citizens in their adopted countries. There are no discriminatory laws which favour one particular race amongst their citizens above others, unlike in Malaysia!

I was certainly luckier than those non-Malay officers serving in the regular army as, without an exception, every single one of them had tales to tell me about junior Malay officers being promoted over them, even though these non-Malay officers had both the qualifications and experiences which entitled them to promotion!

One particularly poignant tale I heard came from a retired Chinese senior officer who had been passed over many times for promotion even though during the final years of the communist insurgency, he had actually commanded an operation which caught a communist insurgent.

But the non-Malay officers were in many ways luckier than the non-Muslim Bumiputera officers, i.e. Ibans. They are supposed to have the same rights and opportunities as Malay officers, yet they did not receive them. They suffer the same fate as many non-Malay officers in having junior Malay officers with less experience and qualifications being promoted over them!

Just talk to any Iban officer and you will hear their frustration and anger at such discrimination against them, even more anger than non-Malay officers. As they used to moan to me, “Sama bangsa tetapi tidak sama ugama”! To those who have served in the military, you will know exactly what I am talking about, that is, if you have not buried your head in the sand like an ostrich!

Everyone seems to have forgotten how the Malaysian Constitution was achieved. It was negotiated, chewed over and fought over in words at the height of the Emergency, at a time when the British and Malayans thought that the communist terrorists was not winning but certainly not losing either.

The British basically gave Malaya its independence because they had been bankrupted by the Second World War and it was the platform that the communists were ostensibly fighting for. At a stroke, by giving Malaya independence, which was also what Malayans were fighting for, they helped removed any public support for the communists.

Yet, it was not easy to achieve the compromises that the Constitution eventually became. Many Malays and the Islamic parties at that time wanted an Islamic state with limited rights for non-Malays and non-Muslims.

In fact, the biggest dispute was about granting citizenship rights to non-Malays. It was only after intense negotiations with the British acting as referees, that our present Constitution came about.

Please remember, the original Malaysian Constitution gave equal rights for all Malaysians, regardless of race, religion or creed. Islam was recognised as the religion of the country but with no special rights over other religions and original, the Malays were given certain rights over other non-Malays in order that they could achieve economic parity.

 Further, ethnic bargains between the Alliance parties were the mainstay of the Constitution. The MIC and MCA agreed to give special rights to the Malays and maintain Malay as the national language. Umno, on the other hand, agreed to allow Chinese and Indian participation in politics and be awarded citizenship. After much discussion, the Constitution was finally agreed upon and became known as the Merdeka Constitution.

Those rights were originally meant to last 15 years after independence and were actually recommended by the Reid Commision, which was set up by the British to look into the requirements for an independent Malaya.

They were meant to act as a walking stick and not a crutch! As to the effect of those, originally 15 years of Malay rights but which later became permanent, well, one has only to look at the Malays in Malaysia, 53+ years after Merdeka, and ask the simple question, are they ready to stand on their feet without any special rights or government assistance?

As to Malaysia’s brain drain, one has only to read the prophetic words of Tun Tan Cheng Lock, the first president of MCA, when in 1943, he wrote:

“The best way of treating the Chinese is to trust them and to give an opportunity to those of them, who have resided in Malaya, especially if they have done so with their families, for a sufficiently long period and have become domiciled in the country, to acquire the right of Malayan citizenship by naturalisation, so as to enable them to identify themselves completely with the interests of the land of their adoption. This is the wisest course to adopt by way of solving the so-called Chinese problem in Malaya in the humble opinion of the writer.

