MAKAN SUAP

The swift response of the MACC to the recommendations of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the death of Teoh Beng Hock is to be applauded. It is a good example of an enforcement agency that is clear about its raison d’etre and its role and function in the eradication of corruption. It shows that the MACC is dead serious about meeting the public demand for accountability and transparency.

Other government agencies, especially those entrusted  with handling crimes against the individual, the public at large and the state, must follow suit with well-managed public relations strategies in their efforts to  brand and position themselves as credible and trustworthy institutions serving the public good.

The MACC’s announcement that its infrastructure and hardware are to be upgraded with interviewing rooms fully equipped with high tech devises such as television cameras and three-layer recording devices is late but nevertheless welcome. This will ensure a more full-proof interviewing process for witnesses and suspects when the interview methods and techniques employed by the MACC officers will be subject to the minutest scrutiny.

The continuous education and training of the MACC staff and their exposure to the best practice adopted by successful institutions in the country and abroad must continue unimpeded by constraints in costs and logistics. It is vital that the government recognise the MACC’s efforts to fight Malaysia’s greatest moral scourge i.e. bribery and corruption, and provide a higher allocation for it.

The fact that the MACC is getting assistance in planning for its hardware and software from Hong Kong’s well-established Independent Anti-Corruption Commission will boost the commitment level of the staff as well as the MACC’s advisory boards as they become better educated about effective ways of fighting corruption in the international arena.

What has not been so effectively managed is the education of the Malaysian public in viewing bribery and corruption as the despicable crime that it is. What is still not clear in the minds of the people is that they themselves are the perpetrators of the crime they abhor in the public domain. Bribes are given and accepted by people. Abuse of power is committed by those in positions of authority. Corruption is a sin committed by individuals in the private and public sectors.

If corruption is to be successfully eradicated at all levels of the community, there must be a more concerted effort in reaching out to them at the base level of awareness. The concepts of “corruption” and “bribery” must be explained in simple terms which are relevant and easily understood by the target groups. The terms “rasuah” and “korup”  represent modern concepts. Bring back the old familiar terms like “tumbuk rusuk” or “makan suap” which were shunned in traditional societies because of the disgrace and shame they brought to the families of those who committed them.

Trainers and community leaders must be aware that the modern concepts, including related ones such as “integrity” are borrowed from their English etymology with multiple levels of meaning. For the Malaysian public more familiar with their native languages or mother tongues, the concepts have to be broken down into simpler concepts such as “honesty” or “amanah” and parallel ones in the other local languages.

For the education of the better-educated elite, the affluent and those in positions of authority, there must be Acts, rules and regulations under the purview of the MACC which provide effective constraints on the potential to commit corrupt deeds and practices. People in high positions must be as transparent and accountable as the positions they hold. Honesty here involves being honest about their assets and lifestyle which they must be prepared to declare up front, in the same breath that they declare the integrity pacts and sign them.

 

POLITICAL FUNDING

 
There’s no denying that people believe in all sorts of causes and if these fall under the purview of  the much touted “democracy and human rights” they are able to garner a lot of support, moral and financial. Huge western blocs have always imposed their political philosophies on what they perceive as the lesser civilisations cocooned in archaic and oppressive customs and traditions (measured against western standards of decorum, ethics, freedom and democracy).

I agree some of these traditions are barbaric by any standard of human behaviour e.g. death by stoning, abuse of women and children, imprisonment without trial, religious persecution, ethnic cleansing, insidious wealth accumulation, economic oppression, illegitimate government etc etc etc.
 
Currently, the key to the democracy crusade lies in eradicating corruption and abuse of power by governments and political leaders because herein lies and can lie the most atrocious crimes against the people. Democracy’s tenets of being a government of the people, by the people, for the people have been rudely shaken by the injustices committed by dictators and demagogues in the name of protecting their people and their nation’s sovereignity – which the western police of democracy say they have the unbridled, universal, democratic right to protect.

