RACISM IN MALAYSIA. SERIOUS DISCUSSION. HANDLE WITH RESPECT.

Okay, first of all, hello!

So as the thread says, this thread is meant to discuss about the phenomena of racism in malaysia. There is no doubt that a lot of the policies we see in malaysia are racist in nature, due to the fact that the decision whether to offer some form of help is based on type of race rather than other form of criteria such as meritocracy or income level. Thus it is hoped that through this thread, we could perhaps find some way of trying to get rid of racism in malaysia.

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A short story:

Actually this thread has kind of a leeeetle history. It actually originated from forum.lowyat.net, has been created twice, and those two times the thread broke the 20page barrier, and has been also deleted twice. It recently got deleted for the 2nd time. This is mainly because a number of the forumers at lowyat.net posted crap and irrelevant single line sentences in the threads, and that a flame war was about to break out. But most importantly, it was felt that a number of the forumers at lowyat.net were not ready for such a mature level of discussion. I've heard that forumers here are more reasonable, and that is why i've moved to this new home. So i sincerely hope that there will be no irrelevant posts here and no flame-like posts here, cos it was because of these kinds of posts that the previous threads got deleted in lowyat.net.

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So happy posting y'all!!! Let us make this discussion a constructive one and hope that we can minimize racism to a minimal level in msia!!!

So guys, what's your take on racism in malaysia?

 

Hmm... I smell something fishy here.

But what is there to discuss actually? Every country there's racism.

And I don't think racism is a big problem here in Malaysia.

 

Yes it is true that racism transcends borders. But the problem is that the policies in malaysia EXPLICITLY discriminate you by race, whereas in other countries, especially advanced nations, although yes there is racism, but it occurs more at an individual level, whereas in malaysia it occurs throughout the entire institutional level, whereby the a lot of policies in malaysia are discriminative in nature in terms of race.

 

heheh, chai, removing the bumiputera special rights MIGHT result in equality, but some bumiputeras would not be happy with it. So what the team at lowyat came up in the past was that why not extend the special privileges that the bumis have to poor people in general instead? Or the disabled instead? Instead of completely removing it from the bumis, the privileges should be given to poor/disabled people, and that includes bumis and non-bumis as well. Cos as far as i've gathered, a lot of the poor bumis aren't getting the privileges that they're supposed to get. Usually it's the more well-to-do or rich bumis who have a higher chance of enjoying these privileges.

 

OK IMHO, I dun think Malaysia has racism problem I mean we dun have wat US had back in the 50s or 60s. We have co-exist in all fields.

I think is more to do wif the politics, remember Malays is the majority race in Malaysia (Malay and other indigenous 58%, Chinese 24%, Indian 8%, others 10% (2000) - taken from http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/my.html hehehe look CIA!!!) The government wants Malays' support more than the rest.

Most privileges was put in back in the Days when Malays is behind other races and more importantly to portect themselves (remember our ancestors were imigrants), it was suppose to last 50 years or so only (which by right have expired not long ago). But as human we all take things for granted, and as time goes by they had become somewhat...u get the idea.

Anyway taking away this suddenly will cause an uproar in the Malays and may trigger another May 13th....but government are slowy lowering some of the privileges (hardly noticable ). And remember government need Malays' support or we'll fall under PAS rulling ...think about racism then....

Personally I would put the blame more onto ur leaders at MCA and MCI, they all chickens and pupets of UMNO. They never fight for our rights.

 

We can start by removing the bumiputras/non-bumi in forms that we fill in. When I filll that kind of form, I went WTF?

It's like saying, Malaysians and non-Malaysians.

 

hieeeee shogun!!!!!!!!!.........welcome 2 rojakpot......... .............careful wat u say about lowyat........dat god admin se7en alwiz come spy spy........
yahh.......the constitution & law in malaysia is racist!!!!!!!!.........2 be bumiputra & get all the special privilege......u not onli must be malay or aborigine ppl......u must also be MUSLIM!!!!!!!! ........if u r malay but dun wan 2 be muslim.......then u r not a bumiputra.......

 

heiii shogun.......i remember mad1.....adrian......discuss about bumiputra status in malaysia........u search & see......got topic on dis b4........

 

Hie.. well..hmm.. i'm from lowyat.net as well. Kinda sad to see both threads related to Racism went into the wrong direction..and deleted. I'm very suprised with the response here as not many are aware of racism existence in malaysia. hmm.. which of you managed to participate/view the racism thread back in lowyat.net?

 

hieeeee.......why ur threads get deleted?????? ......nvrm.......must be dat se7en guy again.......
naaa.......we discuss b4 about racism.........search & see.......got 2-3threads.......i remember coz adrian wrote very power posts.....

 

Racism? not an issue........just the bumis have special priviledges.......well it's after all Malaysia isn't it? i don't see it as a big problem. everyone's happy as it is........so why fix something that not broken?

 

haha.... hey TungstenBoy..... nah..... its deleted not due to se7en..... its deleted for good..... coz certain immature members posted some immature replies and flaming remarks...... so its deleted before things go out of hand......

 

There a big difference between racial discriminations and our bumiputeras privileges, take some times and think deep.....in your heart do u think Malays look down on other races. No, I dun think so.

If you say they do then I'll say other races look down on them too.