“It is the firm conviction of the writer that the ideal to be aimed at by every community in Malaya is that they should learn to regard themselves as Malayans first irrespective of their race. This should not only for inter-racial unity and harmony such as has so conspicuously characterized, for instance, Switzerland, but would also contribute to the unity, strength and stability of the Malayan State, which would thereby enabled to raise itself (the country) to the rank of a worthy and important partner in the great British Commonwealth of Nations”.
(On the occasion of drafting a Memorandum On “Self-Government” in 1943)

And in 1945, he wrote:

“We are strongly of the opinion that the only safe, sound and wise policy for the future Government of Malaya should be to rally to its support those true Malayans, who passionately love the country as their homeland and those who intend to settle there, and who are united by the legitimate aspiration to achieve by proper and constitutional means the ideal and basic objective of Self-Government for a united Malaya within the British Commonwealth and Empire, in which the individuals of all communities are accorded equal rights and responsibilities, politically and economically, including a balanced representation of the various communities in the Government to ensure that no one community will be in a position to dominate or outvote all the others put together”.
(On the occasion of submitting a memorial relating to Malaya to Secretary of State for the Colonies, London, in 1945)

Prophetic words indeed, and the chickens have certainly come home to roost!

                This entry was posted on Thursday, 2 June 2011, 8:29 am and is filed under
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A guide to West Malaysians for Sabahans

by
Erna Mahyuni

The Malaysian Insider

Jun 01, 2011

JUNE 1 — Since I have written a guide for West Malaysians about Sarawak, perhaps it is only fair I write about Sabah. But writing “Sabah 101” seemed boring so I flipped it around and now here’s a handy reference for Sabahans dealing with the influx of West Malaysians thanks to AirAsia.

1. Most West Malaysians really don’t remember September 16, 1963, and when asked, will only remember that “Malaysia gained its independence in 1957.” Don’t blame them; blame our badly-written history textbooks. Incidentally, they were written by West Malaysians.

2. West Malaysian Muslims are a lot more uptight than the ones in Sabah. If you take them to a soto stall that is situated outside a Chinese coffee shop, don’t be offended if they refuse to eat in fear of the food not being halal (kosher). If they are Malay and Muslim, make sure the eatery has a halal signboard.

3. Expect them to be very nosy about what race or religion you are. If you happen to look Chinese but greet them with the Muslim salam or you look Malay and are eating pork in front of them, prepare for either looks of shock or ones of taking offence. West Malaysians seem to get offended easily, for some reason. (Proof can be found in the comments of my columns, funnily enough written by people in West Malaysia)

4. Some of them will ask really stupid questions. Just smile and blame, again, our education system. What else are they supposed to think when the only references to Sabah and Sarawak in textbooks are usually illustrated by pictures of natives in traditional costumes?

5. Even if they have landed in Kota Kinabalu, they might still forget that Kuching is not in Sabah. Resist urge to make fun of their poor grasp of geography. Besides, that’s my job.

6. They can’t even get tapai and tuak straight either. So if they ask you for the latter, smile and suggest they look for the heady beverage in Sarawak. Say it gently, remember point three and five.

7. Also, a lot of West Malaysians regard tapai as a sour-smelling delicacy made out of either rice or tapioca. So if the nice Malay makcik enquires about tapai, she probably means that and not the locally beloved alcoholic beverage. Drunken Malay makciks are not pretty sights.

8. Put up with their griping about the need for immigration controls. And their whining about not being allowed to come and go in Sabah as they please. Remind them of the 20-point agreement. Make a joke about us being afraid they’ll come in and take all our timber. Then add, “Haha, but you already did!” Enjoy the peaceful silence.

9. They will also express shock at how rustic Kota Kinabalu is compared to Sabah. Just shrug and say that whatever money Sabah makes from oil and its natural resources all go to the federal revenue. Also that more than half of the people living below the poverty line come from Sabah.

10. If they ask why East Malaysians like to drink a lot and even make it part of our culture, remind them of point nine.

11. West Malaysians cannot quite work their head around the many tribes in Sabah as the local propaganda and tourism paraphernalia in West Malaysia make it seem like most Malaysians are generally Malay, Chinese or Indian. Again, our education system sucks. As does our information ministry.

