Republic of virtue, 4/09

Stop fighting, help the Malaysian Indians

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Sunday, 05 April 2009 09:40

A reminder to the wealthy and powerful. Help develop the poor – especially those from the Indian community. Detach yourself from your wealth, as the Bhagavad Gita, Sutras, Quran, Bible, Granth Sahib, etc, would ask you to. The wealth that you have acquired is not yours - they are those of the children of the poor and of the orphaned. A REPUBLIC OF VIRTUE Azly Rahman ( dr.azly.rahman@gmail.comThis e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it ) http://azlyrahman-illuminations.blogspot.com/ Reading about the continuing plight of the most economically disadvantaged Malaysians, I wrote the following piece some time ago. As we are ushered cynically and reluctantly into a new era of Malaysian leadership -- into yet possibly another period of chaos and complexity -- we must be reminded of the issue of dehumanization amongst us. A humane and spiritually-based economic solution is needed, in an age of high-speed casino and hedonistic capitalism. No amount of help will ever be enough, but any help will do. We need to help our Malaysian Indian community progress faster. How much has the New Economic Policy (NEP) helped the Indians? What then must all of us do? There is still too much infighting and problems of succession amongst the Indian Malaysians. Power is concentrated in the hands of the few. There is no evidence of transformative leadership. There is the ethos of overstaying one's welcome and not giving enough room for younger, brighter, more ethical and energetic leadership to emerge. These ‘fights’ must stop for the sanity of Malaysians in general. A revolution is needed in the minds of the Indians. The revolution must be translated into praxis. Had all the warring factions of the Indian leadership spent less time arguing and torching newspapers and started reading what the chapters of the Bhagavad Gita (The Song of the Lord) said about greed, lust, power, the divine and the demonic self - the Indian population in the long run would be better off. There is so much wisdom in this timeless text of the Bhagavad Gita that it can also be used to engineer profound social changes based on the philosophy of self-help/participatory democracy in the Indian community. There is the potential of embracing the philosophy of ‘kampongism’ - one that prioritises pastoralism and participatory democracy over profit-driven and parochial demono-cracy. Multicultural marhaenism It is time for the other races to engage in serious and sincere gotong-royong to help the poorest of the poor amongst the Indians. It is time that we become possessed with a new spirit of multicultural marhaenism. The great Indonesian leader Ahmed Soekarno popularised the concept of marhaenism as an antidote to the ideological battle against materialism, colonialism, dependency and imperialism. The thought that the top 10 percent of the richest Malaysians are earning more than 20 times compared to the 90 percent of the population is terrifying. What has become of this nation that promised a just distribution of wealth at the onset of Independence? I have a perspective to resolve the issue of the Indian community. The Malays and the Chinese too need to help the Indians progress. Malay and Chinese multimillionaires and billionaires can set up grants to help the poor Indians succeed in all fields of human endeavour. The Malays can get MARA (Majlis Amanah Rakyat) to share ideas, expertise and technology to make Indian children succeed and learn entrepreneurship skills. The same strategies of affirmative action given to the Malays must be extended to the Indians and designed for their children. The Chinese can help with sharing of good business strategies that will help the Indian community create opportunities for their children. Indian graduates can continue to help the children of the less fortunate ones see the importance of education so that we will not see high dropout rates. They can help initiate the establishment of good boarding schools ala Mara Junior Science College (MRSM) to help bright Indian children from poor families succeed. Indian millionaires and billionaires can help create as many philanthropic organisations as they can to offer financial help based on merit and needs. Malay and Chinese teachers can volunteer to be transferred to predominantly Indian schools in the estates in order to see for themselves how much help people of other races need. Those tens of thousands of unemployed graduates need to be trained as teachers and sent to the most economically-depressed schools in order to learn what social justice means and how to help solve social problems irrespective of race, creed, colour and religious orientation. Education is a gentle and humane enterprise that