Here's the Dictionary.com definition of Racism:1) a belief or doctrine that inherent differences among the various human races determine cultural or individual achievement, usually involving the idea that one's own race is superior and has the right to rule others.
2) a policy, system of government, etc., based upon or fostering such a doctrine; discrimination.
3) hatred or intolerance of another race or other races.
Below are some of the provocative, and bordering on seditious, quotes from the meeting. Of course, there are more, especially the utterly dumb ones like the enclosed quote about marooning drug addicts in an island, similar in spirit to the recent remark made by the certifiable wingnut, Harussani Zakaria, the Mufti of Perak, about sequestering AIDS patients and HIV+ people in an isolated island. What better way to utilize all those empty unused islands, right?
By the way, the quotes are courtesy of MalaysiaKini.
"Why should Malays and Umno be passive and defensive? It’s time to raise our voices and defend the Malays and Islam. Umno is willing to risk lives and bathe in blood in defence of race and religion. Don’t play with fire. If they mess with our rights, we will mess with theirs" - Hasnoor Sidang Hussein, Umno Malacca delegate.
"Why should Malays and Umno be passive and defensive? It’s time to raise our voices and defend the Malays and Islam" - again from Hasnoor Sidang Hussein.
“Please don't test the Malays; they know 'amok'. We don't want to reach that level" - Mohammed Rahmat, former Information Minister.
"When tension rises, the blood of Malay warriors will run in our veins" - Azimi Daim, Umno Youth Exco member, referring to non-Malays questioning Malays' "special rights."
"Recurring drug addicts should no longer be kept in rehabilitation institute (Pusat Serenti) . We should stop spending money on them just to rehabilitate them. We should just send them to an island and let them eat worms and moss. They treat the rehabilitation institute as a place with free food and free housing. We can channel the money to a better place.." - Rahimah Idris, Wanita Umno representative.
"Don’t dare play with fire and question the position Islam, otherwise they’ll get burnt. Whoever that tries to question our rights should be arrested under the ISA (Internal Security Act) and we’ll put them away" - also by Rahimah Idris.
8 comments:
just copy paste from msia kini to here is not critical enuff en setan (didnt mean to offense, its ur name right?)
im just wondering, u re not agree with all this malays rights right? i really want to see a malay 'who loves Malaysia with all his heart and soul but cannot stand its authoritarian and paternalistic culture' point of view, if u dont mind
None taken. I picked the moniker specifically because it reminds me of a graffiti I saw in Bandung a few years ago.
Why aren't the quotes critical enough, if I may ask? They only serve to illustrate my point about racism and other inane babbles at the meeting. Nothing more, nothing less. Trust me, try as I might, I couldn't find these quotes in the Utusan's coverage of the meeting--on their website, at least. Hmmm.. I wonder why?
What's my perspective on the Malay rights issue? You mean Malay race as a whole, or only the politically-linked UMNOputra? And what kind of rights are you talking about? Economic? Education?Political? I can write a long tract on this matter, but here's a gist of it: Malay rights, as expressed through the New Economic Policy (NEP) and its component, New Education Policy, has long outlived its usefulness. The education policy, through preferential access to higher education, has created over the past thirty years or so a huge Malay middle-class,which has been its stated objective. It's now time to change the policy from race-based to class-based. There are as many poor Chinese and Indians as they are poor Malays. Would you agree that preference now should be given based on income, regardless of race? Would you rather see the rich get richer, or the poor people get the chance to improve their lot? The choice, I think, is a no-brainer.