12. West Malaysians from rural areas are really sheltered, and thanks to that, are prone to saying stupid things. One example: “The Greg Typhoon in Sabah was caused by sinful Sabahans having wild parties and the storm was God’s punishment.” I was told this by a pious Malay girl from Kedah. Refrain from punching said people in the mouth. They really don’t know any better and also read too much Mastika.

13. For some reason, people from West Malaysia think Harian Metro, Mastika and Utusan print truth and not fiction.

So be gentle with our fellow Malaysians from the peninsula. Sabah and Sarawak have long been a distant mystery, the cash cows and fixed deposit of the federal government. Now that West Malaysians are beginning to realise that we are just as civilised as they are, they might not take us quite as much for granted.

But it’s still fun making fun of them.

                This entry was posted on Thursday, 2 June 2011, 8:42 am and is filed under
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A twist of fate…

By
Kedah man in Japan
 | May 30, 2011

The Malaysian Insider

MAY 30 — Like AC who penned “First love, long lost”, life just happened and before I knew it, I found myself enjoying life outside of Malaysia.

I am but a padi farmer’s son. I was working in a construction site after obtaining three Ds and one O for my Higher School Certificate in 1979. One day, my older brother handed me an advertisement by Singapore Airlines calling for pilot trainees. Fate had it that it was the last day for the application. It was a Friday and the post offices in Kedah were closed. My nephew drove me all the way from my village to Butterworth on a 100cc motorbike just to post the application letter. I can still recall how my buttocks hurt.

With rather average scores, I was very surprised that Singapore Airlines called me up for an interview. I miraculously got through that and some other medical checks that followed. Soon, along with a bunch of other Malaysians, I found myself on the way to Manila for pilot training. After being certified as a commercial pilot, it was fate again when the oil crisis in the early 1980s put a stop to the expansion plans of the airline.

Subsequently, we could not operate as pilots and were offered jobs as cabin attendants while waiting for the airline to recall us back to the cockpit. However, it was not to be. Singapore Airlines then offered us study loans to further our studies in the universities of our choice.

We were supposed to return to the airline after we graduated. Almost all of us went to US universities. Singapore Airlines did ask us to return to the cockpit after we graduated but only a handful of us did. The rest of us found new avenues. As it is, many of my colleagues from the pilot trainee days stayed back in the US. One went to the UK, another to Australia, and perhaps two or three returned to Malaysia.

I had the opportunity to remain in the US but I decided that I wanted to live in an Asian country, any Asian country. And somehow I had the good fortune of landing myself a scholarship from the Japanese government. To paraphrase AC, life simply occurred. I thoroughly enjoyed my graduate student days in three Japanese universities and made tons of friends, Japanese and otherwise. And as fate would have it, after obtaining my doctorate, one of my alma mater universities offered me a job for six years, after which, I was to return to Malaysia.

One thing led to another, and yes, before I knew it, I was promoted to become a professor and offered tenure. The next thing after obtaining my tenure was my missus and I bought a property and that really opened up another phase of life for us.

All my pals in the US, UK, and Australia (and, most likely, those who returned to Singapore Airlines as pilots) have surrendered their Malaysian passports.

Meanwhile, I choose to remain a Malaysian, heart and soul, and a proud Kedahan at that. I have no intention of giving that up.

Now, with the government touting the so-called Talent Corporation, would I be enticed to return to Malaysia? I shall touch on only the pull factors here in Japan as many other folks previously wrote about the push factors in Malaysia. There are three factors from my point of view.

First… from the professional aspect, there is probably zero chance of me returning. I have a “permanent” job here in a Japanese national university. I take pleasure in working with my Japanese subordinates and colleagues. I get a lot of respect from the Japanese community as a professor in a national university. It would be extremely hard to surrender what I have now in order to look for a job in Malaysia.

Second… socially speaking, I am thoroughly enjoying myself as a foreign resident in Japan. I am a permanent resident and except for the voting rights, I am on par with the locals. The public service is excellent and fair, while the people are extremely courteous and polite, and a joy to live with. To top this up, we are very lucky to find ourselves living among friendly and sociable neighbours. I have absolutely no complaints in this regard and would very much like to continue living under such favourable conditions.

