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.