Thursday, September 17, 2015

MESSAGE TO THE MALAYSIAN PRIME MINISTER and THE RED-SHIRT MALAYS

    by azly rahman





In conjunction with Malaysia Day, I have these brief messages of peace to both leader and the people led.

Mr Malaysian Prime Minister,

Help all Malaysians not just Malays if you and your coalition ruling party are going to redesign strategies for peace, equality, and social justice.

We are all bumiputras now and that the generation of today’s Malaysians be they from Chinese, Indian, or Malays have been here long enough to call this land no longer Tanah Melayu but Bumi Bangsa Malaysia. We’ve toiled for the soil.

And you must remind yourself that you are prime minister for all.

Poverty now cuts across racial lines, with an increasing number of those in the middle class now falling below the poverty line.
There is no strong rationale any more, after more than 50 years of independence and being a country called Malaysia, to continue policies based along racial lines. Continuing this will guarantee another 50 years of race and class antagonism.

In the field of education especially, scholarships need to be give based on merit, talent, and needs, not because one is a bumiputra or a Malay or because of the birthright of one's race.

Many of those in the elite and privileged boarding/residential schools such as in Mara Junior Science College (MRSM) are not from families that are poor or who could not afford good and quality education . Many are from wealthy families.

There are deserving children from all races must be given all the opportunities to excel, just like how the Malays from even the abject poor were given the chance back in the early 1970s when the MRSM system first started its first three schools.

Mr Prime Minister, you must be fair to people of all races.

For example, open up the privileged schools such as MRSM to more children of all races. Open all mono-cultural educational institutions such as Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM) to Malaysians of all races. It will be better for the nation.

Look at the plight other Malaysians. Promising a billion or so ringgit in educational, entrepreneurial, and economic aid to only one race defined by one-dimensional construct is a wrong political act done with ill intentions.

Be wise, in the remaining political time you and your party is given.

Reverse the trend of apartheid-isation of education - for the sake of the future of our children. As you know, during your tenure as education minister. Education is one best means of social reproduction to ensure the evolution of a just and progressive nation.

The New Economic Policy has been replaced with the New Economic Agenda which promises fairness for all, not just the Malays and bumiputras. Honour that.

In concluding my short plea, I’d say this: For our country, There is enough to go around for everybody’s needs and not just to feed the greed of the few.

Better focus on raising your children

To the red T-shirt Malays who do not represent the Malays, here is my message:

I can understand what has happened and how this is an unhealthy development that goes against the hopes and aspiration of a nation wishing to move forward. But here is my advice, especially to those who have children:
It better focus on raising your children well in adjusting to a changing, globalising, and very diversifying Malaysian and global society.
Teach them to focus on ways to understand others, improving their English language skills, perfecting their moral compass, encouraging them to think well and good about children of other races and religion, to encourage them to make friends with people of other races, to be grateful that schools offer the great opportunity to love and respect teachers of different races.

Teach them to learn about the dangers of generalising, stereotyping, and projecting hate that would lead to mass deception, to encourage each child to learn about other cultures and religion, and to teach them that all of us in Malaysia are now Malaysians and not this or that group of immigrants.
We all are migrants in time and space and in history and that all of us are human beings with emotions, struggles, challenges, history of joy and despair, memory of pain and pleasure of living, and that all of us are merely of differing skin colour tone and born to speak different languages and to believe in different things about salvation and that we are all travelers in this life.

We are all these and will not need moments of history where we cultivate hate for the bigger picture of oppression we do not understand. We may all be pawns in this great political game of big-time plunderers and multi-ethnic robber-barons skilled at mass deception and distractions.

We should be grateful that we are still alive and breathe daily and that we must think happily and joyfully like Malaysians in order for each and every one of us to prosper in peace.

Come back to our senses. Our strength as Malaysians will still come from diversity and the respect and cultivation of talent. On Malaysia Day, we should have rejoiced and celebrate the achievements of this nation for that beautiful concept of unity in diversity; not a rally that spew hatred and invoke the horrors of the May 13, 1969 tragedy.

Let us design a safer journey towards a progressive and harmonious Malaysia, beyond this red T-shirt red-river of blood march of some mangled manufactured propaganda of Malay dignity.


BOOKS BY AZLY RAHMAN:

15 comments:

JOE CHELLIAH @ JOHAMI ABDULLAH said...

They are not listening to any voice of reason anymore. They have to be removed in the next GE.

Unknown said...

saya setuju macam Azly kata tu, tapi berpandukan kepada apa Tun M katakan jangan ambil atau usik apa semua kaum ada pada hari ini, buat yang baru sperti UITM, MRSM yang lebih baik, lebih bermutu, pembelajaran dari TADIKA hingga Phd, secara percuma lebih baiklagi adakan biasiswa untuk kemua kaum nanti Malaysia lebih sempurna.

Anonymous said...

UMNO is a party that has lost its 'soul' and 'bearing', beyond redemption !

Lee Cheng Kuok said...

The nobler path is always the hard path.

Richie Nga said...

If they had wanted, they would have done so a long time ago.

The pro-Bumiputra policies are nothing but a means to an end, for UMNOputras to lay their paws on the national treasury.

for every Rm 100 million aid allocated to help the poor Bumiputras, u can be assured that at least Rm 70-Rm 80 million went into the accounts of Tan Sri's & Dato's whose companies were awarded Govt contracts and then outsource the job to others. Thus, very little actually reaches the real Bumis in need, and thus after over 3 decades, many Bumis remain hardcore poor.

The Govt could have done the right thing, and allocated aid to all the races. Doing that would have given them all the votes they wanted. It would have been illogical not to do so ... unless doing so would mean they can't rob the national treasury.

So, unless UMNO is removed from power, this country or at least its citizens will NEVER prosper.

Anonymous said...

This message is good but it must be heard and make the Malays who follow blindly understand the whole. Those living in outskirt are still unsure of what's happening.

Gem said...

It's a great piece, no doubt. But I doubt those who are for the rally have access to read this. That is the saddest truth of all.

Unknown said...

Just tell Najib,
.. we don't want yours..... But we don't want you to keep it....
p/s
najib's post

Unknown said...

Just tell Najib,
.. we don't want yours..... But we don't want you to keep it....
p/s
najib's post

Unknown said...

Just tell Najib,
.. we don't want yours..... But we don't want you to keep it....
p/s
najib's post

Anonymous said...

Apa keistimewaan hak melayu yg tinggal jika semua nak dibagi sama rata.sedangkan puak lain sibuk mempertahankan sekolah mereka tak mau dijadikan kebangsaan. Kita belajar dari mereka . Jadi kita pun pertahankan hak kita.

Anonymous said...

just as cancer must be removed for the host's survival, corrupt politicians must be removed for the nation's survival.

Anonymous said...

Well, open up your eyes wider' Mr Anonymous. Other national school accept other races.

Anonymous said...

Dear Anonymous 5:00pm. Open your eyes, mind and heart. All other race school are open for any race. As long as you want to learn Tamil, Chinese, Spanish or germen etc... All are welcome to be there. We never said it is only for a particular race for a particular school. Think with your heart and mind. Make a trip to all the school and see for yourself, you can see a lot of open minded Malays children are in that school. Don't closed up your view and mind of understanding. It is always the heart condition. All races have good and bad people. We pray that we belongs to the good and not the bad. So that our next generation will have a safe and wonderful future in Malaysia.

Anonymous said...

Thank you Dr Azly for your well thought out and clear representation of what the silent majority feel. We need more voices such as yours.

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