Yesterday, i sent out invitations to the forum "Malaysia Baru: Senario Politik Masakini", to a number of friends and acquaintances. One of them replied: "The last election, the concept of Bangsa or Ketuanan Melayu has been rejected. Especially if you're young. Does anyone in UMNO "get" that??" (translation: ketuanan melayu=malay supremacy). i was shocked, to say the least. one, coz it came from a fellow malay. two, coz it was very blunt. all the way home, i kept thinking about it.
so i have to ask this question - is it really so? that the concept of Ketuanan Melayu has been rejected, by the malays? if yes, then why the malays, especially the young ones, are rejecting it? and what can UMNO do to correct it, if it can at all?
before we answer that, what is actually Ketuanan Melayu? for me, ketuanan melayu simply means that political powers reside with the malays. ketuanan melayu does not mean malays are superior than other races. ketuanan melayu does not mean malays get all, keep all. ketuanan melayu does not mean malays can do whatever they like, whenever they like. in fact, ketuanan melayu is meant to remind malays to stay united and stay focus. it is meant to instill pride so that malays can stand tall with other races of the world. it is to remind the malays of their roots, culture and history. so ketuanan melayu is not meant to scare or belittle other races. far from it. we lost our political and economic powers for more than 400 years. why? because of our own internal squablings and jealousy. we know what happened before. history must not and can not repeat itself. once bitten, twice shy!
this is my own understanding of ketuanan melayu. others may have their own interpretations. and their actions are based on their own interpretations of ketuanan melayu. so you have malays spread across the board - from one extreme to the other. but i believe the majority of the malays are in the middle - recognising the fact that we live in a multi racial country. as such subscribing to the principles of sharing, tolerance and understanding. working together. and co-exist. should malays be apologetic when they speak out about rights and privilleges? no. should other races question these rights and privilleges? no. why? coz nobody is going to win if we go down that road. these rights and privilleges have been provided for and agreed by our forefathers. so let's move on.
so if some malays do reject ketuanan melayu, what are they actually rejecting? the concept itself? or the implementation of the concept? or both? whatever reasons given, we come back to these two - the concept and the implementation. personally i could not find fault with the concept. it is a mechanism to keep us on our toes - a reality check. so that we stay true to our objective - to uplift the maruah (dignity) of the malays. and i believe malays, young and old, still support the concept of ketuanan melayu. it is noble. to an extent sacred. how can they reject it?! if that is the case, then it must be becoz of the implementation. that is Sherlock Holmes' logic - if we eliminate all the impossibles, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.
the implementation has been less than desirable. issues of cronisym and transparency have been raised many times. the actions of some malays, including some politicians, did not help either. some may have gone overboard with their actions and words. but to be fair, most of the times, they were pushed to the corner by certain quarters. so they reacted accordingly. for example - certain quarters kept harping on whether malaysia is an islamic state. why, why, why?! it is enschrined in the constitution that islam is the official religion. so drop it. leave it at that.
so if implementation is the factor, then it is fixable. new ways of doing things could be put in place. the way we re-act to issues could be done in a more acceptable manner. so my friend, to answer your question - does people in UMNO 'get' that?. i can only say, i sure hope so. for the sake of the malays.
so i have to ask this question - is it really so? that the concept of Ketuanan Melayu has been rejected, by the malays? if yes, then why the malays, especially the young ones, are rejecting it? and what can UMNO do to correct it, if it can at all?
before we answer that, what is actually Ketuanan Melayu? for me, ketuanan melayu simply means that political powers reside with the malays. ketuanan melayu does not mean malays are superior than other races. ketuanan melayu does not mean malays get all, keep all. ketuanan melayu does not mean malays can do whatever they like, whenever they like. in fact, ketuanan melayu is meant to remind malays to stay united and stay focus. it is meant to instill pride so that malays can stand tall with other races of the world. it is to remind the malays of their roots, culture and history. so ketuanan melayu is not meant to scare or belittle other races. far from it. we lost our political and economic powers for more than 400 years. why? because of our own internal squablings and jealousy. we know what happened before. history must not and can not repeat itself. once bitten, twice shy!
this is my own understanding of ketuanan melayu. others may have their own interpretations. and their actions are based on their own interpretations of ketuanan melayu. so you have malays spread across the board - from one extreme to the other. but i believe the majority of the malays are in the middle - recognising the fact that we live in a multi racial country. as such subscribing to the principles of sharing, tolerance and understanding. working together. and co-exist. should malays be apologetic when they speak out about rights and privilleges? no. should other races question these rights and privilleges? no. why? coz nobody is going to win if we go down that road. these rights and privilleges have been provided for and agreed by our forefathers. so let's move on.
so if some malays do reject ketuanan melayu, what are they actually rejecting? the concept itself? or the implementation of the concept? or both? whatever reasons given, we come back to these two - the concept and the implementation. personally i could not find fault with the concept. it is a mechanism to keep us on our toes - a reality check. so that we stay true to our objective - to uplift the maruah (dignity) of the malays. and i believe malays, young and old, still support the concept of ketuanan melayu. it is noble. to an extent sacred. how can they reject it?! if that is the case, then it must be becoz of the implementation. that is Sherlock Holmes' logic - if we eliminate all the impossibles, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.
the implementation has been less than desirable. issues of cronisym and transparency have been raised many times. the actions of some malays, including some politicians, did not help either. some may have gone overboard with their actions and words. but to be fair, most of the times, they were pushed to the corner by certain quarters. so they reacted accordingly. for example - certain quarters kept harping on whether malaysia is an islamic state. why, why, why?! it is enschrined in the constitution that islam is the official religion. so drop it. leave it at that.
so if implementation is the factor, then it is fixable. new ways of doing things could be put in place. the way we re-act to issues could be done in a more acceptable manner. so my friend, to answer your question - does people in UMNO 'get' that?. i can only say, i sure hope so. for the sake of the malays.
1 comment:
Somehow or rather I agree with your friend's view that the latest general election showed that malay are rejecting the concept of "ketuanan melayu" whether its the concept of implementation. I think even if the concept was true, the reality is that we are living in a multi-racial country where everyone thinks it is their country. if you go overseas, malaysian don't think themselves as malay, chinese or indian but as Malaysian. that is a healthy development. Hence, we are not malays, chinese or indian anymore but we are all Malaysian. Ketuanan melayu concept was ok in the early years after merdeka due to the disparity in wealth distribution, but now we have to understand that in order for malaysia to survive in the globalised world, we need all the resources available to us, and by us segregating our resources pools by races, we will not succeed. in addition, we have gone that "ketuanan melayu" road before and the implementation was weak, so why not we try another road. although i have to admit that i am one of the products of DEB, i think the time has come for us to move on. racial based politics in malaysia will slowly fade away, and althoough i am proud to say that i am a malay, i am prouder to say that i am a malaysian. so for UMNO to remain relevent in the new political arena, it has also to grow with time.
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