For the Malays..... An inconvenient truth!

If you want change in Malaysia start by changing yourself. If you look around you will see that the only constant in this world is change and yet nothing really changes but yourself. How you see the world changes as you change. Are you ready for change?

The “you” that I am referring to here are the Malays! We Malays have to be afraid…be very afraid because each day brings us closer to the edge of the cliff. When you are at the edge of the cliff discretion is the better part of valour. We must step back. But why wait until we are at the edge of the cliff? Why not step back now?

Just think. We are having enough difficulty trying to stand shoulder to shoulder with the non-Malays. On top of this we have 3 million Indonesians who have migrated to Malaysia to become Malaysian citizens with Bumiputra status. In the not too distant future we Malays will have to worry about 2nd or 3rd generation Indonesian bumiputras who would have been taught the virtues of hardwork and thrift by their parents or grand parents. These Indonesians bumiputras go out to work before you are awake and they are still not home when you go to sleep. It is obvious that we Malays cannot survive without changing.

Right now in Malaysia the very Malays whose responsibility it is to help the Malays change are too preoccupied trying to ensure their own survival. UMNO is in its death throes. UMNO has lost its moral compass. UMNO no longer has the unquestioning support of the Malays. The end of UMNO is themselves. It ended when power to UMNO became not the means to advance the Malays but power became to UMNO an end in itself….and this started the demise of UMNO as we have known it in the past.

For us Malays it is now warranted that we abandon UMNO for our self-protection. We Malays have to take care of ourselves. The Chinese, the Indians the people in Sabah and Sarawak will not do that for us. They have enough on their plate just to survive under UMNO.

Do not believe what UMNO has been telling us about ourselves. The Malays are not lazy. The Malays do not need to be spoon-fed. The Malays need not be protected against the other races. The Malays can survive against any odds if we are given the opportunity to know these odds. Let us quarrel with the other races if we need to for it will only strengthen our understanding of each other. Do not let anyone accentuate our differences rather let us celebrate these differences as being the very fabric that will bind us together as Malaysians. For I know that in the end we will remember not what UMNO told us but what they did not tell us. UMNO did not tell us that the other races share the same aspirations as we do of living a decent life, the opportunity to earn a good living and the ability to live in peace with their family.

Remember that these non-Malays are in the arena with us. They have to face the same difficulties that we face in living under a corrupt government. They too are faced with the arrogance of their political leaders from MCA and MIC as we Malays face the arrogance of those from UMNO. When the Barisan Nasional government took the subsidy from sugar they took it away not only from the Malays but also the non-Malays. We have faced this and other indignities from the Barisan Nasional government together.

We all have a devotion to our country that transcends ethnicity. For the truth is that we are all Malaysians. There will be some who will question our right to call ourselves Malaysian. Some in ignorance will claim to be the first among Malaysian and they will want to celebrate Ketuanan Melayu…but in the end they too will know that we are all Malaysians!

There was a time when UMNO meant a lot to the Malays but that was then. Now we Malays simply have to let go. It is not the end of the world; it is the beginning of a new life.

And if you want to know how the end will look like then look at our beginning. Look at the time when we got our independence in 1957 – Merdeka - maybe even before Merdeka. That was our beginning. Hopefully by the time all this ends we will all again become the best of friends. One Malaysia.


Meantime remember this:

“Only I can change my life. No one can do it for me”

Andy Warhol.

courtesy of Steadyaku47