Datuk ZAM Accused HARRY LEE of Ulterior Motives in Marginalizing Remarks; RESPONSES from Malaysian Papers; Overseas Views on Ethnic Malaysian Politics
Information Minister Datuk Zainuddin Maidin: "I think he wanted to scare the Chinese, to make them feel that the wealth that they have amassed can never be safe in the region"See Update below: Oct 1 06, From M’sia NEW SUNDAY Times
See Update below: Sep 30 06, From S’pore Straits Times;
Non-bumi rights crop up once again
September 29, 2006 15:42 PM
BEIJING, Sept 29 (Bernama) -- Information Minister Datuk Zainuddin Maidin said today Singapore Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew had ulterior motives in accusing Malaysia of marginalising the Chinese community when he himself had killed the Chinese culture in his own country.
"I think he wanted to scare the Chinese, to make them feel that the wealth that they have amassed can never be safe in the region," he said to newsmen here after visiting Xinhua news agency. He arrived here yesterday for a three-day working visit.
Zainuddin said
"The Prime Minister then, Tunku Abdul Rahman, rejected such a notion. We have also never confiscated any assets of the Chinese community. "Instead, we broadened their participation in the government by expanding the
"Today,
Zainuddin said Lee must be congratulated for changing the Chinese identity in the island state such that it had become unrecognisable. He called on Chinese newspapers in
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Subject: STS: Lively debate in Malaysian press over MM Lee's remarks
The Utusan Malaysia and the Chinese press yesterday kept up the momentum, while the English press carried some letters from readers on the issue. The views expressed in the Malay press were generally critical of Mr Lee. The commentators felt that he was interfering in
However, the Chinese press is divided, and carried commentaries that lent some support to Mr Lee's opinion. At a dialogue for good governance in
Mr Lee said: "My neighbours both have problems with their Chinese. They are successful, they're hardworking and therefore they are systematically marginalised, even in education."
The Utusan Malaysia quoted Johor Tionghua Chamber of Commerce and Industry
president Soh Poh Sheng as urging Malaysians not to be taken in by Mr Lee's omments.
He said Mr Lee enjoyed seeing Malaysians quarrelling among themselves. The newspaper also quoted
"As businesspeople, we want to be friendly with neighbours," he said. Malaysian Youth Council president Shamsul Anuar Nasarah said Mr Lee should stop interfering in the affairs of other countries.
Berita Harian published the results of an SMS poll asking readers whether they thought Mr Lee should apologise for his remarks. Eighty-eight per cent said he should, while 12 per cent said he should not.
The Chinese press also kept up a lively debate. A commentary in the Nanyang Siang Pau yesterday said that the dispute should be explored using hard data.
It said there should be a close look at how national resources are being distributed, and how the various races have benefited. "The current war of words is like a quarrel between children. Nothing may come out of it or it may end in a fight," it said.
It also called on the government to resolve problems in education funding, inadequate vernacular schools and teachers, and unbalanced university admission criteria.
"Solving these problems and letting Malaysians see the achievements is more effective than disputing the marginalisation issue," it said. A commentary in China Press said it was getting more difficult to hear true words from politicians because of the heavy price involved. It quoted Malaysian Chinese Association president Ong Ka Ting as saying that Chinese Malaysians were not a submissive lot.
He said they knew to speak up for their rights when the situation warranted it. The
The two leaders have taken opposing stands, with Gerakan supporting the government and the DAP agreeing with Mr Lee's views. Sin Chew Daily, meanwhile, reported opposition leader Lim Kit Siang as saying that not only the Chinese were being marginalised, even Malays, Indians and the bumiputeras in
He said the marginalised groups should step forward and fight for their rights.
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and from Times of India;
Malaysian society is now gripped by a fundamental question: Is the country, which is more than half Muslim, an Islamic state? In practice, various religious and ethnic groups give
But the Malaysian constitution provides room for arguments on both sides of the question, and the relatively secular status quo faces serious challenge. Drafted by a group of experts in 1957, under the auspices of the country’s former British rulers, the constitution includes two seemingly contradictory clauses. On the one hand, Article 3 states that Islam is the religion of the federation, and that only Islam can be preached to Muslims.
On the other hand, Article 11 guarantees freedom of religion for all. As a result,
For years, there was little need to resolve this constitutional issue. For example, if a Muslim decided to renounce his faith, the matter would be handled outside the legal system, or conversion records would be sealed. Today, however, every Malaysian must declare a religious affiliation, which is registered with the government, a requirement that has made it difficult for a Muslim to leave Islam without formalising the change of status through the legal process.
