Mamakthir’s words

SEMENANJUNG TANAH MELAYU 2
By Dr. Mahathir Mohamad on March 10, 2011 9:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (15) | TrackBacks (0)

///1. Someone asked what about the “Orang Asli” literally the “Original People”. Weren’t they in the peninsular before the Malays?

2. They could be. So are the Red Indians, the Maoris, the aborigines of Australia, the many tribal people in many countries of the world.

3. If we consider that the Orang Asli have more rights to claim Malaysia as their own then we should acknowledge and respect the rights of the Red Indians, the Maoris, the Australian aborigines and all the other aborigines to be given back the land we now call America, Australia, New Zealand etc.///– Mamakthir

What is done outside the country is not of immediate concern of Malaysians. The British colonized Malaysia in the past. Malaysia has every right to colonize the United Kingdom. Do it rather than ask some among the Malaysians to pay for the sins of the Europeans. Najib suggested that Malays suffered for four hundred years, and so his government wants to take revenge. Do it. But he chose the wrong persons as his target.

///4. Perhaps in recognition of their rights, they are now not so ill-treated and killed as they were when the Europeans seized their lands. But this is not the same as declaring that the countries belong to the people originally found there.

5. In Latin America there were native, indigenous or Orang Asli governments when the Europeans arrived. The Aztecs, the Mayas, the Incas had recognisable states. But the Spaniards and the Portuguese conquered their lands and set up new States and Governments. The world have recognised these states.///— Mamakthir

Mamakthir implies that the world should be thankful that UMNO government did not carry out killing Orang Asli now or that the forefathers of Malays, (not including his) were kind to Orang Asli for not killing them off.

///6. In Malaysia the Orang Asli are as much citizens of the country as are the people of other races. They had never set up their own states and governments.///–Mamakthir

The argument now seems to say that when a government has been set up, and when they are united like a secret society, then they have the right to rob, and take over properties of the original owners, including the land. So now after independence, UMNO controlled everything, and Orang Asli should consider themselves lucky to be now recognized as citizens of the land.

When the constitution of Malaya was enacted, the leaders of Alliance party and British were negligent for having missed out Orang Asli when they recognized the position of Malays as being backward compared to the other races. Some celup-Malays now are calling non-Malays pendatang as if they were not. The persons who deserve the status and recognition as non-Pendatang are Orang Asli. If the Celup-Malays consider that Malays were placed in the special position category because they were not pendatang, then they should first ask Ornag Asli whether they were allowed to be included among Orang Asli rank.

///7. When the Europeans came, the governments and the states they had to deal with were Malay. All treaties were made with the Malay Governments. Even the Japanese recognised the existence of these Malay States when they drove the British out of the peninsular.///–Mamakthir

Japanese were the hated invaders of Malaya. Whether Japanese recognized anybody was her choice. What Japanese did as invaders can certainly not be a role model for civilized people as if they were right. For argument sake, Japanese militarists knew who they could buy over to be their obedient slaves.

///8. Of course when the British came back, they had to gain the assent of the Malay rulers in order to set up the Malayan Union. All subsequent agreements were with Malay rulers and Malay political leaders.///–Mamakthir

British returned after the Japanese were defeated. The British chose the convenient agents to implement her divide and rule policy.

All agreement signed with the British by the Malays political leaders before independence were as subject of the British. Malays political leaders together with other non-Malay leaders of the Alliance party signed agreements for the independence of Malaya.

Mamakthir would one day write that because Obama is half African, USA should belong to Africa.

///9. It is important to note that the Malay rulers only recognised Malays as their natural “rakyat”. They also recognised “Orang Asli” and non-Malays who had been assimilated as “rakyat”. However, non-Malays who continued to identify themselves with their countries of origin were not regarded as rakyat.///–Mamakthir

Mamakthir can’t claim to speak for the Rulers. The rulers would have loved to have as large a population as possible to recognize them as ruler to lord over the population. Mamakthir tries to lay the ground to exclude those who would have voting rights under a new arrangement. The rulers did not bother about who were included. The politicians wanted only to have a large Malay population to ensure that the win election to be in power when ‘democratic government’ is introduced in the future

///10. It was only after the Malayan Union was formed that the concept of citizenship was created. Still those recognised as rakyat of the rulers were acknowledged through what came to be regarded as special positions.///–Mamakthir

The Malayan Union was created at the time when USA urged British, after the Second World War, to allow independence for her colonies. The term special position for Malays was only coined and included in the Federation of Malaya constitution when the British agreed to the Merdeka proposal. Citizens are the stakeholders of the new nation, and thus the politicians were careful to specify the memberships. They erred, however, in defining Malays under article 160.

///11. This was enshrined in the constitution. But the constitution also made it clear that the non-Malay citizens also have special position. Thus they may retain their original identity, use their own home language (mother tongue?) and perpetuate their own culture. They also have the right to teach in their own languages in Government supported primary schools and can set up their own private secondary schools.

12. The setting up of schools which teach in their own languages is not to be confused with schools for teaching other languages.///–Mamakthir

The teaching of mother tongue and perpetuating the practice of the culture of the citizens were accepted as though there were provided under the common law, rather than the constitution. That was what had been in practice before independence, and the leaders then were happy to have the status quo continued, without a question asked. It is only now that Mamakthir inserted all these as though it was part of the bargain by the leaders of the Alliance party.

Mamakthir argued elsewhere that citizenship given to non-Malays was a trade off for article 153 to be included. That was not true. The report on the creation of the constitution of Malaya stated clearly that article 153 was to be for 15 years and subject to review. The late Tun Dr Ismail had said that he was surprised that non-Malays willing to accept article 153 without protest, (and hence not a result of any bargain), and he said that Malays would willingly give up article 153 when they no longer require them, out of pride. Mamakthir is rewriting history arguing about non-Malays having special position. Mamakthir should quote the relevant articles in the constitution to support his claim.

The right to learning mother tongue is an integral part of human rights as provided under the United Nations Huamn Rights convention, and Malaysia is a member.

///13. We would like to see the end of all special privileges so that we can all be together. We should all be just Malaysians speaking and teaching in one national language, practitioners of one national culture, and owing loyalty only to this beloved country, Malaysia. ///–Mamakthir

The two sentences set a new condition for Malaysia to be fair and equal for all races. The Constitution of Malaya of 1957 and of Malaysia 1963 specifies that Malaysians are all equal without any special privilege. The article 153 states that Malays were placed in the special position {because of needs}, and it was initially for 15 years and subject to review (whether there was need to continue having that article, and if so for how long) The original provision of a review after 15 years had been removed by Tun Razak when he made constitutional amendment to this article in 1972.

Tun Razak must have agreed with Tunku that article 153 was subject to review after 15 years. He negated on this with the constitutional amendment when he was PM. Tun Razak promised to end NEP in 20 years, by 1990. Mamakthir negated this in 1990. Mamakthir now adds new condition. He is not PM, but he is giving ideas to Perkasa to cause trouble so that Najib has an excuse that his 1Malaysia concept needs to cross one more hurdle.