Malaysia an ‘oil cursed’ country

by
Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah

Dec 12, 09

(Speech by former finance minister and Umno vice-president Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah at the one-day Young Corporate Malaysians Summit this morning)

In a speech I made in April this year, I spoke of where we stand in our developmental path and what I felt we must do to move forward.

I need to revisit that argument in order to develop it further.

We are stagnating. The signs of a low-growth economy are all around us. Wages are stagnant and the cost of living is rising.

We have not made much progress in becoming a knowledge and services based economy.

According to the World Bank, Malaysia’s share of GDP contributed by services was 46.2 percent in 1987. Ten years later, that share had grown by a mere 0.2 percent.

Between 1994 and 2007, real wages grew by 2.6 percent in the domestic sector and by 2.8 percent in the export sector, which is to say, they were flat over that 13-year period.

Meanwhile, our talent scenario is an example of perverse selection at its most ruinous. We are failing to retain our own young talent, people like yourselves, let alone attract international talent to relocate here, while we have had a massive influx of unskilled foreign labour. They now make up 30 to 40 percent of our workforce.

Alone in East Asia, the number of expatriate professionals here has decreased. Alone in East Asia, private sector wage increases follow government sector increases, instead of the other way around. We are losing doctors and scientists and have become Southeast Asia’s haven for low-cost labour.

I said that we are in a middle-income trap, stuck in the pattern of easy growth from low-value-added manufacturing and component assembly and unable to make the leap to a knowledge-intensive economy.

Regional competitors with larger, cheaper – and dare I say – hungrier labour forces have emerged. China and India have risen as both lower cost and higher technology producers, and with giant domestic markets.

The manufacturing sector which propelled the growth we enjoyed in the 90s is being hollowed out. There is no going back, there is no staying where we are, and we do not have a map for the way forward.

I am glad that the characterisation of Malaysia as being in a ‘middle-income-trap’ has been taken up by the government, and that the need for an economic story, or strategy, for Malaysia is now recognised.

We stand in particular need of such a model because we are a smallish economy. We cannot be good at everything, and we don’t have to be.

We need only make some reasonable bets in identifying and developing a focused set of growth drivers. It is not difficult to see what the elements of such a growth strategy might be. Whatever we come up with should build on our natural strengths, and our strengths include the following:

•	We are located at the crossroads of Asia, geographically and culturally, sitting alongside the most important oil route in the world.

•	We have large Muslim, Chinese and Indian populations that connect us to the three fastest growing places in the world today.

•	We have some of the largest and oldest rainforests in the world, a treasure house of bio-diversity when the greatest threat facing mankind as a whole now is ecological destruction, and the greatest technological advances are likely to come from bioscience.

•	We have the English language, a common law system, parliamentary democracy,good schools,an independent civil service and good infrastructure.

These advantages, however, are declining. Our cultural diversity is in danger of coming apart in bigotry, our rainforests are being logged out and planted over, our social and political institutions are decaying.

I have spoken at length on different occasions about the causes and consequences of institutional decline.The decline in our society and indeed in our natural environment, originates in a decline in our basic institutions.

The link between these is corruption.The destruction of our ecosystem for example, is made possible by corrupt officials and business people.The uncontrolled influx of unskilled labour is a direct result of corruption.

These are problems we need to be aware of before we speak glibly about coming up with new strategies and new economic models. We need to understand where we are, and how we have gone wrong, before we can set things right.

You are young, well-educated Malaysians. Many among you have left for other shores. Record numbers of Malaysians, of all races, work abroad or have emigrated. Among these are some of our best people.They sense the stagnation I described.

There is a certain lack of energy, ingenuity and “hunger” in the climate of this country that young people are most sensitive to. In the globalised job market, young people instinctively leave the less simulating and creative environments for those that have a spark to them.

How did we lose our spark as a nation?

We have a political economy marked by dependence on easy options and easy wealth. Like personal dependencies,these bad habits provide temporary comfort but discourage the growth of creativity and resilience.

I mentioned our dependence on low-cost foreign labour.

The other dependence is something I played a part in making possible.This is a story I want to leave you with to ponder in your deliberations today.

Once a blessing, now a curse

Our nation is blessed with a modest quantity of oil reserves. As a young nation coming to terms with this natural bounty in the early 70s, our primary thought was to conserve that oil.

That is why, when Petronas was formed, we instituted the Petroleum Development Council. Its function was to advise the prime minister on how to conserve that oil and use it judiciously for national development. We knew our reserves would not last long.

We saw our oil reserves as an unearned bounty that would provide the money for modernisation and technology. We saw our oil within a developmental perspective. Our struggle then, was to make the leap from an economy based on commodities and low-cost assembly and manufacturing to a more diverse, economy based on high income jobs.

Aware that we had an insufficient tax base to make the capital investments needed to make the leap, we planned to apply oil royalties to what you would call today strategic investments in human capital.

Whatever money left after making cash payments, allocations for development funds, etc, was to be placed in a Heritage Fund for the future.The Heritage Fund was for education and social enrichment.

In working out the distribution of oil between the states, who had sovereign rights over it, and the federal government, we were guided by concerns for equity between all Malaysians, a concern to develop the poorer states (who also happened to be the oil rich states) and a concern for inter-generational equity.That oil was for special development purposes and it was not just meant for our generation.

Sabah and Sarawak joined Malaya to form Malaysia because of the promise of development funds. Yet today, despite being their massive resources, they are some of our poorest states.

Instead of being our ace up the sleeve, however, our oil wealth became in effect a swag of money used to fund the government’s operational expenditure, to bail out failing companies, buy arms, build grandiose cities amidst cleared palm oil estates.

Instead of helping eradicate poverty in the poorest states, our oil wealth came to be channeled into the overseas bank accounts of our political and politically-linked class.

Instead of being the patrimony of all Malaysians, and for our children, it is used as a giant slush fund that has propped up authoritarian rule, eroded constitutional democracy and corrupted our entire political and business elite.

Our oil receipts, instead of being applied in the manner we planned upon the formation of Petronas, that is, according to its original developmental purpose, became a fund for the whims and fancy of whoever ran the country, without any accountability.

The oil that was meant to spur our transition to a more humane, educated society has instead become a narcotic that provides economic quick fixes and hollow symbols such as the Petronas towers.

Our oil wealth was meant to help us foster Malaysians capable of building the Twin Towers than hire foreigners to build them, a practice in which we preceded Dubai. I would rather have good government than grand government buildings filled with a demoralised civil service.

It is no wonder that we are no longer productive, no longer using our ingenuity to devise ways to improve ourselves and leap forward.

Malaysia is now an “oil cursed” country. We managed to arrive at this despite not having a lot of oil.

When I started Petronas in 1974, I did not realise I would see the day when I would wish we had not uncovered this bounty.

Public assets ‘looted’

The story I have told is a reminder of the scale of the challenge of development. My generation of young people faced this challenge in the 60s and 70s. You face it now.The story tells us that development is about far more than picking strategies out of a box.

You have kindly invited me to address a seminar on strategies for reinventing and liberalising Malaysia’s economy. But the story of our squandered oil wealth reminds us that it was not for want of resources or strategies that we floundered.

Our failure has been political and moral. We have allowed greed and resentment to drive our politics and looked the other way or even gone along while public assets have been stolen in broad daylight.

I encourage you to take up the cause of national development with the ingenuity that earlier generations of Malaysians brought to this task, but the beginning of our journey must be a return to the basics of public life: the rule of law, honesty, truth-telling and the keeping of promises.

The Malaysia we need to recover is one that was founded on laws and led with integrity. With the hindsight of history we know such things are fragile and can be overturned in one generation, forgotten the next.