The country is now riveted on the fate of ordinary citizens like sales assistant Lina Joy and former religious teacher Kamariah Ali, who are trying to change their religious affiliation through the legal system. Muslim professional organisations and the Islamic opposition political party hold the view that renunciation of Islam is punishable by death. Likewise, the defence by Malaysian civil reform movements of individuals' freedom of conscience has been denounced by some religious leaders as an attack on Islam.
Currently,
Concerned about sparking an ethnic clash, prime minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi has proclaimed a ban on open discussion of these issues, threatening to arrest Internet news providers and activists if they continue to fan such debates.
Badawi is right to be worried. Since independence, national politics in
Ethnic Malays' special status has long been codified in affirmative action policies giving them special economic benefits. However, as
As a result, many Malay-Muslims increasingly worry about the loss of familiar economic and political safeguards. In particular, tensions have grown between the Malay majority and the country's large Chinese minority, which has been quicker to benefit from
Moreover, efforts to Islamicise the state comes at a time when conflict in the
Many Muslims are wary of this brand of identity politics. They recognize that the intolerance of Islamist groups can easily be turned against moderate Muslims. Defending a multicultural national identity in the face of religious intolerance is thus a great challenge facing
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The writer is at the
FOR believers of political stability, a series of controversies of late must make 2006 seem like a year of living dangerously for the Association of South-East Asian Nations, a regional grouping of ten nations comprising
At the helm of its stumbling block is the recent bloodless coup at
But beyond
``And they want
Mr Lee's rhetoric gave rise to high emotions from the Republic's Malay-majority neighbours. Angered Indonesian lawmakers are demanding a public apology from the senior statesman. The country has even summoned its
Amris Hasan of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle said Mr Lee's remarks has put
In
Mr Abdullah reacted by writing a letter to Mr Lee seeking explanations to his remarks.
In a strongly worded rejoinder,
Whether the situation will be a cause for concern remains to be seen. Much depends on whether leaders of countries affected can appeal to calm instead of playing on raw emotions. But far from the madding crowd's ignoble strife, those vying for Asean
integration can perhaps reap much merit by reading this situation with an objective mind.
In an increasingly globalised world, it is logical to hypothesise that people living in a largely peaceful, multicultural environment where cross-cultural engagement has become a routine daily affair are unaffected by racial divisions.
Indeed, a survey conducted by the
Does this then mean that Singaporeans, and other like-minded South-East Asians, are ready to accept a governing style that is not centred on race? Hope flickers but for a mere moment.
Results of a separate poll released in early March just across the
It means that unflattering stereotypical mantras like ``the Malays are lazy, the Chinese are greedy and the Indians are cheats'' have become part of our cultural heritage. Over time, the latent drumming of such thinking into our minds may even become a self-fulfilling prophecy.
On the political front, perhaps the horrors of past atrocities like the 1964-65 racial riots in the early formative years of
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Update below: Sep 30 06, From S’pore Straits Times;
Non-bumi rights crop up once again
Malaysians in heated debate over remarks made by MM Lee
By Reme Ahmad ; The Straits Times
THERE is a simple rule in Malaysian politics when it comes to
Last week,
up to take pot shots at
Non-bumiputeras refer to non-Malays in
The term has evolved into a code for the special privileges enjoyed by the Malays.
The race-rights debate, always simmering beneath the surface, has supplanted the Mahathir-Abdullah rift as the most important issue in the Malay and Chinese vernacular newspapers, not to mention Internet news portals and blogs.
What were the remarks that got Malaysians hot under the collar?
At a dialogue for good governance in
He said: 'My neighbours both have problems with their Chinese. They are successful, they are hardworking and therefore they are systematically marginalised, even in education. 'And they want
The reaction in
Johor politicians wanted pro-Singapore projects spiked.
The two main government-linked Chinese political parties, the Malaysian
Chinese Association (MCA) and Penang-based Parti Gerakan, took the line that MM Lee should not interfere in
But Chinese educationists, a powerful political lobby that mirrors Chinese feelings on the ground, agreed with MM Lee's remarks. So too did the opposition Democratic Action Party, which draws its main support from Chinese voters.
Together, they widened the debate into an examination of the political failure of the non-Malay parties within Barisan Nasional to stand up for Chinese and Indian rights. Opinions in letters and comments in the mainstream media and on Internet websites were split - mostly along racial lines.
Malay newspapers had politicians and opinion leaders pooh-poohing the suggestion that the Chinese were sidelined. They chided MM Lee for interfering in a neighbouring country's affairs.
The Chinese-language newspapers and politicians were of two minds.
One side said there was no marginalisation while the other said that
The mainstream pro-government English-language papers - the New Straits Times and The Star - remained comparatively muted in their coverage. They reported the news and did not editorialise. Not so the alternative media - on Internet news portals such as Malaysiakini, chatrooms and blogs.
