In a few days,
Malaysia Day, which is meant to celebrate the joining of Peninsular Malaysia
with our East Malaysian friends will be hijacked by a group of Red Shirts who are organizing ‘Himpunan
Maruah Melayu’ (Malay Dignity Gathering), though some call it 'Kebangkitan Maruah Melayu'...and more recently 'Himpunan Rakyat Bersatu' (United Citizen's Gathering). Their aim was apparently to uphold
the dignity of the Malays who are very unhappy with the Chinese who ‘insulted’
them by joining a certain yellow shirt rally. This aim then was revised to teaching just the DAP
Chinese a lesson. And THEN it was revised again to maintaining the current gomen
in which case non-Malays who support this are also invited to join the rally (though
considering the Red Shirts stated disdain for Chinese and their banner shows a
man striking with a knife, the Chinese will probably pass up on this ‘kind’
offer). Now they are apparently combining rallies with the National Silat
Federation (Pesaka) and can’t decide whether to wear red shirts or black
shirts, and leaving people wondering if the new style of ‘Silat’ involves
smashing each other’s heads with wood and screaming like banshees like the red
shirts did in front of Sogo.
While
the Red Shirts try to figure out what they are actually standing for and or simply what the name of their rally is, the
reaction of the Chinese on social media has been anger, criticism and some fear towards
the Red Shirts. However, after years of observing numerous nonsensical racist
and religious issues raised in the Malaysian political and social scene,
ranting about it online like most urban Chinese, and now seeing it escalate
into a rally of Malays who don’t like Chinese, I’ve come to a realization that
no longer invokes anger from me. Instead I feel a great deal of pity for Malaysian Malays.
Yes, I, a
Malaysian Chinese, am writing this not to speak up for the Chinese, but to
speak up for the Malays.
“WHAT?!”, so
says the non-Malays. “Aren’t we the ones being discriminated against? The
Malays have their special rights, and they get benefits and advantages not
afforded to non-Malays. While even though the non-Malays have been working hard
and paying taxes, we are STILL made out to be second-class citizens, labelled
as ‘pendatangs’ and Chinese are being blamed for everything! Why on earth do
the Malays need our pity??”
Yes, yes, I know
all that.
However, when I
say I speak out for the Malays, I’m referring to all the Malays, EXCEPT for
those under a party which shall not be named due to risk of spending some night in
Sg. Buloh ‘hotel’… but we know who they are. The name of this party also being
synonymous with everything they do nowadays which makes people go either “Um….”
Or “NOOO!”. The two terms loosely translated into Malay meaning “Aiyoh, jangan!”,
which will be my nickname for said party in this article, while they and their good buddies in some other parties I shall be refer to by the much loved moniker, ‘Barang Naik’.
Behind ‘Aiyoh
Jangan’s (AJ) façade of protecting the livelihood and rights of the Malays,
their actual only interest is to keep the Malays poor and ignorant for as long as possible because by doing so, the Malays will continue to support
‘Barang Naik’ and keep ‘Aiyoh Jangan’ in power. Then ‘Aiyoh Jangan’s goons can
continue to live in the lap of luxury while the rest of the general Malay
population continue to struggle with rising costs of living, poor education and
difficulty landing good jobs.
'Aiyoh Jangan’s Real Agenda is to keep the Malays Poor and
Ignorant
As Malaysians
know, there are a number of policies implemented to benefit the Malays (or the
Bumiputeras), including but not limited to discounts on property, minimum 30%
bumiputera ownership in KLSE listed companies, mutual funds exclusively for bumis,
requirement for most tenders for gomen projects be bumiputera owned, and minimum
quotas (usually 30%) for Malay admission to gomen educational institutions,
qualification for public scholarships, and gomen positions. To date, over 90% of gomen positions, local
council staff, police personnel, army personnel are made up of Malays.
Since Malaysian
policies have been made such to benefit the Malays, and both the legal system
and top companies are controlled by Malays, it would be logical to assume then
that after decades of implementation of such policies that the Malay population
should be thriving. Instead the opposite is true, as the general Malay
population is still suffering from poverty and underdevelopment, a fact proven
by statistics and commonly brought up by most Malay rights groups and NGOs. An
article by Khazanah Research Institute in February 2015 included a chart on
median monthly salaries and wages by state in 2013 again showed that mainly Malay
populated states such as Kedah, Terengganu, Kelantan and Perlis have the lowest
median salaries of only RM1000-1200, compared to Putrajaya, Kuala Lumpur and
Selangor where the median salary was RM1980 - RM2495. These poor Malay states
are also nowhere near the level of development of Kuala Lumpur, Selangor, Johor
and Penang.