Without a living foundation in the basics you might sense an air of unreality around our talk of reinventing ourselves, coming up with “a new economic model” and liberalising our economy.

So before we can reinvent ourselves, we need to reclaim our nation. That larger community, bound by laws, democratic and constitutional, is the context of economic progress, it is the context in which young people find hope, think generous thoughts and create tomorrow.

                This entry was posted on Saturday, 12 December 2009, 3:10 pm and is filed under
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The most important of Najib’s seven KPIs, 1Malaysia, a dismal failure in the larger laboratory of Malaysia in past seven months

Tomorrow, the Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s seven-month-old Cabinet will gather for a third round to finalise programmes under the Key Performance Index (KPI) and National Key Results Areas (NKRAs) which are to be made public on Thursday and Friday.

In the past two months, seven laboratories had been set up to test out ideas and strategies in the six priority areas outlined in the NKRA – reducing crime, fighting corruption, widening access to affordable and quality education, raising the living standard of the poor, improving infrastructure in the rural areas and public transportation with the seventh the 1Malaysia lab focussed on ways to foster unity among the various races.

It is most tragic and  the irony of ironies that in the seven months that Najib was proclaiming the 1Malaysia slogan and concept, national unity was the constant target of a most systematic and unscrupulous attacks, with one extremist, provocative and seditious statement and action followed by another, seriously aggravating racial and religious polarisation in plural Malaysia.

Such examples are aplenty, from the religiously insensitive cow-head protest in Shah Alam to the outpouring of statements of falsehood, hate and incitement given prominence in certain mainstream media.

The divisive, racist and seditious Biro Tata Negara (BTN) indoctrination course is among the latest controversies being used to whip up racial ill-will and animosity.

Former Prime Minister Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi has come out in defence of his predecessor Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad, declaring that the BTN “is certainly not racist”.

I can accept that the BTN course was not “racist” in conception, but there can be no denial that over the years it had become a divisive, racist and seditious indoctrination programme serving as an Umno “civics course” instead of being a national civics course to promote Malaysian consciousness and foster national unity. Such testimony is overwhelming and they could be easily collated with the establishment of a Royal Commission of Inquiry.

What confidence can Najib inspire among Malaysians regardless of race and religion in his “inclusive” 1Malaysia slogan and concept when a whole generation of civil servants are products of such divisive, racist and seditious BTN indoctrination and the Cabinet is not even prepared to admit and apologise for the BTN’s history of divisive, racist and seditious indoctrination programmes?

It is no exaggeration to say that the most important of Najib’s seven KPIs, 1Malaysia, has been a dismal failure in the larger laboratory of Malaysia in the past seven months.

How can Najib convince Malaysians that his KPI programme is not just hot air and propaganda, “full of sound and fury signifying nothing”?

                This entry was posted on Saturday, 12 December 2009, 2:54 pm and is filed under
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BTN must leave all campuses beginning with UiTM and MRSM

By
Azly Rahman

Mara means “to advance (forward)”. It is the opposite of “retreat” and the declaration of defeat. It does not mean Undur.

Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) must live up to its name. So must its younger brother Maktab Rendah Sains MARA. It is in the interest of the public to suggest good ideas for reform – and to advance.

In my lifetime I have been affiliated with both organisations. I taught in the former institution and I was schooled in the latter. Whether a product of historical accident or not, I am proud of my experiences in both. Maybe, there is a reason for things to happen. I came from a poor family and was given the chance to have an education I wish many more Malaysians had, my parents included.

But I wish to share my view on this troubling phenomenon that is plaguing a certain segment of the Malays. My argument will be largely linguistic.

What is the Malay view of the recent protest of UiTM student – of those young “men-in-black” whose are mourning and calling for the death of reason and rationality and for critical sensibility?

I think Malays in general are angry at the protesters. I think they are embarrassed that those few thousands of Malay students were displaying their ignorance of what a Universiti Mara means.

While other universities have advanced (sudah mara ke hadapan) and are proud that they are embracing diversity and sharing resources for the benefit of deserving children of all races, those protesting UiTM students are experiencing the opposite.

They are yelling with pride the word “defeat” and “retreat”. Instead of Ayuh Mara they are actually saying Jom Undur. While thinking needs to advance, these students are saying that they need to digress (Ayuh… mari mundur ke belakang). Mundur is the derivative word.

Should a university embody the philosophy of mundur rather than mara? Should it even be proud of being and embodiment of that philosophy? I doubt it. Only a misguided leader will be proud of being a guide to ‘defeat and retreat’ while the world around ‘advances’ and moves.

But these students are not entirely at fault. It is the ideology and perpetrators of the ideology of undur itself that’s at fault. It is the leaders implementing the retrogressive ideology that are at fault.

It is the systematic indoctrination programme of ketuanan Melayu run over the decades that are advancing this UiTM philosophy of retreat.

It is an overdose of the work of government-sponsored Biro Tata Negara (BTN) that is making the mass retreat and defeat possible. It is the work of Malay-dominated agencies like these that are imprisoning the minds of the Malays. This is an anti-Malay-progress establishment that is using deformed arguments on race and ethnicity to pursue an educational ideology that has gone bankrupt.

Docile Malay intended

This is an anti-Malaysian mode of thinking that is still allowed to shackle the mind of the Malays. The idea is simple: make the Malay mind docile and afraid to think and you will divide and conquer them.

UiTM students need to instead protest against the continuing oppression they are experiencing through the work of their own institution and through BTN. They should demand that multiculturalism instead of blind nationalism be made the foundation of their college experience. UiTM students are more intelligent than those who protested against the suggestion.

In the 1980s UiTM’s (then ITM) orientation programme used to be conducted using the tactics of sheer humiliation and stupidity; meant to stupefy the young, bright Malay minds.

The ROTU (Reserve Officers Training Unit then) was part of the week-long organisers of the orientation to create an awareness of how ITM students must learn to live in a tough and challenging environment.

Senior students would prey upon the incoming freshmen to make them ‘tough’ through humiliation – name-calling, physical threats, psychological abuse, etc. Minggu Orientasi (Orientation Week) is a week for the seniors to have control over the mind of the Malays; oftentimes in a gangsterish way.

Of course, it is also the time for the senior boys to show toughness to the young girls in this ‘big brother-little sister’ game of tough love. Many of them fell involved with each other in this ‘Master-Slave’ relationship. Even senior girls prey upon young boys, acting rough and tough on them. Pathetic paternalistic philosophy in progress.

At times the freshmen would be roughened up by students in army boots and told to just follow instructions if they are to survive in ITM. They will be screamed at for trying to speak up. This is the ideology of ketuanan Melayu at work; how to enslave the mind of the young Malays and continue to do so through the hidden curriculum designed by those who wish to have control over the mind of the bright young and eager-to-learn Malays.

Instead of teaching the in-coming students how to take good notes, listen to lectures, speak up in public, pay extra attention to English Language, and be open to new ideas, respect each other, and learn from other cultures, the Malay students are subjected to humiliation in a place that called itself a university.

Retrogressive ideologies

In MRSM as well, a predominantly Malay-elite secondary institution for the best and brightest young Malays, similar things have been happening since the 1980s as well. Kursus Kesedaran (Self Awareness Courses) are conducted to instill the questionable idea of Ketuanan Melayu, making the children afraid of “Malaysian boogeymen and boogeywomen” and their own shadows.

sekolah menengah high school girls uniformOpen-mindedness is rarely encouraged and students take control over each others’ lives transplanting retrogressive ideologies into each other’s head, with the help of ultra-nationalist and anti-multiculturalist teachers.

