The gilded cage Umno has built

YOURSAY 'There lies the slow decline of the true-blue Malays - the ones in the kampungs who remain as they are since independence, poor and ignorant.'

Malay matters in the nation's future

Anonymous: As a race, the Malays have never been properly defined, and probably never will. Loosely termed, a 'Malay' is anyone who is Muslim, speaks Malay, and practises Malay customs and lifestyle.

This allows a lot of Indian Muslims, Filipinos, Indonesians, Burmese, Bangladeshis, etc, to call themselves 'Malays' and enjoy bumiputera status.

Chinese Muslims are however excluded. Skin colour seems more important now than speaking Malay. Ask the Pakistanis and Bangladeshis.

But there lies the slow decline of the true-blue Malays of the land - the ones in the kampungs who remain as they are since independence, poor and ignorant. They are ignored, and do not enjoy the bumiputera privileges .

Not to mention the Orang Asli, the Sarawakians and Sabah bumiputera. And the Babas and Eurasians who have been here for hundreds of years.

Trumpet Call: What the predominant party in the ruling coalition has done all these years is to create a Malay race that is totally dependent and insecure.

Dependent in that Malays, especially in the Malay hinterland, are constantly indoctrinated that they are never good enough to compete.

Meritocracy is thrown out of the window. Therefore the Malays are told that they always need help and leverage.

The Malays are also very insecure. Even the slightest mention of race or religion is blown out of proportion and trumpeted as a threat to scare themselves to rally to defend themselves against an imaginary foe, in this case, the Christians.

If I were modern Malay today, I would ask, "When can I stand on my own two feet?"

Cala: S Thayaparan has done a good job by questioning the appropriateness of Umno to rely on old tricks of putting fear into the over-guarded Malay community, lest they be swayed by other races and religions.

But to me, the author has missed the third element in the equation - the credibility of the Umno leadership.

There is only so much one may exhort and drum up support for a given cause. The outcome would be dismay if such exhortation is not built on a firm foundation. If it happens, it is as good as a house built on stilts, collapsible at the blow of a small wind.

The Umno today is not the Umno of yesteryears. After Tunku Abdul Rahman, Abdul Razak and Hussein Onn, lofty ideology is a thing of the past.

Swkdayaks: The ideal world for Malaysia would be that all its citizens are equally treated in terms of policy decisions and under the law, meaning, no special privileges given to or for any particular race in anything except for special groups, e.g. the disabled, single mothers/fathers and the lower-income groups from or of all the different racial groups in the country.

That day may or may not come for Malaysia.

But politically, as of now and until at least the foreseeable future, we, the non-Malays and non-Muslims have to tolerate, accommodate, accept and live with the reality.

In order to successfully defeat Umno at their racial and religious manipulation game by instilling and spreading fear of other races and religions among the Malay-Muslims, any change of government here must be led by our Malay-Muslim brothers and sisters, who must rise up and be counted to lead and save Malaysia.

Wanderer: Not only Malays matters in this nation's future. Every race matters in the nation building of this country. Malaysia can be a beautiful rainbow nation. Pity that the Ketuanan Umno Melayu think they matter more than others.

Malaysiasakit: This country is in desperate need of the Malay populace rising to a level of maturity where it can call Umno's bluff on issues of race and religion.

Umno needs to be told in no uncertain terms that the Malays demand a government that is responsible, honest and inclusive. Unless this happens, Umno will continue to play the race and religion card to the point of causing sectarian violence.

Multi Racial: The ‘divide and conquer' rule has been very successful for Umno, MCA and MIC. In fact, it was so successful they are still practicing it now.

Such as MCA accusing DAP of allowing PAS to dominate in Pakatan Rakyat while Umno is doing just the opposite, accusing PAS of allowing DAP to dominate in Pakatan.

The reality is modern and educated Malays are more well-informed and they know what is going on. They know there can never be threats from non-Malays as Malays formed the majority. No party can govern the country without the support of Malays.

It is all lies from BN with the intention of keeping themselves in power. Now that the thinking has changed, Umno's Malays are fearful as this could spell the end of them.

They could change and adapt, but the problem is that their leaders can't. They are so used to having their way and they do not know how to adapt to others.

As a result of that, Umno dominance in Malaysia will soon be discussed only in history books. - Malaysiakini