Yes, I am Malaysian but I don't see my national identity through the lens of citizenship. I am a Malaysian because of my family and friends. I am also as comfortable with my Indonesian, American and Islamic identities. So you know, it is possible for a person to have multiple identities, and they don't need to be expressed in the form of citizenship. Anyway, I'm a global citizen and a multiculturalist. Malay people throughout history have always been world travelers and adventurous sailors, and I'm simply keeping old spirit of "mengembara" alive.
hi there again en setan,
the quotes of cause not critical enuff, none of it has fact to support, i could say the delegates just being dramatic and begging for attention (secara tak langsung) and quoting 4 people speech itupun AYAT SENAPAS JE TAK MENGGAMBARKAN UMNO ITU RACIST en setan. i'm agree that all the quotes sungguh tidak 'mesra', ia lebih bersifat mengacum. racist? tidak. dan not critical that i meant in my comment earlier is for you. i expect more from political junkie like you. ilustration is jut not enough, put the picture in details. there's lot more things yang dibincangkan dalam persidangan UMNO, dan again i stick to my opinion, its not wrong utk bicarakan hal2 melayu dalam persidangan yang suppose utk melayu. macam itu jugak persidangan parti2 lain, hala tuju parti, perjuangan yang parti bawakan. dan cadangan rahimah idris or mufti perak to isolate drug addicts or HIV carrier is basiccally just a suggestion and something to ponder about. it showed that the situation in malaysia dealing with this two social problem is really bad. if our goverment (majo UMNO) agree to this suggestion, they wont be supplying condom or syringe to these people.
none in utusan coverage? we dont have to show it repeatly to the world what foul mouth these people have. plus the meeting itself was broadcast live by ASTRO.
i mean Malay as whole. i have no politics background except the subject Kenegaraan back in matriculation years. i learn more from ur blog n others rather than in that class (yes, u may give me crash lecture in political sc 101 if u want).
my humble opinion en setan, dalam menolong org2 miskin, yes it should based on income, that is what been doing so far by jabatan kebajikan masyarakat, NGO, baitulmal. but for whole, i could say that malay is left far behind from other races. pegangan harta, pemilikan syarikat, etc.. isu lama samaada kita perlukan tongkat, ya.
i have to admit en setan, yang bangsa melayu masih sakit. kita masih perlu ubat2 utk sembuh dan cergas. kalau bergantung pada imuniti badan saja, others will already sprint and we just starting to put or shoes on.
i can see ure very ideal in ur idea and thought, thats a good thing. tapi atas rasa sayang pada bangsa, theres lot more that we need to take into account. u already stated that u dont like UMNO and its stuff, maybe.. because of that, u already discriminate in ur mind and u start searching only for the bad instead of looking at the good side.
/again, i know almost nothing about all this politic, my opinion might just be a piece of sh##t to you,yes, secubit pemikiran kritikal. but this is what layman think about. on what we want.
I do know that the whole proceeding was televised live on Astro and Utusan did quote those belligerent delegates in its newspaper since Nik Aziz quoted specific Utusan articles in his column in Harakah.
The quotes from delegates' speeches are merely a SYMPTOM of a much larger disease within Umno, that it is a party based on racist, communitarian politics. If it's a party made up of "berbilang bangsa," then none of these rhetorics would rear their ugly heads. Simply because it's race-based party, then it's rallying point has to center around "us-vs-them" discourse, asserting the supremacy of one's race against "the other" in order to galvanize support.
Your contention that Malays are still "sakit," lagging behind the Chinese in many areas, and therefore needing a "tongkat" in order to just keep up is a form of victimhood psychology that plays exactly into Umno's hand. That's precisely what Umno wants you to feel: sheer helplessness augment by a sense of injustice. It allows Umno to act as a protector and a savior to rescue the Malay race from these wrongdoings. It fosters and strengthens Malays' dependency on Umno, and creates this almost irrevocable link that without Umno, Malay race would have long perished (despite whatever Hang Tuah purportedly said).
Say, even if we accept that Malays are in serious need of help in terms of corporate equity and other economic wealth indicators, is Umno, and by extension, NEP, is the right vehicle to use to narrow this perceived disparity? Like I said before, NEP hasn't done much for the past thirty years except in the education arena, where increased university enrollment of the Malays has allowed the creation of a huge Malay middle-class. Before NEP, most Malays were rural- and agriculture-based and mired in poverty. Increased access to education leads to creation of Malay professional class. Before NEP, 80% of Malays were in poverty; now it's 5%, and most of the success are attributed to the education policy.