Even if these children survive the ideological ordeal and experience ‘tough love’ and go on to get their degrees from top American and British universities, they will still be Malays with a shallow understanding of multiculturalism or become more sophisticated Malays with more complex arguments on Ketuanan Melayu.

They will then design policies to affect the needed sustenance of ideology in order to protect the interests of the few. Neo-feudalistic cybernetic Malays are then new creation of the political-economic ruling class. They run the country and many are now running it down.

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As an educator wishing to see Malays progress alongside in peace and prosperity with other races, I call upon us all to put a stop to all forms of indoctrination held especially by the BTN; an organisation that is of no value to the advancement of the Malays they claim to want to liberate.

It should be taken over by progressive Malaysians and replaced with a systematic effort to promote not only racial understanding through teaching respect and deep reflection on the cultures of the peoples of Malaysia, but also teach conflict resolution and mediation through cross-cultural perspectives. All must question the presence of BTN on campuses. All must reject BTN’s programme for indoctrination.

Let us no longer allow any government body of that sort to set foot on our campuses or our schools. As Malaysians we have to demand an end to the further dissemination of racist ideologies.

Open up, not only UiTM and MRSM but also Umno to more cultures. We will have a great celebration of diversity and respect for human dignity in decades to come. I speak as a silent reproduction and capitalised human of both MRSM and UiTM; a product of the human capital revolution of the Mahathir era.

MARA means progress. Malays are now sick of contradictions and doublespeak. They do not wish to Undur. Let us all protest against the stupefication of the Malays. Let us dismantle racist institutions.

                This entry was posted on Sunday, 13 December 2009, 9:20 am and is filed under
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Najib should come out with clear-cut statement that 1Malaysia does not mean “Ketuanan Melayu” or “Malay supremacy” and declare that all Malaysians whether Malay, Chinese, Indian, Orang Asli, Kadazan or Iban are all co-owners of Malaysia

The Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak has directed all his ministers to end the polemics on the  divisive, racist and seditious Biro Tata Negara (BTN) courses.

He said he himself would evaluate BTN’s training modules and arrive at a decision on them later.

Shouldn’t the decision on the divisive, racist and seditious BTN indoctrination course be the collective decision of the Barisan Nasional leadership rather than the decision of one man, even if he is the Prime Minister?

This demonstrates an exacerbation of an already very unhealthy, undemocratic and  dangerous concentration of power in the hands of the Prime Minister at the expense of the collective decision of the Cabinet and the Barisan Nasional parties.

Even putting aside for the moment the issue of the divisive, racist and seditious BTN indoctrination course which engenders racial hatred and illwill totally inimical to the nation-building objective to foster national unity and Malaysian consciousness, the issue of what Najib’s 1Malaysia really means cannot be evaded any longer.

It is a great national disservice on the part of Barisan Nasional Ministers, whether from UMNO, MCA, Gerakan, MIC, or from Sarawak and Sabah, that they continue to allow the racist doctrine of “ketuanan Melayu” or “Malay supremacy” to be disseminated.

Najib should come out with clear-cut statement that 1Malaysia does not mean “Ketuanan Melayu” or “Malay supremacy” and declare that all Malaysians whether Malay, Chinese, Indian, Orang Asli, Kadazan or  Iban are  all co-owners of Malaysia without any differentiation of the ethnic groups into first-class, second-class or third-class citizens.

It is not only shocking but most outrageous that Ministers from MCA, Gerakan, MIC, Sarawak and Sabah continue to condone the passing of “ketuanan Melayu” or “Malay supremacy” as part of Barisan Nasional philosophy and doctrine, with the accompanying messages of hate and intolerance such as describing the Chinese in Malaysia as the Jews in Asia, non-Malays as “orang tumpang” and rational and thinking Malays who reject such a racist doctrine as “traitors of the Malay race”.

Najib, the Cabinet and all Barisan Nasional parties and leaders should stop avoiding the issue but should forthwith take a clear-cut stand that 1Malaysia stands clearly for the concept that all Malaysians, regardless of ethnicity or region, are all co-owners of Malaysia.

                This entry was posted on Sunday, 13 December 2009, 2:54 pm and is filed under
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Enhancing The Role of Private Sector in Education – Part 3

By
M. Bakri Musa

[Third of Six Parts]

[In the preceding two parts I discussed the rationale for private sector participation in education.  It would lessen the load on the public sector thus enabling it to focus more on a smaller population.  The nimbleness of the private enables it to meet the rapidly changing and necessarily diverse needs of increasingly sophisticated Malaysians.  Our public sector institutions are tightly controlled and heavily micromanaged from the center.  As such they are unlikely to lead us to excellence, making it an imperative to nurture private institutions.  In this third part I examine the role of the private as it is currently.  MBM]

The Current Situation

Currently private sector participation is limited to the polar ends of the education spectrum.  The private sector has unbridled access to preschool, and increasing liberalization at the post-secondary level.  In between (Years 1-11), private sector participation is extremely limited and tightly controlled.

            There is no coherent or comprehensive attempt to rationalize the role of the private sector.  The result is a hodgepodge mixture of the various elements instead of a cohesive pattern.

            Thus instead of an exquisite cuisine with the various ingredients contributing to and enhancing the final flavor, Malaysian education is akin to a stew of leftovers, with a few new ingredients thrown in to put a fresh taste.  The final concoction is more like dinner at grandma’s house on the third day of Hari Raya; not quite rancid yet, but not refreshing either.

Private Preschools and Schools

The result of unfettered private sector participation at preschools is this.  Some are superb, with the teachers, facilities and results matching the best elsewhere.  Then we have preschools located near dumpsites or busy streets, and posing significant dangers to the children.  The standard of hygiene is such that outbreaks of foot-and-mouth disease occur with distressing regularities.  As for their staff and operators, none are subjected to criminal background checks.

            More problematic is that these pre-schools are highly segregated racially, religiously, and socially.  Many preach a virulent form of ethnic, religious and other cultural pride that would be inimical to the development of a harmonious plural society.  Because of the government’s essentially “hands-off” policy, these sinister developments remain unchecked, and that could haunt us later.

            The private sector has a minimal role at Years 1-11.  There are a few private religious (mainly Islamic) and vernacular schools but their aggregate contribution is marginal, with the exception of a few excellent, well-endowed independent Chinese schools.  There are only about 60 such schools but they send more students to top universities than all the other schools combined.

            They may be excellent but their influence on the greater Malaysian scheme of things is severely limited because they make no attempt to broaden their appeal to the other communities.  Nonetheless the association representing them is among the most powerful, ready and able to challenge the UMNO ultras.

            These private schools receive no formal public funding except at opportune times as during tight election campaigns.  Then the government would make a grand show of its on-the-spot generosity.  This happens frequently in Penang and Selangor for the Chinese schools, and Kelantan and Trengganu for the madrasahs.

            If these excellent independent Chinese schools were to change their mission from being Chinese (meaning, catering primarily to their own clan) and instead be one that happens to use Mandarin as its medium of instruction and then actively seeks students and teachers from the other communities, then these schools would be my ready model for an ideal private school for Malaysia.  For that to happen would require a monumental shift in mindset of their leaders.  I am uncertain whether they are capable of that.

            As for international schools (the other group of private schools), only Malaysian children who previously attended schools abroad (as with children of diplomats) are permitted to apply.  Admission requires the permission of the Minister of Education himself, indicating a high-level decision.  Consequently only a few Malaysians are enrolled although the demand is great.  Of course this being Malaysia, children of the influential have minimal difficulty securing that permission.

