Something to Chew On
One of my favorite Sean Connery movies is "The Untouchables." His famous line of "SO, what are you going to do?" strikes hard on me as he shoots the question to Kevin Costner. Good movie. However, this thought often comes into my head, paired with the question "So what?" when people forward stuff to me in emails. Articles about "useful" information, tragic events, chain letters of all sorts… seriously, do any of you out there do think about the content of such emails? And if you are one of those who are involved in forwarding such mails to almost everyone in your mailing list: Are you doing so because of your genuine concern for the matter? Or whether you are just "doing your part" in giving out information? Though not always pointed out, information is a form of power that can more often than not, be misused. In this world where people hardly give time to contemplate the outcome of the misuse or misinterpretation of information, it may lead to a lot of social problems. Thus the questions of "So what" and "What are you going to do about it?" should be contemplated.
Two mails were stuck in my mind for the past week, one was about a petition to stop once criminals from being pardoned for their past crimes, and trying to prohibit them in getting an education, etc. Another one which I would like to post here is one that is really serious. I have no idea what the original sender was trying to do, but I see that it might do more harm than bring about the right action. Allow me to practice my freedom of speech and share this with you.
The article goes like this. The subject heading of the email reads
"Malaysian?? Read this….What a shame with this!!!"
List of racial discriminations in here practiced by government as
wellas government agencies. This list is an open secret. Best verified by
government itself because it got the statistics.
This list is not in the order of importance, that means the first one
on the list is not the most important and the last one on the list does not
mean least important.
This list is a common knowledge to a lot of Malaysians, especially
those non-malays (Chinese, Ibans, Kadazans, Orang Asli, Indians, etc) who
were being racially discriminated.
Figures in this list are estimates only and please take it as a guide
only. Government of Malaysia has the most correct figures. Is government of
Malaysia too ashamed to publish their racist acts by publishing racial
statistics?
This list cover a period of about 48 years since independence (1957).
List of racial discriminations
(1) Out of all the 5 major banks, only one bank is multi-racial, the
rest are controlled by Malays
(2) 99% of Petronas directors are malays
(3) 3% of Petronas employees are Chinese
(4) 99% of 2000 Petronas gasoline stations are owned by malays
(5) 100% all contractors working under Petronas projects must be bumis status
(6) 0% of non-malays staffs is legally required in malay companies. But
there must be 30% malays staffs in Chinese companies.
(7) 5% of all new intake for government police, nurses, army, is
non-malays.
(8) 2% is the present Chinese staff in Royal Malaysian Air Force
(RMAF), drop from 40% in 1960
(9) 2% is the percentage of non-malays government servants in
Putrajaya. But malays make up 98%
(10) 7% is the percentage of Chinese government servants in the whole
government (in 2004), drop from 30% in 1960
(11) 95% of government contracts are given to malays
(12) 100% all business licensees are controlled by malay government
e.g. taxi permits, Approved permits, etc
(13) 80% of the Chinese rice millers in Kedah had to be sold to malay
controlled Bernas in 1980s. Otherwise, life is make difficult for
Chinese rice millers
(14) 100 big companies set up, owned and managed by Chinese Malaysians
weretaken over by government, and later managed by malays since 1970s e.g.
UTC, UMBC, MISC, etc
(15) At least 10 Chinese owned bus companies (throughout Malaysia,
throughout 40 years) had to be sold to MARA or other malay transport
companies due to rejection by malay authority to Chinese application
for bus routes and rejection for their application for new buses
(16) 2 Chinese taxi drivers were barred from driving in Johor Larkin
bus station. There are about 30 taxi drivers and 3 are Chinese in October
2004. Spoiling taxi club properties was the reason given
(17) 0 non-malays are allowed to get shop lots in the new Muar bus
station (November 2004)
(18) 8000 billions ringgit is the total amount the government channeled
to malays pockets through ASB, ASN, MARA, privatisation of government
agencies, Tabung Haji etc, through NEP over 34 years period
(19) 48 Chinese primary schools closed down since 1968 - 2000
(20) 144 Indian primary schools closed down since 1968 -
2000
(21) 2637 malay primary schools built since 1968 - 2000
(22) 2.5% is government budget for Chinese primary schools. Indian
schools got only 1%, malay schools got 96.5%
(23) While a Chinese parent with RM1000 salary (monthly) cannot get
school-text-book-loan, a malay parent with RM2000 salary is eligible
(24) 10 all public universities vice chancellors are malays
(25) 5% - the government universities lecturers of non-malay origins
had been reduced from about 70% in 1965 to only 5% in 2004
(26) Only 5% is given to non-malays for government scholarships over 40
years
(27) 0 Chinese or Indians were sent to Japanand Koreaunder "Look East
Policy"
(28) 128 STPM Chinese top students could not get into the course that
they aspired i.e. Medicine (in 2004)
(29) 10% place for non-bumi students for MARA science schools beginning
from year 2003, but only 7% are filled. Before that it was 100%
malays
(30) 50 cases whereby Chinese and Indian Malaysians, are beaten up in
the National Service program in 2003
(31) 25% is Malaysian Chinese population in 2004, drop from 45% in 1957
(32) 7% is the present Malaysian Indians population (2004), a drop from
12%
in 1957
(33) 2 millions Chinese Malaysians had emigrated to overseas since 40
years
ago
(34) 0.5 million Indians Malaysians had emigrated to overseas
(35) 3 millions Indonesians had migrated into Malaysiaand became
Malaysian citizens with bumis status.