Third… on a private basis, we are blessed with a sizable vegetable and fruit garden in our property. I cherish spending time and energy tilling the soil and cultivating the plants in the garden. To be able to do this in Japan as a Malaysian thrills me no end and life simply could not be better. These too will be very difficult to give up for now.

Still, I do yearn for Malaysia and return home about twice a year for vacations. On every visit, I have always come away with the feeling that Malaysia is indeed a beautiful country. Perhaps when I retire from my job here in Japan, I might want to return home to further “re-discover” the many splendours of my beloved homeland.

Finally, on my hopes for a better Malaysia, I truly pray for a change in the government. I have faith in the people who have realised the folly of the crop of politicians in the present government. I am rooting for the folks in Pakatan Rakyat, for sure. These are the folks whom I believe can truly bring about a positive turn for my beloved country.

                This entry was posted on Thursday, 2 June 2011, 4:49 pm and is filed under
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An insult to Islam?

Hafidz Baharom

The Malaysian Insider

Jun 01, 2011

JUNE 1 — First and foremost, having a Christian prime minister is not an insult to Islam, nor is allowing a nation to become secular or even Christian.

Take a look at Germany. Their president and chancellor belong to the Christian Democratic Union Party. Yet, Islam is still alive and well in their nation.

If that’s too much for you to imagine, take a look at Netherlands then. Ruled by a monarch and extremely secular, their prime minister is from the VVD and his deputy is from the Christian Democratic Appeal party. Yet still, Islam is there, alive and well enough to be the cause of Theo Van Gogh’s death.

Should Malaysia become a secular or Christian nation, it will not be Islam that is offended. It’s just people who obviously were not granted the brains, patience or even sensitivity to understand that the first basis of the religion itself is to find moderation.

If a Muslim does wrong, he or she is told to repent. If a non-Muslim says something wrong, we are told, through Islamic teaching, to educate them and find a peaceful solution.

What I believe this means is that if we were to understand our religion properly, and if our muftis had any interest in preaching moderation, they would tell people to shut up and mind their own business instead of forwarding text messages of conversions to Christianity like a certain mufti, wreaking havoc and turmoil while fuelling Malay tabloids with enough material to incite hatred.

Islam dictates that we are only to resort to violence when there is clear provocation, not before. And a cartoon by a Norwegian newspaper is not a provocation enough to kill anyone nor is it a justification for a call to jihad and protest with placards written in bad English that just shows how bad your level of education is.

Muhammad (pbuH) and his followers would never have called for a jihad on the basis of a blog stating that there were people in Penang who said that they would make this 60 per cent Muslim nation a Christian one.

You know what he would do? Or what any rational leader would do?

Bring in the journalist and the bloggers, and ask them to produce witnesses to this so-called declaration. If he fails, cane him for the spreading of fitnah.

A leader, in this case, our prime minister, should know better than to just simply shrug the accusation off and explain parliamentary conduct to amend the Constitution. I think this is where Datuk Seri Najib Razak and his home minister of a cousin failed.

The lack of swift action or any action whatsoever against people like those in Perkasa, now that is an insult to Islam because, if anything, Islam cherishes harmony and tells us to act swiftly against rumours.

It also tells us to forgo belief in rumours without witnesses. But somehow, Malay genetics being what they are — a low brain cell count and a high hormone imbalance somewhere down the line — resulted in the Malay male population going out and protesting the dumbest things.

There is no greater insult to Islam than those who selectively preach the religion for personal gain. That goes for any religion. We saw it with George Bush, we saw it with PAS, and now, we’re seeing it with Perkasa.

What we are looking at is a warped version of Drew Carey’s game show, which I personally call Who Is More Delusional Anyway, which stars politician after politician trying to prove they are more Malay, more Indian, more Buddhist, more atheist, more Christian and even more Muslim.