Private Post-Secondary Institutions

As for private universities, a seminal development was the Private Higher Education Institutions Act of 1996 permitting the setting of private degree-granting institutions, hitherto the exclusive preserve of public universities.  Within the first few years of its adoption there was a mushrooming of private tertiary institutions, with the number zooming to nearly 600 from fewer than 50!

            Such an explosive development would tax even the most efficient regulatory agency, and ours is far from being the best.  Consequently many of these colleges are nothing more than rented spaces over empty shop lots.  They also have the lifespan of mushrooms.  Many of the permits were granted to those known more for their political connections and financial might rather than academic weight.

            These ‘educational’ institutions do not serve their students or the nation well.  They excel only in having the rich part with their hard-earned money.  They are not likely to propel the nation into its next trajectory of development.  On the contrary, they will weigh us down.

            Nonetheless amidst the pebbles there are a few gems, like the local wing of Monash and the University of Nottingham.  These institutions have their reputation to protect, and they are precisely the ones Malaysia should encourage and support.

            The other noteworthy private colleges are longstanding ones likes Taylor which began initially by catering to the needs of school leavers who could not get slots in public institutions.  With the deterioration of public institutions, combined with their exclusive use of Malay, these private institutions expanded their turf to meet the demands of Malaysians wishing to enhance their marketability.

            Thanks to their entrepreneurialism and innovativeness, the likes of Taylor have expanded far beyond their initial offerings of ‘twinning’ and external degree programs.  Today they grant their own degrees, even graduates ones!

            Then there are the major private institutions associated with government-linked companies; Uniten (of Tenaga Nasional) and Petronas are ready examples.  They are private in name only, for like their parent GLC, they are under heavy government control.

             The major political parties too, UMNO excepted, sponsor their own private colleges.  MCA has its Tunku Abdul Rahman College (TARC).  The name is its only sop to Malay sensitivity.  Meanwhile MIC has its TAFE and AIMST colleges, including (if you can believe it) a medical school!  Unlike the Chinese, the Indians love acronyms for their institutions.  Also unlike the Chinese, the Indians make no effort to appeal to Malay sensitivity by giving their institutions local-sounding names.

            TARC is the oldest, biggest, and most successful.  It was MCA’s second choice after Malay ultras scuttled its demands for Merdeka University.  Unable to grant degrees, TARC initially focused on preparing its students for globally (principally British) recognized professional qualifications.  Because of that, and its emphasis on English, TARC graduates are in demand in the marketplace.

            It is the supreme irony, one that has not dawned on many, that those Malay ultras had actually advanced the cause of the Chinese by denying them a university.  If those ultras had acceded to MCA’s demands of a Chinese-language university, what Malaysia would have today is another of the old Nanyang University, with its graduates well versed in the ways of ancient China but totally unprepared for the modern marketplace.  TARC on the other hand produces sub-professionals with recognized foreign qualifications, precisely what the market needs.

Deficiencies of Private Colleges and Universities

Private Malaysian colleges suffer from three major deficiencies.  First, with few exceptions, their academic offerings are wanting.  Their degrees and diplomas are heavy on such utility disciplines as marketing, accounting and engineering.  As for engineering, I am uncertain of the difference between their degree and a technical diploma.  In perusing the syllabus, it is clear that the engineers they produce are mere technicians, not educated professionals.

            How could these institutions produce educated professionals when they lack a core liberal arts faculty or unit?  How can you teach your students English and learn to think critically when you do not have the basics such as an English or Philosophy Department?

            To date no private university has a Department of Malay Studies.  I would have thought that having a branch campus in Malaysia would have been an excellent opportunity for Monash and Nottingham to strengthen or establish their Department of Malay Studies.

            Most of these private institutions are nothing more than glorified trade schools, catering strictly to the demands of the marketplace.  Not that there is anything wrong with that, only that is not what I have in mind with a traditional university.

            The liberal arts may have little marketplace value, but in the end that is what separates the graduates and professionals you produce from mere technicians.  What makes the great American universities great, including the highly ‘technical’ ones like MIT and Caltech, is their strong liberal arts core and commitment.

             I would have thought since these private colleges have limited resources they would husband them and be more focused in their mission.  Far from it!  They typically have a smorgasbord of academic offerings, from vocational training to secretarial courses, and from diploma to pre-university, twinning, as well as degree and even postgraduate studies.  All on the same campus and with the same staff!

            Running any one of those programs well would tax even the most talented educator.  These private colleges are trying to be all things to all people at the same time, or at least to people who could afford their fees.  This miss-mesh strategy is clearly aimed less at improving individual programs, more on maximizing revenue.

             Their anemic academic offerings are matched only by their mediocre physical facilities.  Many lack the amenities one normally expects of a campus:  No auditoria, sports facilities, or students’ dormitories.  While even the smallest American campus would have a sports team and a string quartet, even the largest private Malaysian universities do not offer these.  For these institutions, anything not related to their students passing their final examinations is deemed irrelevant.

            The biggest criticism is that these private institutions contribute to the greater segregation and polarization of Malaysians.  They are essentially non-Bumiputra institutions; there is minimal attempt at diversifying the student body or faculty.  Worse, these institutions justify their stand by arguing that they are remedying the imbalance of public institutions which are predominantly Bumiputras.  Obviously to them, two wrongs would make it right.

            Diversifying the student body and faculty is a worthy goal in itself; it is not a sop to Malays.  How can these institutions, private or public, prepare their students for an increasingly diverse global marketplace when the learning environment is so insular and limited?  You would think that with the predominant Bumiputra population, private institutions would strive to cater to this market niche and at the same time expose their students to the predominant culture.

            This racial segregation is worse because it is voluntary.  There is no attempt at remedying the situation.  Educators in both private and public sectors are content with the status quo.  This segregation does not serve our students; it is also inimical to the healthy development of our plural nation.

            Our private colleges are satisfied merely in being followers.  While it is good for them to have affiliations like twinning and transfer programs with foreign universities, Malaysian institutions must carve their own tradition and path.  At present most are content with being ‘feeder schools’ to foreign institutions.

            What we need is the development of indigenous private schools and universities that would meet the unique demands of our nation.  We can achieve this by adopting the right policies and with appropriate governmental support.  In the next three essays I will explore how this could be achieved.

Next:   Part Four:
The Experience Elsewhere

                This entry was posted on Monday, 14 December 2009, 9:25 am and is filed under
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Rejected: Motion on lower Petronas profits

Rahmah Ghazali | Dec 14, 09 4:12pm | Malaysiakini

Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim failed in his bid today to move a motion in the Dewan Rakyat to debate the significant dip in the profits of national oil and gas company Petronas.

Deputy speaker Wan Junaidi Jaafar decided that the matter is not sufficiently urgent to be debated, although it is an issue of public importance.

Unhappy with the outcome, Anwar (PKR-Permatang Pauh) pointed out that it is important for the House to debate an issue which will have a huge impact on the economy.

Petronas’ net profit before tax for the first half of the financial year was RM31.2 billion, compared to RM63.3 billion in the same period last year, he said.

Its revenues dipped by 37.5 percent to RM98.2 billion from RM157.2 billion. The drastic decline in crude oil prices at around US$75 (RM255) per barrel had affected its income.

In short, he argued, the 2010 Budget tabled in Parliament last month will be short of about RM57 billion.

When tabling the motion, Anwar said the budget relies on Petronas for more than 40 percent of the national revenue from tax and dividends. He therefore called for the budget speech to be re-tabled for debate.

It is important for Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak, who is also the finance minister, to explain the issue to the people, he said.

“Our position is not to ask for a total revamp of the budget, but the government has to explain if there will be any reduction of the allocations,” he said.

