Wiping out the Malay race?

Maybe someone may wish to check out the Hansard to verify this story I'm just about to relate, one which I heard it from my elders.

Many many years ago, perhaps during Tun Razak’s time as PM, during a parliamentary debate on the NEP, one UMNO MP said words to the effect that the affirmative action of the NEP should not be just about promoting the economic advancement of the Malays (that was not good enough), but should also consist of a second prong attack, namely, negative actions against Chinese economic advancement, with the aim of preventing or stagnating the Chinese from advancing too far or too fast or the Malays wouldn't be able to overtake them.

And ironically he must be aware of the avenue by which most Chinese, especially those in the peasant or lower class, achieved their advancement, namely, via education, the Chinese's Lotus Principle, where education promotes one to rise like a lotus above his or her muddy (poor) origins.

Perhaps he understood that was/is why the Chinese throughout the world, and most certainly in Malaysia, considered/considers education as one of the central pillars of their culture. Perhaps he knew that Chinese parents would give their everything, including unto mortgaging their house, to finance their children's education.

Thus he proposed that Chinese Malaysians be curtailed if not completely stopped from sending their children overseas for tertiary education, knowing they would face quota and other restrictions entering local ones.

This proposed holding back of the Chinese from pursuing overseas tertiary educational opportunities (even at their own expenses, many through their parents’ mortgaging of houses) was his second prong attack to solve the Malay disadvantaged economic situation. The first prong was of course the almost monopolization of tertiary education by Malays (and total monopolization today in institutions like Mara and UiTM).

Promote one forward and pull the other backward - most suspiciously a yang-yin strategy wakakaka.

Fortunately for Chinese Malaysians, his pathetic punitive proposal was publicly ignored though I wonder how many UMNO MPs silently supported him.

A week ago, I posted Chinese King Makers in which I mentioned that the most worried UMNO person in this period leading to the GE-13 has been Dr Mahathir. Even prior to that post and extending until today, Dr Mahathir has become more and more strident in making news headlines on issues which are lamentably very divisive and particularly very hostile to and critical of Malaysians of Chinese ancestry.

As my previous post title indicated, he has accused the Chinese of likely becoming King Makers, implying that they would ('could'?) control the Malays who incidentally constitute 65% of Malaysia’s population and form the majority of the political power, almost 100% of the military, police, civil servants, bank owners and judiciary, etc. And to quote a Chinese saying wakakaka, 'Power comes from the barrel of a gun'.

Naturally he focused his readers’ attention on GE-13 as an election about race, and for him, well ... bloody f**k corruption or piss-poor governance as an issue.

And just to ensure his readers feel the same way he does, he stated that it has been a privilege for non-Malays to keep their race image, but unfortunately, without informing his readers that it was his administration which forced Chinese and Indians to remind themselves that they are Chinese and Indians in their kad pengenalan, borang-borang kerajaan Malaysian, and in their limited quota into universities and non-admittance into UiTM, etc.

It was also Dr Mahathir who stated recently that it is still premature for Malaysians to assume a non-ethnic identity like Bangsa Malaysia, dashing the hopes of millions of non-Malays. And regretfully he forgot to inform them too that his creation the Biro Tata Negara (BTN) has ensured that his civil servants (teachers) look at non-Malay students as children of dogs and prostitutes. To him, perhaps those images of being children of dogs and prostitutes were privileges to the Indians and Chinese.

I had written that after years of observation of him prior to and during his time as PM, his statements, his actions, etc, I suspect he just couldn't stand the very picture of, say, more Chinese millionaires than Malay ones, more Chinese doctors, engineers, dentists, graduates, you-name-it than Malay equivalents, so on so forth.

He must have also hated the very picture of Malays serving as chauffeurs to Chinese towkays. I wonder whether that had influenced his decision to have a Chinese as his chauffeur when he was a doctor in Alor Setar?

Ah Chong chauffeur

It’s a pity he didn’t see the rickshaw pullers and trishaw riders in Penang who were 99% Chinese, nor did he those coolies who, beneath the blazing midday sun like plodding mules and oxen, carried heavy gunny sacks after heavy gunny sacks of rice, charcoal and various goods up from ships or junks on to the pier at the commercial seafronts of Penang, and how they returned home at the end of the bloody long day with pittance to show for their blood, toil, tears and sweat, and how they then fell into bed with a million aches all over each of their devastated bodies, only to wake up early the next day for another round of blood, toil, tears, and sweat.