Somehow, this concept was abandoned by our religious scholars and political leaders who think banning condoms would stop pre-marital sex. These are the same bunch of ignoramuses who would rather deal with finding dead babies in dumpsters by excommunicating the child’s parents instead of even talking about contraception of any kind.

It is this same bunch of idiots who think that our religious authorities have every right to invade a person’s privacy; to catch him committing adultery, or let him die trying to escape these theocratic hacks who were tipped off by someone accepting a bribe.

Our people don’t need to defend Islam from the Christians. We’re doing such a bang-up job besmirching our own religion to ruin, by being a bunch of emotional, unruly, uneducated hacks who would use Islam as a tool to win votes and public support.

In fact, with that in mind, I think if Allah can forgive such a large number of hypocrites, he sure as there is a Heaven and Hell can forgive Muslims who are gay.

                This entry was posted on Thursday, 2 June 2011, 7:30 am and is filed under
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Anwar applies for a new trial on sodomy charge

By
Kuek Ser Kuang Keng
 | Jun 2, 11

Malaysiakini

Just four days before Anwar Ibrahim begins his defence against the sodomy charge, he has applied to replace the current Justice Mohamad Zabidin Mohd Diah with a new judge to rehear his trial.

Anwar claimed that Zabidin had prejudged and demonstrated bias in ruling that the prosecution had made a prima facie case against him.

This ruling denied him of a fair trial, which is guaranteed by article 5(1) of the federal constitution, said the opposition leader in his application filed at the Kuala Lumpur High Court today.

Anwar was accompanied by his wife and PKR president Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, together with his lawyers Karpal Singh and Sankara Nair, to file the application this morning at the Jalan Duta court complex.

In his ruling last month, Justice Zabidin stated that Mohd Saiful Bukhari Azlan, who has alledged that he was sodomised by his former employer Anwar, is a “credible and truthful witness”.

“He had truthfully and without embellishment or exaggeration in his evidence narrated in minute detail how he was sodomised by the accused on the date and at the place stated in the charge. I find him to be a truthful witness and his evidence is reliable and if accepted would establish all the facts required to prove the charge against the accused,” he said.

Karpal told reporters that the ruling showed the judge had made a prejudgment before the trial concluded, thus nullifying the calling of the defence.

“We want a new trial because a fair trial is not shown under these circumstances,” he said.

Defence an ’empty formality’

Karpal pointed out that section 182A(1) of the Criminal Procedure Code stipulates that the judge must consider all the evidence to decide whether the case has been proven beyond reasonable doubt at the end of the trial, not at the close of the case for the prosecution.

“All he is required to do (at this stage) is to find out whether there is a prima facie case without going to the question of truth. (The truth) is something which has to be deferred until after all the evidence is adduced,” he explained.

The court fixed next Monday to hear the application before the sodomy trial resumes.

In his application, Anwar cited several case laws stating that the court shall consider all the evidence adduced before it and decide whether the prosecution has proved its case beyond reasonable doubt at the conclusion of the trial.

“Your honour had made a prejudgment in accepting the testimony of SP1 (Saiful) who is the prosecution’s main witness as ‘truthful’ testimony without listening to my testimony which had been revealed as an alibi during cross-examination of SP1,” read the application.

He added that the prejudgment had made the calling for the defence an “empty formality”.

This is Anwar’s third attempt to get Zabidin to recuse himself.

Abuse of the legal process

The first application against Zabidin was made in February last year for not issuing a warning to Malay daily Utusan Malaysia after complaints were raised by the defence team.

Another was filed last November following allegations that the judge had threatened lead counsel Karpal Singh with contempt.

This was after the defence lawyer had said the judge was out of line with a Supreme Court decision by not allowing an expert witness to supply documents.

Anwar withdrew the first application, while the court threw out the second.

Karpal denied that the third application is an abuse of the legal process.

“There is no such thing as abuse of process. We have every right to do so. Datuk Seri (Anwar) is just exercising his legal rights,” he said.