Small concession won

Unconvinced with this argument, Wan Junaidi said the prime minister would have already considered the matter when he tabled the budget speech.

“The government has taken into consideration that oil prices have fallen this year. So there is no need to debate the motion. Petronas has assured that it can pay the dividend to the government,” he said.

Responding, Lim Kit Siang (DAP-Ipoh Timor) sarcastically asked if Wan Junaidi is qualified to speak on behalf of the prime minister.

Remaining unperturbed, the deputy speaker merely said that the motion is not urgent enough for debate.

At this juncture, other opposition parliamentarians stood up to argue about the decision, causing a stand-off that lasted almost 30 minutes. Wan Junaidi stuck to his decision.

Eventually, Lim said that Najib should be told to explain the situation in his winding-up speech, or at very least, issue a statement.

                This entry was posted on Monday, 14 December 2009, 5:49 pm and is filed under
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The signs fore tell that Malaysia will be left behind during the rising of Asia

(Speech by
Dr Chen Man Hin
, DAP life adviser to members of the Hakka Association of Negri Sembilan in Seremban on 13th December 2009)

I am most honoured to be invited to attend the formation of the Negri Sembilan Hakka Association, which will include all the hakka clans to form a single body.

Hakkas originated from Kwang Chow and Fukkien provinces, and are comprised of several clans, Moi Kong, Fui Choo, Char Yong, Hoi Look Foong

Although mandarin is the common language, there are different dialects among the chinese in Malaysia.

Dialect

Population

Hokkien

1,848,211

Hakka

1,679,027

Cantonese

1,355,541

Teochew

974,573

Mandarin

958,467

Hainanese

380,781

Min Bei

373,337

Foochow

249,413

Total

7,819,350

Hakkas are known for their courage, discipline and hard working habits. As Malaysians they will continue to unite and educate their children to be useful citizens of their country, Malaysia.

MALAYSIANS OF ALL RACES ARE LOYAL AND WANT A BETTER LIFE FOR THEIR CHILDREN.

Although Malaysian Chinese have different dialects, they are all Malaysians and their loyalty is fully committed to Malaysia. Although they form a minority of 25%, their contribution to the political, economic and social development can be very meaningful and substantial.

That goes the same for all other communities, the malays, indians and other indigenous communities. They want justice, democracy and opportunities to gain a better way of life. The people worry about the recession, the corruption, cronyism, no rule of law and inequality, which are bringing hardship to the unemployed and the poor.

There are no signs that life is getting better. All the promises made by PM Najib about 1 Malaysia, no corruption and more opportunities are not delivered.

THE LOST DECADE. The situation is very serious, and this probably prompted the Deputy Minister of Finance to declare that the period after the Asian Crisis 1997, the country’s economy has not improved. He said that the 10 years after 1997 was a LOST DECADE! His revelation is nothing new. The DAP has been saying the same thing for many years. However the Deputy Minister of Finance’s statement was only a half truth.

THE COUNTRY HAS NOT LOST A DECADE, BUT HAS LOST TWO GENERATIONS.

Ever since the launching of the NEP in 1971, the economy has stagnated, there was mass migration of talent, shameful waste of human capital through a faulty educational system which discouraged meritocracy, and mass migration of skilled people to couintries like Australia and Singapore.

ACTUALLY THE COUNTRY HAS LOST TWO GENERATIONS BECAUSE OF THE NEP

PER CAPITA INCOME (US$)

Country

1971

1981

1991

2001

2008

KOREA REPUB

302

1,648

7,119

10,243

19,505

TAIWAN

4,859

8,077

14,426

17,040

SINGAPORE

1,061

5,645

17,750

20,865

38,172

HONG KONG

1,107

6,015

15,353

24,695

31,887

MALAYSIA

406

1,805

3,099

3,701

7,000

THE FIGURES TELL THE STORY OF HOW THE MALAYSIAN FELL FAR BEHIND THE ‘FOUR ASIAN TIGERS’. THE STAGNATION BEGAN IN 1971, THE YEAR THAT THE NEW ECONOMIC POLICY WAS LAUNCHED BY TUN RAZAK, FATHER OF PM NAJIB.

The NEP stifled economic development, because investors, both local and foreign found the NEP regulations unattractive and not business friendly. The prevalence of corruption and cronyism of the NEP made many Umno cronies rich, but the poor malays remained poor.

From 1971 to 2000, a period of 40 years, the BN government lived in their own world, and implemented policies which drove away investors, and depended on the revenue from oil and commodities to fund the restructuring of the economy and so that there would be no identification of race with economy.

WHY SOUTH KOREA, TAIWAN, HONG KONG AND SINGAPORE BECAME THE ASIAN TIGERS? BECAUSE THEY EMBRACED FREE MARKET POLICIES.

Analysts say that between 1980 and 2005. The world embraced free market policies. These caused living standards to rise sharply, educational standards rose, poverty declined and democracy improved, and life expectancy rose.

China is the leading example of the miraculous effects of free market policies. Former Premier Deng Xiao Peng is the father of the success of the economy in China because he launched off a free market policy in 1978.

PM Najib can repeat the same miracle for Malaysia. Would he choose the free market way or would he walk away and return to the old policies of the NEP, cronyism, and corruption.

The ball is now at the foot of PM Najib. Will he do the right thing, so as Malaysia can join the rise of Asia movement?

                This entry was posted on Monday, 14 December 2009, 9:20 am and is filed under
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Greatest disappointment that Najib failed to “walk the talk” with concrete action whether on recognition of Unified Examination Certificate or institutionalize government funding of Independent Chinese Secondary Schools

Yesterday, the Chinese press gave front page headline treatment to the Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s message for the 90th anniversary celebrations of the Chong Hwa Independent High School in Kuala Lumpur, but this has been replaced with deep disappointment and sadness that the Prime Minister has again failed to “walk the talk” like his “1Malaysia. People First. Performance Now” motto, his pledge to front-line transparency and to combat corruption.

Najib’s message for the Chong Hwa Independent High School 90th anniversary celebrations souvenir publication stands out as the best message ever given by any Prime Minister in the past five decades, crediting the Chinese Independent Secondary Schools as “important national assets” not only of the Chinese in Malaysia but of the country and extolling their contributions to nation building particularly in human resource development.

This has raised sky-high expectations that Najib would announce concrete actions to “walk the talk” of his message and it was a great disappointment all round that he attended the Chong Hwa Independent High School 90th anniversary dinner last night completely empty-handed.

There was neither announcement of recognition of the Unified Examination Certificate which is recognized by reputable universities worldwide or concrete action by the federal government to institutionalize government support and funding for the 60 Chinese Independent Secondary Schools despite the Prime Minister’s acknowledgement of their being “national assets” and important contribution to nation-building.

This is a major failure of the KPI of the Najib administration – failing to “walk the talk” to synchronise what it says publicly with what the government is doing actually.

It will most regrettable if all this is just for propaganda to score political points without any political will to translate them into government policies and practices.

The Cabinet should convene a special meeting to translate into action what the Prime Minister said in his message for the Chong Hwa Independent High School 90th anniversary celebrations, as Malaysians do not want the Prime Minister  just to give “beautiful” messages but to translate words into action.

                This entry was posted on Tuesday, 15 December 2009, 11:44 am and is filed under
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Why Hishammuddin continue to condone Utusan Malaysia’s utter contempt of the truth, rules and ethics of journalism, and the law in purveying unadulterated venom, poison and sedition in falsely alleging that DAP wants to create a Malaysian republic?

The homily by the Home Minister, Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein on what constitutes good journalism and what differentiates local journalists and “some bloggers” is mind-boggling to say the least.

