by Loh on Wednesday, 14 December 2011 – 2:18 pm

///“Umno is reverting back its age old policy of Malay agenda which has enabled it to maintain its traditional support base in the past. But Pakatan has not done enough to alleviate these Malay fears despite how untruthful it is. ” Nurul Izzah Anwar told The Malaysian Insider “Our message needs to be carefully catered to address Malay fears stemming from the use of politics of fear and race that the Umno-BN is currently using against us ”.///– Nurul Izzah Anwar

Nurul Anwar should sit back and think again the statement she has made. As a politician, perhaps an opportunistic one, that statement makes perfect sense, since one has to be elected to be able to serve. That was what UMNO did when it wanted to be elected. It is like taking opium, UMNO gets addicted.

UMNO has made politics the most rewarding, in material term, economic activity in the country, and by the way UMNO brainwashes Malays into worshiping wealth the smartest Malays are in UMNO. Once in it Malay politicians lose aspiration to do what is good for the country never mind the race, which is an invented one anyway. UMNO politicians are addicted to pursuing the single most elementary strategy to be in power. They claim to protect race and religion and now the Rulers.

Let us examine how ridiculous the claims being made by UMNO.

The Rulers are the descendants of those most able, who were during their time the leaders, against any enemies, and they protected the people. That was how they became king. Are UMNO leaders suggesting that the descendants are weak, if they had to face similar enemies? It is ridiculous to suggest the position of the Rulers is at risk in a country that practices rule of law and the Rulers. How would the status of the Rulers be in danger when the rule of law is maintained? UMNO indeed demonstrated how they demonized the Rulers in the past, but UMNO is now instilling fear into Malays that once UMNO lost power, the reigning government would follow UMNO’s footsteps. UMNO is a failed organization and people do not look up to its work.

Religion is a personal matter, and UMNO tries to make religion a community asset. No religion in the world needs protection as it is a personal choice for persons who care to practice it, or even when others choose not to. Seven billion humans on earth living in over 200 countries are practicing different religions. Islam is practiced by 1.5 billion in almost all countries in the world. Would all Muslims cease to practice Islam? If it did, could the 15 million Muslims in the country revive it? To worry about the disappearing of one’s religion is like worrying about the end of the world. It would be more useful to tune one’s mind to practicing the religion than to defend it. The deeds of the followers are the best guarantee to the propagation of the religion than the bellicose stand employed by them.

Do Malays need protection as a race, granted that it is defined as those who habitually practice the Malay (undefined as it describes what it supposes to be) culture and who practice Islamic religion and who speak the Malay language now Bahasa Malaysia? If a race is to survive, it means that the reproduction rate of the people in that race should exceed 2.2%. Malays reproduction rate has surpassed all other races in the country. Thus, Malays need no protection from the government.

If protection is taken to mean that as humans, Malays should be given safety net so that the society would be able to prevent the less able bodies from dying out of poverty, then that protection is applicable to all persons who are living in the country. Hence protection should be given to all races.

UMNO’s definition of protection for the Malays originates from Article 153. Prof. Benjamin Bowling of Kings College London wrote in connection with institutional racism and religious freedom in Malaysia the following:

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The Article [Article 153 of the Malaysian constitution] was initially intended to be reviewed 15 years after independence (1957), however it has become a permanent feature. In subsequent amendments to the Constitutions, Article 153 was entrenched further which requires the consent of the Malay Rulers before it could be amended.

Malaysia has all the hallmarks of a racist and religious extreme state on the following foundation;
a) The Federal Constitution basically establishes 2 classes of citizens, vide Article 153, the root of the racist system.
b) The State sanctions racist and religious extreme laws and policies
c) The State controls the Government Administration through one racial and religious group
d) The State channels most funds for economic/education/social development programs and licenses, permits etc., to one race
e) The State controls Religious freedom to the disadvantage of non-Muslims, imposes of Muslim religious laws on non- Muslims and extends the jurisdiction of the Syaria Courts onto non-Muslims.
f) The State sponsors violence and threats of violence both directly and indirectly (outsourced) on the citizens to create fear among the non-Malay non-Muslims.
g) The State sanctions draconian, punitive laws and gives blank cheques to the Police to make arbitrary arrests of dissenters.
h) The State explicitly and implicitly declares that the Malays are the masters (Malay Supremacy) and the sons of soil.
Ethnic composition of Malaysia : Malays 53.3%, Chinese 26.0%, indigenous 11.8%, Indians 7.7%, others 1.2%. Religions: Islam (60.4%), Buddhism (19.2%), Christianity (9.1%), Hinduism (6.3%), other/none (5.0%). – US Department of State 2011

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It was unfair to blame May 13 on Tunku for not looking after Malays interests when Tunku’s deputy Tun Razak went beyond the intention of article 153 to make FELDA scheme in pre-1969 days, the project exclusively for Malays. Prof. Bowling said of FELDA as follows:

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What started as a modest land development agency in 1956 today has become a giant scheme which manages an area of 2 million acres and encompasses more than 530,000 people. FELDA’s main role is to open up new land areas for agriculture and relocation of low income and landless rural inhabitants. This program has become an almost entirely Malay Muslim development program. There is a systematic and wholesale exclusion of Non-Malays from this program.