Anwar is charged with sodomising Saiful at the Desa Damansara condominium between 3.01pm and 4.30pm on June 26, 2008.

This is his second sodomy trial since 1998, though he was acquitted of the earlier charge on appeal.

                This entry was posted on Thursday, 2 June 2011, 4:21 pm and is filed under
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Bigger landslide in the making

Stephanie Sta Maria | May 30, 2011

Free Malaysia Today

The situation in Bukit Antarabangsa is serious as the slope failures or shallow landslides are indications of an impending bigger landslide.

KUALA LUMPUR: Double landslides occurred side by side in Bukit Antarabangsa, Hulu Kelang, Selangor, 10 days ago but escaped public attention for both struck on the same day as the Hulu Langat tragedy.

As rescue personnel and the media rushed to the Madrasah Al-Taqwa Orphanage, business owners and employees watched mounds of wet earth sliding down the slope behind their commercial centre in Taman Ukay Perdana.

Unlike Hulu Langat, however, no property damages or injuries took place in the Bukit Antarabangsa incident.

The Ampang Jaya Municipal Council (MPAJ) moved swiftly in dispatching a team from its hillslope division to begin immediate work in containing the situation and repairing the slope.

MPAJ is currently the only authority with an existing hillslope division which was formed after the 2008 Bukit Antarabangsa landslide, which claimed five lives.

When FMT visited the site last Friday a large tarpaulin sheet blanketed the landslide on the left. There had been a downpour that morning and workers swarmed the top of the slope hauling the sheet higher to better secure its position.

The other landslide, however, remained exposed. The slope face had previously been protected by a concrete structure which had gradually disintegrated over time. The rain had now rendered this raw surface slick once again.

Of greater concern was the row of small businesses fronting both landslides. None of them had been instructed or were compelled to temporarily cease operations.

Cars still filled the corner workshop and lined the affected roads. People continued patronising the outlets along the stretch. Personnel at the Ukay police station, directly across the covered landslide, were equally unperturbed.

The Public Works Department (PWD), meanwhile, has assured that the situation is under control and that there is no cause for alarm.

“This is just a small erosion and small debris flow,” Professor Ashaari Mohamad, director of PWD slope engineering branch, told FMT. “Once repair work has started it will not pose any danger to the shop houses.”

But Associate Professor Tajul Anuar Jamaluddin, a geological expert at the South East Asia Disaster Prevention Research Institute in Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM), had a different opinion.

After viewing photos of the landslides, he ranked its severity as a nine on a scale of one to 10, with 10 being extremely risky.

“This is very serious,” he said. “And it’s not an erosion. Those are slope failures or shallow landslides which are good indicators of an impending bigger landslide. My advice is to get in touch with the PWD slope engineering branch immediately.”

When asked if an evacuation order was necessary, Tajul said that he couldn’t say for sure without proper inspection of the slope.

“But if I were in the place of those shops owners I wouldn’t stay open, especially when it rains, until firm action is taken to rectify the situation,” he added.

                This entry was posted on Thursday, 2 June 2011, 6:19 am and is filed under
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Brain drain and migration, so who’s left to save Malaysia?

By
Yee Ziherng
 | June 02, 2011

The Malaysian Insider

JUNE 2 — My name is Yee Ziherng and I am a Malaysian. I stand firmly on the ground that I am a Malaysian first, Chinese second. So there are no debatable issues about races and religion here.

I have been gravely disheartened by the recent deluge of stories of Malaysians migrating. More and more people are jumping on the bandwagon of supporting the move while enumerating lists of alleged flaws and problems facing those who choose to remain, all the while without providing viable solutions to the problem.

I am not against people who work abroad; far from it, in fact, I admire them for working far away from their family in alien countries, earning in different currencies and, hopefully accumulating knowledge acquired abroad to contribute back to our country.

So what is the problem?

It would be very convenient if we were blessed with complete equality (in terms of education, work and business opportunities, etc). Convenient, but no more than a utopian dream. Race is not the question, nor the answer; how can it be, when emigrants consist of Malaysians of all races and faiths?