Private groups and individuals with deep pockets who are aligned to these western governments are now coming to the fore to, in their view , uphold and force democracy on every country. CLASH OF IDEOLOGIES – CLASH OF CIVILISATIONS – CLASH OF PHILOSOPHIES  take place at whatever cost! The borderless world we have created allows the free and quick flow of money, influence and power.
 
The danger lies in the societal ideals not being properly defined, managed and understood by their champions, or if properly defined, managed and understood by their proponents becoming diffused and confused when they reach the masses. 

Let’s face the universal fact that in any nation not every person has the same idea of right and wrong (conscience) or the same capacity to think sensibly and logically (reason).

Let’s face the undemocratic reality that there are deep chasms in the level of education and exposure and huge gaps in the information, knowledge and experience that people have to apply to their reasoning, if at all they apply them. What more in the downtrodden third world and emerging developing societies where irresponsible leaders hoodwink/ brainwash the gullible masses too weak or too poor or too indifferent or too beholden to care about questions of the relevance, honesty, uprightness or judiciousness of the causes and the integrity of the individuals championing them.

 
It thus  becomes incumbent upon an unaligned intelligentsia to mediate these developments – not through street demos, public outcries, officious statements, wild rhetoric or doctored videos – but in civilised and civil public spaces through engagement and dialogue. In allowing for the discourses of conscience and reason to surface and penetrate the greater public mind, we will be helping to educate our people and raise their level of thinking a notch higher.

It is for the Generation X to join forces with the Generation Y to consolidate a body of well-argued discourse at all levels to appeal not only to people’s minds but also their hearts.
 
Only by building our own strengths and resources will the nation’s people be able to free ourselves from the convenience of allowing other people to think for and dictate to us what we should and shouldn’t do for our country.

Only then can we stand up to the bribery and corruption among the local and foreign fund managers disguised as champions of democracy and human rights.

 

MALAYSIAN  NATIONALITY

I’m not so ignorant as not to know that the concept of “Malay” as defined in the Federal Constitution is not the biological entity with a DNA profile that distinguishes one group of people from another, but a socio-cultural/ political construct defined by language, culture, religion and lineage of the same. 
 
I’m well aware that “race” as Hitler understood the white Caucasian race or as contained in the discriminating principles of apartheid in South Africa, or even in the Chinese concern with the purity of their clans is being diminished by intermarriage among people of different stocks.

However Milner and later anthropologists and historians chose to trace the roots of the  Malays and the other peoples they studied, you cannot deny that  typologies of race or stock as in Aryan, Caucasian, Mongoloid, Polynesian, Arab etc have existed for a long time and were less diluted in the early days of history.
 
So yes – some Malays have more Malayo-Polynesian genes than other Malays. Those whose ancestors spoke the Malay language which was widely spoken among the local people in the Malay Achipelago and Nusantara would have assimilated better. Some have mixed ancestry coming from the intermarriage between foreign merchants (Arabs, Indians, Chinese, Portuguese, English, Achinese, Bugis etc ) seafarers from the neighbouring lands and colonialists, and the local indigenous groups of mainly Malay stock who had settled earlier. While the Jawi Peranakan (people of Malay/ Indian Muslim ancestry) assimilated completely because of the common religion Islam, the Chinese Peranakan (Baba Nyonya) did not.
 
The Arabs, Chinese and Indians especially came in different waves of migration from the 3rd century right through the 7th and throughout the British colonial period, so there were later migrants whose descendents are now the present Malaysians of Chinese, Indian etc ancestry.
 
I’m proud of my Malay ancestry (Bugis/ Minangkabau), and my mother tongue (Malay), culture and religion. Why shouldn’t I be? There are shared traits of conduct and behaviour via shared customs and traditions among the Malays as there are among the Chinese and Indians. We are all living together in Malaysia, thus share the Malaysian nationality. When Malaysians are abroad they are distinguishable by the way they speak or their accents (each ethnic group influenced by their own mother tongue) just as the Thais or Filipinos are.
 