Hishammudin said some bloggers, unlike local journalists, do not adhere to the rules and ethics of journalism in their bid to garner popularity.

“The local journalists adhered to ethics but these bloggers did not, and this was what differentiated the journalists from these bloggers.”

Speaking at the presentation of the 2009 ExxonMobil Journalism Awards in Kuala Terengganu last night, Hishammuddin said journalists in the country would have nothing to fear so long as their reports adhered to the ethics of journalism, adding that they would be accepted by the people.

He said journalists who reported the truth would not be penalised and those who spread slander would not be successful.

Hishammuddin was deliberately not telling the truth as he knew that journalists, particularly from the Barisan Nasional-controlled “MSM” – mainstream media – have nothing to fear even with the most blatant and flagrant violations of the basic canons and ethics of journalism, spouting lies and falsehoods so long as they hew to the Umno and Barisan Nasional agenda.

A good example is Utusan Malaysia which in the past few days had been publishing comment and news reports based on a seditious lie – that DAP wants to abolish the Malay Rulers and establish a republic when the policy of the DAP to uphold the system of constitutional monarchy is on public record.

Why does Utusan Malaysia, which is an Umno newspaper, persist in the lie and falsehood in accusing DAP leaders of wanting to do away with the constitutional monarchy and establish a republic, when they know it is false and untrue – even courting and defying the Sedition Act in such irresponsible journalism?

The answer is simple – like Umno leaders, Umno newspaper Utusan Malaysia is drunk with the sense that it enjoy immunity and impunity to incite inter-racial mistrust, hatred and animosity with  gross breaches of the truth, the rules and ethics of journalism, and even the law of the land because they are confident that they can get protection from even the Home Minister himself!

Can Hishammuddin explain why as Home Minister he continues to condone Utusan Malaysia’s utter contempt of the truth,  rules and ethics of journalism, and the law in purveying unadulterated venom, poison and sedition to incite inter-racial mistrust, hatred and animosity in falsely alleging that DAP wants to create a Malaysian republic?

                This entry was posted on Tuesday, 15 December 2009, 3:07 pm and is filed under
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Malaysia current ills and future solution?

By Michael Yeo

There are reports of mass migration of Malaysian to overseas, and the Malaysian per capita income is decreasing.  The country economy lacks foreign investments due to incorrect policies taken in 1989. The Asian Tigers – Thailand, China, Taiwan, S Korea, Japan, and Vietnam is all vying for foreign investments and aggressively pursuing value-added export market. With the potential oil production in Cambodia from 2011 (estimated), Malaysia will be relegated to the bottom in the ladder.  Globalisation does not discriminate against any nation, but they will shy away from countries where her Governments have acted against the flow of capital.  The oil asset is fast dwindling in Malaysia.

Malaysia is going backward; this is not a surprised as bad policies in educations, corruptions, cronyism, political systems that give rise to self imposed racism are all present in this dysfunctional state. Let me elaborate:

Present political divides

With the formation of Malaysia we have political parties that were established to serve sectorial population – the MCA, MIC and BN. In Malaysia we have political parties that are solely race or religious based – MCA, MIC, BN, PAS, DAP, PKR. Within these parties they form coalition government or coalition opposition.

Though the Constitution Article 153 provides for the Malays it must be seem that their provisions have indeed marginalised all non Malays that have at present give rise to current discontents, but with the exception of the super rich.

I acknowledged the cultural diversities of Malaysia, but this segmentation of political parties on race is and will continue to be the source of discontents. In USA their political systems are not race orientated, yet USA is a country of immigrants of various nations. The American does not have MCA or MIC or BN equivalent but they have Democrat and Republican parties. Malaysian political race based parties are itself a self imposed problem. I do not see the race problem solve by merely forming a coalition. There will never be equitable dissection of the spoils in the events of a victory in the next election.  How long will it get out of hand before one party accused the other of unfair policies – it is 50 years and yet the MIC and the MCA is losing their traditional ground support, not to mentioned their living standards has stagnated.

Segmentation of School by race

To compound the problem we have schools that are also race based – Chinese school, Tamil school and Malay school, religious school – and these schools caters from day one of a child education. Imagine of the indoctrination the child gets in his or her education. They seldom mixed with other races except the few who chose to send their children to the school of their choice and not according to their race. It is therefore a segregation of races at the tender age.

The current Malaysian leadership is advocating 1Malaysia, to me it is a Sisyphean task. In the past 50 years they have not succeeded and under current political and economic environment it will be a futile attempt.

Cohesion is when all races gather together, they communicate and respect each cultural difference. The only way to overcome the problem is to start a free primary and secondary national school that caters for all races rich or poor, with English as a medium of instruction, fully funded by the ruling Government with curriculum comprising compulsory on science, maths, social science, Malay language and English language with optional language subject Chinese (Mandarin), and Tamil  and Islamic Studies. In order to convinced parents of the national school, the optional Mandarin or Islamic Studies or Tamil classes is open to all students year on year until they finishes their secondary school. These national schools are to be staff by qualified teachers and are paid 20% above their counterpart in current sectorial school and where local teachers are in short supply, overseas qualified teachers are to be appointed. In order to maintained a desired standards KPI are to be set for the teachers,

One might asked what happen to the current schools. To me I will say let them be as time will prove to the old mindset that change is inevitable. If we are sincere about change the parents of today will vote with their feet.

If Malaysia is sincere in their search for long term solution for racial harmony and economic growth, they must begin with education of the young that must be in non race based school so the young will mingle and enjoy their cultural diversities. These schools will be creating future productive citizens of the nation that can articulate and communicate with the rest of the world. And most importantly the population of the future will eventually rid themselves of the MCA, MIC, and BN mentality but instead form political parties that are relevant to all races.

                This entry was posted on Wednesday, 16 December 2009, 10:56 am and is filed under
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The postponement of the 1Malaysia NKRA concept will overshadow the public exhibition of the six NKRA initiatives tomorrow

Malaysian Insider reports that the Cabinet has failed to reach a consensus on the National Key Results Area (NKRA) initiatives for 1Malaysia to implement racial unity and national integration proposals, resulting in the postponement of the public preview of the 1Malaysia initiative which has been scheduled for the next two days along with the display of the six other NKRA programmes.

Because of the failure of reach a consensus at the special Cabinet retreat on Sunday, the only element that will be on display will be the general framework of the 1Malaysia concept.

As it is, the Cabinet’s irresolution and indecisive action over the divisive, racist and seditious Biro Tata Negara (BTN) indoctrination course would have overshadowed the public exhibition of the seven NKRA initiatives tomorrow.

The postponement of the 1Malaysia initiative in the public presentation of Najib’s 1Malaysia concept and the other six NKRAs will have the effect of being thunderous in its absence, raising in a most fundamental manner questions of whether Najib’s 1Malaysia concept and slogan really means anything serious or different to the people apart from publicity and propaganda.

The Cabinet’s irresolution and indecision on the divisive, racist and seditious BTN indoctrination programme, which had been poisoning the minds of a whole generation of civil servants, university students and leaders does not inspire confidence that the Cabinet will have the political will to ensure that Najib’s 1Malaysia concept  will break with past racist policies and programmes to come out with an inclusive  nation-building policy and programme where Malaysia is for all Malaysians regardless of race, religion or region and not just for any one race or group.

                This entry was posted on Wednesday, 16 December 2009, 2:14 pm and is filed under
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BTN and the price of indoctrination

By
Azly Rahman

What price indoctrination? Herein lies the question on the RM550 million spent over 10 years on a civic-consciousness programme that turned out to be a project of instilling fear into the Malays – fear of their own shadow and fear of other races.

