BN backbench defends racial quota scholarships
Shouts of racism again marred proceedings in the House yesterday as parliamentarians crossed swords over the issue of government scholarships.
It began when Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Nazri Abdul Aziz said non-bumiputeras are entitled to JPA (Public Service Department) scholarships, reports Malaysiakini.
This prompted Fong Po Kuan (DAP-Batu Gajah) to ask about the racial quotas under the scholarships.
Sparks began to fly when Tajuddin Abdul Rahman (Umno-Pasir Salak) stood up and shouted: “The constitution is clear on bumiputera rights and we can’t compromise that. No more compromises!”
He then questioned the government’s new policy on the JPA scholarships, labelling it a “populist decision”.
A number of opposition MPs stood up to protest, among them Fong, S Kulasegaran (DAP-Ipoh Barat) and Chong Eng (DAP-Bukit Mertajam).
Tajuddin: This is Malay rights. I have met several cabinet ministers and they agreed me with me that scholarships should only be reserved for Malays. There should be no compromises!
Kulasegaran interjected, “This is racist!”
Loud murmurs from both sides were temporarily silent by Tajuddin’s shouts for Kulasegaran and Fong to shut up.
Tajuddin: You shut up! You shut up! I have children studying in England, Ireland and Australia and they have no scholarships. But I want rural Malays and lower income groups - even in Sabah and Sarawak - to get scholarships, like what is said in the constitution!
Kulasegaran: In Pasir Salak, are there no Chinese and Indians?
Tajuddin: You think you are so smart? Penyokong Hindraf! Penyokong Hindraf! (Hindraf supporter! Hindraf supporter!) Anti-Malaysia.
Ibrahim Ali (Independent-Pasir Mas): I support the Chinese and Indian communities. For them, set up foundations. But what’s written in the constitution is that the right to scholarships are only for Malays and bumiputera.
House deputy speaker Ronald Kiandee tried unsuccessfully to stop the verbal brawl which escalated into Tajuddin asking Kulasegaran to settle the issue outside the hall.
However, the pandemonium later died down when Nazri explained that the government had not forgotten Malay rights and said that the new policy was not populist.
“I am just being fair and I have not compromised (Malay rights), I guarantee you that.”
Tajuddin defends remarks
Met later outside the House, Tajuddin defended his verbal assaults on Kulasegaran.
“I’m not racist. I’ve stated it before, if you want to help the non-Malay students, especially those who are doing well in their studies, by all means do it. But why not do it in such a way that is not at the expense of bumiputera students because if we do that, we will fail in our national integration and unity,” he said.
Chong Eng however had a different take on the shouting match.
“Pasir Salak is racist. He is defending a racist policy. On the other hand, we are opposing a racist policy and yet we are called racists.”
Meanwhile, Fong said that racist remarks in the House have gotten worse in recent times.
“He (Tajuddin) speaks as though his constituency is 100 percent Malay. He speaks as though non-Malays are non-existent in this country. When you get elected, you should speak for everyone.”
one begs a question - Tajuddin Abdul Rahman is a full time Umno politician? how can he afford to send his kids to UK (Wow!!!) ,Australia,Ireland (wow!!!)
“”He (the Umno leader) was prepared to spend RM6 million to become a division chief”
Comment by tomatoinc — Friday, 18-07-2008 @ 15: 32.30
Neanderthals say, “All the scholarships are belong to us!”
Comment by wits0 — Friday, 18-07-2008 @ 17: 44.32
Sparks began to fly when Tajuddin Abdul Rahman (Umno-Pasir Salak) stood up and shouted: “The constitution is clear on bumiputera rights and we can’t compromise that. No more compromises!”
The constitution may be very clear on bumiputra rights. But the constitution itself is wrong because it violates the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights which states very clearly that no one may be discriminated against based on race, national origin, religion, etc.
It is time for the constitution to be changed to align it with the civilized philosophy of democracy where all are equal.
The constitution of Malaysia started out guaranteeing equality to all Malaysians. But it got changed again and again to give greater and greater rights to the Malays and other natives in gross and loathsome violation of the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Today the constitution of Malaysia is just a piece of trash that is just as detestable and barbaric as the constitution of S. Africa when it legalized apartheid. Ketuanan Melayu is nothing more than neo-apartheid and deserves to be condemned by the civilized world just as much as apartheid was condemened.
Comment by Liang1a — Friday, 18-07-2008 @ 20: 43.14
Tajuddin: This is Malay rights.