So if your grandchildren are more racially mixed than your children, your children would be less than them and more so than you or your wife presuming you two also have a mixed ancestry.
 
I’m not denying the dream of an integrated people who call themselves Malaysians but I’m realistic and honest enough to admit we come from different racial mixtures. Perhaps the most racially pure people in any country including Malaysia are the aboriginies, the Orang Asli tribes who have strict taboos concerning intermarriage
 
NB I have left out the other Malaysian groups not because I care less but because I know less about them.

NATIONALIST? PATRIOT?

 

 

Dear Tan Sri …
 
By digging into the past and circulating these statistics especially now when the whole nation is on edge over the BERSIH rally, you and your colleagues really mean to UP the inter-racial angst not quell it – as you repeatedly say you would.
 
I’m questioning the source and intention behind the compilation of these figures. I presume they are provided by “well-meaning” Malaysian think tanks with cells in Australia and many other countries abroad. Foreign cells are also planted locally. This is a fact !
 
I don’t believe anybody can be sincere about circulating highly sensitive data for the good of all. As a former high-ranking civil servant turned corporate figure associated with think tanks like ASLI and CPPS, and many more agencies and institutions, I would expect more commitment from you in building the fabric of our nationhood, not destroying it.
 
It’s easy enough to provide an interpretation of these data. Any fool can do that. But any explanation by the authorities will be rejected by you and your cronies. Your intention is sinister indeed!
 
Halimah Mohd Said

 

 

AUSTRALIAN  MALAYSIAN STATISTICS

 

This list covers a period of about 48 years since independence (1957).

List of racial discrimination ( Malaysia ):

(1) Of the five major banks, only one is multi-racial, the rest are
controlled by Malays.

(2) 99% of Petronas directors are Malays.

(3) 3% of Petronas employees are Chinese.

(4) 99% of 2000 Petronas gasoline stations are owned by Malays.

(5) 100% all contractors working under Petronas projects must be of
Bumis status.

(6) 0% of non-Malay staff are legally required in Malay companies. But
there must be 30% Malay staffs in Chinese companies.

(7) 5% of all new intake for government police, nurses, army, are
non-Malays.

(8) 2% is the present Chinese staff in Royal Malaysian Air Force
(RMAF), a drop from 40% in 1960.

(9) 2% is the percentage of non-Malay government servants in
Putrajaya, but Malays make up 98%.

(10) 7% is the percentage of Chinese government servants in the entire
government (in 2004); a drop from 30% in 1960.

(11) 95% of government contracts are given to Malays.

(12) 100% all business licensees are controlled by Malay government,
e..g. Taxi permits, Approved permits, etc.

(13) 80% of the Chinese rice millers in Kedah had to be sold to Malay
controlled Bernas in 1980s. Otherwise, life is made difficult for
Chinese rice millers.

(14) 100 big companies set up, owned and managed by Chinese Malaysians
were taken over by government, and later managed by Malays since
1970s, e.g. UTC, UMBC, MISC, Southern Bank etc..

(15) At least 10 Chinese owned bus companies (throughout Malaysia in
the past 40 years) had to be sold to MARA or other Malay transport
companies due to rejection by Malay authorities to Chinese
applications for bus routes and rejection for their applications for
new buses..

(16) Two Chinese taxi drivers were barred from driving in Johor Larkin
bus station. There are about 30 taxi drivers and three were Chinese in
Oct. 2004. Spoiling taxi club properties was the reason given.

(17) 0 non-Malays are allowed to get shop lots in the new Muar bus
station (Nov.. 2004).

(18) 8000 billion ringgit is the total amount the government channeled
to Malay pockets through ASB, ASN, MARA,
privatization of government agencies, Tabung Haji etc, through NEP
over a 34 years period.

(19) 48 Chinese primary schools closed down from 1968 – 2000.

(20) 144 Indian primary schools closed down from 1968 – 2000.

(21) 2637 Malay primary schools built from 1968 – 2000.

(22) 2.5% is government budget for Chinese primary schools. Indian
schools got only 1%, Malay schools got 96.5%.

