If you were to read on the recent events taking place in the parliament and basically the general situation of political Malaysia(if you get your daily dose of news from the local main stream media...then i have to say that YOU R A FOOL...cuz you've been fooled), you would've notice that the bomb strapped around our current Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi is ticking and its no long wait until we get to watch him blow himself up. Of course when he leaves, someone will come and take his place, and the air is blazing with two names; they are Anwar Ibrahim and Tengku Razaleigh(Ku Li). I'll spare the details on their plans and what are the doing to bring down the PM but i would rather take a look on how it might affect the country(this is purely my opinion and if you think otherwise then please just leave a comment or better yet start a blog...that also applies to all my previous and future posts).
Now Anwar Ibrahim, a man of radical change and reformation, has a chance to finally be on the paramount of his career and yes he is doing all he can to grab that chance. What if he comes into power? Well, firstly the whole cabinet will be changed(duhh!) and maybe...just maybe.. he might start to walk the walk by applying meritocracy and what not to appoint cabinet ministers. That might result in lets say...an eligible finance minister who happens to be Chinese and an experienced deputy finance minister from PAS, or a notable education minister who happens to be an Indian or also maybe a just deputy prime minister who happens to be Kadazan. And after he's done with the cabinet, who knows he will star abolishing tamil and chinese schools so that every student will be under a standard education system. Now thats what i call a reform. Of course, the situations i mentioned earlier were just examples and i am not saying that he is planning to do so but think about it, if he and his allies such as DAP were fighting for fairness, racial equality and meritocracy, then changes like the ones i mentioned earlier could possibly happen. But how will we Malaysians embrace such a change? I think, if not all, then most of the Malaysians won't take it positively. As i've written in the previous post and as what RPK said in the Ugly Malaysian article, Malaysians are racists. For example, The Chinese and Indians would be elated when they see their kin holding major portfolios in the cabinet but they will go against the abolishing of chinese and tamil schools because they feel that their heritage is threatened(i won't start talking about these chinese and tamil school issue unless i need to)..HAHA!! And then we might have the UMNO bitches barking away about Ketuanan Melayu and call Anwar a traitor and blablabla. Eventually it might end with poor Anwar frustrated and getting a kick in his ass by the rakyat...once again history might repeat itself(aiya...that time when Anwar got kicked off our shores...do u know why mahatir did that to him?). Sure some of us may laugh at it and say that it won't happen cuz we are more matured now and the racism issue is not an issue anymore. That's great if it ACTUALLY isn't a issue anymore but the depressing truth is that there are still too many fools out there with the old primitive mentality in their brain and as the saying goes, You can't teach an old dog new tricks. Looking at the opposition parties, one would actually find that PAS has the most experience in governing and they also have the most prudent financial plans. This can be proven by looking at their track record in Kelantan. They have managed to run Kelantan on the dimes and pennies that the federal government grants to the state. After considering this, do you think DAP will allow PAS to have their way to run this country...at least the financial aspect of it? Even if they want to, the wouldn't or couldn't. Why....because the DAP supporters might feel betrayed and might call DAP sell outs or weak. Just witness how DAP reacted during the nomination of Perak CM or the songkok issue. Kudos to them for apologizing and eventually cooperating but we can't say the mentality is once and for all eliminated.
My point here, is that we may vote a visionary or a party of change and justice into our government but the politician can't do anything if we don't support their views. We must understand that politicians are where they are because we put them there. So all that they do needs to be appeasing the masses or else the people will be upset and fire the politician hence the politician, whether he or she likes it or not, has to do what the people demand although it may be detrimental to the people. That's what democracy is all about...a simple case of employee(politician) and employer(the rakyat).
If we want change, we must change and automatically, to appease us, the politicians will need to change things for us cuz their livelihood is on the line if they don't. It is a powerful concept and we need to be wise to harness and use it for our good. It might take a whole generation or more to pass before Malaysians can change but until then, this will be an itch unscratchable to all of us who dream of a better nation.
Friday, March 21, 2008
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
R-A-C-I-S-M is not how we spell cronyism
Racism, racism, racism,....a never-ending feud between ethnic groups. It has been an issue not only locally but globally. The worst part is that it seems there is no solution to cease ethnocentric mentalities amongst a people.
