Once a colleague of mine remarked that after her friend returned from China, he seemed much more paranoid than usual. A simple statement she made would be greeted with the phrase "What are you implying."
It seems in China, especially in email communications, people tend to read a lot into what is written. People form opinions about everything either than the message - like what was he thinking about, is he implying something, this and that and the other.
But a healthy dose of conspiracy theory can sometimes shed light where there is obfuscation . This is because the fundamental premise behind most Eastern Governments, Malaysia very much included is the preservation of power of the ruling elite.That is why until today there exists a gap in economic disparity between the races, not because of anything else but because the ruling elite, Dr. Mahathir especially, always wanted this gap to exist. Thus he always promoted people who were less than spectacular into positions of power and surrounded himself with leaders who had been compromised. That allowed Dr. Mahathir to control the levers of power with the judicious use of blackmail and threats if required.
This was clearly demonstrated against Samy Vellu a while back. Rumour had it that in order to teach Samy Vellu who was the boss, Dr Mahathir instructed the MIC President to be investigated over the allocations of Telekom shares. Once the MIC President realized quickly who his master was, the investigation died down.
Now this lends itself to a dilemma. What kind of leaders does this Dr. Mahathir promote?
Mahathirist today like to talk about race. Race is the be all and end all of all their points. Now the fact remains, biologically Dr. Mahathir Mohammad is an Indian. It is a fact.
But in other societies, people will say . yeah, so what. After all, American elected Barrack Obama, a black as President. Who cares?
But that is other societies. And to be honest, I believe if the Malaysian society were left without this constant addition of racial based fuel, we too would have become less "race" conscious. To a certain extent, especially before that man Dr. Mahathir came into power, society was evolving towards this goal. After the tragic events of 1969, the leadership of Tun Abdul Razak played a major role in ensuring integrity, effective economic advancement opportunities and the creation of a strong social fabric within the nation.
However, that all changed when that man Dr. Mahathir came into power. It will forever be remembered as one of the blackest days in our country history. Dr. Mahathir brought into being a race based focus. Which is once again hypocritical because you cannot choose your race. You are born into it and Dr. Mahathir was born an Indian. But being a self serving wicked politician, he decided the only way to banish the thought of his background was to go into an over reaching policy of using race as the primary discriminator between people. Not ethics. Not capability. Just race.
Today we read about how Singapore, a small dot in the world map has an economy larger than that of Malaysia. A relation of mine, who happens to work in one of the leading financial houses, akin to a Bina Fikir of sorts remarked how well developed and united the nation is. He mentioned the key differentiator is that people do not care about your race especially with respect to promotion. Those who climb up the ladder are very capable. He said about his boss, as having one of the best minds in corporate law in the country. A hard worker, he would be in the office before everyone arrives and would leave only after everyone has left. He works, plays hard and is super successful. Just imagine, if the person below him drives a Merc, how rich he would be.
But a society infected with Dr. Mahathir's dogma would not care about that. They would not care to note down his hard work and application of his talent. Their only question is "what is his race."
Well, unlike Dr. Mahathir, he is not an Indian. He is a Malay by birth, but he prefers to be called a Singaporean.
It seems in China, especially in email communications, people tend to read a lot into what is written. People form opinions about everything either than the message - like what was he thinking about, is he implying something, this and that and the other.
But a healthy dose of conspiracy theory can sometimes shed light where there is obfuscation . This is because the fundamental premise behind most Eastern Governments, Malaysia very much included is the preservation of power of the ruling elite.That is why until today there exists a gap in economic disparity between the races, not because of anything else but because the ruling elite, Dr. Mahathir especially, always wanted this gap to exist. Thus he always promoted people who were less than spectacular into positions of power and surrounded himself with leaders who had been compromised. That allowed Dr. Mahathir to control the levers of power with the judicious use of blackmail and threats if required.
This was clearly demonstrated against Samy Vellu a while back. Rumour had it that in order to teach Samy Vellu who was the boss, Dr Mahathir instructed the MIC President to be investigated over the allocations of Telekom shares. Once the MIC President realized quickly who his master was, the investigation died down.
Now this lends itself to a dilemma. What kind of leaders does this Dr. Mahathir promote?
Mahathirist today like to talk about race. Race is the be all and end all of all their points. Now the fact remains, biologically Dr. Mahathir Mohammad is an Indian. It is a fact.
But in other societies, people will say . yeah, so what. After all, American elected Barrack Obama, a black as President. Who cares?
But that is other societies. And to be honest, I believe if the Malaysian society were left without this constant addition of racial based fuel, we too would have become less "race" conscious. To a certain extent, especially before that man Dr. Mahathir came into power, society was evolving towards this goal. After the tragic events of 1969, the leadership of Tun Abdul Razak played a major role in ensuring integrity, effective economic advancement opportunities and the creation of a strong social fabric within the nation.
However, that all changed when that man Dr. Mahathir came into power. It will forever be remembered as one of the blackest days in our country history. Dr. Mahathir brought into being a race based focus. Which is once again hypocritical because you cannot choose your race. You are born into it and Dr. Mahathir was born an Indian. But being a self serving wicked politician, he decided the only way to banish the thought of his background was to go into an over reaching policy of using race as the primary discriminator between people. Not ethics. Not capability. Just race.
Today we read about how Singapore, a small dot in the world map has an economy larger than that of Malaysia. A relation of mine, who happens to work in one of the leading financial houses, akin to a Bina Fikir of sorts remarked how well developed and united the nation is. He mentioned the key differentiator is that people do not care about your race especially with respect to promotion. Those who climb up the ladder are very capable. He said about his boss, as having one of the best minds in corporate law in the country. A hard worker, he would be in the office before everyone arrives and would leave only after everyone has left. He works, plays hard and is super successful. Just imagine, if the person below him drives a Merc, how rich he would be.
But a society infected with Dr. Mahathir's dogma would not care about that. They would not care to note down his hard work and application of his talent. Their only question is "what is his race."
Well, unlike Dr. Mahathir, he is not an Indian. He is a Malay by birth, but he prefers to be called a Singaporean.
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