(23) While a Chinese parent with RM1000 salary (monthly) cannot get
school textbook loan, a Malay parent with RM2000 salary is eligible.

(24) All 10 public university vice chancellors are Malays.

(25) 5% of the government universities’ lecturers are of non-Malay
origins. This percentage has been reduced from about 70% in 1965 to
only 5% in 2004.

(26) Only 5% has been given to non-Malays for government scholarships
in over 40 years.

(27) 0 Chinese or Indians were sent to Japan and Korea under the ‘Look
East Policy.’

(28) 128 STPM Chinese top students could not get into the course to
which they aspired, i.e. Medicine (in 2004).

(29) 10% quotas are in place for non-Bumi students for MARA science
schools beginning in 2003, but only 7% are filled. Before that it was
100% Malays.

(30) 50 cases in which Chinese and Indian Malaysians are beaten up in
the National Service program in 2003.

(31) 25% of the Malaysian population was Chinese in 2004, a drop from
45% in 1957.

(32) 7% of the Malaysian population is Indian (2004), a drop from 12% in
1957.

(33) 2 million Chinese Malaysians have emigrated in the past 40 years.

(34) 0.5 million Indian Malaysians have emigrated overseas.

(35) 3 millions Indonesians have migrated to Malaysia and become
Malaysian citizens with Bumis status.

(36) 600,000 Chinese and Indian Malaysians with red IC were rejected
repeatedly when applying for citizenship in the past 40 years. Perhaps
60% of them had already passed away due to old age. This shows racism,
based on how easily Indonesians got their citizenships compared with
the Chinese and Indians.

(37) 5% – 15% discount for a Malay to buy a house, regardless whether
the Malay is rich or poor.

(38) 2% is what new Chinese villages get, compared with 98% – what
Malay villages got for rural development budget.

(41) 0 temples/churches were built for each housing estate. But every
housing estate got at least one mosque/surau built.

(42) 3000 mosques/surau were built in all housing estates throughout
Malaysia since 1970. No temples or churches
are required to be built in housing estates.

(43) 1 Catholic church in Shah Alam took 20 years to apply to have a
building constructed. But they were told by Malay authority that it
must look like a factory and not like a church. As of 2004 the
application still have not been approved.

(44) 1 publishing of Bible in Iban language banned (in 2002).

(45) 0 of the government TV stations (RTM1, RTM2, TV3) are directors
of non-Malay origin.

(46) 30 government produced TV dramas and films always showed that the
bad guys had Chinese faces, and the good guys had Malay faces. You can
check it out since 1970s. Recent years, this has become less of a
tendency.

(47) 10 times, at least, Malays (especially Umno) had threatened to
massacre the Chinese Malaysians using May 13, since 1969.

(48) 20 constituencies won by DAP would not get funds from the
government to develop. These Chinese majority constituencies would be
the last to be developed.

(49) 100 constituencies (parliaments and states) had been racially
re-delineated so Chinese votes were diluted for
Chinese candidates. This is one of the main reasons why DAP candidates
have consistently lost in elections since the 1970s. (update to 2008
needed)

(50) Only 3 out of 12 human rights items are ratified by the Malaysian
government since 1960.

(51) 0 – elimination of all forms of racial discrimination (UN Human
Rights) has not been ratified by Malaysian government since 1960s.

(52) 20 reported cases whereby Malay ambulance attendances treated
Chinese patients inhumanely, and Malay government hospital staffs
purposely delayed attending to Chinese patients in 2003. Unreported
cases may be 200.

(54) 20 cases every year whereby Chinese drivers who accidentally
knocked down Malays were seriously assaulted
or killed by Malays.

(55) 12% is what ASB/ASN got per annum while banks fixed deposits are
only about 3.5% per annum.

There are hundreds more examples of racial discrimination in Malaysia
to add to this list of ‘colossal’ racism. It is hoped that the victims
of racism will write in to help expose this situation.