But lets leave the rest of the world aside and lets focus on my beloved country, Malaysia. Indeed we can be assured that we don't have ethnic tensions as serious as countries in Africa and Europe, places like Bosnia and South Africa. Nonetheless, we do have racial friction, especially politically, in Malaysia. After the not-so-recent elections, i personally had the conception that racial issues would be the last thing to worry about since we have a "colorful" racial representation in the opposition camp. But it wasn't exactly so when we see what happened during the nominations of CM's and EXCO members of the opposition controlled states(of course the BN controlled states had no less turmoil trying to settle those matters in their states). The main stream media has obviously taken advantage of the so called "inexperienced" opposition CM's and sadly there were times when they conceded. For a bigger picture of what i'm talking about read the articles in these RPK's articles A storm in a songkok, Compromise works both ways, Small things please small minds, and May 13? What May 13?. Yes, thankfully the CM's and EXCO members of Perak, Selangor, Penang, Kedah and Kelantan have been settled.
Nevertheless, i have this urge in me to give my 2 cents worth on this whole racism issue in Malaysia. What actually caused the ethnic fray in this country? Before our nation was a sovereign one, the colonist were using their divide and conquer methods not only to keep the colonized within their grasp but also to keep unwanted friction between ethnic groups in this diverse country. The latter though sounded more like an excuse to me. Anyways, when they left, we were lead by the government of the people.... democracy...so to speak. But somewhere along the way, Malaysia fell into an enormous social ditch. The May13th incident. That incident is history now...so lets conduct an autopsy on it. What caused it? (Shamefully, i did horribly for my high school history and yes i know its hypocritical to talk about history when i am supposed know about it but bear with me a while.) BN lost Kuala Lumpur, their stronghold, to opposition party DAP. Keep in mind that at that time, ruling party represented Malays and the opposition represented non-Malays. So now the politicians forged a brilliant plan to weaken the people's confidence on the opposition...how? Stir up racial conflicts! They blew a minor situation, which had NO racial implication, out of proportion and BOOM we had Malays chopping the Chinese and Chinese "chin-chang" ing the Malays. The blood-shed took a huge toll on Malaysians as a whole and every Malaysian was somehow scarred from what happen on May the 13th. But this was good for the ruling party because people were afraid that the May13th ghost might resurrect itself and haunt Malaysia once again if they voted for the opposition. So now we can understand the sheer shock on the BN party members' faces after hearing the 2008 election results(They didn't think they were gonna loose so badly mah). Again in this year, BN tried using its old tricks on Malaysians again. With the mainstream media kissing up the the asses of the BN ministers, they started to twist many things around trying to conjure up the flame that was burning during the May 13th massacre. Thank God that the people now have learned to embrace the wind's of change and not fall for the propaganda of the mainstream media.
Now the May13th incident is not a big issue anymore....and to a certain extend it is a non-issue, so what has caused the racism plague, although not as lethal before, to endure in Malaysia even until today? BN for as long as we can remember has been holding the title of being the sole government and political voice in this country. The opposition seemed to be non-existing parties that had no say in anything. That would mean that BN was king and could dictate anything at its whim and fancy. So they came up with something called the NEP. The rise of that policy brought unsatisfactory feelings to the non-Bumi's of the country. The deception though was when all the non-Bumi's thought that the Bumi's were enjoying wealth and opportunities that this country has to offer. Well, they were wrong. The truth was, NEP was exploited by the cronies and family members of people in power and it so happens that they were all Bumi's. So what happens to the rest of the Bumi's? They sit around thinking that the policy is on their side and later find that they are in the same ditch as everyone else. And to keep their mouths shut, the politicians compensate by giving more scholarships to their children and the other small stuff while the "big guns" and those affiliated to them enjoy the wealth and comfort of lords. To make matters worse those not-so-lucky Bumi's have non-Bumi's screaming "Injustice!" to their faces. The Bumi's on the other hand were making matters worse by lashing back at the non-Bumi's. So now the politicians go "weeee!" we have a spark! Now all we gotta do is put in some fuel and have another more subtle racial inferno. We can clearly see them " keeping the flame" when their youths were pulling out keris' and telling non-Bumi's to "go back home".
Looking at it now, i feel that the dissatisfaction between non-Bumi's and Bumi's seem to be deliberately driven by the megalomaniac politicians of this nation. I remember when i went for a political talk by Lim Kit Siang (an opposition political figure) , at a point he hailed " The Chinese are marginalized!" and it was followed by a loud cheer by the audience. Then he said " The Indians are marginalized!" and that too was followed by a cheer just as loud as the previous one, then he said " Even the Malays are marginalized!" yes it was also followed by a cheer but there was a clear hesitation in the crowd almost to say that the crowd wasn't to sure but since Kit Siang said it lets just cheer anyway. See that's the problem, the people don't know that our enemy are those politicians up there who sit and plot ways to divide the people so that they can conquer us and keep us in their grasp and they are the ones we should be pissed off at. Not a Bumi or a non-Bumi.