Chinese coolies

But I have because two of those mule-like coolies were my uncles.

Be that as it was - the tragic existence of the other side of the coin to rich well-to-do Chinese where we have Chinese rickshaw/trishaw blokes, coolies (incidentally a Chinese word), amahs, washerwomen, char koay teow seller (please read my post The 'rich' char koay teow boy) - I was still sympathetic with Dr Mahathir’s intention to make Malays claim 65% of the sector of whatever the Chinese were in (being millionaires, businessmen) or were doing (being doctors, lawyers, dentists, engineers, etc, though of course not including the professions of the ‘other side of the Chinese coin’).

From RasaMalaysia website - Chinese hawker

Thus, I did not consider him a racist to the extent that I would that UMNO parliamentarian who had proposed for the NEP to not only promote Malays but to also push back the Chinese. I considered Dr Mahathir as a Malay leader who had altruistic principles, plans and programs for Malays.

I wrote that I was prepared to consider his feelings (by stepping into his shoes to see) that Malays, being the majority in their own country called Persekutuan Tanah Melayu, should rightfully (in terms of numbers and heritage) be the majority in each and every Malaysian sectors of ownership or profession.

Thus, as an example, if there were 3 Chinese millionaires (and I mentioned boldly he was not against them per se), then there should be 6 to 7 Malay millionaires.

He must have carried that attitude or belief of socio-ethnic appropriateness as a grievance, a humongous chip on his shoulders, for he thus set his policies accordingly when he was PM. I believe even today he is still very emotionally governed by this belief, though mind you, he is not so concerned about the ethnic percentages in the civil service, police, armed forces and several ‘hallowed’ departments.

Making the Malays build their self esteem and confidence was also part of his programs. The BTN was chosen as the vehicle to instil those values but which unfortunately, instead of making the Malays proud, confident and self reliant, toppled over the cliff and became a machine of hatred instead, its proponents for twisted reasons believing hatred for non-Malays would be effective in installing confidence, pride and self reliance in Malays.

It's okay for Dr Mahathir to cry his eyes out at his unsuccessful social engineering efforts, as he did once on stage, but he shouldn't be peeved with nor blame the Chinese for the abysmal failures of BTN or various Malay millionaires-billionaires known as his, take your pick, protégés or cronies. After all, MAS is still flying, Bank Bumiputra is still banking, Bank Negera is still around (but hopefully not forex-ing), and the list goes on - admittedly with the national coffers emptying alarmingly.


And let's also not forget he did in fact score many successes, for example in people like Daim Zainuddin, (the late) Satay King of Klang, King of the Selangor Bali Palace, etc, and indeed his own sons are very successful and powerful business men.

Bali Palace in Selangor

But I opine his latest statement about the Chinese has really crossed the line. Today, in Malaysiakini we read that Dr M blames Malays for TAR College cert recognition, in which the article reported him condemning the Najib’s government's recognition of certificates by Tunku Abdul Rahman College (TARC).

His fury was so unrelenting that it overshot mere criticisms of poor Ah Jib Gor, where he also lashed, lambasted and likened the promised manmanlai reforms by Anwar Ibrahim as not unlike Malay rulers forsaking their lands and identity for personal gain. He cried out:

Now (as the Malays are divided), we have to fulfill their demands because of votes, hence everyone races to make promises.

In fact (the opposition) wants to forsake this country and in the end it will become like Singapore. This is the old custom of the Malay, whereby when someone offered cash, they sold off Singapore and Penang.

So it's like history repeating itself. Just because someone desires to be the prime minister, he is willing to let the Malay race be wiped out.

Amazing how Najib’s promise (only a promise) to recognize TARC certificates, already recognized by a large part of the world, could lead to condemnation of Anwar and Pakatan and then on to the wiping out of the Malay race.

Can you blame me for imagining that he must be the soul mate of that 1970’s UMNO MP who wanted to prevent the Chinese from sending their children overseas for tertiary education (only because their children couldn’t get that tertiary education here in Malaysia)?

lotus ikebana

Maybe Dr Mahathir would only be tolerant of TARC certificates on qualifications like ikebana, mahjung playing or Jeeves-ism, the last being the art of the gentleman’s gentleman (butler), where I suspect Dr Mahathir would love to see more Chinese Jeeves or Ah-Chong-chauffeurs to UMNOputra billionaires.

butlers

At least that 1970’s UMNO MP didn’t preposterously claim that educated or qualified Chinese would wipe out the Malay race.