Malays EXPLOITED & CONDITIONED to fail by Umno, not because they are lazy & dishonest!

'It is confirmed by his own admission: Mahathir is a failure.’

Survivor: Former PM Mahathir Mohamad, to generalise Malay as lazy is incorrect. No doubt there are many laid-back Malays, but there are also as many hard working Malays. Some work in two jobs just to support their family.

Perhaps the reason which is attributable to many Malays being branded as laid back is government policy. Umno Baru must face this issue squarely, sincerely and honestly. If they cannot do the job, let others do it.

Multi Racial: If Malays did not change, it is also because of what Mahathir administration did over the 22 years of his rule. It was, and never is, a race issue. It is the poor policies and their implementation that have led to this.

I remember many years ago when many of the businesses were still state run, including hotels. I stayed in Shangri-La Hotel which was privately owned. Their staff were excellent and exceptionally helpful and hardworking.

A few blocks away, a state-run hotel was totally the opposite. Their staff were not only lazy but rude. Both hotels were staff with 100 percent Chinese, so why the contrast? Well, it boils down motivation.

In the state-run hotel, staff were not motivated to work hard due to the lack of reward system. On the other hand, private hotels are merit-based. This shows it has got nothing to do with race.

It is not too late to reform. Cronyism, corruption, the non-meritocracy system and others have got to go.

Anonymous #44199885: This is an over-generalisation, an exaggeration and unfair characterisation by Mahathir. Every race has its bad apples and it is not peculiar to the Malays.

There are many Malays who display integrity, creativity, innovativeness and work hard. The only ones who do not are the ones looking for handouts and easy money without any effort being put in.

This sort of ridiculous statement coming from an elder statesman puts down the Malays and in so doing, feeds "inferiority" into the psyche of the Malays and unnecessarily and unfairly affects the views of other races of the Malays.

Swipenter: Mahathir, you know why you failed? You failed because you pampered them too much and ignored and connived with their excesses and wrongdoings. You did it, not because you loved them, but mainly for your political survival.

Secondly, you failed because you did this on a wrong premise by portraying yourself as defender and champion of "agama, bangsa dan negara" and unintendedly earned yourself the distinction as father of racism and corruption.

I don’t see the Malays as lazy. Many work their butts off to feed their families. But I see many of them take things for granted thinking that the Umno Baru government is always there to help them out so why try your best and hardest to improve.

That attitude and mentality is the result of your pampering. Ask any ‘pendatang’ and they will tell you that no one will help you unless you help yourself.

Abasir: Singapore former PM Lee Kuan Yew had, in the late 60s, warned that if you give crutches to a man with a perfectly good pair of legs, encourage him to use them exclusively and then demand eternal gratitude in return, you will cripple him for life.

Of course, the NEP (New Economic Policy) is not a failure in every sense. It created the Mahathirs, the Najibs, the Muhyiddins, the Daims, the Tajuddin Ramlis, etc.

The buyers of the fanciest cars in town, the most palatial abodes, the most expensive watches and rings, those who patronise the swankiest places locally and abroad are the Malays.

The NEP as it is today is in fact a neat, self-perpetuating arrangement: create a disabled class and use that as reason to enrich a select few... and then complain that the deliberately disabled are lazy.

Anonymous #20513663: Mahathir should read 'Myth of the Lazy Native' by Syed Hussein Al-Attas. And follow this by reading 'Orientalism' by Edward Said.

These comments from the former PM only show that Umno is indeed the natural son of British colonisation - they are a chip off the old block, even down to their mindset, which includes unique ways of looking at and thinking about Malaysians (involving ridiculous racial stereotypes with no basis in reality) and also their ways of thinking about how to 'manage' the 'stupid and lazy natives' (using divide and conquer, Sedition Act, ISA...).

Well, guess what, the 'stupid and lazy natives' are now outsmarting the draconian system that Mahathirism serves to sustain. They are intelligently and energetically throwing off the shackles of decades and centuries of servitude, first to the British, then to their successors.

Ferdtan: So it is confirmed by his own admission: Mahathir is a failure in spite of giving him the 20 years at the helm.

No Mahathir, don't take the blame yourself, the shared responsibility is Umno's. That is why if Malays were to progress, then Umno must be toppled so as to bring in fresh ideas in improving the lot of the Malays.

Abasir: Many of Malaysiakini commentators here have rightfully decried the “Malays are lazy” statement by Mahathir.

But significantly, no minister (front door or back door), none of those paid-to-bark-on-cue poodles like Gerakan, MIC and MCA, nor any of the NGOs-for-hire has said a word, denied it and lodge police reports nationwide.

Have the regime and its supporters concluded that the statement “Malays are lazy” is grounded on fact and therefore not in any manner seditious?

FairMind: Mahathir's stand on Malays is inconsistent. If Malays do not have enough “integrity” in handling money, why should you put inexperienced and unqualified Malays as the finance ministers, MBs, heads of GLCs, heads of government departments, heads of military procurement, etc? It is like putting monkeys in charge of bananas.

When some Malays steal a little of your bread shop money, you detest. The situation now is that Umno is plundering the nation blind under your nose and you do nothing about it. -M'kini