So even though
the Malays are seemingly getting so many benefits, the fact is that there is a
huge disparity in income between the rich Malays compared to the poor Malays,
not only those in the poor states but even those in the rich states where gomen
servants, police, army personnel and those working in private companies where
the median income is usually no higher than RM2500. Meanwhile, those with
positions in top gomen positions and top positions in companies become easy
multi-millionaires, with contracts
being awarded to their cronies, ensuring that the wealth is retained within the
elite few Malays, most of those elite few Malays being members of the ‘Aiyoh
Jangan’ party! Here’s a few examples, without naming names:
1)
The current Chairman of Board
of Directors of Malaysia’ largest conglomerate, Sime Darby Berhad is also the Ledang Division
Chairman, Johor State
Liaison Chairman and national Supreme Council member of 'Aiyoh Jangan'.
2)
The ex-Chairman to a number of
big companies including Sime Darby Berhad, Synergy Drive Berhad and FELDA has a long history in ‘Aiyoh Jangan’ and
also held a few ministerial positions.
3)
The current Chairman of the
Board of Felda Global Ventures Holdings Berhad is the ex-deputy president of ‘Aiyoh
Jangan’, has held the position of chief of ‘Aiyoh Jangan’ Youth Teluk kemang,
and currently is the Chief of ‘Aiyoh Jangan’ Teluk Kemang
That’s a just a
few examples of many, many people whose position in this party helped catapult
them into top positions in money-churning companies. This is not even including
high profile financial scandals pertaining to cows, condos, 1MDB, etc, which
all involve members of ‘Aiyoh Jangan’.
Of course, the
Malays represent the 60% majority of the Malaysian population and so their support
is the most important to retain in order to keep the ruling coalition and
therefore, ‘Aiyoh Jangan’, in power. Because of this, ‘Aiyoh Jangan’ has to
find a way keep the Malays ignorant on the riches they are missing out on, but
happy with the gomen. Before 10 years ago, this was easy as the gomen
controlled the mainsteam media, i.e. t.v. and newspapers, and other parties who oppose 'Aiyoh Jangan' had little ability to communicate with the people because of this control.
However, since usage of the internet, levels of education and globalization has
increased, this task has become increasingly difficult for them particularly in
developed states. The internet has been well used by rival parties as an
alternative communication method and people in these developed states are more
globalized, more educated and became more aware that ‘Aiyoh Jangan’ has
been pulling the wool over their eyes all this time to get support. Educated
people ask questions, and the more suspicious activity ‘Aiyoh Jangan’ try to
pull, the more questions the people will ask. These are the main factors why ‘Aiyoh
Jangan’ lost two of the most developed states, a fact that makes them go
‘Aiyoh’ every day.
This is why the gomen
wants to keep the Malays as poor and ignorant as possible. The less educated one
is and the less aware of what is going on outside of the country, or even
outside of their little ‘kampung’, the less likely they are to feel like they
are missing out. To ‘Aiyoh Jangan’, the Felda settlers do not need to know how
millions of ringgit the directors at the top are making. All the settlers need
is one or two thousand ringgit a month put in their pockets for doing very
little or absolutely no work, so they remain happy in their poor little
‘kampungs’ and continue to support the current gomen. This applies also to the
rural indigenous people of Sabah and Sarawak, two states that are full of
natural resources, practically completely covered in money-churning oil palm
but remain the poorest states in the whole of Malaysia. Why, after 58 years of
rule under ‘Barang Naik’, are a majority of the people in Sabah and Sarawak
still suffering from lack of infrastructure, including even basic roads to most
villages? Because ‘Barang Naik’ wants them that way, so that they the rural
people of Sabah and Sarawak and the rural Malays of Peninsular Malaysia, will
not know any better than the crappy life they have. All they need is for ‘Barang
Naik’ to come once in a while, give them a few hundred ringgit, and they will
be happy because this is BIG money to these poor people. And so they continue
to support ‘Barang Naik’. It has even been publicly acknowledged by ‘Barang
Naik’ several times that their biggest support is from the rural folk, i.e. the
poor, uneducated folk. Why would they want to change that by improving their
infrastructure, giving them better internet access, increasing their knowledge
and risk losing their power? All these simple folk need to make them happy is
money, money which the gomen gives easily because they can easily get it back
through wonderful methods such as implementation of ‘Gomen Sapu Tax’.
The ‘threats’ to the Malays that are actually only threats
to ‘Aiyoh Jangan’
Of course, ‘Aiyoh
Jangan’ knows that keeping the people poor and ignorant alone is not enough.
There needs to be another reason to unite the Malays enough to make them
believe that ‘Barang Naik’ and ‘Aiyoh Jangan’ is really out to take care of
their needs. And hence ‘Aiyoh Jangan’ had to create enemies and threats to
‘protect’ the Malays from. Sometimes this ‘threat’ is the Jews, occasionally
it’s the Christians, but now more than ever, it is the Chinese.