Yes, the people to a certain have extend realized this and made a move by giving a kick in BN's ass during the election. Nonetheless, a reformation for the good of all Malaysians can't take place if we don't change our perceptions. Scratching this itch may be something too hard to accept by most. Hence we wait for the day when a generation void of racial divide rises to lead this country. Until then this itch remains unscratchable.
Added:24-03-2008,10.09pm
A Racist Heritage? This is another article touching on the racism issue. Its written by Haris Ibrahim there's a link to his blog The People's Parliament in the link list on the right side of my blog.
Added: 22-03-2008,11.32pm
p.s. This is a must read article by my favorite blogger out there. Its amazing how he puts this issue in perspective The Ugly Malaysian by Raja Petra Kamarudin.
But lets leave the rest of the world aside and lets focus on my beloved country, Malaysia. Indeed we can be assured that we don't have ethnic tensions as serious as countries in Africa and Europe, places like Bosnia and South Africa. Nonetheless, we do have racial friction, especially politically, in Malaysia. After the not-so-recent elections, i personally had the conception that racial issues would be the last thing to worry about since we have a "colorful" racial representation in the opposition camp. But it wasn't exactly so when we see what happened during the nominations of CM's and EXCO members of the opposition controlled states(of course the BN controlled states had no less turmoil trying to settle those matters in their states). The main stream media has obviously taken advantage of the so called "inexperienced" opposition CM's and sadly there were times when they conceded. For a bigger picture of what i'm talking about read the articles in these RPK's articles A storm in a songkok, Compromise works both ways, Small things please small minds, and May 13? What May 13?. Yes, thankfully the CM's and EXCO members of Perak, Selangor, Penang, Kedah and Kelantan have been settled.
Nevertheless, i have this urge in me to give my 2 cents worth on this whole racism issue in Malaysia. What actually caused the ethnic fray in this country? Before our nation was a sovereign one, the colonist were using their divide and conquer methods not only to keep the colonized within their grasp but also to keep unwanted friction between ethnic groups in this diverse country. The latter though sounded more like an excuse to me. Anyways, when they left, we were lead by the government of the people.... democracy...so to speak. But somewhere along the way, Malaysia fell into an enormous social ditch. The May13th incident. That incident is history now...so lets conduct an autopsy on it. What caused it? (Shamefully, i did horribly for my high school history and yes i know its hypocritical to talk about history when i am supposed know about it but bear with me a while.) BN lost Kuala Lumpur, their stronghold, to opposition party DAP. Keep in mind that at that time, ruling party represented Malays and the opposition represented non-Malays. So now the politicians forged a brilliant plan to weaken the people's confidence on the opposition...how? Stir up racial conflicts! They blew a minor situation, which had NO racial implication, out of proportion and BOOM we had Malays chopping the Chinese and Chinese "chin-chang" ing the Malays. The blood-shed took a huge toll on Malaysians as a whole and every Malaysian was somehow scarred from what happen on May the 13th. But this was good for the ruling party because people were afraid that the May13th ghost might resurrect itself and haunt Malaysia once again if they voted for the opposition. So now we can understand the sheer shock on the BN party members' faces after hearing the 2008 election results(They didn't think they were gonna loose so badly mah). Again in this year, BN tried using its old tricks on Malaysians again. With the mainstream media kissing up the the asses of the BN ministers, they started to twist many things around trying to conjure up the flame that was burning during the May 13th massacre. Thank God that the people now have learned to embrace the wind's of change and not fall for the propaganda of the mainstream media.
