Writer Nani Fazlur Rahman is right, poverty knows no race

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YOURSAY | ‘The problem is we don't have enough people like Nani, instead we have too many bigots.’

Bersatu entrenches belief that ‘Malay rights’ are under threat

Tan Kim Keong: Wow, writer Nani Fazlur Rahman is so spot on with her assertion the 'bumiputera first' politics takes away from the real problems of corruption, poverty and under-development.

Having said that, the real root cause is the absence of universal values and beliefs, such as human rights, justice and diversity, among these politicians. They don't have them, hence we are witnessing violation of human rights, injustice, ominous show of supremacy, bigotry and racism here.

Oxymoronictendencies: The immediate real problem of the country is not racism or racial politics. It is the kleptocratic government, the head of which has allegedly orchestrated the theft of tens of billions of ringgit from the rakyat.

Racism is a tool used by this kleptocratic government. Sometimes you have to fight fire with fire.

Anonymous 568201438363345: This is the single biggest stumbling block of why certain people cannot come out from the comfort zone. I don't see how for the next 50 years they will gain the ability to compete.

Just look at Proton and MAS (Malaysia Airlines). After more than 20 years, they are still oblivious as to why they continue to fail. Just look at Samsung, can you tell the difference?

The Analyser: Nani is right, poverty knows no race. And the reality is that Malay rights are predominantly for the lower-income bracket. Although to call them rights, which is a bit of a misnomer, they are only rights when the BN government thinks they need to buy something from the Malays, like votes.

The Malays themselves should unite to show they are not selfish by extending their rights to become Malaysian rights. It’s pretty obvious that none of the political parties are interested in anyone else's rights but their own, so perhaps the Malays can show the way to the future.

Anonymous 1890491455255851: After decades of being told they should fear the non-Malays and that only Umno can protect them from having their rights taken away, it goes without saying that it will unfortunately take time to re-frame the minds of especially the rural Malays, to not see the non-Malays as a threat.

I hope that the founders of this new Malay party can see the mistakes of Umno more clearly from the outside, how it has done incredible damage to our society and ensure that it is not continued.

YHJ: What a flawed piece of writing. It is as if the writer was afraid of the new party, like many Umno leaders. But if Bersatu doesn't do what Umno is doing to woo Malay voters, the new party will fail.

It's very idealistic to think that the new party should not be capitalising on Malay fears. Bersatu leaders know all the strategies used by Umno and should use them to woo the voters in constituencies where Umno had won in the previous election.

And after winning the seats, Bersatu would still have to work with PKR and DAP. Hence, the views of non-Malays will be heard. It is the only way to get rid of a corrupt and arrogant regime.

Angry Citizen: Now here is a Malay we who cares for his or her country, the rest are more interested in short-term gains.

Anonymous_1371477558: The problem with this country is we don't have enough people like Nani Fazlur, instead we have too many bigots.

Pale Blue Dot - a message from the cosmos

Anonymous 57881434617666: Here’s something to ponder - according to the Fermi Paradox, the statistical chances of other intelligent beings existing within solar systems in the known universe is there.

So why hasn't contact been made? There are many theories, but I want to talk about just one - space and time.

It takes 2.537 million years at the speed of light to reach the nearest galaxy Andromeda. In fact, it would take 15.3 light years to reach the nearest solar system and 100,000 light years to traverse the width of the Milky Way.

Sadly, in our lifetime, we're not going to send probes to a new planet outside our solar system. So to RK Anand and Arthur C Clarke, our failure to make contact with other intelligent beings has nothing to do with their contempt for humans. It just takes too darn long.

MerelyOne: Anonymous 57881434617666, your stats could well be correct, but think about it, if you had the capability to communicate with other intelligent beings, would you really bother with humans?

OMG!: Mmm, this pale blue dot thingy doesn't quite cut it. A picture taken from billions of kilometres away has absolutely no relevance to my pressing concerns of the moment.

Breakthrough Starshot, a project backed by entrepreneur Yuri Milner and supported by theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking, hopes to fabricate tiny probes that will ‘ride’ powerful laser beams into interstellar space.

If the technology is viable, it's possible that swarms of these probes could attain the high speeds required.

Icarus Interstellar is currently researching a number of technologies and techniques that may bridge interstellar distances and other groups like the 100 Year Star Ship project is currently setting up an infrastructure for a possible human mission to the stars in the next century. The closest stars to Earth are Alpha Centauri and Proxima Centauri which are about 4.25 light years away.

Thus, if we travel at 10 percent of light speed, it will take about 42 years to get there. Provided there are Earth-like planets in the Goldilocks zone there which might sustain life. Meeting extra-terrestrial life is question of ‘when’, not ‘if’.

But we should fear aliens - if they're like us. -Mkini