Part 2
...The non-Malays can have their own schools, if they so want, their language, culture and religion. They have so many organisations that voice and represent their interests. They are quite capable of effecting change - as in obtaining agreement for the amendment of the Education act. Inded, one State in Malaysia has even been recognised as a de facto Chinese State.
All this has been made possible because the Malays - through UMNO - have met their side of the bargain. Without UMNO, as presently constituted, the future for the non-Malays would be bleak indeed.
In the general election early this month, UMNO decisively displayed its strength as the force of Malay moderation, beating back the challenge of Malay religious extremism. Did the non-Malay, particularly Chinese parties in the Barisan Nasional deliver? Not only did they not deliver, they compounded it by making NEP the scapegoat for their feeble performance.
It is most dangerous to make an issue of the policy most fundamental to the stability of the political system. What is worse, they are using it to deflect attention from the internal squabbles and personal mismanagement which have reduced the MCA to something approaching a shambles.
It is not only too true that UMNO too has its internal problems, but it has shown itself once again to be quite capable of uniting to win an election most decisively. Let not the magnitude of the achievement by UMNO under Dr Mahathir's leadership be underestimated because of the admittedly huge problem posed to the MCA (and Gerakan) by the urban Chinese voters.
But what does UMNO get for its pains? Attempts to cut the ground from under its feet by challenging the policy of the Government (in which all the major races are represented) intended also to meet obligations to the Malays.
UMNO pushed back the forces of religious extremism among the Malays to sustain the dominance of accomodative politics in multiracial Malaysia. But if UMNO is pushed into a position of having to fight to ensure the system of Malay political dominance because of incessant attacks on it, the character of UMNO leadership and its moderating influence could very well change.
We have to ask ourselves if we want to deal with a different kind of Malay from the one who dominate the political system now. That different Malay will no longer have any kind of English educational affiliation but will be thoroughly Malay. He will no longer be secular in outlook but theorcratic. He will be not just Islamic but Islamic a la Iran.
That is a different creed altogether, the way they dress, their manner of salutation, what they think of non-Muslims. I invited Professor Chan Heng Chee just before election to Kok Lanas in Kelantan and she saw examples from Universiti Teknologi Malaysia. And they are nothing compared to the new PAS people!
If we paused to think of the meaning of this we will be grateful for the system that we have. We must do everything in our pwoer to ensure that it does not happen. Indeed, we should be striving hard to make the present system work and to make the present system stronger.
Neighbouring states such as Singapore, with its intertwined history, have an important role to play in moderating Malaysian Chinese assertion. Singapore must not put itself up as the alternative and viable Chinese dominant system in the Malay sea through formal or informal and individual channels.
Singapore must make it clear that the present Malaysian political system is the only system there can be instead of allowing Malaysian Chinese to hold out for the hope of something else as was campaigned for when Singapore was part of Malaysia. Singapore can do a lot more to allay that ghost.
The Malay obsession with political dominance is conditioned in no small measure by what has happened to the Malay minority in Singapore. Malaysia will not now interfere in the internal affairs of Singapore to give hope to the Malays.
At the same time Singapore must not hold out any hope for the Chinese for a different system in Malaysia. The position Singapore takes will affect us, and if the Malays feel further threatened, they might even consider a merger with Indonesia.
I know they are many Malays who have been telling me they would rather share poverty with Indonesia than see their political position eroded. If that happened, we will have a different ball game again in the regional politics of South-East Asia.
In this connection, we will perhaps reflect on how and why Indonesian and Filipino illegal immigrants became an issue in Malaysia. Although the illegal immigrants are now the subject of considerable disdain and displeasure, we should perhaps ask ourselves how they got there in such numbers in the first place.
We should further ask ourselves if they would have been exposed to the current displeasure without the severe downturn in the economy, if the people concerned were not such rock-bottom quality that they caused social and criminal problems. In other words, the problem of illegal Indonesian and Filipino immigrants may not have become an issue at all.
Insofar as the Chinese in Malaysia are concerned, the MCA particularly must be doing all it can to explain and to strengthen the NEP instead of undermining it. They must make very clear the place of the Chinese in the Malaysian political system. They must underline its benefits. They must represent the Chinese as effectively as they can within that context.
Let them remind the Chinese that the NEP does not rob them but only apportions, in a growing environment, stakes in the economy so as to guarantee the stability from which they can further enjoy the fruits of the rich resources of Malaysia.
Even in that appointment, if we take the corporate sector, the Chinese entitlement is 40 percent which is more than the 30 per cent allocated for the Malays - which is disproportionate in terms of the racial composition of the country and which certainly makes a nonsence of the allegation of total Malay domination. There is enough for all to enjoy as long as the system stays in place. It would not stay in place if, at every turn, it is going to be questioned, even demeaned.
After the recent election, further aspersions have been cast at the system, including the assertion that it is not democratic. One complainant is the rural weightage in constituency delineation - as if it is unique to Malaysia and, of course, again bringing up the racial dimension in constituency composition.
This, off course, occurs everywhere, including in the United States where urban constituencies such as New York have 300,000 voters while rural constituencies such as in Iowa have only 36,000 voters. In Singapore too, I can quote examples of glaring disparaties in the population size of constituencies.
As for the racial composition of rural constituencyes against urban ones, that is just how people are rooted in our country. Mind you, we do not limit or control population migration in any way. But, as everywhere else, economic opportunities determine concentration of population. Those who wish to ensure weightage of votes at the cost of economic benefit can by all means move into the rural areas.
Then again there have been calls for a strong opposition, even the sense of disappointment that such strong opposition did not materialise. Let us think again. A strong opposition? From which party? PAS and the DAP? One a religious extremist party which does not accept the present system and the other a racial chauvanist party which also does not accept the present system.
Do those who make such calls realise what they are saying? Alas, they include former leaders who should know better. Former Prime Minister Hussein Onn, for instance, has discovered a new love for the opposition whom he did not tolerate when he was in power. It is, off course easy to take such positions when you are out of power, but your true colurs are to be seen when you are right in power.
How can anyone be the exemplar of tolerance for the opposition when he puts so many people away because he accepted no challenge? I should know because I was one of those put away on the trumped-up charges of being a crypto-Communist or was it pro-Communist?
Do you realise that in Hussein's time there were as many as 600-800 in detention and that now there are not only about 30 or so hard-core Communists inside? Strong opposition indeed!
I call, therefore, for a true understanding of the Malaysian political system before we run riot over the issues in the politics of my country.
I call for a sense of perspective before we are taken in by apparent appeals to liberal good sense. Most of all, to Singaporeans, I call for acceptance of the Malaysian political system as I have described it.
Let not Singapore be the harbinger of Chinese irredentist tendencies. I say to all - the Chinese in Malaysia and to Singaporean - don't play with fire.
Source: http://pesanan-pesanan.blogspot.com/2008/12/ucapan-malay-dominance-abdullah-ahmad.html