The views came thick, fast and unvarnished. The Malay argument on these unfettered channels of communication ran largely along the lines of one opinion logged into an Internet forum:
'If the Chinese here are marginalised, please explain why the Chinese community forms the bulk of the rich? Not only that, no less than 40 per cent of the wealth in this country is owned by them.'
An editorial in the Utusan Malaysia daily which is owned by Umno, the predominant party within the Barisan Nasional coalition, said: 'Since the country achieved independence, the Malaysian economy has been controlled by the Chinese.
'The Malaysian government is happy to follow the concept of powersharing with each ethnic group having a representative in government so that they are not marginalised.'
Those who support this argue that the Malaysian Chinese are well represented in Parliament and the Cabinet. Malays cite the Forbes 2006 list of the 10 richest Malaysians as proof of Chinese well-being.
Only one Malay - port owner and industrialist Syed Mokhtar Albukhary - is on the list.
The non-Malays disagree. 'I totally agree with Lee Kuan Yew's comment. The smartest and brightest Malaysian Chinese are overseas because they don't have equal opportunities for them in Malaysia,' said a comment on a blog.
While the NEP was designed to eradicate poverty and end the identification of economic function with ethnicity, it evolved almost immediately into a policy favouring Malays in education, the civil service and government-linked businesses.
Largely because of the policy, the Malay professional class has swelled, thanks to help from public funds. More than a third of the country's doctors and lawyers are ethnic Malays today, compared to only a handful 35 years ago.
Malays also comprise 20 per cent of all accountants and nearly half of the engineers and surveyors, according to the government's five-year blueprint, the Ninth Malaysia Plan (2006-2010).
But the policy's excesses which overwhelmingly resulted in ethnic favouritism gradually drew loud complaints from the Chinese and Indians, many of whom felt they needed as much help as they were not well-off. Because of the policy, they complained, children of rich Malays received free school textbooks.
Developers give bumiputeras discounts of 5 to 10 per cent to buy million-dollar bungalows.
And there are disputes on whether the government's aim to make bumiputeras own a 30 per cent equity stake in the economy has been achieved.
While the government says the bumiputera equity stake is now around 18.9 per cent, non-Malay leaders say the figure is 45 per cent. This would mean that the NEP has to be abandoned because its target has been surpassed.
That is unlikely to happen any time soon, and the controversy - and race-based angst - will go on with or without MM Lee's contribution.
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Update below: Oct 1 06, From M’sia NEW SUNDAY Times
.. Extracts from
Sunday Column: Growing legion of the unfooled;
….
Lee, who ruled
Lee claimed that the Chinese in
We should not be surprised that Lee made that statement. It is not alien for him to get on the high moral ground and make derogatory comments on the affairs of other countries.
There were many theories on why Lee would have wanted to make such profoundly inaccurate observation about
"Wag the dog" — that was the common consensus at our table of Chinese, Indians and Malays.
Had
Lee may not have changed but
Today, both countries’ leaders often speak about the need to leave past emotional baggage behind and work towards a new era of friendship and co-operation as two sovereign nations should. But, it appears, Lee’s baggage is still in tow.
The facts, Lee, are different. Yes, there are continued grumblings about the abuses in the New Economic Policy’s aims of restructuring society but not one Malaysian who has studied the country’s history and grew up in pre-May 13 Malaysia will dispute that it is the Tun Abdul Razak-initiated NEP which provided the stability and peace for Malaysia to become what it is today.
Take the top 20 richest Malaysians and more than half are Chinese. There are also Bumiputeras and Indians on that list now, a sure sign that no one is targeted for marginalisation.
The Malaysian Cabinet is made up of all the country’s races. How well are the minorities reflected in the
Sure,
Talk about compliant people. Lim Kit Siang is not compliant; Karpal Singh is not compliant; Datuk Nik Aziz Nik Mat and Hadi Awang are not compliant; many NGOs are not compliant; the MCA is often not compliant as is the Chinese-based Gerakan; and most of all, many politicians in Umno are not compliant, leading to fractious battles every few years or so.
But they get their say and today, in the changing
Now let’s look at Chee Soon Juan and J.B. Jeyaratnam or a host of others who were not compliant in
We should all read To Catch a Tartar by Francis Seow and James Minchin’s No Man Is An Island.
Maybe my Australian dinner companion was right. It is just a game. Like some Malaysian politicians think it’s a game to make unfounded allegations and tell lies to achieve their objectives
But as we grow up, the legion of the unfooled is also expanding. And the legion of the unfooled in
see also new posting, Oct 03 06 on
HARRY LEE says Sorry; NO Intention to MEDDLE, Influence MALAYSIAN Politics or INCITE FEELINGS; REGARDLESS, PEOPLE Have Own JUDGEMENT-TRUE POSITION
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