ought to teach teachers to fight prejudice, intolerance and to educate each child as if the child is his/her own. Each child is a gift, a bundle of love and joy, a khalifatullah (vicegerent of God) and an opportunity for the teacher to develop his/her fullest potential. Poverty creates more children that will have less resources and more emotional stress. Poverty must be eradicated regardless of race, creed, ethnicity and national origin. Not an Indian problem It is not an Indian problem. It is problem of humanity. Poverty cuts across racial lines. It is now a class issue that requires class struggle. Poverty creates mass anger and can result in revolutions. How much longer must the Indians suffer? They have helped build this nation we now call Malaysia. Their work in the rubber plantations has helped Henry Ford expand his global empire and Proton to spin its wheels of fortune. We are shackled too much by greed. The conversation between Arjuna and Krishna on the battlefield of Kurukshetra is not about a 'battle'. It is about a jihad and a crusade against the injustices of man against man, man against nature and man against himself. Stop fighting - think of what we are fighting for? But first, understand what the Gita, Sutras, Ramayana, Mahabharatta, Quran, Bible, etc. say about fighting over wealth and power. We'll all be humbled and will soon discover that all these will be left behind, in a world structured as maya and samsara (sengsara as the Malays would term it). Our common enemy is greed, materialism, militarism and corruption. That's our Mahabharata - our great war! Our common enemy is our insatiable urge to acquire arta (harta in Malay, wealth in English). We have been building structures of oppression and setting up international advisory panels to help us plunder the natives in the name of development and Vision 2020. We do not understand enough the meaning of "trickle down" in capitalism, as we continue to create wealth that trickles up and finally flown outside of the country into bank accounts in Switzerland, Bahamas, and Cayman Islands. We then claim that we are nationalists when those things we do are for our self-interest and greed at the expense of the rural, urban and middle class poor struggling to make ends meet and not knowing who has been making their lives chaotic. Help the poor A reminder to the wealthy and powerful. Help develop the poor – especially those from the Indian community. Detach yourself from your wealth, as the Bhagavad Gita, Sutras, Quran, Bible, Granth Sahib, etc, would ask you to. The wealth that you have acquired is not yours - they are those of the children of the poor and of the orphaned. You must learn what 'detachment from worldly possessions' means in the context of a cutthroat economic system like ours. It is time to understand how our lives are connected in a complex web of power, ideology, technology and consciousness. Help restructure the lives of the abject poor before they help totally restructure the lives of the filthy rich. [OUR USUAL REMINDER, FOLKS: While the opinion in the article is mine, the comments are yours; present them rationally and ethically. AND -- SET ALL I.S.A. DETAINEES FREE] Comments (25) ... written by ahmadneil, April 05, 2009 09:55:12 First of all help Kugan to find those murderers that IGP have failed to surrender to us. report abuse disagree 0 agree 76 ... written by krising1, April 05, 2009 10:11:04 The only way to get out of the poverty trap is to ensure that all children get a decent education. Take the bright and promising ones away from homes which which do not encourage education to hostels set up all over the country. Not just the Indians - anyone who is poor and needs help. One generation can make a big difference if all are educated to their respective levels of ability and competence. report abuse disagree 0 agree 47 ... written by Margeemar, April 05, 2009 10:29:09 When you have Indian leaders from the MIC who get the Indians to believe that they are the saviors of the Indians in Malaysia, the Indians will forever remain where they are as MIC and their leaders are mere lapdogs of the racist Umno. Only Pakatan Rakyat can help the Indians in Malaysia as the Indian leaders in PR have openly declared that they are here to serve all Malaysians and are beholden to no one...More http://margeemar.blogspot.com report abuse disagree 0 agree 42 ... written by ylcc, April 05, 2009 11:22:07 Malaysia is not an underdeveloped country. We pride ourselves in even "sending a man to the moon"! We have the Petronas Tower, we have gas, we have palm oil. We were even in self-denial of a recession. It is not an Indian, Malay nor Chinese problem.. It is a government problem. Do you see any poor Indians down South? Singapore just makes sure that everyone is given a good education, level playing field, the tools and the right