Monday, August 4, 2008

Racial politics remains top issue

The Malaysian Insider quotes Dr Chua Soi Lek as saying the following in a four-corner debate in RTM2 Sunday night:

"If Umno does not change, the Chinese and Indians will not vote for BN. The MCA, MIC and Gerakan will have to close shop".
"The MCA must tell Umno to take a more multiracial approach."
Read more of the report here.
And, as if to underline the adverse impact that communal politics is having on Malaysian society, I was stunned to read a report in the Star Online that a school teacher in SMK Telok Panglima Garang near Banting, Selangor had uttered racist remarks towards Malaysian students of Indian ethnicity such as, keling pariah, Negro, black monkeys as well as other derogatory names!
The teacher had purportedly said that ‘Indians came from dogs’ and the community members were stupid and prone to thuggery and thievery.

The police reports also alleged that the teacher had said that Indians were the ‘children of prostitutes’ and the community’s youths ‘did not have testicles’ on July 17 and 22, and had also purportedly beaten up some Indians students.
I did not invent the above. Read the Star Online report here.

I really and truly believe that communal politics is sustaining this type of racism and racial stereotyping because communal politics prevents Malaysians from different ethnic groups from interacting at a real and effective level. And, political and economic policy decisions are made on the basis of ethnicity.
It also says a lot about the rotten education system in Malaysia, particularly the manner in which teachers are trained. Everything is rotten. Education standards are declining to alarming rates as passing grades are lowered to enable more mediocre students to pass.
School Principals seem to be appointed on the basis that they deserve a higher pay scale prior to retirement. And these near-retirement principals are often too busy trying to create construction and renovation projects (with rent-seeking and bribery potential?).
This is a very disturbing situation that has to be remedied immediately.
Going back to Dr Chua Soi Lek, who made the remarks at the beginning of this blog, in an all-Chinese debate on RTM2, these are my observation; Dr Chua takes the stupid route of saying that UMNO must become multiracial or else, the MCA, MIC and Gerakan will have to close shop. That is the stupidity of non-Malay parties within BN. Even at a critical juncture like this, they are WAITING for UMNO to make the first move!
Is it any wonder, then, that such racist remarks can be made by teachers in SMKs (National Secondary Schools)? This is another example why Malaysians have to go beyond sending BN a message and calling their votes anti-BN or protest votes, all of which phrases imply that BN is still the primary choice. BN has had 50 years to create a Malaysian nationality, culture and education. But going by the behaviour of that teacher in SMK Telok Panglima Garang, BN has utterly and comprehensively failed.
And, don't tell us that this is only one bad apple, because, such excuses are unacceptable. The system must ensure that no racism at all should exist anywhere in Malaysia.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Forgive & forget Dr Chuah.
After the sex scandle, he had been over dosed.
Like it or not, communal politic,like the dinausor, will just come and go.

Anonymous said...

It was plain to see for all that MCA is just a puppet of its master UMNO from the way they talk.

It is just like a smoker who wants to quit smoking saying that his smoker friends would have to take the first step in quitting before he will do the same. His action depends on another and not proactive. How could he changed himself in this way?

BN and for that matter, all its component parties will never change. And that is a fact and the truth. No more protest or sympathy votes, i say. Vote for a change for good this time!

de minimis said...

Well, we've all got to keep reminding whoever is in charge that communal politics is one of the major causes of problems in this country. No one can deny that communalism is the basis for the NEP. And, the NEP is the Mother of everything that is dragging down Malaysia's competitiveness - in education, in business, integration...everything.

I have no problems with Dr Chua and his libido. It is the communal politics that MCA espouses that I have a problem with.