We still go to the same public toilets, we still eat in the same restaurants (ok at least for HALAL restaurant). Heck we all go to the same school.

They dun force thier Islamic laws on us, not even in the PAS control states (well maybe just a bit). The constitution permits other races in the Parlimen.

Note: there is a big difference.

However I do think that the privileges should be tone down more than it is now, I admit is not fair, we all are Malaysian why should we be threated differently. But to abolish all privileges....dream on...is impossible... not even in a hundred years.

Religion and races will always be a problem, if not there wouldn't have been the crusades, there wouldn't have been holy wars. Heck World War II would not even happened, Hilter would not have kill all those Jews. Even though we are a multi racial states, our constitution states Islam as our National Religion, it will never change. Having multiple religion in a same country will always be a problem, if not why East Timor (majority Roman Catholic) wants to declare independent from Indonesia (Islamic majority).

LIFE IS NOT FAIR, LIVE WITH IT!, but I'm not saying we should not fight for it. Just dun take it as racism cause it's not.

In other note, did u know that France recently pass a bill to forbit students wearing headscarf to school......ironically to discourage racial discrimination or something like that......

 

nola... tungstenboy... dun say se7en like that la... he deleted for a good reason, and i believed he was doing the right thing. Cos with the ways things were going in the former threads, if he din delete it, there would be more hatred created instead of solving the issue at hand.

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falcone: well put! we are not asking for a change overnight, but instead, as u put it, we are asking for gradual change, in terms of policies formulated by the government. Change always has to come gradually, or else you'll end up having a revolution or civil war.

you also mentioned concerning the difference between racial discrimination and bumiputera privileges. However, isn't giving privileges based on race discriminating in itself?

and the racism i'm talking about extends beyond different races looking down on each other. it also involves stereotyping different races with certain traits---- these lines should sound very familiar to you
1. malays are lazy bums
2. chinese are cheaters/ swindlers
3. indians are (i forgot the stereotype)
okay, before some of you get pissed off, i'm just reporting stereotypes that i remember from other people, i myself do not believe in these generalizations.

And racism does create a serious problem for our country. I've noticed that most of you think that it's not THAT serious, so let me post my opinion. For example, the education sector. Due to the racial quota policy implemented by the government for entrance to universities, a number of bright students in the country were not able to enter the unis or get their intended major. Thus, they decided to study overseas, and this causes our country to lose a number of intellectuals. This loss of intellectual to other nations IS a serious problem, as it slows down the pace of development in our country. However, now i've heard that the government is implementing the meritocracy system instead. I don't know how well that is going now, but as you can see, imagine the number of intellectuals that we have lost in the past 40+ years and thus the slowdown in development of our nation.

 

Hehehe ok, I'm not saying it's not a problem, it is a problem. But I think u put it too seriously. Yes is true the university quota sucks big time, if not I wouldn't be where I am rite now. But please note that recently government did some changes to the quota, and cause some uproar (well maybe not exactly an uproar), but it did happen.

It has been like this for fifty years, it'll never change over night. Live with it.

You say is a serious problem, well life is full of problems. Drug is a problem, prostitute is a problem, smoking is a problem, domestic abuse is a problem. It's easy to point out a problem than to solve it.

I personal think is no point to keep pointing at the problem but instead be more productive and give a solution.....u have any?

Come to think of it, I dun see how this thread is going to help the situation by keep stating the issue again and again.

 

Shogun has put up a good discussion on this.

In the racism situation there are some things can be changed through people's mindset but some things are permanent due to how some policies are formed which are not equally favourable to all races. Someone might say it has been written and agreed by all races. But remember that it was signed by the representatives of each race and not by the individuals. The policy makers from MCA and MIC are more well off than average people, surely they won't mind the disparity of treatment as they have more than enough in life.

On Malaysia as a whole, it seems that Non-Bumis are still look upon as migrants or less Malaysian than the bigger cake. The government often use the word "TOLERANCE" of races which shows that they do not really seem to treat Non-Bumis as Malaysias but rather another migrant who is clinging on our motherland. There was an interesting article written by a reader of Malaysia kini which raise a point of "Don't tolerate but accept us (Non-Bumis) are Malaysians".

With all the efforts of racial unity like National Service and Bangsa Malaysia, it won't do any good if the mindset of the government is still "tolerating" rather than to accept other races as Malaysians.

 

erm... suggestion ar.... okay, here's one. 8)

to begin with, there has to be a change in the mindset of the people. it might sound scary, but there are some bumis out there (i don't know how many) who still think of the non-bumis in terms of "immigrants".

I'll cite an example once given by a forumer (of whom i won't name), his story went like this:

"There's a mom and her child and her child's friend. The mom divides the cake among the child and the child's friend, and every time the child gets a larger portion of the cake whereas the child's friend gets a smaller portion of the cake. Why does the child get the larger portion of the cake? Simple! This is because the child is closer to the mother and no matter what, the child's friend can never become a son/daughter to the mom."

I think you guys should know by now that in the story, the forumer was referring to the child as bumis and the child's friend as the non-bumi. Of course NOT ALL bumis think like this, but for certain there are a number who think like this. So by getting rid of such a mindset, we'll be able to do away with some amount of racial prejudice at the individual level.