environment. report abuse disagree 1 agree 33 ... written by Prem, April 05, 2009 11:34:27 The few greedy fools,who are still keeping the redundant MIC 'operating'in the name of malaysian Indians,need to come to their senses.The main stream of Indian community has abandoned the MIC. It's kept alive only by BN and Bodoh Sami,for their own agenda.MIC runs in the same method UMNO is run,by keeping out the intelligent and educated out off the party.MIC does not represent the sentiments of the majority.So all the Government 'help' is chanelled to the personal accounts of MIC personel,hence the poor Indians are left out,to beg from MCA and UMNO.Most of the time you see MCA helping out the poor,downtrodden Indians. Hindraf should take over MIC,to help the Indians.Indians seem to be surviving on the handouts from others. report abuse disagree 1 agree 19 ... written by kavidibaku, April 05, 2009 11:34:29 I have a malay friend. She is a teacher at a secondary school. She cares for indian students, especially the poor ones. Once when i asked her why she care for indian students, she told me that gomen helps malays by giving them land, scholarship,etc and chinese are having decent or luxury lives, only the majority of the indians suffer. And according to her, when she talks to indian students, she open their eyes by telling them that ONLY EDUCATION can free them from poverty. I wonder how many think like her. Only one in thousand. God bless her. report abuse disagree 5 agree 63 ... written by imanj, April 05, 2009 12:27:34 ...Ditto...to the article above..and a little opinion to add. Malaysia catergorised and more often emphasized into 3 main races,Malay,Chinese,Indians. Correct me if i'm wrong,not all Indians are Tamil Hindus..Firstly this country's inaccurate classifications has got to stop.Most Malaysians,although now would prefer to be just known as Malaysians,have not lived in Malaysian classified as just Chinese or Indians,simply because they are not of the same religion,region and they do not follow same cultures and traditions and speak different dialects.. As such many viewed opinions differ in many various issues.As such Indians and people of all other ethnic groups,have to first begin to HELP THEMSELVES..!! Your future and that of your children lies in your hand too.Have Indians seen enough progress in the long reigning of the nation's party MIC,that would assure them that their preent sees a better future?? Think hard and long,and why not think to give a new leadership the chance to take over?? report abuse disagree 0 agree 10 ... written by ylcc, April 05, 2009 12:33:59 To kavidibaku, he mentioned that the friend is only one in a thousand. Let me quote you 2 examples. 1) An Indian couple works for our condo. Everything is paid for, salary accommodation. We say nothing even when they bring in their whole family (water, phone & electricity borne by us). On top of this, some of the expats individually give them an extra RM100 each month (incl. my husband). The locals, for some reason or other, refuse to do so except for festive seasons. This has been going on for 15 years. End-result: they keep asking more money from us, and slacken in their work. 2) I had an Indian helper working for me. I help her out by giving money to her children. Each time I go on a trip, I find my household amenities - soap, detergent, cooking oil, rice, etc. missing. The question: Would you consider me one of the blessed in a thousand? report abuse disagree 18 agree 8 ... written by Jit Dharma, April 05, 2009 12:45:17 In all the faiths, greed and selfishness are deplored and selflessness and generosity are esteemed.Time and time again these self-evident truths are repeated. I yearn to see politics based on kindness and giving and love. These one-party Governments based on repression and fear, intimidation and propaganda, are remnants of a fuedal mentality that will soon disappear from the face of the earth.Asian values is a convenient catch-phrase to hide our inability to give real freedoms to our people whom we claim to love.I hope to see the destruction of this evil in my lifetime. May the Great Creator fulfill my wish. report abuse disagree 0 agree 3 ... written by harryo, April 05, 2009 12:54:42 Sometimes I wish to emulate the Chinese way of helping the poor members of the society. The government on the other hand has done innumerable projects including mental revolution etc to massive land development including idle land, establishing kampung development committees etc. For the Indians, absolutely none so far. What do have to do then? Bring about changes to the poor mass through education, economic activities like small, petty business for a start, make realiseable targets of weeding out social ills of the poor such as drinking alcohol and gangsterism particularly among the young generation, provide decent