Najib’s ‘C’ word designed to insult Indians, Others

 

How competitive can one be if lacking, for example, in Malaysian personal documents? 

Joe Fernandez

The various “initiatives” for the Indian Nation in Malaysia announced by Prime Minister Najib Mohd Razak was, according to him, designed to make the community “competitive”.

He wants Indians to place their continued Nambikkei (Trust in Tamil) in the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) so that it can carry out even more “initiatives” that will benefit the community.

If that’s the case, why is Hindraf Makkal Sakthi Supremo, P. Waythamoorthy, on an indefinite fast since Sun 10 Mar to draw the world’s attention to the need to dismantle Umno’s sick ketuanan Melayuism (Malay political dominance and supremacy)? Ketuanan Melayuism is a combination of Apartheid, Nazism, Fascism, Communism, Political Islam and the evil Caste System of Ancient India which was kept going by superstitious beliefs like Samsara (suffering), Karma (Law of Cause and Effect), Reincarnation (endless re-Births) and Nirvana (Heaven or Eternal Bliss through the end of Existence).

Malaysia has been able to get away with the vile philosophy of ketuanan Melayuism for over half a century because the world has no time for countries which aren’t considered interesting enough or important by the international media and/or are insignificant in other ways. Tiny Palestine, by comparison, hogs the world headlines because of the perceived Muslim fight over the Holy Land with Judaism and Christianity. The Palestinians will say that they merely want the Jews to stop stealing the land which they had tilled for centuries even before the Jews of Palestine were dispersed into the Diaspora by the Roman Empire in the decades following the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.

Stateless a permanent pool of slave labour in the Twilight Zone

Indians, if they are thinking right, should feel rightly insulted and humiliated by Najib’s usage of the word “competitive” since it implies that it wasn’t the fault of the Government, the establishment or the System that the community had been lagging since the British administrators left Malaya in 1957.

How competitive can one be if lacking, for example, in Malaysian personal documents?

About 350,000 ethnic Indians alone are stateless in Malaysia under a deliberate policy of the Umno Government to ensure a readily available domestic pool of slave labour in the Twilight Zone. Indians aside, many Orang Asal and pockets in other communities are stateless and dare not venture too far from their homes or places where they slave away lest they be arrested by the authorities and remanded in prison for years on end.

Keeping such a large number of Indians stateless also keeps them out of the electoral rolls and thereby further marginalizes and disenfranchises the Indian community who don’t have even one ethnic-Indian majority seat in any legislature despite having one million voters.

Deviations, distortion of Article 153 must be ended

The Director-General of the National registration department (NRD) can exercise his prerogative and discretionary powers to issue Malaysian personal documents to the stateless in Malaysia. He has failed to do so because he, like his predecessors since 1957, has always been from the Malay-speaking communities and probably a secret hardcore card-carrying member of the racist Umno determined to continue violating the Human Rights of several hundred thousand people in Malaysia.

The Indian Community, in fact, doesn’t need hand-outs from the Government.

The 800,000 estate Indians in Malaya may be a class by themselves as defragmentation of the estates has driven these landless people into the shantytowns with no skills to cope with life in urban Malaysia. The Umno Government was not willing to give them land for cultivation or absorbing them into the Felda (Federal Land Development Authority) run plantations in Malaysia which continued to be reserved for the Malay-speaking communities as Umno vote banks. The estate Indians, in contrast, are largely stateless.

For starters, what Indians need in general is for the Government to dismantle the deviations and distortions in the implementation of Article 153 of the Federal Constitution. This is what Waytha’s fast is all about.

The 1st Prong of Article 153 gives a Special Position to the Orang Asal in Malaysia and the Malay-speaking communities – Bugis, Javanese, Minang, Acehnese, Arab Muslims, and Indian Muslims etc – in Malaya, through the King, by way of a reasonable proportion in four areas viz. intake into the civil service; intake into institutions of higher learning owned by the Government; scholarships from Government; and opportunities from the Government to do business.

Non-Muslim Orang Asal bear brunt of discrimination

This 1st prong has been observed more often than not in the breach and unilaterally extended to every facet of life in Malaysia by Umno who usurped the power of the King over Article 153 to Sapu Bersih (Clean sweep) anything that it eyes.

This usurpation, and subsequent deviations and distortions, contradicts the 2nd Prong of Article 153 which enshrines the legitimate interests of the non-Malays who are not Orang Asal.

To add insult to injury, The Government’s policy initiatives and directives – administrative laws – are pro 55 per cent Malay majority at the expense of the 45 per cent non-Malay minorities.

The result can be seen all around.

The Government, Teaching sector and Judiciary is 90 per cent Malay.

In the Federal sector in Sabah and Sarawak even the Orang Asal who are non-Muslims are largely left out when it comes to recruitment, increments and promotions.

Racism has crept even into sports

None of the vice-chancellors of the 20-odd Government universities is a non-Malay or Orang Asal. If an Orang Asal or two had one time been the vice chancellor anywhere, they had always been Muslim, not Christian, like the overwhelming majority of Orang Asal.

The same situation applies in the Police and Armed Forces where except for Admiral Thanabalasingam, the first Malaysian to head the Navy in the early years after 1957, no non- Malay or Orang Asal has ever headed these services.

The reason is not due to their lacking in the competitive spirit but due to institutionalized discrimination fuelled by politics, racism, prejudice and opportunism.

The system has been deliberately designed to keep the non-Malays out by means fair and foul.

Racism has crept even into sports.

No longer do we see Indians in any great numbers in various athletic and sporting events.

No salvation for Indians, Others in Nambikkei

At one time, except for a Chinese, a Malay and a Eurasian, the rest of the Malaysian Hockey Team was composed of Indians. Then, the present Sultan of Perak Azlan Shah took charge of the Malaysian Hockey Federation in the mid-1970s and Indians were systematically removed from the National Hockey Team.

Indians dominated in many other sporting fields too until institutionalized discrimination crept in over the years since 1957.

The ultimate in ketuanan Melayuism has been the abolishment of Local Government elections, and the Federal Government chipping away at the powers of the state governments, especially Sabah and Sarawak which are the lands of the great majority of Orang Asal, for the emergence of a unitary state with all political powers vested in the Prime Minister in particular and the Prime Minister’s Department in general. The PM’s Department, a misnomer, is in fact a Hyper Ministry which dwarfs all Ministries. The Ministers are reduced to being Menteri Jalan Jalan or puppets with no powers.

The Federal Cabinet has become a rubber stamp institution under Umno, just like Parliament and the Judiciary which has degenerated into yet another Government Department of glorified clerks.

Salvation for the Indian Nation in Malaysia, others too especially the Orang Asal, will not come through placing their continued Nambikkei in the Umno Government.

It will only come through them not allowing anyone including their so-called leaders to dictate to them and by taking their destiny in their hands.

Joe Fernandez is a mature student of law and an educationist, among others, wholoves to write especially Submissions for Clients wishing to Act in Person. He feels compelled, as a semi-retired journalist, to put pen to paper -- or rather the fingers to the computer keyboard -- whenever something doesn't quite jell with his weltanschauung (worldview). He shuttles between points in the Golden Heart of Borneo formed by the Sabah west coast, Labuan, Brunei, northern Sarawak and the watershed region in Borneo where three nations meet.