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Helen Ang
Nov 5, 09
Commenting on the proposal for single stream schools, Dr Mahathir Mohamad blamed educationists for not wanting Chinese students to mix with Malay or Indian students. “They must be Chinese first, not Malaysian,” he accused.
It seems he is of a mind to impose his hierarchy of identity markers, i.e. one particular order of identification going by nationality or ethnicity. Or by faith. For the sake of discussion, let’s assign the nationality factor as A, ethnicity as B and religion as C.
Extrapolating from his snide, Dr M’s prescription would be ABC. Well, some Malaysians elect to view themselves as Muslim first, so these Malays might follow CBA or CAB.
Does he see anything wrong with that? Yet under the 1conformity template, any other combination not complying with the ‘A’-first order appears unacceptable.
It’s a Gestapo method to force people to adhere to a state determination, especially a model as unpersuasive as the one represented by the Malaysian government.
It is particularly unpalatable for the state to dictate that its citizens must not be “B first or C first” where it concerns aspects as intensely personal as our belief system and expressions of self.
After all, the language we’re born with and the culture we grew up in shape who we are, and how look at the world or relate to the ummah.
Will Mahathir care to coerce Mr CBA to be ‘Malaysian first’ by taking a greater interest in the Penan of his own country than in his Muslim brothers of Palestine?
And how might Mr BAC respond to Dr M?
The ‘Chinese first, Malaysian second’ fella should put it this way: If the authorities are willing to open just a crack the doors of the residential schools, Mara science colleges, matriculation centres and UiTM, would there be positive take-up from the minorities? If yes, it would show that quite the contrary, Chinese students are indeed keen to mix with Malay students!
Mahathirism and its consequences
Mudah Lupa talks about students not mixing yet it was he who first allowed extensive expansion of private tertiary education.
To release the pressure valve of demand for higher education by the minorities, Mahathir permitted commercial enterprises in early days to set up college in shoplots.
Today, the race divide is reflected in the predominantly Malay enrollment of highly subsidized public universities, and non-Malay enrollment of upgraded but expensive private colleges.
Dr Geoff Wade, in his paper ‘The Origins and Evolution of Ethnocracy in Malaysia’ published by the Asia Research Institute of the National University of Singapore, made the following observation. Looking at the ‘Expert Page’ on the Universiti Malaya website which details university academic staff, Dr Wade noted that of 1,240 persons listed, only 20 Chinese names were included, eight of whom also have Islamic names.
In other words, although individuals of Chinese ethnicity make up a mere 0.016 percent of ‘expert’ academics employed by UM, they are disproportionately 40 percent Muslim – a situation with no parallel in the general Chinese population of Malaysia. These perhaps belong to the CAB group.
Another set of statistics supplied by Dr Wade pertains to the Ministry of Defence. Checking on the names at the Ministry officers’website (excluding armed forces staff), he found that of the 692 persons listed, 670 or 96.8 percent of the total are Malay. These are the best bet for ABCs.
The ‘Chinese last’ pattern of staff intake in the civil service can be traced back to the policies reinforced by the Mahathir administration.
It was Mahathir’s ‘Malaysia Inc.’ also that promoted the proliferation of GLCs. How many of Petronas, Tenaga Nasional, Bank Negara and other government agency scholarships are given to Chinese, by the way?
As a matter of interest, Petronas scholarship recipient Omar Mustapha Ong is among the exceptions for being a Chinese funded by the state oil company.
He forgot to serve his bond though, and only recently paid back. Omar was appointed Petronas non-executive director last month.
Anomie is an absence of accepted social standards or values.
A further definition is “a lack of social ethics” that results in an absence of legitimate aspirations. In other words, people have lost confidence in Malaysia because of the breakdown of state and society – to quote Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah “we are losing the institutional infrastructure of civilized society”.
In my humble opinion, Mahathir planted and watered this anomie.
Malaysia 1st: 10 values, 8 principles, 5 precepts
It’s not like anyone who’s BAC or BCA actually puts another country before Malaysia, e.g. he loves Brunei or Singapore or USA more.
In what way should an ABC or ACB ‘Malaysian first’ behave? He is guided by the state philosophies, one would think.
Najib Razak’s 1Malaysia concept has ostensibly eight core principles. Abdullah Ahmad Badawi’s Islam Hadhari contained 10 values. Mahathir’s Vision 2020 was the blueprint for Bangsa Malaysia.
The Rukunegara with five precepts was penned by Ghazali Shafiee, and is Tun Abdul Razak’s post-May 13 legacy.
Come to think of it, the civilizations of China and India are each more than 5,000 years old, and the several religions Malaysians profess have also been around a few thousand years. Thus the ‘ethnicity/religion first’ groups have age on their side.
Malaysia is 46 years old, and 22 years of those years formally ruled by Dr M and a few more to come indirectly ruled by him too. We’re fast catching up in our own unique wave of New Age religion.
Dr Mahathir is sort of a ‘founder’ of ‘religion’ too, you know. In his imaginary Malaysia Boleh populated by his mythical Melayu Baru, he made Materialism the new god. And he made Malaysians of all races more mercenary.
One easy example: Previously, dignitaries were awarded ‘Tan Sri’ in recognition of their contribution to the betterment of society. Under Mahathir’s rule, the title became synonymous with business tycoons.
Society no longer looks up to a noble calling, like fire-fighting. At least in the States, firemen even if not as well paid as the suits-and-ties are feted as American heroes, especially after 9/11.
Over here firemen serving the community do not receive the social approbation which would at least go some way to make up for their poor remuneration.
Professions like teaching and journalism were once respected. Our earliest patriots were teachers and lettered men. Today, money talks.
Would it cross the mind of the parents who support Dr M’s policy and clamour for ‘Math and Science in English’ to encourage their own excellent English-speaking children to take up a teaching career? Hah!
How far have we become creatures of Mahathirism?
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