Now the May13th incident is not a big issue anymore....and to a certain extend it is a non-issue, so what has caused the racism plague, although not as lethal before, to endure in Malaysia even until today? BN for as long as we can remember has been holding the title of being the sole government and political voice in this country. The opposition seemed to be non-existing parties that had no say in anything. That would mean that BN was king and could dictate anything at its whim and fancy. So they came up with something called the NEP. The rise of that policy brought unsatisfactory feelings to the non-Bumi's of the country. The deception though was when all the non-Bumi's thought that the Bumi's were enjoying wealth and opportunities that this country has to offer. Well, they were wrong. The truth was, NEP was exploited by the cronies and family members of people in power and it so happens that they were all Bumi's. So what happens to the rest of the Bumi's? They sit around thinking that the policy is on their side and later find that they are in the same ditch as everyone else. And to keep their mouths shut, the politicians compensate by giving more scholarships to their children and the other small stuff while the "big guns" and those affiliated to them enjoy the wealth and comfort of lords. To make matters worse those not-so-lucky Bumi's have non-Bumi's screaming "Injustice!" to their faces. The Bumi's on the other hand were making matters worse by lashing back at the non-Bumi's. So now the politicians go "weeee!" we have a spark! Now all we gotta do is put in some fuel and have another more subtle racial inferno. We can clearly see them " keeping the flame" when their youths were pulling out keris' and telling non-Bumi's to "go back home".
Looking at it now, i feel that the dissatisfaction between non-Bumi's and Bumi's seem to be deliberately driven by the megalomaniac politicians of this nation. I remember when i went for a political talk by Lim Kit Siang (an opposition political figure) , at a point he hailed " The Chinese are marginalized!" and it was followed by a loud cheer by the audience. Then he said " The Indians are marginalized!" and that too was followed by a cheer just as loud as the previous one, then he said " Even the Malays are marginalized!" yes it was also followed by a cheer but there was a clear hesitation in the crowd almost to say that the crowd wasn't to sure but since Kit Siang said it lets just cheer anyway. See that's the problem, the people don't know that our enemy are those politicians up there who sit and plot ways to divide the people so that they can conquer us and keep us in their grasp and they are the ones we should be pissed off at. Not a Bumi or a non-Bumi.
Yes, the people to a certain have extend realized this and made a move by giving a kick in BN's ass during the election. Nonetheless, a reformation for the good of all Malaysians can't take place if we don't change our perceptions. Scratching this itch may be something too hard to accept by most. Hence we wait for the day when a generation void of racial divide rises to lead this country. Until then this itch remains unscratchable.
Added:24-03-2008,10.09pm
A Racist Heritage? This is another article touching on the racism issue. Its written by Haris Ibrahim there's a link to his blog The People's Parliament in the link list on the right side of my blog.
Added: 22-03-2008,11.32pm
p.s. This is a must read article by my favorite blogger out there. Its amazing how he puts this issue in perspective The Ugly Malaysian by Raja Petra Kamarudin.
Sunday, March 16, 2008
No better than ass-wipes
Don't we all need it...money? To some, its one of the only things in life which we love and need at the same time.To the rest it is something that we most definitely need but it wouldn't be any harm if we had more of it. To me...its no better than ass wipes.
What is money in the first place. How did it come about?...the way i look at it, it is value we put on everything that we can possibly evaluate. It is absolutely virtual. Although to most ppl it is as concrete as it can be but i beg to differ. Money has value because we put value on it. It is us humans who came up with a plan to reserve gold and distribute its value on highly sophisticated printed papers so that everyone can have a share of the gold. But why do we even do that in the first place? What good comes out of it?
Some time back i engaged in a debate with my mother(actually it turned out to be more of an argument as it went) about how money has destroyed us as humans. I mean think about it. ALL the decadence that we witness has one way or another to do with money. Off course one may say that it is not money itself that has destroyed us but it is the greed of acquiring it that has caused such a decay. But wouldn't the absence of money stop this chaos altogether? A pretty obvious example would be poverty. Lets take Darfur for instance. There are people there who are suffering as hell because the guy who lives in the city has too much to eat. In a wider scope one would find that the reason a man is suffering of poverty is because the other has acquired too much of money that in actual fact the economic balance of the people as a whole has tipped off. Simply put, the only reason there's the poor is because there is the rich or even those who are living comfortably like us. So can a man still be blamed for providing for himself a comfortable life? The need for money for every individual collectively sums up to the lack of providence for another man. Hence it has turned to be a dog-eat-dog world and it doesn't take a greedy man to deprive another man.So we can say that it is possible that the very need for money can cause depravity and not only the greed or the love of money.
But i say, why don't we just RID OURSELVES OF MONEY!! That's right kill the very idea of money. Wouldn't life be sweeter without the burden of money? Won't we be able to enjoy life the way we should with the absence of money? We don't realize that our childhood was a blissful time because we had no care of money or acquiring it. The very machinery of education is built for the sake of acquiring money. The distasteful pressures on getting educated and the need to have a so called "good" job is nothing but the drive to acquire money. A man would have a more satisfying life if most of his life he didn't have to worry about making money.My mum said that i'm just a fool rambling about abolishing the "very thing that makes the world go round". "It will never happen...people won't let go of it", she said.