The problem is that under UMNO-BN the ketuanan Melayu has become the inviolable law of the land. Any question about the Malay rights is tentamount to sedition. And this is the heinous crimes of the UMNO-BN. Unless and until UMNO-BN is overthrown, ketuanan Melayu cannot be discredited for the neo-apartheid it really is. This is why if the Chinese, the Indians, the KDMs, and other non-Malays must unite to overthrow UMNO-BN.
It is the greatest crimes of the MCA, MIC, Gerakan, etc. to support UMNO and whitewash ketuanan Melayu to the world. These traitors justified ketuanan Melayu so much that nobody in the outside world dared to condemn racial inequality so brazenly perpetrated by the UMNO. And that is why these scums were dumped by their constituents.
Comment by Liang1a — Friday, 18-07-2008 @ 20: 53.00
“I’m not racist. I’ve stated it before, if you want to help the non-Malay students, especially those who are doing well in their studies, by all means do it. But why not do it in such a way that is not at the expense of bumiputera students because if we do that, we will fail in our national integration and unity,” he said.
The son of a bitch definitely is racist. Why are these scums afraid to admit they are racists? A racist is by definition one who claim special rights over and above others for no other reason than his race. Therefore, if a Malay says he deserves special rights because he is a Malay, then he is a racist.
Too much injustice has already been done in the name of “national integration and unity.” It has turned into a device for marginalizing the Chinese and the Indians and racially cleansing them out of Malaysia. While the proportion of the Malays keep increasing, the proportion of the Chinese and the Indians keep decreasing. Even the Sabah natives such as the Kadazans have decreased in proportion to the Muslims from Indonesia and the Philippines.
Ketuanan Melayu is not for the purpose of “national integration and unity” but for national disunity and the supremacy of the Malays.
Why should the bumiputras deserves special rights over the Chinese and the Indians? If ketuanan Melayu is discredited, then on what basis do the bumiputras have rights over the Chinese and the Malays? Why should the Chinese and the Indians be second class citizens in a country to whose economy they have contributed so much?
Tajuddin thinks it is unacceptable to increase the rights of the Chinese and the Indians at the expense of the Malays. But is it acceptable to increase the rights of the Malays at the expense of the Chinese and the Indians? Obviously Tajuddin thinks the most important thing is the rights of the Malays. He thinks it is no problem for the rights of the Chinese and the Indians to be sacrificed so that the Malays can have more. This is racism at its most foul.
Comment by Liang1a — Friday, 18-07-2008 @ 21: 12.39
Chong Eng however had a different take on the shouting match.
“Pasir Salak is racist. He is defending a racist policy. On the other hand, we are opposing a racist policy and yet we are called racists.”
Kudos to these champions of democracy and equality. This is why they were elected to do. I’m glad they are doing a good job.
Comment by Liang1a — Friday, 18-07-2008 @ 21: 15.03
Malaysian government needs to be separated from Islam.
http://www.malaysia-today.net/content/view/10143/84/
“Already, Najib has declared that Malaysia has never been secular because “being secular, by Western definition, means separation of the Islamic principles from the way we govern the country.”
“It is tragic that the horrible mess is haunting a country that is still considered as a model for emulation by other Muslim nations to be in tune with modernity. And a common Malaysian feels outraged, as could be seen from a comment in local media: “Are we now witnessing two elephants trampling the grass as they battle? One elephant with a viper in place of his trunk and another sporting a cobra for its? Both have lawyers who have scant respect for Islamic values?””
Separating the way Malaysia governs the country from the Islamic principles may be the very thing that will make Malaysia an advanced country instead of a third world country kept afloat by its large oil incomes. There is blatant racism and religious bigotry as set forth in the dogma of ketuanan Melayu and ketuanan Islam which literally mean Malay supremacy and Islamic supremacy. The rule of Malaysia under the Islamic principles coupled with Malay supremacist racism has been ruining the lives of many millions of Chinese, Indians, and other non-Malays. It has made corruption the common way of life which ultimately resulted in the stunted development of the Malaysian economy.
The Malays like to boast that Malaysia is the most advanced of the Islamic countries. The reason why Malaysia in the most advanced Islamic country is not because of the strict adherence of Malaysian government to Islamic principles but because Malaysia is getting tens of billions of US dollars of income from its annual production of some half a billion barrels of oil equivalence. Without this oil income, the Malaysian economy would not have been able to sustain such white elephants as the Petrona Towers and other costly projects that serve little purposes and the large subsidies to the common Malays.