living environment with basic facilities. All these are beyong leaders of the community to carry out as they look after themselves and their families. The government had establish some agency directly responsible to draw programmes and implement them systematically. Let it be headed by someone, not necessarily Malaysian Indian who has no poltical ambition to carry that out. Probably at the end of some years to come we can see some results but it requires constant effort and resources to achieve. What is the point of talking of 1Malaysia, if you cannot analyse the social weaknesses existing among the society and weed out the ills with honesty and integrity. report abuse disagree 0 agree 2 ... written by ylcc, April 05, 2009 13:39:48 A good example for the Malaysian government to emulate? Not only for the poor Indians, but poor Malaysians. 04 April 2009 1736 hrs SINGAPORE: More help is at hand for lower-income families. A new half-a-million-dollar tuition fee subsidy scheme has been launched to ensure that children from these families will continue to get tuition assistance during the economic downturn. The children attending the tuition programmes offered by the various self-help groups are mostly from low-income families. To ensure that these children continue to be able to stay in these classes during this economic downturn, a new help scheme called "Community Tuition Fee Subsidy Scheme" has been launched. Manpower Minister Gan Kim Yong, who is also the chairman of the CDAC education committee, said: "Under this programme, we provide a tuition fee subsidy up to 90 per cent for the needy families, especially those affected by the economic downturn. "I think this programme will achieve our objective of enhancing social mobility among our students to ensure that their education and tuition programmes will not be affected by the downturn." report abuse disagree 0 agree 7 ... written by CPY, April 05, 2009 14:40:16 Poverty cuts across racial lines. Thats right. A poor Malay will certainly affect a rich chinese, because a rich chinese will have to 'share' wealth with a 'poor' Malays(ie: UMNOputras). The poor Malays then have too many child until its too hard to help them to get out from poverty. report abuse disagree 0 agree 7 ... written by Comodo, April 05, 2009 16:32:08 POVERTY not blongs to ONE RACE. I don’t think Indians need help. Before Mahafiraun regime, Indian only involves in alcoholism. Only after he came in the power, he took/blocked away all the opportunity from education, scholarship, occupation, business… just name it. And he gave it to Bumiputra. Indians are oppressed until they have to find their own way to survive by involving in crime. Just return what been taken from them, they will find their way up by themselves. Because every Indian knows well education and religious is a path to success. To ylcc. .... You need to wear poor people's shoe. Than you will know the pain they are going through. report abuse disagree 1 agree 9 ... written by Limau, April 05, 2009 18:28:14 I totally agree with Rahman. Bottom line is educate all these poor Indians, May I request all the Indian leaders to seriously look into this matter, they really need your help to come out of what they are. report abuse disagree 1 agree 7 ... written by Lion Servant, April 05, 2009 19:34:28 Here is a nice article on yahoo One man's ambivalent retreat from his racist past http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090404/ap_on_re_us/one_man_s_apology and all our racist leaders have to one day come to terms by their own self and not the body. The soul is eternal and the subtle body of mind , intelligence and false ego according to one's karma in this lifetime will carry him to the next body. With the material tongue one can lash anything but his soul will never be in peace if he does not change. And racism has lots to do with the body and nothing else. report abuse disagree 0 agree 2 ... written by ylcc, April 05, 2009 20:13:12 That is where you are wrong, Comodo. You do not know me neither do I know you. I am sorry if you and others are offended with my examples. Maybe I was not clear. 1)The problem starts when it is taken for granted that since you are rich, you are responsible for the person. Personal monthly contributions of RM500 plus other goodies thrown in. The expats basically are generous people. Would they not be more than happy if the staff appreciate their generosity by doing his job properly? If it is your duty to open the gates for visitors, you do not disappear for half a day or sometimes even the whole day. If it is your duty to keep the premises clean, you should not leave it dirty. 