But NEP has also created another class of Malay elite called the Umnoputra. Instead of equal re-distribution of wealth among ALL Malays, NEP has allowed a tiny group of Malay elite to become filthy rich. Like Anwar Ibrahim said recently, “More often than not, those who most vocal in defending the NEP were those who had subverted the policy to enrich their families and cronies... Several within the Umno leadership are fanning racial sentiments so that discussion on the NEP is sidelined... What I attack are not the programmes that assist the Malays. What I attack are leaders who rob from the Malays. The NEP is used as a tool to benefit leaders, their families and their cronies” (MalaysiaKini, 21 November 2006).
Maybe, just maybe, could all these incendiary rhetorics about "not to question Malay rights blablabla" is simply about these Malay elites wanting to protect their OWN interest? Why ruin a good thing, right? They felt their interests have been threated ever since all these reports that came out recently about government's understated figure in calculating Malay's corporate equity ownership. The current justification for NEP lies in the mythical 30% corporate equity ownership figure, and for as long as the "goal" is not achieved, it'd be a travesty to dismantle this policy.
Like I said before, I believe that NEP has outlived its usefulness. Hypothetically, instead of creating 10,000 Malay millionaires through preferential economic policies, NEP has created 10 Malay billionaires. Do a little research and you'll see what I mean. Who are the REAL beneficiaries of NEP? It's the same group of Umno-linked elites like Daim Zainuddin, Halim Saad, Rashid Hussein and others, whose companies got bailed out over and over again by the government--at the taxpayers' expense, mind you! That's why I believe that NEP needs to be radically reformed from being race-based to needs-based, so it'll benefit ALL poor people regardless of race and religion. This is what makes a country great. As the Malay saying goes, "bersatu teguh, bercerai roboh." Kalau nak maju biar semua naik sekali, bukan cuma segelintir yang tamak haloba.
By the way, I apologize if I offend your intelligence in my previous post. My first impression was that you were a reactionary Umno party hack, and my experience debating with Umno supporters over the years have not been very productive, or pretty, for that matter. I've been called "traitor to my race," "Melayu tak kenang budi," "Melayu lupa daratan" and many others. It gets to the point where now I hardly even join discussions on these issues in Malaysia for fear of losing friends, and I do have a lot of friends who are active in Umno politics.
I'm more than happy to write a long response to your questions but I have tons of school work to do and barely enough time to finish them. Do keep in touch!
senang senang kawin jer ngam mem omputeh cik setan gondrong hahahahha GOD I OWE YOU TONS OF EMAIL - or a super long one. HOW HAVE YOU BEEN? And why am I suddenly into writing in capslock?
we're both busy but the great news is that I'm not going to be for a while in a couple more weeks - semester break. Can't say the same for you though eh? Hope you're doing fine, I gather you're still being a boring old ass, surrounded by papers and probably smelling like mildew musty books - what a turnoff (:
- Rocket
I thought "mildew musty book" is the new CK scent. Sheesh.. guess I was wrong!
Yep, you do owe me TONS of emails and comments on my blog hahaha! But yeah, it has been ages since I last heard from you. I've been somewhat keeping up with your pathetic life through your blog until, I think, your post that has Cek Mek Molek pic in it. Say hi to her for me, by the way. I'll get her a cute pink kitty sweater for Christmas.
I'll be in Malaysia next month, so we can definitely meet up for nasi lemak. I'll be dividing my time between Malaysia, Indo & Thailand (all within one month). I'll call you. Later babe!
Racism is used used by the U Must Not Oppose types to promote themselves. But to be fair so do the Money Collecting Associates, Gilakan,Manyak Idiot Committee and others. It is hard to rise above that kind of talk and look at the bigger picture i.e. where will you be when the oil runs out, as it must?
It's getting worse.
The Indians and Chinese are bullying the Malays, apparently.
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