In the past few
years, there have been no lack of such public issues raised in the past few
years regarding the Chinese or Christian ‘threats’ to the Malays, for example:
1)
When the use of the Arab word for God in a certain Catholic newsletter was strongly protested by ‘Katak
Ali’s group because Muslims reading it might be ‘confused’ and believe in
Catholic/ Christian teachings
2)
When a Malay NGO held a
demonstration to protest the construction of the four-storey Praise Emmanuel
Assembly church in Petaling Jaya in November 2014. Similarly in April this
year, Malay residents at Taman Medan also protested the installation of a cross
by a church, claiming the sight of the large cross could sway the faith of
Muslims in the area.
3)
The infamous Low Yat incident
in July 2015, when a Malay man was accused of stealing a handphone from a
Chinese trader. This resulted in a mob brawl the following day. Prior to the
riots, a video of a man in white making a racially charged speech against the
Chinese went viral. What was a simple
case of theft became a big racist issue.
In pretty much
every supposed case of Muslims vs. Christians or Malays vs. Chinese, there is one
singular commonality.
The man with the
cute nickname ‘Katak Ali’ was an ex-member of ‘Aiyoh Jangan’ and currently
supports ‘Barang Naik’. The group of Malay residents protesting the installation
of the cross at Taman Medan was headed by the Taman Lindungan Jaya ‘Aiyoh
Jangan’ division leader. The man in white who instigated the mob in the Low Yat
incident was an activist of ‘Aiyoh Jangan’. Pro-’Aiyoh Jangan’ blogger Papagomo
had also posted racist sentiments about the incident.
In this latest
event of the Red Shirts rally, the organizers of Red Shirts rally initially
were a mystery until Pesaka were named as the organizers. But who has been the
one fronting all the press conference pertaining to the rally? Not people from
Pesaka, but a certain ‘ikan bakar’ shop owner who also moonlights as the head
of ‘Aiyoh Jangan’s division at Sungai Besar!
Does anyone else
see an obvious pattern here? While they always deny that they are involved and say "Aiyoh, jangan pikir bukan-bukan leehhh", in each and every case, although usually created
by some NGO, is pretty much
always headed by or supported by someone who is in or supports the ‘Aiyoh
Jangan’ party!
The average
Malay has no interest in creating issues with the Christians and Chinese, in
fact the average Malaysian, regardless or race gets along just fine with those
of other races. The only people who create these issues of imaginary threats
are ‘Aiyoh Jangan’, because by keeping the poor and ignorant Malays ‘united’
against these ‘threats’, they in turn keep ‘Aiyoh Jangan’ in power.
Why blaming the Chinese contradicts the entire
‘Ketuanan Melayu’ concept
The Malays are poor because of the Chinese. The Chinese want
to take over the gomen and remove Malay rights. The Chinese are spreading
Christianity which can sway the faith of the Muslims. The Malays are being brainwashed
by the Chinese. The Chinese brainwashed the Malays to sleep in the streets
during Bersih 4.0, while they all slept comfortably in hotels.
These are just
examples of some of the things ‘Aiyoh Jangan’ and their mainstream media
cronies constantly spin to make the Malays hate the Chinese.
It’s actually
quite hilarious because all this time they repeatedly remind the Malays about
‘Ketuanan Melayu’, that they are supreme over every other race. And yet they
also tell them that these ‘pendatangs’
of a lesser race, i.e the Chinese who only make up only 25-30% of the Malaysian
population have such ‘amazing’ abilities to control the Malaysian economy and
deprive the poor Malays (despite the numerous policies designed to benefit the
Malays) and are also have voodoo-like powers to turn the Muslims into apostates
just by using the Arab name of their God or having them see a cross in the area they
live in!
If the minority Chinese
are really that powerful, what exactly does that say about the supremacy of the majority Malays? How exactly did the Malaysian Chinese become so capable of these
amazing feats in a country where numerous gomen policies are designed to benefit the
Malays, and where Muslim children undergo mandatory Islamic classes everyday in school? If the Chinese are the 'pendatangs' to Malaysia and the Malays and the 'tuan rumah', and only the current gomen is capable of taking care of the Malays.... then blaming the Chinese for everything that went wrong with the Malays is like a father/mother blaming the tenant renting a room at their house for their son/daughter failing at school. Oi, lu punya 'anak' sendiri tak boleh jaga, apa hal marah orang lain?
Conversely, the paranoia about religious conversion is a daily insult to the intelligence of the Malays, akin to saying their faith is so weak that the threat of the minority religion is too much for them to handle. If a non-Muslim were to say that they are worried that hearing the very public Friday prayers speeches in their area would turn them Muslim, wouldn't the Muslims laugh and say that's absolutely ridiculous and not that easy to 'masuk Islam'? Which is true, it can't be that easy to 'masuk Islam', just like it's not that easy to 'masuk Kristian' just by seeing a cross or reading some other religion using the name of your God.
