Identification of Race with Economic Function
One of the most damaging philosophies Malaysia has ever had to endure is the idea that race should correlate with one's function in the social and economic life of the country.
Unfortunately, this very idea was extremely in vogue at the time of independence in 1957. Tunku Abdul Rahman, our first Prime Minister, openly expressed his opinion that the Malays were to run the country's political life, while the Chinese would take care of the economic side of things.
Naturally, this state of affairs could not persist for long. The Malays might have been happy with holding political power, but the Chinese felt like second class citizens in their own country.
The result was that in the 1969 general election, the non-Malays overturned this silently understood agreement and voted against the pro-Malay government. Making matters worse, some of them decided that now they would exclude the Malays from the political life of the country — it is undeniable that at the much-maligned victory rallies, there were Chinese yelling chants about how the country or Kuala Lumpur belonged to them, and how the Malays should "balik kampung".
Putting yourself in the shoes of the Malays, it's not hard to see why they did what they did next. You have no economic power; all that's keeping your dignity alive is your political power. And now, you are going to lose that as well. The Malays will be associated with no greater economic function than tilling the fields. What do you do?
Regardless of whether the Malay extremists were justified in what they did next, they rioted. And the result was a state of emergency which lasts till today.
But even more catastrophic was the near-total reversal. Now the Malays wanted to not only dominate the political life of the nation, but our economy as well. Although the New Economic Policy only targeted a 30% share for the Bumis, and spoke of the need to end the identification of race with economic function, this has turned out to be a mere charade.
The irony of it is, the NEP hasn't even been successful. The Chinese are still associated with business, and the Malays are still associated with government. Virtually nothing has changed, except for the Malays filling tokenistic Ali Baba positions for the sake of appearances.
The problem is that the philosophies underlying our country and its society have been so varied — first division between two races, second all power to one race, and finally all power to another race — that people presume one of these paradigms is the right one.
The reality is, there is no such false dichotomy. What we can choose to have is a Malaysia where there really is no identification of race with economic function — where an Indian girl can aspire to be Prime Minister and a Malay boy can aim to be a CEO of a publicly listed company without relying on any special privileges to get him there.
Some might say this is an unrealistic scenario. But what do you think is more realistic — a society where you have to be Malay to be Prime Minister and Chinese to be a CEO, or a society where all you have to be is Malaysian?
(Infernal Ramblings is a Malaysian website focusing on current events and sociopolitical issues. Its articles run the gamut from economics to society to education.
Infernal Ramblings is run by John Lee. For more, see the About section. If you have any questions or comments, do drop him a line.
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| Related comments from forum thread "NEP Target Reached Long Ago?": | |
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johnleemk
Infernally Rambling Thoughtless Mind Head Administrator Posts: 949 IP Logged | Posted at 5:17:04 am Aug 8, 2005
http://carboncopy.rubeus.org/info/RevivingNEP-STI_article.pdf That's a PDF of a column that appeared in a Singaporean newspaper. I don't really care whether the NEP's target has been reached or not - its goals have never been achieved. Remember the much talked about destruction of the association of race with economic function? Well, last time I checked, the civil service, army, police, and almost everything else government-related is still associated with the Malays. We have a long way to go. |
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Nuitari
Member Posts: 224 IP Logged | Posted at 2:46:05 am Aug 21, 2005
not really sure what u toking bout but the part bout the rich ppl not helping the poor isnt that understndable? (majority wise) malays n indians r poor chinese r richer we work for our money. we have the mentality of preparing the umbrela b4 the rain they however are like "hari ini boleh makan" + the bumis get help from our "NON" racist gov they label us as kaum bumi dan bukan bumi then say that we should treat every1 equaly hypocrites f*** those malay ba*****s they think they r SO pure with thier allah |
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johnleemk
Infernally Rambling Thoughtless Mind Head Administrator Posts: 949 IP Logged | Posted at 10:21:03 am Aug 21, 2005
not really sure what u toking bout but the part bout the rich ppl not helping the poor isnt that understndable?Uh, no. Corporate oligarchy (when the government is a puppet in the hands of companies) is a bad thing. And right now, let's face it, everyone is in it for the money. Look at any of UMNO's heads. Can they really afford these things on their salaries? Nope. They got it from government companies. Likewise, MCA and MIC were formed by rich Chinese and Indians, are still run by them till today. The problem with the concept of pure capitalism or supply-side economics is that there is insufficient competition once a certain company or two begin to monopolise their industry, or otherwise gain an underhanded advantage (like being helped out by the government). With competition effectively stifled, the rich do get richer and the poor do get poorer. It's textbook economics. Oh, and I think pigeonholing races into different kinds of mentalities is wrong. There are good Malays. The problem is, they're just not the ones running the government. |
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rakyat
Member Posts: 15 IP Logged | Posted at 2:29:59 am Aug 26, 2005
The underlying malaise face by M'sia (or for most society) is class conflict btw the 'have' & the 'have nots'. The 'have' (read BN & cronies) hold on to power and perpetuate the rape & plunder while prevent the 'proleterate revolution' by camouflaged the situation as racial conflict and creating race 'bogeyman' and we the common rakyat swallow the bait with gusto. Read the comments in several prominent blogs and u will see that all arguments will inevitably degenerate into 'bumi & non-bumi bashing' we have been conditioned into viewing every arguments in racial partisan & cannot view it as M'sians. Simple e.g. when u hear of a misfortune or an accident, first question most ppl will ask is what race is involved b/4 offering their regret (if fr same race) and 'padan muka' (if of other race)? With this firm mindset, the opposition will not b able to muster any critical mass to at least put a decent fight to the status quo. Bumis will bash the gov but once non-bumi join in the fray, they turn around and claim that the 'non' are trying to question 'ketuanan' and gov & anti-gov will join hands to quash the 'non' Look at our alternative party - why DAP, PAS & Adil cannot come together on a common platform to break the hegemony of BN? Even b/4 election, they argue on who should b PM, what laws to adopt hence alienating the voters. We must open d eyes of the masses that its not a malay issue or chinaman or indian but the lack of check & balance, transparency in the gov. We need a gov. that is concern bout the rakyat and not just to hoodwink us by fanning racial pride while lining their own pockets! |
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johnleemk
Infernally Rambling Thoughtless Mind Head Administrator Posts: 949 IP Logged | Posted at 10:14:42 am Aug 26, 2005
Bumis will bash the gov but once non-bumi join in the fray, they turn around and claim that the 'non' are trying to question 'ketuanan' and gov & anti-gov will join hands to quash the 'non'Precisely. I've written a long response to the typical Bumi remarks when non-Bumis butt in. Look at our alternative party - why DAP, PAS & Adil cannot come together on a common platform to break the hegemony of BN? Even b/4 election, they argue on who should b PM, what laws to adopt hence alienating the voters.The problem is that they don't even take a stand. They don't outright say "If elected, we will phase out many of the race-specific affirmative action policies" or "If elected, we will make the Anti-Corruption Agency an independent body". Instead, they dither and squabble. |
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Vamp
Flamer Administrator Posts: 456 IP Logged | Posted at 8:32:26 am Sep 6, 2005
Lol, the link had rebeus and i thought it was reuben  Well thats lame  |