(36) 600000 are the Chinese and Indians Malaysians with red IC and were
rejected repeatedly when applying for citizenship for 40 years. Perhaps
60% of them had already passed away due to old age. This shows racism of
how easily Indonesians got their citizenships compare with the Chinese and
Indians
(37) 5% - 15% discount for a malay to buy a house, regardless whether
the
malay is rich or poor
(38) 2% is what Chinese new villages get compare with 98% of what
malays villages got for rural development budget
(39) 50 road names (at least) had been change from Chinese names to
other names
(40) 1 Dewan Gan Boon Leong (in Malacca) was altered to other name
(e.g.Dewan Serbaguna or sort) when it was being officially used for a few
days. Government try to shun Chinese names. This racism happened in around
year 2000 or sort
(41) 0 temples/churches were built for each housing estate. But every
housing estate got at least one mosque/surau built
(42) 3000 mosques/surau were built in all housing estates throughout
Malaysiasince 1970. No temples, no churches are required to be built
in housing estates
(43) 1 Catholic church in Shah Alam took 20 years to apply to be
constructed. But told by malay authority that it must look like a
factory and not look like a church. Still not
yet approved in 2004
(44) 1 publishing of Bible in Iban language banned (in 2002)
(45) 0 of the government TV stations (RTM1, RTM2, TV3) are directors of
non-malays origin
(46) 30 government produced TV dramas and films always showed that the
bad guys had Chinese face, and the good guys had malay face. You can check
it out since 1970s. Recent years, this tendency becomes less
(47) 10 times, at least, malays (especially Umno) had threatened to
massacre the Chinese Malaysians using May 13 since 1969
(48) 20 constituencies won by DAP would not get funds from the
government to
develop. Or these Chinese majority constituencies would be the last to
bedeveloped
(49) 100 constituencies (parliaments and states) had been racistly
re-delineated so Chinese voters were diluted that Chinese candidates,
particularly DAP candidates lost in election since 1970s
(50) Only 3 out of 12 human rights items are
ratified by Malaysia
government since 1960
(51) 0 elimination of, all forms of racial discrimination (UN Human
Rights) is not ratified by Malaysiagovernment since 1960s
(52) 20 reported cases whereby malay ambulance attendance treated
Chinese patients inhumanely, and malay government hospital staffs purposely
delay attending to Chinese patients in 2003. Unreported cases may be 200
(53) 50 cases each year whereby Chinese, especially Chinese youths
being beaten up by malay youths in public places. We may check at police
reports
provided the police took the report, otherwise there will be no record
(54) 20 cases every year whereby Chinese drivers who accidentally
knocked down malays were seriously assaulted or killed by malays
(55) 12% is what ASB/ASN got per annum while banks fixed deposit is
only about 3.5% per
annum
———————————————(This is a "cut and paste" from the original message)
My comments: Ok, so you have found out enough information to show that there is unfairness and injustice, but, so what? What do you aim in releasing such information? Personally, if you want to change the situation, you should have mention what you wish to achieve to the readers. Are you trying to let enough people know so that the right action will be brought about? Or are you trying to stir racial disharmony? I noticed that the email was forwarded to and by those mainlly of one race. If you are trying to let the public know, why not mail it to a Malay, Malaysian Muslim, a Bumiputera? I shall not be mean to point out other things as well, however, just a little note, if you really wanted to make an impact, please, at least, check your grammar and English!
I will leave this piece of information here, for those who really wants to know Malaysia as a citizen or as an outside observer. However, I wish my readers to seriously do their own study of the material with a research on why such policies were made, its effects, and what was really done by those who knew of such information and had experience relating to them, etc. I know that this is an unfair world to many. However, I am a firm believer of justice. Although judgment may not lie in our hands, but what we can do as responsible human beings is to strive for wisdom and righteousness that we may continue to search for the ultimate truth and find means to right the wrongs.
"So, what ARE you going to do?"
