Till when will Tun M stop doubting the Malays as weaklings who require crutches for their survival?
ONE wonders if former two-time premier Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad is caught or locked in time warp to even believe that the Malays are still backwards and are unable to compete with other Malaysians in terms of education and business without crutches.
Amid voices of discontent that it is unfair to discriminate against non-Malays, the country’s longest serving prime minister of 22 years and 22 months remains adamant that Malays are unable to run a business without financial aid or needing scholarships to pursue their education.
“Not now anyway. Maybe in the future when they have developed sufficient strength, they may be able to compete and win through meritocracy,” he penned on his Facebook following a recent town hall session with fellow Malaysians in London.
“But at this moment we see the performance of Malay students and Malay businessmen are so far behind that they cannot really compete with others.”
Added Dr Mahathir: These are the things I had to remind them because these Malays and even Chinese must understand that to have a very big disparity between the rich Chinese and the poor Malays is dangerous for Malaysia because it may lead to conflicts and violence.
Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad posing for a photo with Malaysians living in LondonFor context, the Malay Proclamation advocate has seemingly brought his agenda abroad after it was given a lukewarm treatment or shot down by the unity government.
Having met many Malaysians who are either studying, working or living in London, Dr Mahathir said he had explained to them the problem faced in Malaysia where the Malays have now lost not only their economic performance but also their political power.
“They are now a minority party in the government. This may result in many serious problems for the Malays,” revealed the nonagenarian who has been touted as the world’s oldest serving state leader by having resigned at the age of 94 in March 2020 following the Sheraton Move conspiracy.
“Because most of these students are studying in foreign countries, they were given scholarships to study although some of them did not fully qualify but because the government was sympathetic towards them. But now that sympathy is no longer there.”
Delving on the subject of meritocracy. Dr Mahathir said if meritocracy were to prevail, it is most likely that very few Malay students would get a scholarship or that many Malay-owned small businesses are able to compete with the non-Malays.
“So, what we are trying to do is to enhance the initiatives that we can give to the Malays for the moment until they are in a position to compete with the non-Malays,” argued Dr Mahathir.
He further assured that his Malay Proclamation agenda is not against non-Malays but simply seeking a fair distribution of wealth among the Malay and non-Malay communities.
“We appreciate the contribution of the non-Malays to the development of Malaysia,” he asserted. “But it wouldn’t be good to Malaysia if we find that the Malays are the poor people in a prosperous country. That is not something that we think is good for Malaysia.”
Nobody knows for sure if Dr Mahathir truly has a good intention in wanting to make Malays more competent or if he harbours an ulterior motive with his statement, but this is a gem of a thought by netizen Prem Ananth Ramachandran:
“I know a lot of Malays who are smart. So let’s not disgrace them by saying they need Governments help to compete with non-Malays. This is actually insulting Malays and looking down on them. The best way to go about helping Malays are giving them the education help from small, the proper tuition, guidance, English language proficiency and other help to elevate their intelligence levels.
So that they will compete to be the best among “Malaysian” on merit. It will only benefit all Malaysians so that we can compete better with other nation on all fields instead of competing against each other and missing the big picture!” – June 28, 2023
We note that this son of an Indian father has nothing to offer or share ideas on how to tackle the many woes facing the rakyat eg the cost of living.
ReplyDeleteAll he has is a selfish, divisive and destructive agenda to create hate among the races.
For 22 years he was PM. What had he done to improve the status of Malays in education and employability? What he provided to the malays is a tongkat the makes the malays totally dependent on hand-outs.
And did he try to correct his past mistakes as PM.2? All he did in the 18 months was to find ways to deny Anwar from taking over as PM as agreed.
Frankly, the greatest sacrifice he can make for Malaysia is to simply die. Perhaps in one of his houses or children's houses where there are staircases to negotiate, he can miss a step and tumble down to hit his hard head on the landing.
Who knows, maybe even the hard floor cannot fight him and may crack up instead!!!