But of course,
the poor and ignorant Malays would not realize this. That the people claiming to protect them are really insulting their purported supremacy, their capabilities and their intelligence. They are the ones who get
angry and riled up at the Chinese. They are the ‘mat rempits’ who are eager to
join ‘Himpunan Maruah Melayu’ and thump their chests to uphold Malay pride…
although since most of them are poor, they will not join the rally unless they
are paid a little pocket money (coz Gomen Sapu Tax, mah!).
The sad fact is
that while ‘Aiyoh Jangan’ claims to ‘protect’ and ‘uphold the right’ of the
Malays, the constant cocooning of their mind to believe in Malay supremacy
while feeding them hand-outs to keep them happy is doing the Malays MORE harm
than good. In addition, the quality of education the Malays receive in local
universities hardly prepares them for working life as even after graduation,
most still cannot speak or write proper English, a complaint of many hiring companies. All Malaysians needs to know Malay for sure, this is our national language, but in order for Malaysians to be able to compete internationally, our education needs to prepare us to speak an international language really well. By failing to do so, those who cannot speak anything else other than Malay have limited job opportunities, only in Malaysia and difficulty getting anything better than meager income, a fact which then gets blamed on the evil imaginary threats. The poor and ignorant Malays also
do not know that OUTSIDE of Malaysia, the concept of ‘Ketuanan Melayu’ or Malay
Supremacy does not exist. But because
this concept has been ingrained in them since young, the Malays who think they
are doing so well in Malaysia, get a complete culture shock when they are away
from home and realize their quality of work and level of performance is way
below what is generally expected outside of the country.
The most
jarringly recent example of this is the recent World Cup Qualifier match betwen our local football team with the UAE in the World Cup. In the ideal world of the 'Aiyoh Jangan' type Malay, the UAE would have seen the Malaysian team and think "Omaigawd, it's a team of Malays. They're so supreme, how lah, how lah, how lah" and the supreme dream team would have walloped them in the match. But of course what actually happened is the Malaysian team suffered an embarassing 10-0 loss. This team is practically worshipped
here in Malaysia as the best football team, but they simply cannot match up to
international standards. And in the face of such reality, the cocooned minds of
football fans whose very name of ‘Ultra Malaya’ reeks of the need to uphold Malay supremacy could not handle it. As such they responded in an even more
embarrassing manner, by throwing flares into the field during the Malaysia's
World Cup qualifier with Saudi Arabia.
This is the kind
of people that ‘Aiyoh Jangan’ has created, a people that cannot face the high
standards of the international community, and all they can do is make a ruckus
and then come back to the safe place that is Malaysia to pat each other on the
back thinking they are supreme… as long as they stay in Malaysia. Not
realizing that their idea of upholding Malay dignity is actually shaming
Malaysia in the eyes of the international community.
So what IS the true way to uphold Malay dignity?
As a Malaysian Chinese, I honestly believe that no doubt many
decades ago, the initial intent of the party and the beneficial policies was to
assist the Malays to develop and that the special rights were rightly enshrined in the Constitution because they needed it. But I also believe that the Malay forefathers did not intend for what is happening today, where over time, the greed of the 'Aiyoh Jangan' overshadowed that intent and they abused it for the benefit of the
elite few Malays at the expense of the general Malay population, as well as all
other Malaysians. If the policies had been implemented the way those forefathers intended, which is to be a stepping stone for the poor to develop themselves, grow and contribute back to the country, I'm sure there would significantly less poverty among the Malays now and they would have many more internationally known achievements to be proud of.
The good thing
is that more and more Malays are breaking out of this cocoon and realizing the
truth behind ‘Aiyoh Jangan’’s games. Dear educated and peace-loving Malays, the
only people who can uphold the dignity of the Malays is you. The
Malays will never thrive under ‘Aiyoh Jangan’ and Malaysia will never achieve
anything close to international recognition for anything other than petty
racial and religious issues and financial scandals, until ‘Aiyoh Jangan’ is
removed. The rural Malay communities need to know the truth, and you are the
best ones to make them aware by sharing the truth about ‘Aiyoh Jangan’ with
your family and friends in the ‘kampungs’.
Upholding Malay
dignity is not about joining a rally wearing red shirt, or threatening a
minority race who really have no power over the economic well-being or the
faith of the Malays.
The only way to
uphold Malay dignity is to do what is necessary to remove the power of the
party that makes Malaysians go “Aiyoh, Jangan!”.
P.S.: I love the Malaysian government! Najib rocks! I support Barisan Nasional all the way! Nothing seditious here at here, just my awesome love for you. *Muuuaaaks*
The True Way to Uphold Malay Dignity
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