The Malaysian government should publish statistics showing how much
Malays had benefited from the ‘special rights’ of Malays and at the
same time release the statistics which show how minority races are
being discriminated against.

Hence, the responsibility lies in the Malaysia government itself to
publish unadulterated statistics of racial discrimination.  If the
Malaysia government hides the statistics above, then there must be
some evil doings, immoral doings, shameful doings and sinful doings,
like the Nazis, going on with the non-Malays of Malaysia .

Civilized nations, unlike the evil Nazis, must publish statistics to
show its treatment of its minority races. This is what Malaysia must
publish. We are asking for the publication of the statistics showing
how ‘implementation of special rights of Malays’ had inflicted
colossal racial discrimination onto non-Malays.

It is a hidden form of apartheid.


This list covers a period of about 48 years since independence (1957).

List of racial discrimination ( Malaysia ):

(1) Of the five major banks, only one is multi-racial, the rest are
controlled by Malays.

(2) 99% of Petronas directors are Malays.

(3) 3% of Petronas employees are Chinese.

(4) 99% of 2000 Petronas gasoline stations are owned by Malays.

(5) 100% all contractors working under Petronas projects must be of
Bumis status.

(6) 0% of non-Malay staff are legally required in Malay companies. But
there must be 30% Malay staffs in Chinese companies.

(7) 5% of all new intake for government police, nurses, army, are
non-Malays.

(8) 2% is the present Chinese staff in Royal Malaysian Air Force
(RMAF), a drop from 40% in 1960.

(9) 2% is the percentage of non-Malay government servants in
Putrajaya, but Malays make up 98%.

(10) 7% is the percentage of Chinese government servants in the entire
government (in 2004); a drop from 30% in 1960.

(11) 95% of government contracts are given to Malays.

(12) 100% all business licensees are controlled by Malay government,
e..g. Taxi permits, Approved permits, etc.

(13) 80% of the Chinese rice millers in Kedah had to be sold to Malay
controlled Bernas in 1980s. Otherwise, life is made difficult for
Chinese rice millers.

(14) 100 big companies set up, owned and managed by Chinese Malaysians
were taken over by government, and later managed by Malays since
1970s, e.g. UTC, UMBC, MISC, Southern Bank etc..

(15) At least 10 Chinese owned bus companies (throughout Malaysia in
the past 40 years) had to be sold to MARA or other Malay transport
companies due to rejection by Malay authorities to Chinese
applications for bus routes and rejection for their applications for
new buses..

(16) Two Chinese taxi drivers were barred from driving in Johor Larkin
bus station. There are about 30 taxi drivers and three were Chinese in
Oct. 2004. Spoiling taxi club properties was the reason given.

(17) 0 non-Malays are allowed to get shop lots in the new Muar bus
station (Nov.. 2004).

(18) 8000 billion ringgit is the total amount the government channeled
to Malay pockets through ASB, ASN, MARA,
privatization of government agencies, Tabung Haji etc, through NEP
over a 34 years period.

(19) 48 Chinese primary schools closed down from 1968 – 2000.

(20) 144 Indian primary schools closed down from 1968 – 2000.

(21) 2637 Malay primary schools built from 1968 – 2000.

(22) 2.5% is government budget for Chinese primary schools. Indian
schools got only 1%, Malay schools got 96.5%.

(23) While a Chinese parent with RM1000 salary (monthly) cannot get
school textbook loan, a Malay parent with RM2000 salary is eligible.

(24) All 10 public university vice chancellors are Malays.

(25) 5% of the government universities’ lecturers are of non-Malay
origins. This percentage has been reduced from about 70% in 1965 to
only 5% in 2004.

(26) Only 5% has been given to non-Malays for government scholarships
in over 40 years.

(27) 0 Chinese or Indians were sent to Japan and Korea under the ‘Look
East Policy.’

(28) 128 STPM Chinese top students could not get into the course to
which they aspired, i.e. Medicine (in 2004).