The Biro Tatanegara (BTN) courses use Russian-styled pseudo-scientific pop psychology, drawn from the work of Bulgarian mind-bending experts in ‘suggestopedia’ developed by Lozanov and Barzakov with creative visualisation para-psychological techniques, into which the mind is emptied before propaganda is funnelled.

When the mind is half-asleep, subconscious wide awake, the body is relaxed, the room darkened, the voice of the propagandist-facilitator reigns supreme, suggesting anything to ensure that the doped, docile, and domesticated mind enters a game of master-slave narrative.

The BTN facilitators become the masters, the participants, mesmerised, are now the slaves – so that the idea of Ketuanan Melayu gets chiseled into the right side of the brain and urges the emotions to become reptilian, so that hate and mistrust of other races will be imprinted into the brain cells.

The directors and creators of Malaysia’s now infamous indoctrination camps must be guilty of not learning enough of what culture and human progress is before promoting a dangerously divisive mental pogrom that is purposely designed to breed hatred amongst all races.

The last few months have seen a public outcry over the real intention of the bureau. The public do not want to see their children subjected to a government-sponsored programme of teaching a brand of history that is no longer appealing to a society badly in need of a better way to teach tolerance and meaningful understanding amongst the races.

Malaysia is a land for all races; a land of immigrants in which our forefathers toiled in padi fields, tin mines, rubber estates, the deep and high seas, and the jungle – both natural and urban.

BTN is a multi-million ringgit propaganda outfit that teaches history which is no longer relevant to the rakyat’s need for a more inclusive and cosmopolitan view of what Malaysia is.

Malay cultural revolution

From a cultural perspective, BTN represent the thoughts of an old school – one based on the immutability of culture, and the ‘classic norms’ whereas culture is not static and ethnicity is fluid and ever-changing.

We live in an ever-changing present where the past merely consists of memories collected by those who believed in an imagined community – whether that community is Malay, Javanese, Bugis, Tamil, or Bengali. Globalisation erodes these and, from the point of view, chaos and complexity theory creates new cultures out of them.

Ultimately the question is – what is a ‘Malay’? Hence my idea of a ‘Sawojaya’ as a new race to be constructed, so that we Malays migrate to newer fields, after the Malay mind have been damaged by BTN in modern times, and by feudalism and colonialism in times past. The evolution is cultural.

It is like the Africans migrating from Mali-an dance to breakdance, and Yoruba tribal drumming to Bronx hip-hop. As long as we do not evolve to become gangsta rappers, we’re good.

But think of a marriage between a Thai and African-American – a marriage that produced Tiger Woods who recently ‘transgressed’. Think of Obama’s (left) parents – one Kansas white and one Kenyan. We must search for hybridised cultures that still has ethical foundations and celebrate their evolution.

Essentially Malays must leave their cocoon of ‘ultra-Malayness’ and become more cosmopolitan. This initiative must include a radical restructuring and deconstructing of the very core of ‘incapacitating’ aspect of the Malay culture. The Hang Tuahs, the Sejarah Melayu, and the glorification of the traditional Malay sultanate and its decadence and despotism and all the myths of superiority – all these must be questioned and deconstructed by the younger generation.

Real progress can be made if we redesign our schools based on the principles of education for critical, creative, ethical, and futuristic consciousness. The old school must make way for the new school. The classical norms must give way to the newer voices of the subaltern – voices of radical and liberating multiculturalism.

The work of BTN is about making more and more Malays subservient and docile, so that the more powerful amongst them can plunder the wealth of the nation and rob even from the poor. It’s all about material gain and who gets the most out of a shrinking economy these days – in a world in which the definition of race and ethnicity is merely an instrument of domination.

Malays are now feeling that they are being betrayed by the 10-year reign of BTN. They are angry. They are perceiving BTN as a traitor to the Malays; denying them a better perspective by instilling fear of themselves. Who benefits from all these? This is what the Malays are asking.

A new Malaysia requires a shut down of all BTN activities with immediate effect. The damage has been done through the dissemination of truncated history and strategies of a hidden curriculum delivered via under subconscious state of mind.

Malaysians have had a 10-year bad dream, locked in a master-slave world. For RM55 million a year, they could have seen better integrated schools, less racist teachers trained in multicultural education, and the implementation of a better curriculum that celebrates diversity and teaches us that Malaysia does not belong to this or that race, but to a land of immigrants valued for their talent and their respect for one another.

BTN destroyed that vision. It must therefore be put on trial and next, closed down. We will emerge victorious – as peace-loving Malaysians.

                This entry was posted on Thursday, 17 December 2009, 7:02 am and is filed under
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Utusan Malaysia: Messenger of hate and spite on religion and race

by
Dr Lim Teck Ghee

Sitting today in a small group international meeting on the subject of the linkages between religion and development being held in Phnom Penh, I am engaged in deep discussion on how to build inter-faith synergies that can effectively address the many pressing challenges of the region.

The group of 15 participants from different faiths and religions (I am possibly the sole atheist participant) includes three Muslim activist colleagues. They are the country director of Muslim Aid from Bangladesh; a Muhammadiyah senior lecturer from the State Institute for Islamic Studies in Walinsongo Semarang, Indonesia; and the executive director of a Muslim-based organization Ummah Fi Salam based in Mindanao that has been working on an interfaith programme called ‘Building Darusalam’ or ‘peace communities’.

Present also is a Muslim senior lecturer from the National University of Singapore who is actively involved with giving voice to professional Muslim women in Singapore.

Our two-day workshop is part of the research programme underway at Georgetown University’s Berkley Center for Religion, Peace and World Affairs, and the World Faiths Development Dialogue which has to date covered North America, the Middle East, Europe and Africa, and Latin America. More information is available on the
Berkley Center website
.

What I (and others from the non-Muslim faiths) have gotten from our discussions with these Muslim colleagues is not only of their strong conviction in their religion as a religion of compassion, peace and justice; but also of their view of the need for Muslims to stand up and speak out against disrespect, intolerance or injustice, especially in instances when these actions are carried out in the name of the religion against people of other religions and faiths.

As I return to my laptop to review the latest news from the Utusan Malaysia on developments on race and religion in the country, the contrast between the noble values and reasoned and rational statements of my Muslim colleagues here and the ‘Islamic supremacy’ mindset and irrational and provocative ranting of the newspaper editors makes me wonder what version of Islam the Utusan Malaysia is promoting.

The contrast between these Muslim colleagues committed to values of justice, freedom, equality and peace that are common to all religions and faiths, and the Utusan proponents of a racist and religiously warped social order for Malaysia could not be more striking.

In Cambodia for the workshop, these Muslim advocates for inter-faith understanding and reconciliation come from poorer and less developed societies that have much less in the way of material achievement and socio-economic goods. Yet their respect, lack of envy, compassion and positive attitudes towards other religions shines through in their writings, speeches and actions.

In contrast, our Utusan Malaysia and their compatriots of similar ideology are affluent, well educated and come from the most prosperous and powerful Muslim society in the region. From them what we get are messages of hate, spite, narrow-mindedness and intolerance towards the non-Muslim and non-Malay communities in the country. How sad!

See articles by Utusan Malaysia editors – English version translated by Utusan Online.

Excerpts:

“Are the Muslims there [in the developed countries] accorded the same so-called freedom enjoyed by others and behave disrespectfully as [Nga] Kor Ming does in this country? So what is the most logical justification for Kor Ming in kicking up the issue which is contradictive to the spirit of the Constitution? If the spirit of the Constitution is to be taken literally, the government has the right not to fork out even a single cent of allocation for other religion. However, out of respect and generosity, the government is kind enough to give out millions of ringgit in allocation for the houses of worship of other religions. But such benevolence is seen by the likes of Kor Ming with blind eyes.”

