1. Take a look around
2. The questions to ask will be: what now? The causes need to be diagnosed, and strong, willful action is required from everyone. Sanity has to be made to prevail.
3. Causes are too many – misplaced tolerance to allow vernacular education, and thereby breeding suspicion and envy from the different races and preventing true assimilation to happen; continued racial-based politics where parties practiced racial-based assistance; policies that continued to breed segregation after almost 40(?!) years of the New (!?) Economic Policy, and misunderstandings on religiosity allowed to fester and create all these undercurrents of prejudice and hate.
4. Singling out the NEP from the above list, I suppose it does have its merits in the first place, where Malay envy at the well-endowed economic strength of the Chinese culminated in the 13th May tragedy. Listening to Mak’s stories, the fear that existed then could be felt for a long time to come, where even Abah was prepared to take up arms. The NEP was a necessary affirmative action tool to enhance the status of an economically marginalised majority. If we could agree that if there could be only one mandate of a government, then it is to dispense justice, and this was fully justified to elevate the level of a weak majority while preserving and not necessarily forcing the Chinese to give up their property.
5. At some point in time, however, the policy has outlived its usefulness. The bitter truth now is that it has created a complacent and ineffective Malay-dominated government machinery – whose instincts after being honed on the NEP for so long is to shepherd resources, funds and energy to Malays, to the chagrin of other also marginalised peoples who now begin to question the integrity and honesty of the Government.
6. While this almost certainly is a critical factor, the voice of the opposition to this is being shaped and led by an empowered Christian zeal. Tricia Yeoh wrote today on the issues relating to the ethnic problems in recent times, almost seemingly railroading readers and pinpointing all blame to Malays. She’s not alone. Almost all malfunctioning government machinery, MACC – despite it still being in its infancy, is being slaughtered mercilessly. All these biased comments spark an almost similar escalation of indignation from Malay “ultras” – who resent the fact that UMNO, the last bastion of the NEP, is under such savage attack and is now considering and already has in some respects scaled back the effects of the
7. To people like Tricia, although they will almost certainly deny it – read the comments on the blogs, or follow Jeff Ooi who is not exempt from public scrutiny, it is quite clear they will place the blame on Malays, while promoting their own values. No matter that Malaysia was built on such Constitutional grounds that there will always be a Malay-Muslim polity at the very highest levels in the form of the Malay Sultans, Malays are the majority now and will be an even bigger majority in the near future judging by the birth-rates (notwithstanding the fact that some of the Malay babies end up in the tongs, flushed down toilets, but that’s another story) and many are uncomfortable with this secularist tendencies, the “educated” Malay liberals excepted.
8. Meanwhile the objectives of the Malay Ultras are clear – create uncertainties on the political will to carry out further scaling back of the NEP or prepare to face their wrath. Opposition is unlikely to back down either, so thus, the war will be fought now on the societal battlefront.
9. It’s time to stand guard, and pick your side. There is no middle ground in this battle.
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