People leave for various reasons: be it due to low pay, rising inflation, poor governance at the helm, lack of structure and initiative to retain, attract, or nurture talents, flaws in the education system, or even because they feel that they or their talents would be better appreciated elsewhere.

Those who studied or worked abroad are being asked to remain abroad by their parents; peers complain that their salaries just about make ends meet; and every day we see new lows as politicians bicker about anything and everything except the economy and pressing social issues.

So after 54 years, the problem still boils back down to the issue of “equality, education, standard of living and, not to forget, dirty politics.”

Why has the situation kept its unsatisfactory status quo?

Simple, we only complain!

How many of us have actually tried to change? I am certainly not expecting Malaysians to think of “changing” as an act of running around the streets shouting (and later being hit by tear gas and water cannons). Change comes in many forms, and can be as simple as registering yourself as a voter. We have no right to complain if we don’t even bother exercising our basic rights as a Malaysian.

Here are some popular sentences that you might have heard before: “It doesn’t make a difference, so why vote?” “I will return to Malaysia when things get better.” or “I will be back when the country starts to appreciate me.” Sounds familiar?

Let me get things straight, change doesn’t happen overnight! You can’t expect things to be great and wonderful the next day when you just fold their hands and sit back. We should also stop blaming the system, the government and the country — basically everyone else but “us” — while enjoying perceived “equality” overseas.

We have people constantly blaming the politicians for failing to change, but the fundamental thing is, change actually starts within us, politicians are just a medium to represent the voices of the people.

Reasons to stay

It’s a truism that nothing will change for the better while we rest on our laurels: What matters is our initiative to work for it.

I too have friends who refuse to come back after graduating from foreign universities. They’ve seen the wider world, and are afraid of being ill-treated if they return, moreover they received no discouragement for their plans to pursue their careers overseas.

As I’ve mentioned, there is absolutely nothing wrong with not working in Malaysia, or even being an “ex-Malaysian”, but surely for every person who chooses to chase their overseas dreams, there is one who can’t, for financial or social reasons.

This latter group of people have no choice but to stay in the country and face the problems head-on, participating in the change they wish to see, while those who supposedly have a more worldly mentality and have had the advantage of a broader, wider education have rushed on ahead to allegedly greener pastures with nary a glance back.

Does the phrase ‘“Ask not what your country can do for you — ask what you can do for your country” by John F. Kennedy ring a bell? Most of us have directly or indirectly taken something from Malaysia — at the very least it shaped us into who we are today.

So why can’t we temporarily set aside our personal interests and fulfil our duty as a Malaysian? Of course if it critically concerns a person’s survival if he continues to stay in Malaysia then leaving might be justifiable. But how many of us leave because eking a living in Malaysia is no longer a viable option?

I am certainly not a jingoistic type of a Malaysian, but I will proudly declare that I am Malaysian. For this is the place I grew up in, this is home.

Trust me, Malaysia has not “gone to the dogs” yet, nor is it “doomed to fail” — there is huge potential for this country we love so long as we all do our part. We stay and we fight not only for ourselves, but also for a better future for future generations.

The question remains: “If all the Malaysians who are capable of contributing/changing the country left, who is left to save Malaysia?”

*
We asked readers to tell us in their own words why they stayed in Malaysia… instead of migrating. This is one of the stories.

                This entry was posted on Thursday, 2 June 2011, 5:24 pm and is filed under
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Damn dirty Dayaks

By
June Rubis
 | June 02, 2011

The Malaysian Insider

I once asked my father, “Tell me something interesting about our family.”

Obligingly, he told a tale of our great-great-great-great grandfather and uncles who decided one day that they would stop paying hefty taxes to the Sultan of Brunei.

The burden of the increasing taxes was taking its toll and the villagers were left wondering whether the next harvest would be enough to feed their families, and pay off a faraway Sultan whom none of them had ever met.