(29) 10% quotas are in place for non-Bumi students for MARA science
schools beginning in 2003, but only 7% are filled. Before that it was
100% Malays.

(30) 50 cases in which Chinese and Indian Malaysians are beaten up in
the National Service program in 2003.

(31) 25% of the Malaysian population was Chinese in 2004, a drop from
45% in 1957.

(32) 7% of the Malaysian population is Indian (2004), a drop from 12% in
1957.

(33) 2 million Chinese Malaysians have emigrated in the past 40 years.

(34) 0.5 million Indian Malaysians have emigrated overseas.

(35) 3 millions Indonesians have migrated to Malaysia and become
Malaysian citizens with Bumis status.

(36) 600,000 Chinese and Indian Malaysians with red IC were rejected
repeatedly when applying for citizenship in the past 40 years. Perhaps
60% of them had already passed away due to old age. This shows racism,
based on how easily Indonesians got their citizenships compared with
the Chinese and Indians.

(37) 5% – 15% discount for a Malay to buy a house, regardless whether
the Malay is rich or poor.

(38) 2% is what new Chinese villages get, compared with 98% – what
Malay villages got for rural development budget.

(41) 0 temples/churches were built for each housing estate. But every
housing estate got at least one mosque/surau built.

(42) 3000 mosques/surau were built in all housing estates throughout
Malaysia since 1970. No temples or churches
are required to be built in housing estates.

(43) 1 Catholic church in Shah Alam took 20 years to apply to have a
building constructed. But they were told by Malay authority that it
must look like a factory and not like a church. As of 2004 the
application still have not been approved.

(44) 1 publishing of Bible in Iban language banned (in 2002).

(45) 0 of the government TV stations (RTM1, RTM2, TV3) are directors
of non-Malay origin.

(46) 30 government produced TV dramas and films always showed that the
bad guys had Chinese faces, and the good guys had Malay faces. You can
check it out since 1970s. Recent years, this has become less of a
tendency.

(47) 10 times, at least, Malays (especially Umno) had threatened to
massacre the Chinese Malaysians using May 13, since 1969.

(48) 20 constituencies won by DAP would not get funds from the
government to develop. These Chinese majority constituencies would be
the last to be developed.

(49) 100 constituencies (parliaments and states) had been racially
re-delineated so Chinese votes were diluted for
Chinese candidates. This is one of the main reasons why DAP candidates
have consistently lost in elections since the 1970s. (update to 2008
needed)

(50) Only 3 out of 12 human rights items are ratified by the Malaysian
government since 1960.

(51) 0 – elimination of all forms of racial discrimination (UN Human
Rights) has not been ratified by Malaysian government since 1960s.

(52) 20 reported cases whereby Malay ambulance attendances treated
Chinese patients inhumanely, and Malay government hospital staffs
purposely delayed attending to Chinese patients in 2003. Unreported
cases may be 200.

(54) 20 cases every year whereby Chinese drivers who accidentally
knocked down Malays were seriously assaulted
or killed by Malays.

(55) 12% is what ASB/ASN got per annum while banks fixed deposits are
only about 3.5% per annum.

There are hundreds more examples of racial discrimination in Malaysia
to add to this list of ‘colossal’ racism. It is hoped that the victims
of racism will write in to help expose this situation.

The Malaysian government should publish statistics showing how much
Malays had benefited from the ‘special rights’ of Malays and at the
same time release the statistics which show how minority races are
being discriminated against.

Hence, the responsibility lies in the Malaysia government itself to
publish unadulterated statistics of racial discrimination.  If the
Malaysia government hides the statistics above, then there must be
some evil doings, immoral doings, shameful doings and sinful doings,
like the Nazis, going on with the non-Malays of Malaysia .

Civilized nations, unlike the evil Nazis, must publish statistics to
show its treatment of its minority races. This is what Malaysia must
publish. We are asking for the publication of the statistics showing
how ‘implementation of special rights of Malays’ had inflicted
colossal racial discrimination onto non-Malays.

It is a hidden form of apartheid.