Google

Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Tale Of Two Princes

In Malaysia the changing political landscape has brought, out of the wood works, an assortment of political wannabes.If Charles Dickens had his 'Tale Of Two Cities', we have our 'Tale Of Two Princes'

From ex-politicians,ex-prisoners to vengeful bloggers, happy gays,politico whores and lately crown princes, all dishing out samplings of their political thoughts, some with disastrous results.

Sometimes, you can see where good and bad genes will take you to.

The Perak Crown Prince Raja Nazrin in his keynote address at "Prospects and Challenges for Nation-building" conference in April 2007 said all Malaysians are equal under the law and stressed the importance of defending the integrity of the Federal Constitution.

“Malaysians of all races, religions, and geographic locations need to believe beyond a shadow of a doubt that they have a place under the Malaysian sun. Only when each citizen believes that he or she has a common home and is working towards a common destiny, will he or she make the sacrifices needed for the long haul.”- Raja Nazrin

This voice of moderation and reasonableness can only be appreciated by those who stand for equality and freedom.

The latest addition to the long list of political wannabes is the Kelantan Crown Prince who made a dreadful speech and a battle cry for the preservation of ketuanan Melayu and Malay rights and privileges.

Tengku Faris who apparently is still living in the past and share the same wavelength as those in UMNO said the recent elections results shows that the Malays are being challenged and non-Malays should not question Malay rights.

He said “Therefore, the rakyat must unite and never raise issues regarding Malay rights and special privileges because it is a quid pro quo in gratitude for the giving in of citizenship (beri-paksa kerakyatan) to 2.7 million non-Malays into the Tanah Melayu federation.Thus, it is not appropriate for these other ethnic groups to have citizenship, only (later) to seek equality and privileges,”

My goodness where have this guy been all these years.Didn't he know it was not only the non-Malays that wanted change, a big segment of educated and sensible Malays wanted similar change to escape from the corrupt and feudalistic UMNO regime.The ordinary Malays know ketuanan Melayu, the NEP and the Malay special rights (whatever it was)are the preserves of the top echelon in UMNO and their cronies.The Malays in the streets, if they are lucky, will only get the crumbs.

Should the prince adds insult to injury by reminding the non-Malays that they don't belong here in the first place and should be grateful that the Malays had benevolently given them citizenship.

As much as the Indians and Chinese were migrants,so were many Malays.Just take a good look at most of the leaders in UMNO, which one of them you can deservedly called true Malays.Those with ancestry from Indonesia would probably came closest to being called Malays.One that crosses my mind would be Khir Toyo, because of his Javanese ancestry.What about people like Mahathir,Abdullah Badawi,Syed Hamid Albar,Hishammudin Hussin Onn,Mohd Nor Yaakub and thousands if not millions like them in this country with mixed parentage.Mahathir is not even a Malay name, translated in Urdu or Hindi it would mean "Great Arrow". Badawi and Albar are Arabic names.

What about people like Raja Petra Kamaruddin,Karim Raslan,Kam Raslan,Diana Yusof,Maya Karin and the likes of them who by conventional definition would normally be categorised as Eurasians but would also be Malays by definitions in the Constitutions.Are they less privileged than the Malays.

At least Raja Petra didn't hide his true roots and had openly declared his mixed ancestry.Unfortunately, not all so-called Malays are proud of their mixed parentage and tried to hide it due to insecurity.Why should the Malays be more privileged than others?

The prince and the perpetrators in UMNO forgot that this is no more Tanah Melayu, this is now a nation called Malaysia.It is a federation of states, including Sabah and Sarawak and belong to Malaysian of every race, colour and creed.

If there is such thing as ketuanaan Melayu, what are the status of the people of Sabah and Sarawak, are they reduced to being colonies? The two states joined Malaysia as part of a sovereign nation and share the same status as any other state in the Peninsula.

The BN suffered badly at the polls due to the same reasons, ketuanaan Melayu,special rights and privileges for the Malay and discrimination and marginalisation of the other races.Harping on the same issues would drag UMNO deeper into the quagmire.

If Ghandi,Martin Luther King and Nelson Mendela didn't fight tooth and nail to bring changes to their people, do you think those in power would willingly give them the freedom ?

When the British gave independence to Malaya it was on conditions that the other races be made citizens and to be given equal rights as the Malays with the exceptions of certain protection accorded to the sultans and certain privileges for the Malays.When Sabah and Sarawak joined Malaysia the same conditions apply.Walloping a big slice of the economic cake for few individuals wasn't one of them.

No comments:

Google