WHY DO WE HAVE AN UMNO APARTHEID SYSTEM?
THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN CHINESE & UMNO MALAY MENTALITY
When Islam was 100 years old it was taken to China and since 800 AD Islam as a religion co-existed peacefully with local Chinese cultures and religions. The Chinese tolerated and lived peacefully with Muslims of foreign and local descendants. They were accepted as part of Chinese culture. Muslims made great contributions to Chinese history and culture as exemplified by Laksmana Zheng He (Cheng Ho).
The Chinese have for millenium ventured around Nanyang. Under western colonialism large numbers of Chinese came to S.E. Asia as bonded labourers and merchants. They came to Malaya and the now Malayan colonies of Sabah and Sarawak and contributed to building up the local economies.
They lived peacefully and prospered through largely self-reliant industrious economic activities. Yes they had a strong sense of their culture and education was the best way to preserve it. However under the British colonial system English was promoted as the medium of success. The British did not assist the Chinese schools but they survived. The Chinese adapted quickly and became successful in using English as their medium to success in life. Unfortunately the English educated Chinese lost the vital key to Chinese culture (ability to read and write Chinese) and most had barely a skeletal understand of their own culture. At the same time the Chinese also absorb the local culture through inter marriage and observing local cultural practices. In Sabah and Sarawak they integrated well with the “native” people.
The British as in all their colonies without exception including in Ireland, instituted an apartheid system of divide and rule from the beginning. They played the Chinese against the local people and portrayed them as exploiters and the local people accepted this without seeing that the greatest exploiters and plunderers were their colonial masters.
Even in those days the British held the Malays in contempt and called them lazy (why would they want to serve the foreign master?) and so the British imported Chinese and Indian labourers for their plantations. The failure to involve the Malays lead to their being disadvantaged in a western style money economy. Mostly it was the privileged Malay rulers and aristocrats who were able to benefit from the new system.
When the British handed the governance of Malaya to the new UMNO regime, the new Malay rulers could see that they were at a great disadvantage with a large uneducated Malay masses unprepared to run the country as compared to a better organised and educated Chinese population. They tried to correct this imbalance. Unfortunately while some Malay leaders may have genuine intentions, their best plans quickly became corrupted as a greater number saw grasping political power as the quickest way to enrich themselves.
So UMNO cleverly designed a system based on the South African model of promoting Malay supremacy and religion. This helped to preserve their power and position as the majority of Malays would support them. They had stepped into the British colonial jackboots very smoothly. They both used racism on one hand to divide and rule and at the same time gained the trust of Chinese merchants and form business relationships with them. This Ali Baba relationship developed further as more Malays began to share the rich Malayan cake. This cake was enlarged when the British hand over the colonial control of Sabah and Sarawak to the UMNO regime under their neo-colonial Malaysia plan. The 2 colonies were treasure chests which UMNO immediately set about to loot their oil wealth without mercy.
Thus for some 55 years in Malaya and 49 years in the 2 Borneo colonies, the UMNO regime and cronies prospered under the New Economic Policy enabling them to rob and loot the 3 countries and exploit the people as cheap labour under the name of “economic development”. The UMNO regime like the British also used mass transmigration to get cheap labour which by the late 1980s the growth of oil palm plantations had given rise to a demand for labour and especially cheap labour.
The import of cheap Indonesian labour has a more sinister purpose. Under the Mahathir dictatorship, mass transmigration of Indonesians into Malaya and Sabah increased dramatically. This was a tactic to increase and strengthen UMNO’s electoral base by giving these new migrants the right to vote. In nationalist terms UMNO betrayed its own Malays and Malaya and the Borneo colonies from the very invasion which was used to justify the creation of neo-Malaysia.
After more than 50 years of milking the riches of the 3 countries, it reached as stage where there was less to share around. As the dust settled, the Malays in general found that they were very much still at square one where they started in 1957.
Yes, UMNO had “developed” the country and created a new class of Malay. But it was just a small wealthy class and middle class which had engorged on the wealth of the land and pampered and spoon fed themselves with exclusive right to government jobs and education. The balance of Malays remained dirt poor. UMNO raised the expectations of alal Malays that they could get something for nothing and did not have to work for it. It was the grab all mentality of the British rulers. Unfortunately it also worked to the great disadvantage of the Malays themselves. It keep them “underdeveloped” and lagging behind the Chinese. But they are not stupid either. They realise this now and hate UMNO for it.
But UMNO apartheid policies made the majority of Chinese disenchanted with the discrimination in education and jobs and other opportunities and as rightful citizens while they are forced to maintain a corrupt system through having to pay 80% of all taxes from their hard work.
No wonder that there is such a huge brain drain from Malaya Sabah and Sarawak!
So what is the point of such a long sermon?
It is time that the Malays realise that under UMNO’s protection they have been turned into selfish self promoting people who cannot tolerate other races and think that they only own the country. But they must understand that they are also migrants in Malay and now flooding Sabah and Sarawak. They need to look at China and see that if the Chinese can tolerated and live peacefully with Muslims and share the rich harvests of the land why can’t Malays do that?
Malay brothers and sisters check out this link on tolerance – http://youtu.be/1sxEmibtueE