Stay put, don’t come home to racism and bigotry

Dear Uncle Nades,

Please help me. I need some advice and guidance on a matter that would affect my career and future.

Over the past few days, I have received calls from my father asking me to reconsider coming back to what he calls “being a family once again”.

Although he had done so after I qualified, each time telling him that I would return when the time was right.

After the general election last year, he again reminded me that we have a new government that would be fair and equitable to all.

My response at that time was to wait and see how things pan out. In the meantime, I would work in the UK for another year before I decided.

I know the affirmative policies and to put it bluntly, I was a victim. Despite good grades, I never got help from anyone except to say that I studied using my father’s scholarship.

Uncle, you remember that you even helped me with the applications to various government agencies for a scholarship but they were all turned down.

If you recall, you even agreed to become one of the guarantors if I got the Public Services Department scholarship but it did not happen.

Instead, my father had to remortgage the house to fund my studies. Of course, over the years, I have paid up and redeemed the mortgage and I still send him money monthly.

Please advise me and please talk to my father on this matter.

Thank you.

Ah Boy

Nothing has changed

Dear Ah Boy,

Please do not ever come back. You don’t owe anyone anything except your father, and I am glad you sought advice.

You will not be the first to stay put. I am aware that there are at least 1,000 Malaysians working in London’s financial district, better known as the Square Mile, who are permanently domiciled in the UK.

Almost all systems in the country are skewed and the administrators in the government see ethnicity in everything - from selection and appointments to promotions.

The government is aware of the large number of Malaysians emigrating but does not want to address the elephant in the room. Instead, a lot of rhetoric is dished out from the prime minister downwards.

The promised reforms have been put on the back burner while the country is spiralling to the deep end with race and religion being the pivotal subjects for political support.

At every turn, race and religion dominate - not knowledge, skill, or experience. The meritocracy that was promised has been thrown out of the window, and nothing - zilch - has changed.

No one wants to address such issues for fear of losing votes from the rural vote bank and we even have a religious man seated in important decision-making positions.

Even the budget and our laws are scrutinised by these people so that they comply with what they perceive as God’s laws.

The promises that your father and I believed (or rather fell for) a year ago were just empty promises and they had no intentions of fulfilling them.

As one commentator said about Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim: “His promises falter, his stance falters; his promises of change appear to be only loud chatter.”

Instead, we are given excuses for non-implementation of the promises and we are at wit’s end on how to ensure the promised changes take place.

But without fail, every year, there will be a ‘rombongan’ (delegation) of senior government officials and recruiters who would come touring like a rock band on tour, tempting you with all kinds of incentives to return and “serve the nation” as they would put it.

Finally, your British wife may well adapt to our lifestyle but she cannot work. So, all her years at medical school and then as a general practitioner will go to waste. She cannot even work as a locum. Besides, there are language and cultural barriers to cross.

What about your two sons? What kind of environment would they grow up in their formative years? They will end up in an education system where there is a class division based on race and religion which rule supreme over studies.

They will grow up facing hatred and abhorrence at every turn.

I will certainly speak with your father, who I know misses you but the solution is simple. You earn enough as a medical specialist to come home at least once in six months or buy flight tickets for your parents to spend time with you in London.

All the best.

Uncle Nades

-Mkini

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R NADESWARAN says that when a government lawmaker suggests that constituencies be delineated according to race, it becomes the perfect prelude to destroying our founding fathers’ dreams of unity and equality in our cosmopolitan state. Comments: citizen.nades22@gmail.com.

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of MMKtT.