The True Way to Uphold Malay Dignity

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