Race politics (Part 2)

If a nation is sincere in making its people strong to boost its human capital resources, it must do away with crippling effects of race politics and treat every one of its citizen, irrespective of race, equally. There is only one race in the country – the Malaysian race. It may difficult to change the mindset of those who cherish their own race but it has to be done. Every citizen is a means to an end. The end is a strong nation with a strong people. But attention to detail must be given to the means - which is the individual citizen. We have to perfect the individual self of each citizen and the end will take care of itself. No effort must be spared in ensuring that every citizen, irrespective of race or creed, be giving enough opportunities to grow and realize their full potential. The education system will have to be revamped. The degree of the country’s success should be measured by the degree each one of its citizen’s success. This should be the ideal.

Real progress in a nation is made when its citizens are dominated by hope and courage rather than fear. When all the peoples of the land are given good education, love, sufficient income to keep them away from grave want or anxiety, a home, good health, jobs, the nation will be great. What is also required is a deep respect of human rights of each its citizens and the courage by the government to uphold such rights at all costs.

There should be a collective or collaborative enterprise rather than competition among the races. The government should do away with bumiputera companies (which is race based and promotes division) and implement the concept of “Muhibah” companies instead. By Muhibah companies, I mean companies who MUST comprise of the different races to work together to bring success to the company and to the country. The word ‘Muhibah’ means united goodwill and friendship. When the diverse inherent talents and abilities of the different races work together in a spirit of goodwill and fellowship, achieving success together, the success is 'shared' and this bring happiness to all equally. This happiness will bring purification to all concerned. All past sins will be forgiven. All past resentments will melt away in the euphoria of success acheived by a combined force of the different races. This will serve as an impetus to future successes. This is a policy for building a pure Malaysian race. This concept need not be confined to economics. It should be extended to sports too. Sport is an essential way to unite the people. A nation which excels is sport is a nation which strives on winning. And winning comes when spirits of the different races are united and different strenghts, qualities and abilities are harnessed creatively to make the team a unique and formidable force.

The government has sent a man to space. But it is of no economic consequence. It does not bring economic prosperity to all citizens. It is short term glorification. It’s time to think long term. It’s time to send these Muhibah companies out to reap the opportunities that exist globally. With a combination of the Malay, Chinese and Indian talent, we can conquer China and India – emerging giants in world economy to bring greater prosperity to Malaysia. We should not forget that we also have other races in this country for example the Sikhs, the Eurasians, the peoples of Sabah and Sarawak that can only add and strengthen these companies with their unique abilities. We should follow the British who sent out their East India companies to explore and conquer the world. As a result they became Great Britain. Why concentrate on this small little country of ours economically when we have the world economy to conquer? Instead of competing against our fellow citizens, why not compete against other nations? Why focus on race politics? Why not combine our diverse talents and abilities together and conquer the world? Bring back the wealth from abroad to the country to prosper the nation- then there will be no need for racial politics as everybody is happy, prosperous and secure. For starters, every child in this country should start learning the languages of Chinese, Tamil, Hindi and Arabic as vast opportunities lie in China, India and the Middle East. The Malays can play a very important role when these companies go to the middle east. The study of these different cultures and languages will equip the young generation nicely for future undertakings. Language is a powerful tool in economic conquest.

We need intelligence, creativity, artistic capacity and benevolence. We also need reasonableness, tolerance and the realization of the interdependence of our multiracial people. We need long sighted leaders. Finally we need morality. What is morality? It is judgment to distinguish right and wrong, vision to see truth, the courage to act upon it. It means the dedication to that which is good and the integrity to stand by the good at any price. Race politics is immoral and an evil that must be abolished if this nation is to be strong and prosperous in the future.

Race politics (Part 1)

This country has been dominated by race politics since its independence. After 50 years of independence, it’s time to put an end to race politics. Nothing is accomplished for the nation by any attempt to make one race secure at the expense of another. This only breeds insecurity, envy, hatred and fear. The nation is divided, and that is a recipe of disaster as far as nation building is concerned. As the great Master said “A house divided by itself cannot stand”.

There is also an evil being propagated by race politics –the party that champions the rights of that race only gives handouts to its own race. Thus honestly speaking, there can be no equal distribution of wealth. To wield and stay in power, the party of that race would need to have support of its race and most of the time its supporters are ruled by emotions or passion rather than reason. As they are not ruled by reason, they are inferior in their intellect so they have to be given things unearned. For with limited reasoning powers, how can they excel in whatever they do? Thus allow a system that encourages corruption. Its an easy way to obtain riches. Thus the policy will be the man that has the least to offer wins. Give handouts to stay in power. But how much is there to give? A nation only has limited natural resources and if spent foolishly and wastefully, the present and future generations will suffer. This incompetence and weakness in the management of the country's economic resources are bad for nation building, long term. Further, if one is strong, competent, rational, intelligent, talented and able – one is rejected if one is not of the same race. If one is emotional, mediocre, loyal to race and party leaders one is rewarded with high positions and lucrative contracts. The policy does not strive for human excellence. Rather the race party wants to perpetuate mediocrity to stay in power. After all, if a man raises above mediocrity and becomes intellectual, philosopical and analytical, he will reject race politics for he sees its evil and weaknesses and therefore reject the party which is race based. In the end the race party that wants to stay in power will only serve the needs of the few of the race for they want to keep the majority of the race inferior to stay in power.

With race politics, there will be envy, ill feelings and distrust among the races. This unholy atmosphere will only produce untold evil and wickedness. In order to remain superior all types of policies or practices will be implemented by one race to frustrate or 'kill' the spirit of other race. All this is detrimental to the nation.

Intellectual integrity is anathema as far as these racial politicians are concerned. The media conceals from society true events. Its only duty is to serve as an audience to VIPs who make speeches for the ‘public good’ in phrases carefully chosen to ensure that things remain ambiguous. When one plays the race card, ambiguity is a necessity. Double talk is the name of the game. Deceit in human relations is perpetrated and encouraged. Divide and rule. These leaders who rely on race politics are willing to sacrifice the future of coming generations to their own momentary prosperity. They are the real threat to national security.