Do not fool around with Islam

(Utusan news editor Noraini Abd. Razak, Dec 11)

“In Malaysia, everyone strives to protect the rights and interests of their respective races, but not to the extent of hurting the feelings of other races. When they are leaders who use racial issues for their political interests, then the differences that have been in existence will be obvious. Political leaders who accuse their rival as being racist and raise sensitive issues, are actually racists themselves. Questioning the Malay supremacy, for example, is racist and intent to create animosity.”

What is not racist?

(Utusan editor Aznan Bakar, Dec 10)

“Failure in handling such issue [stirring racial sentiments] will spark racial extremism. Many of the Malays are keeping silent. But that does not mean they agree. A time will come when they are running out of patient, the outcome of which will bring disaster to the country. Awang is mixing around with the Malay at the grassroot involving all parties and can feel their overwhelming sentiment. So do not take for granted the patience and generosity of the Malays. Does the DAP leaders like Kulasegaran and Kor Ming want to be responsible when the explosion come?”

Is Malaysia heading towards a republic?

(Awang Selamat, Dec 13)

Malaysians are deprived of a free media when industry practitioners become too close to the ruling parties and their newspapers are owned by these parties and their cronies.

Journalists like The Star’s Joceline Tan clinch top awards at the inaugural
Umno Media
 Appreciation Night for her writings, and her RM5,000 and notebook prize presented by no less than the Umno president Najib Razak himself. Whereas independent news portals are branded ‘racist’ by the likes of Utusan’s infamous Awang Selamat.

Without a free media, distortions like that purveyed by Utusan news editor Noraini Abd. Razak, who refers to the great ‘benevolence’ of the federal government in funding other religions, is left unchallenged.

But according to external
sources
, “The federal government, allocated RM428 million to build Islamic places of worship, and RM8.1 million to build Christian, Buddhist, Hindu, and other places of worship for minority religious groups between 2005 and 2008.”

Contrast this with the Selangor state government under Pakatan which in January 2009 alone allocated RM6 million for non-Muslim places of worship.

PAS’s embattled Perak Menteri Besar Nizar Jamaluddin
rebutted
 Utusan saying that the Umno Malays were presently attempting to distort all statements and actions taken by the non-Malay politicians in the Pakatan Rakyat, in order to create a false impression that they were ‘anti-Malay’. “They are doing this everywhere and trying to get the Malays to believe them”.

Now I’ve only just read of the threat to use the ISA on DAP state representative Nga Kor Ming for questioning the lack of government resources to other religious houses of worship between the years 2000 and 2008, compared to the RM748.26mil spent on the construction of 611 mosques.

The thought then occurs to me that if the situation was reversed in Malaysia and there was a non-Muslim majority or if another religion was the religion of the Federation, surely these same people would be concerned about the extent to which the state was practicing religious equality and the extent of bias and prejudice that may be inherent in official policies against the Muslims.

The Utusan Malaysia writings highlighed above have little in common with the Islamic values and norms of the great majority of the Muslim community in the country.

There was a phrase used by one of my fellow participants earlier today on the need to reach out to “the religious hardliners however much they may appear to be beyond the pale”. Since non-Muslims cannot reach out to them, it is important that more rational thinking Malaysian Muslims do this and not sit by idly while their co-religionists propagate their messages of fear and hate.

                This entry was posted on Thursday, 17 December 2009, 11:37 am and is filed under
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Why not a single Minister from MCA, Gerakan, MIC, SUPP, Sabah and Sarawak dare to be as outspoken as Nazri to speak out against racism as well as BTN and Utusan Malaysia’s racist outpourings which subverts the very basis of a multi-racial Malaysian nation?

Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz is proving to be a political leader of surprises, not only with his bold and courageous denunciation of Biro Tata Negara (BTN) divisive, racist and seditious indoctrination course but in speaking out forthrightly against Utusan Malaysia’s unadulterated racism.

Condemning Utusan Malaysia for its “outdated” racist propaganda, Nazri said the Umno-owned newspaper must accept that Malaysia is a multi-racial country.

It is a tragic and terrible commentary on the success of the  nation-building process that 52 years after nationhood, a national daily which is owned by UMNO, the party in power in the past five decades, has refused to accept that Malaysia is a multi-racial country and continue to call Chinese as immigrants and Indians with derogatory terms like “keling”.

With such racist mindset and mentality in the corridors of power, Najib’s 1Malaysia concept and policy has no meaning whatsoever, and it is no wonder that the public preview of the 1Malaysia programme for the seven National Key Results Area (NKRA) initiatives today has to be put off.

Food for thought for all Malaysians is why 52 years after Merdeka, Nazri’s outspoken defence of multi-racialism against racism is such a rarity among the present generation of UMNO Ministers and leaders.

Is this because of the communal poison from the divisive, racist and seditious BTN indoctrination courses over the decades?

An equally important question is why there is not a single Minister from MCA, Gerakan, MIC, SUPP, Sabah and Sarawak who  dare to be as outspoken as Nazri to speak out against racism as well as BTN and Utusan Malaysia’s racist outpourings which subverts the very basis of a multi-racial Malaysian nation?

                This entry was posted on Thursday, 17 December 2009, 12:07 pm and is filed under
MCA
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nation building
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UMNO
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Why nobody in government starting from Najib has ever talked about “zero tolerance for corruption” to demonstrate their seriousness about battling corruption?

I visited the public display of the various laboratories of the Government Transformation Programme (GTP) at Sunway Pyramid Convention Centre, Petaling Jaya today.

I was  pleasantly surprised that some of the concepts and objectives which I had espoused both in and out of Parliament have found their way into the initiatives proposed – which is a different  matter about their implementation.

The laboratory on “Battling Corruption” referred to “zero tolerance for corruption” while the laboratory on “Fighting Crime” referred to battling the people’s “fear of crime”.

When I had advocated the former, it had elicited indifferent response while in the latter, there was negative reaction in the form of righteous denial there was ever the problem of the “fear of crime” among Malaysians in the country.

When visiting the various Key Performance Index (KPI) and National Key Results Area (NKRA) laboratories, the foremost question is whether there had been a real change of heart by the Barisan Nasional government, followed quickly by a flurry of other questions, such as:

Why nobody in government starting from the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak has ever talked about “zero tolerance for corruption” to demonstrate their seriousness and commitment in battling corruption?

Is talk about “zero tolerance for corruption”, removal of the people’s “fear of crime” and other laudable objectives confined only to the KPI and NKRA laboratories, without any impact on the Cabinet Ministers or national policy-making?

Most seriously of all, why is 1Malaysia, the bedrock of Najib’s KPI/NKRA policy, pulled out of the  GTP Open Lab Day, as its absence has overshadowed all the six NKRAs of crime reduction, anti-corruption, better access to affordable and quality education, poverty, better rural infrastructure and improved public transport placed on display.

The Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department and Pemandu chief executive officer Datuk Seri Idris Jala was kind enough to show me around the laboratories and to explain the ideas behind the various NKRA initiatives.

But as I told Idris, the most critical question is whether there is the political will to implement the various NKRA initiatives, particularly in combating corruption and fighting crime, and most important of all, in the 1Malaysia concept.

The record of the Najib administration for almost nine months does not inspire public and international confidence that there is the political will to translate sweet-sounding slogans into concrete policy and action.

                This entry was posted on Friday, 18 December 2009, 8:06 pm and is filed under
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Najib Razak
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