Sunday, July 09, 2006

Ketuanan Melayu or Ketuanan Non-Melayu?

Dr Bakri Musa in his Malaysiakini article on Ketuanan Melayu – False Premise & Promise stated:

In our obsession to be Tuan, we have never learned or refused to learn what it would take to be one. We convinced ourselves that we are Tuans simply through the operation of the law, a social contract agreed upon by our earlier leaders, or through the will of Allah.

While Malays fantasise being de jure (by operation of law) Tuan, non-Malays, through their hard work, have become de facto (as a matter of fact) Tuans in Malaysia. Outside of government offices, this is the harsh reality.

Now let's examine his assertion bearing in mind his qualifier, 'outside of government offices'. The qualifier means that Ketuanan Melayu (Malay supremacy or dominance) continues to be in place in government institutions or government owned businesses, like the Public Services, Police and Armed Forces, Bank Negara, etc. And we know for 101% sure it exists in the political domain or we would be talking about Ketuanan Rakyat instead of Ketuanan Melayu?

Which leaves us the private sector, other than those businesses with strong political links to the government, like those awarded government contracts such as the currently well-known Gerbang Perdana, the recently self-folded-up-&-vanished-into-thin-air PISB allegedly owned by the Selangor State Government, and the PORR contractor who has been awarded the humongous multi-billion project without tendering, experience or God-knows-what-else.

OK, the private sector minus those virtually guaranteed contracts or business with the government - I must admit I am not sure what criteria Dr Bakri was using. For a start, I don't know who are the big timers, and then, in which business sector?

Then, if they have non-bumiputra connections with the powers that be, do we still count them under the column of Ketuanan Non-Melayu or Ketuanan Ampu-Melayu? We could even have one brand new category called Ketuanan P-cube-Non-Melayu. *

* P-cube = Pasir-Punya-Pasal-

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