As much as I feel that shamshul anuar’s comments here and elsewhere should be treated as a very blinkered view formed and believed even without his knowing as a result of UMNO conditioning and propaganda and emanating from and compounded by a very shallow mind and should just be dismissed or ignored, I cannot restrain myself to comment to free him so that he is capable of higher thoughts.

We should not be arguing about Malays versus non-Malays here even though there are many things to argue about in that respect. The point is that all along, our main national policies are formed by and carried out by UMNO. That is a fact, including the affirmative policies for Malays or Bumiputras. To be sure, we have provisions for Malay special rights in our constitution but unfortunately it was not set in written words in our constitution the historical fact that the original framers had agreed that this provision for special rights would last only for a certain number of years.

It has been 50 years since Merdeka. Generally speaking, the non-Malays kept to their side of the bargain and let the special rights provisions take their course. We have reached a stage where we have to stop and think about the direction this nation is heading. How long can we go on with the Bumiputra affirmative policies without harming the country generally and the Malays specifically?

As if the special rights provisions are not enough to divide the nation, UMNO has complicated the matter by introducing the Islamisation policy thus dividing the nation even more. Where and how will these all end?

There is simply just not enough resources to go on with affirmative policies for so long. Just have a look at the Felda scheme. The government give a small plot of land to a Malay to help him but that piece of land while it may be enough to support his family for the first ten or fifteen years is simply inadequate to sustain the livelihood of his now very extended family. There is no follow up plan, e.g. to bring the factories and the colleges and training schools to the Felda scheme. As a result, we need to have more racially based programmes to go on with the affirmative policies. And where do we get the resources to finance these programmes? Directly or indirectly, the resources must come from the non-Malays. This no doubt gives rise to resentment against the Malays.

If we keep on with the UMNO affirmative Bumiputra policies, the whole nation would come to a standstill and an open collision between the people of different races and religions. We must have to courage to stop the rot. Of course, to change anything so drastic is no simple task or decision especially from the viewpoint of those who have to be moved out of their comfort zone or who have been the recipients of affirmative policies. However, do we have a choice?

Some would be naive enough to think that our problem would be resolved if the non-Malays would somehow disappear from the face of this country or if all of them were to become Malays or convert to become Muslims. Granting that that is possible and indeed that it happens one day, do you think that the country can still afford to retain and go on with the same affirmative policies for all its citizens? We cannot even assume that that is possible. Ultimately, all affirmative policies must be based only on needs.

Hence, to avert a national disaster and to remain a democracy, whether we like it or not, the affirmative policies must come to an end one day and be replaced by a meritocracy with affirmative policies based only on needs. When is the question. Whether we ought to or not is a non-issue. We have no choice but to end it one day and we better do it before the country slows down to a halt or disintegrates through a civil war. It is that grave a decison that we have to make now. The painful future is glaring at us if we do not change.

Of course, we cannot expect the ordinary folks to understand that grave need to change. But a person like shamshul anuar, being literate though shallow, should be educated to see the gravity of the situation and the need for a change in the fundamental polices of the country. The Bumiputra polices are policies of UMNO and we cannot expect them to change them or change them fast enough. For those policies are what have been helping them to win the elections since a long time ago.

A communist party has communism as the underlying political philosophy and thoughts for their fundamental policies. A socialist one would have socialism etc etc. UMNO have Bumiputra’ism as their underlying political philosophy and agenda which gave rise to the various Bumiputra affirmative policies which are enforced by jamming them in the mouths and forcing them down the throats of the non-Bumiputra’s and at the same time compelling them to be tolerant about the whole exercise. Not very comfortable when politically you cannot talk, cannot breath and cannot struggle.

As argued above, those policies cannot last for very long. Those policies are patently destructive in the long run, the forces of destruction being from both within as well as outside of UMNO. They smoulder heat beneath the surface since their inception and which is now creating pockets of fire which can still be controlled at the moment through some give and take, here and there. But the fires are started systemically and systematically and the control measures are ad hoc and insufficient. When those pockets of fires cannot be contained anymore, there will be one big uncontrollable fire to engulf not just UMNO but the nation. If it was just UMNO which will be consumed, I would not be bothered. I am bothered because the nation will not be spared.

shamsul anuar, I hope you can now see the logic and language and the aspirations of the opposition parties and Malaysians who are opposed to the present policies of UMNO and their and Anwar’s relevance in Malaysian politics. Malaysia needs literate Malays like you to have a deeper mind and more thorough political thoughts. Think about the kind of country your children and their children would inherit. Think about the kind of end that the denial and arrogance syndrome reflected in the expression “Who is Anwar?” would lead us to. Learn to love your nation more.