Sorry, off-topic

///Tunku Abdul Rahman Putra gave out one million citizenships to non-Malays without any question, he said. “If they want to revoke Malay rights, we too want to revoke the rights given to them,” he said.///—TDM http://mt.m2day.org/2008/content/view/15273/1/

One would not be surprised to hear the above demand if it was made by an uneducated Malay manual worker who had been brainwashed by UMNO racist politicians into believing that Malays and non-Malays are born enemies who can never coexist let alone have common destiny as fellow citizens of a nation. But that was said by a person who claims himself the leader of the Muslim world and who was PM of Malaysia for over two decades. What is the philosophy that guides his action?

The above statement is the results of vengeful thinking about an eye for an eye, without a thought about the larger picture of the issue involved. Were the citizenships given to the one million non-Malays a liability to the country? Have the people not been law-abiding after receiving their citizenships? Would a fair minded person consider the persons having been awarded citizenships an asset to the nation? The million new citizens of Malaysia in 1957 have not organized a revolt against the federal government and they did not engineer the May 13 which has been proven to be from a certain organized sector not linked to non-Malays. Thus revoking citizenship right of the persons concerned is not justified in the interest of the nation. It would only satisfy the private urge of a person to cause pain to others without benefits in return. The purpose would be to prove a point that persons who chose retaining their language, culture and be called the race linked to their ancestor should pay a price. The punishment was required to assuage the feeling of guilty conscience of being reminded that he had severed his ties with his ancestor to claim to be Malay.

Nobody ever said about revoking Malay rights as provided in the constitution. The Malay and non-Malays have equal rights. The special assistance considered necessarily to be provided to the Malays was euphemistically known as special privileges. That too was initially for 15 years, and subject to review. The government should review the requirements initially at 15 years, and to decide to abolish or extend it for future review. That was not done in 1972, but it removed the provision for review; a unilateral act of revoking a contract.

It should be recalled that Tunku and leaders of MCA and MIC had agreed among themselves on the citizenship rights of non-Malays and Malays, as well as the provision of Article 153 before they make a joint representation to obtain independence for Malaya from the British. It is incorrect to choose arbitrarily any two issues that appear to be benefiting opposite parties and claim that they represented a trade off between the parties concerned. It was disrespectful to not only Tunku but other leaders who contributed to Malaya independence to question the agreement they reached while working for Independence. The statement above was calculated to show that Tunku was too kind, or too weak and unable to bully non-Malays with the implication that he was not a hero to the Malay race. That would serve to relegate the position of Tunku in Malaysian history. We know who the intended beneficiary would be!

If the UMNO leaders now choose to justify the continuation of the unjust policies by trying to revoke citizenships from those who obtained it in 1957, then they have cunningly open up a new issue which can never be resolved. Obviously, those who gained the citizenship are too old to even bother about the right to abode, and most others have died. But the government would say that they are still hunting down on the last few persons who ought to have the citizenships revoked, and hence the bullying policies continue. This is just like the refusal by the government to determine on a scientific basis the actual achievement Malays have attained in the ownership of equity share capital of corporate sector. That is a clear target of achievement which should tell the government when it should end NEP. They are not only moving the goal pole as they wish, they add new conditions to be fulfilled.

UMNO cannot be trusted to honour an agreement. They should be removed from power.