So why won't people get rid of it? The very next day in college i brought this topic up while chatting with a good friend of mine. Summarizing our conversation, we reached a conclusion that ppl won't kill the idea of money simply because we are the most khiasu beings on earth. The very reason why ppl strive, risk their lives or even do something inhumane to acquire money is to ultimately be on top of his fellow man. Lets face it. Most, if not all, can't resist being better off than the other guy. We would need to be able to accept EVERYONE is at the same level if money was to be abolished. The sad truth is not everyone is willing to accept that.
Everyone as equals....i'm sure most of you would recognize that phrase. It is the very backbone of Communism. I admire Karl Marx for coming up with such a utopia but cursed are those in history who propagated and in turn distorted his vision, such as Hitler and the Soviet Union. It is clear evidence that man just can't live as equals. It is a bitter truth but the truth nonetheless. Man is corrupt.
Me being an annoying defiant creature still can't bear the existence of currency and money but killing that idea is easier said than done. Thus till that beautiful day comes when man can finally forget about money...it remains an unscratchable itch.
What is money in the first place. How did it come about?...the way i look at it, it is value we put on everything that we can possibly evaluate. It is absolutely virtual. Although to most ppl it is as concrete as it can be but i beg to differ. Money has value because we put value on it. It is us humans who came up with a plan to reserve gold and distribute its value on highly sophisticated printed papers so that everyone can have a share of the gold. But why do we even do that in the first place? What good comes out of it?
Some time back i engaged in a debate with my mother(actually it turned out to be more of an argument as it went) about how money has destroyed us as humans. I mean think about it. ALL the decadence that we witness has one way or another to do with money. Off course one may say that it is not money itself that has destroyed us but it is the greed of acquiring it that has caused such a decay. But wouldn't the absence of money stop this chaos altogether? A pretty obvious example would be poverty. Lets take Darfur for instance. There are people there who are suffering as hell because the guy who lives in the city has too much to eat. In a wider scope one would find that the reason a man is suffering of poverty is because the other has acquired too much of money that in actual fact the economic balance of the people as a whole has tipped off. Simply put, the only reason there's the poor is because there is the rich or even those who are living comfortably like us. So can a man still be blamed for providing for himself a comfortable life? The need for money for every individual collectively sums up to the lack of providence for another man. Hence it has turned to be a dog-eat-dog world and it doesn't take a greedy man to deprive another man.So we can say that it is possible that the very need for money can cause depravity and not only the greed or the love of money.
But i say, why don't we just RID OURSELVES OF MONEY!! That's right kill the very idea of money. Wouldn't life be sweeter without the burden of money? Won't we be able to enjoy life the way we should with the absence of money? We don't realize that our childhood was a blissful time because we had no care of money or acquiring it. The very machinery of education is built for the sake of acquiring money. The distasteful pressures on getting educated and the need to have a so called "good" job is nothing but the drive to acquire money. A man would have a more satisfying life if most of his life he didn't have to worry about making money.My mum said that i'm just a fool rambling about abolishing the "very thing that makes the world go round". "It will never happen...people won't let go of it", she said.
So why won't people get rid of it? The very next day in college i brought this topic up while chatting with a good friend of mine. Summarizing our conversation, we reached a conclusion that ppl won't kill the idea of money simply because we are the most khiasu beings on earth. The very reason why ppl strive, risk their lives or even do something inhumane to acquire money is to ultimately be on top of his fellow man. Lets face it. Most, if not all, can't resist being better off than the other guy. We would need to be able to accept EVERYONE is at the same level if money was to be abolished. The sad truth is not everyone is willing to accept that.
Everyone as equals....i'm sure most of you would recognize that phrase. It is the very backbone of Communism. I admire Karl Marx for coming up with such a utopia but cursed are those in history who propagated and in turn distorted his vision, such as Hitler and the Soviet Union. It is clear evidence that man just can't live as equals. It is a bitter truth but the truth nonetheless. Man is corrupt.
Me being an annoying defiant creature still can't bear the existence of currency and money but killing that idea is easier said than done. Thus till that beautiful day comes when man can finally forget about money...it remains an unscratchable itch.
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