2)The helper is poor. So you give her a job. You get to know the family, and you try to help them out financially. You treat them as family. Is it a lot to ask for that the helper at least do her job properly and be relied on? Taking petty stuff without permission will only cause distrust and pain for both parties. The rich should help the poor, but it takes two hands to clap. The poor have to play their part too by helping themselves. report abuse disagree 2 agree 4 ... written by sataysticks, April 06, 2009 00:25:50 "In the country of the rich, poverty is a crime" report abuse disagree 0 agree 2 ... written by Fight4Justice, April 06, 2009 11:43:45 Very impressed by the knowledge you portrayed in this article.. Although I have Indian ancestors, I would like see poverty totally abolished and not by being selective on a few quarters. As for ylcc's comment, the CDAC is the 'Chinese Development Assistance Council' in Singapore. Even there they still do discriminate by colour but it is not as they do it here. report abuse disagree 0 agree 2 ... written by LFLee, April 06, 2009 23:31:49 Dear Dr. Azly, The root problem with the Indian and Chinese community in Malaysia is simple: they continued to vote for the dictator (aka BN) to take away their rights for 52 yrs. Then they grumbling after elections, they shouted 'It's Not Fair!'. But strangely and in a manner I can't comprehend - they will vote for BN again come next election! Well, for Indians and Chinese in Malaysia, there is no need of pity for them, really. I am a Malaysian Chinese, from the way I see how the Chinese community behave in every elections in the past, I can only say one thing: We deserved the treatment from BN government! You open your legs to let BN raped you, you might just enjoy the raping & moan loudly, and after that, stop grumbling and complaint why BN like to raped you, and not others. Same goes for the Indian community. report abuse disagree 0 agree 10 ... written by roadbarra, April 08, 2009 02:57:14 Malaysian Chinese or Chinese Malaysian? report abuse disagree 0 agree 1 ... written by gycgocnt, April 08, 2009 15:26:32 Azly Rahman say our common enemy is greed, materialism, militarism and corruption. That's our Mahabharata - our great war! I say Malaysian common enemy is BN, UMNO, MIC, MCA, they are the one who destroy this country, they are the one who practice of marginalisation, corruption, nepotism, cronyism, colour identification on the expense of the poverty people in this country. The first thing to do for the eradication of poverty ( no matter Malay, Chinese, Indian, Iban, Kadazan etc) is to eradicate BN, the Babi Negara who create huge income gap between the Have and Have-Not in Malaysia! report abuse disagree 0 agree 0 ... written by PresleyP, April 09, 2009 02:01:07 Agree with Gycgocnt that BN represents greed, materialism and corruption. We should stop the import of unskilled workers into this country. They robbed the jobs from the local citizen which majority used to be performed by the Indians who had not much education. Don't tell me the locals does not want to do the job. It is the greedy businessmen who are too stingy to pay for a little more money. There should be a system of minimum wage set up so that even the unskilled local workers can earn a decent living. Yes, it will cause the business people to pay for higher overhead expenses. However, it will eventually balance out. It is the minimum wages rules that will ensure the gap between the rich and the poor is smaller. This is why there are less crime being committed in those Western countries which had Minimum Wages rules. For those greedy towkays and businessmen out there. Helping the poors will eventually helps to reduce the crime rate and benefit you and everybody in this country. The current high crime rate is the result of importing too many unskilled workers into this country and exploitation of the unskilled locals by paying them too low wages. When the local unskiled lose their jobs or being pay too low, they will rather resort to committing crime such as snatch thief or robbery as their career. Thus it indirectly result in higher crime rate in this country and make us feel unsecured. report abuse disagree 0 agree 0 ... written by lvbala, April 09, 2009 09:14:41 Great man, you show a true color Malaysia of being a Truly Malaysian. lvbala.blogspot.com report abuse disagree 0 agree 2 ... written by lvbala, April 09, 2009 13:28:38 Great, I am speachless, well said bro. report abuse disagree 0 agree 0 ... written by Richfyf, April 18, 2009 06:20:01 One in a thousand of Good malay teachers. emmmm if we have one in a thousand of our population then 27 million will have 27 thousand good malay teachers,wow that would have made this nation ahead years ago. Sorry kavidibaku,its seems more like one in a million to me.... Cheers have a nice weekend report abuse disagree 0 agree 0 Write comment This content has been locked. You can no longer post any comment. You must be logged in to a comment. Please register if you do not have an account yet.