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In 1969, there were about 3 million Malays in Peninsular. Among them 530,000 received direct assistance from the government to be part-owners of FELDA-estates. Thus 18% of Malays receive direct assistance from the government. There were then 3 million Chinese, 800K Indians, and with the remaining 2.47 million Malays who had not benefited directly from scheme FELDA. They have benefited from the spillovers as Muhyiddin put it 40 years later.

By 1969 when FELDA scheme have turned the plantation of 2 million acres into mature rubber and palm oil land, FELDA estate should be worth as much as rubber and palm oil estates collectively owned by the foreigners and the locals combined. Foreigners were said to have held 45% of equity share in the country, and plantation should have been valued for 15 to 20%. Thus the ownership of estate-like FELDA, benefiting only Malay settlers and funded by the government should have been worth 15-20%. Yet government statistics claimed that Malays owned 1.43% of corporate capital in the country in its justification to launch NEP. It is clear that the government since 1970 has not included FELDA in the computation of equity share capital. It has also excluded other relevant figures in the statistics to prove that the equity share of 30% target has not been achieved.

Since the advent of NEP and especially after Mamakthir’s invention of negotiated contract, the protection of Malays have now been elevated to protecting them from the laws of the country. Malays who have the right connection are free to plunder the country with impunity. Anwar is seen to stop the corrupt practices and has therefore become the prime target of rule by law, together with trump up charges.

Based on the original spirit of Article 153, Malays are placed in the special position out of need. The Malay leaders in particular the late Tun Dr Ismail said he was pleasantly surprised that non-Malay leaders agreed to article 153 without reservation. Tun Ismail said that Malays when no longer in need would on their initiative give up on the special position, out of pride. UMNO wants the special position to continue, without a care about the pride of the community. Nurul Azzah Anwar should re-read history to appreciate the raison d’etres for Article 153, and its time frame. It is bad to compete with UMNO on dividing the country by race through capitalizing on the wordings in the constitution; UMNO turns the intention to give assistance to the needy groups into an entitlement. The basis of entitlement has been advanced by UMNO as race and religion, as if there is a recognized hierarchy now that UMNO can at will invoke tyranny of the majority!

NEP is not a law. It is not provided in the constitution, and indeed it is against the constitution. UMNO practices it as UMNO’s manifesto. PKR obviously does not have to adopt it. To do so would turn Pakatan Rakyat into a temporary choice for the people to dismiss UMNO. Indeed while the world is moving against racism, Malaysia should re-examine what harms racism has caused the country.

If the new government is to faithfully follow Article 153 of the constitution it has to observe the requirements that Agong has to safeguard the legitimate interests of other communities in accordance to the provision of the said Article. Clearly UMNO has ignored and deprived the legitimate interests of non-Malay communities. To faithfully purse this Article, actively, there would be a need to immediately replace a certain percentage of Malays in the civil services by other races. That applies also to employment in other government institutions. That would cause upheavals. But clearly UMNO policy at racism should stop.

The proper course of action would be to begin henceforth a system of equal treatment for all races based on norms accepted in any country not pursuing institutionalized racism. Meritocracy is the alternative and should be practised. Compassion should cover all citizens irrespective of characteristics by birth or by choice. Thus, the government after UMNO should be based on equal citizenships. Malaysians should have a shared destiny. All regulations taking race and religion as the criteria in government policies and regulations should be repealed.

UMNO talks about fighting for the race, which Najib accepts as Malay, anybody who is a member of UMNO. UMNO is more like a gang where the senior members get a larger share of largeese to junior members, and they together share the spoils, albeit unevenly, plundered by the gang leaders from the country. UMNO allows non-member Malays to get ‘spillover’ benefits, to lure them to ensure UMNO’s perpetual rule. Even Nurul Izzah Anwar cannot deny that she benefited from UMNO’s racist policy; but on balance Nurul and other non-UMNOputras would have gotten more benefits had the nation not been plundered by UMNOputras. As NEP and its implementation are notorious and widely known foreigners do view the success of Malays with suspect. That was why a former Vice Chancellor of University Malaya declared that she was in her position not because she was Malay. That denial is futile. The misconception would only go away with Article 153, in time.

After 54 years of independence, three and half times the life-span allowed to article 153, the parties which had not based its strength on racism should not begin to do so. However PKR tries, Perkasa and Pekida would not support it. It is morally wrong to practice racism and PKR would come out second best even if it tries.