And so, they cunningly invited the tax collectors to the village on the pretence of making payment. They ushered the tax collectors, all 21 of them, into the baruk, a wooden circular hut of ceremonies, precariously perched on slim logs, and where warriors and delinquent husbands hung out.

Ambushed, the leading tax collector had his head cut off, and his colleagues thrown off the cliff.

“We had enough of the oppression,” my father said.

Unfortunately, the oppression didn’t stop there. Revenge on behalf of the 21 dead tax collectors came when their colleagues kidnapped a couple of women from the village for ransom. The village was furious.

They sent off some of their best warriors to get the women back, and during their search, the warriors came across a white man. No one from the village had ever seen a white man before.

“What was he doing there?”

“He was a … what? What do you call them? Scientists who study rocks. A geologist.”

Fascinated with this white man, the warriors asked him to help them overthrow this greedy Sultan, and become their King. Their White Rajah.

“Why? Just because he’s white? Sounds kinda racist.”

“Do you want to hear this story or not?”

The man listened with compassion and regretfully told the warriors that while he sympathised, he didn’t feel that he was the right person to unite all the warring tribes and usurp the Sultan. But he could return to Singapore, and see if anyone might be interested in becoming the White Rajah of Sarawak.

“And that is how James Brooke ended up here. That geologist went around Singapore asking for help on our behalf, and James Brooke accepted. You know the rest of the story lah.”

“But what happened to the missing women?”

“Oh they eventually found them, killed the kidnappers and everyone returned back to the village. Happy ending!”

“But it’s not very empowering that we asked a foreigner to save us. Why not one of us to become the Rajah instead?”

“Haiyah, this is the story as told to me by your great-granduncle. How would I know? I wasn’t there. You are always asking too many questions.”

Truth be told, I am very proud of my murdering, civil-disobedient ancestors. They took charge, and did the best they could under the circumstances.

On June 1, 2011, two very important events occurred. One, the Sarawak government-sanctioned holiday of Gawai, a thanksgiving day marking good harvest. Two, power rates and gas prices have been marked up by the Najib administration which will lead to higher food prices in Malaysia.

‘Tis a good day to give thanks indeed.

I wonder what my great-great-great-great grandparents would have felt about the situation the rural Dayaks find themselves in today. Viable land to plant and harvest food is rapidly shrinking, and native land tenure itself remains a contentious issue between the people and the government. Today’s conveniences of electricity, paved roads and treated water remain but a dream for most of the rural population throughout Sarawak.

To top it all, rural Dayaks are damned by many “liberal” Malaysians for supposedly voting for Barisan Nasional in the last state election. They’re stupid for not knowing the value of their vote, they’re dirty for taking the much-needed cash, and they should all be shamed and damned.

And yet, they still celebrate as they do each year, for a good harvest. They give thanks for yet another year survived.

Each day is a struggle, and they keep an eye on how to survive the next day.

Me, I struggled with the part of the story where a white man was asked to save Sarawak and then I finally realised that the colour of the skin didn’t matter.

The point of the story was that the community did all they could, the only way they knew how, to save themselves from an unfortunate circumstance: by throwing their enemies off the cliff. And when that didn’t work, they turned to someone else who could offer a different solution.

Today, there are many proposals on how we can save the rural Dayaks. Yet, we ought to ask them before we rush in as potential saviours; what exactly do they need from us?

Perhaps the answer might surprise and humble us.

And perhaps by listening to their needs and acting appropriately to help save Sarawak, one day we will have a tale worthy to pass on to our future generations.

Damn dirty Dayaks, we won’t be.

*
June Rubis is very excited about the “Planet of the Apes” movie remake coming out this year, and would like to wish everyone Gayu Guru Gerai Nyamai, Slamat Ondu Gawea Sowa.

—-

June Rubis has spent the better years of her adult life with the primates in the Borneo rainforests. She has no regrets. She now spends most of her time working with humankind. There are some regrets.

                This entry was posted on Thursday, 2 June 2011, 10:13 am and is filed under
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