The other reason why Malaysia is more advanced than other Muslim countries is the fact that 25% of the population is Chinese who provides the entrepreneurial backbone of Malaysia. For instance, the Chinese owned and operated banks are the most profitable and efficient banks in Malaysia. The Balayan Banking, the biggest Malay owned bank, is virtually bankrupt without large subsidies from the government. But the Chinese are severely marginalized and millions had been deported or left Malaysia out of despair. For instance, in Sabah the proportion of the Chinese population has been reduced from some 30% or more in 1963 to less than 10% today while the proportion of the Malay increased from less than 1% in 1963 to close to 15% today. This is obviously the result of deliberate policy of racial cleansing against the non-Malays especially against the Chinese. The Indians also has their population reduced from some 15% in 1963 to some 7% today.
It is safe to say that without the Chinese and other non-Malay and non-Islamic peoples propping up the economy, Malaysia would have become one of the least advanced Muslim countries in the world.
Therefore, the only things that Malaysia has for other Muslim countries to emulate is a lot of oil and a large Chinese population. Without which Malaysia would have been just as poor and backward as the least developed Muslim countries in the world. The fact that Malaysia has achieved its limited progress is not due to its adherence to the Islamic principles but in spite of the suppression and oppressiveness of the Islamic principles.
The hope of Malaysia, therefore, does not lie in adherence to the Islamic principles but in disconnecting from the Islamic principles which is nothing more than a suppressive roadblock to economic development and enlightened social justice. Only by discarding Islamic principles in governing the country will Malaysia have any hope of creating a society that is just and prosperous.
It is in the nature of a democratic society to appear chaotic. This is because it is not for the people to support the government blindly but to scrutinize its performance and condemn and remove those who are corrupt or incompetent. As the people speak out to condemn the corrupt and incompetent, it gives the appearance that the nation is chaotic. But there is obvious method in this chaos as the result is a continuous improvement in the quality of the government as the corrupt and the incompetent are continuously removed and replaced by more honest and efficient officials.
In the final analysis, there is a total incompatibility between democratic principles and Islamic bigotry. Where democracy champions equality and justice for all and provides the social framework to seek truth, Islamic bigotry impose special rights for some and irrational moral laws that curtail the freedom of all but a privileged few while imposing a total curtailment on seeking truth. It is not a coincidence that the more a country adhered to Islamic laws the more backward that country becomes. Therefore, the worst thing that could happen to Malaysia is for it to become a country governed not by enlightened laws based on human rights and democracy but ruled by the irrational and oppressive Islamic bigotry. It is simply oxymoronic to mention Muslim country and modernity in the same sentence. There can never be any such thing as a modern Muslim country.
It is obvious that Western society is not the last word in modernity either. The Homo economicus model of the neo classical economic theory has produced the mentality that greed and disregard for others’ welfare is the norm. In short a Homo economicus is nothing more than a sociopath and a society of sociopath can never develop beyond the lowest level. The fact that Western nations are very advanced with robust economies would argue that their economies are not run by Homo economicus but by people who are guided by virtues of honesty and trust. The model of Homo economicus is now being challenged by economists and scientists who think that social values are based on human nature that is in turn based on the organization and the function of the brain. For instance oxytocin has been demonstrated to increase trust and trustworthiness. Ultimately, the enlightened human society is based on the human nature that is rooted in empathy and the natural human disposition to cooperate and help each other. This is as Mencius had said 2,300 years ago that compassion is the root of benevolence and it is human nature to be compassionate. This is now being confirmed by modern scientists experimentally through the study of the brain and through the study of human psychology through the game theory.
Therefore, in the end, a modern society that is enlightened and just cannot be based on the irrational bigotry of religions and least of all the Islamic religion. A modern society can only be based on the real understanding of the human nature through the study of the brain and its function to identify the physiological basis for virtues so that the society can be reshaped to provide justice, freedom, security and prosperity for all.
Those who wish to learn more about brain function and virtues can read the book edited by Paul J. Zak titled “Moral Market.” If you cannot find this book in your local book store, you can order it through amazon.com or barnesandnoble.com.
Comment by Liang1a — Monday, 21-07-2008 @ 02: 46.07
i have 3 acres vegetables planting, 1 day come a flock of sheeps own by someone ,they swallow all my veg and left some dungs, yet the owner neverv fill sorry but treat of money to pay for dungs left in my field,claim that everything belongs to them, or i ought to leave this country,this is wat ’special-previlage’they entitled.(not privilege)
Comment by malaisial — Wednesday, 13-08-2008 @ 23: 57.23