By Azly Rahman
This sounds like a good idea; but after 51 years of independence?
We should have had this act to prevent the emergence of race-based parties and to ensure that all citizens be given equal opportunity and the rights and privileges accorded to them as a result of surrendering their natural rights to the state.
After 51 years of the institutionalisation of ethnocentrism and many times outright racism in terms of allocation of resources, open-secret indoctrinations, and the exploitation of racial and religious issues for political gain, we are now proposing an act to improve race-relations?
I am now puzzled – by the inherent contradictions we are confronting and will continue to confront vis-à-vis this proposed act.
Questions abound
Since the government had asked citizens like me to make suggestions and seek clarification concerning this proposed act, I have the following questions:
How will we judge the existing race-based parties that live and breathe on racial sentimentality to the point of being seditious in their pursuit of hegemony?
How will this act be used against governmental institutions such as the Biro Tata Negara whose livelihood has historically been based upon making sure that the damaging ideology of Malay (Pseudo) supremacy will forever prevail?
How will this act be used against public-funded educational institutions that promote “Ketuanan Melayu” which is clearly antithetical to our will to teach multi-racial understanding?
How many members of Parliament will be arrested under the Race Relations Act based on the nature of speeches they had given?
How many teachers and public servants will be investigated for using their position to deny their students and clients respectively the rights to be treated equally before the Constitution – rights accorded regardless of race, religion, ethnicity, color, creed, and religious orientation?
How many years of the possibility of multicultural education and intercultural understanding have we lost as a consequence of not having a Race Relations Act way back on Sept 16, 1963 during the formation of Malaysia?
How many racist policymakers in governmental and non-governmental sectors have we produced as a result of no Race Relations Act?
How many racist youth party leaders have we given birth to and how many can we afford to see “cloned” and “artificially inseminated” as a result of the absence of any act that erases racism and curbs arrogance and greed?
How will this proposed act, if passed, abolish the Internal Security Act that has been used to crush amongst others, those who oppose race-based policies and fight for racial and social justice?
How will this act allow for the passage of a new brand of politics – one that sees a truly multiracial party ruling the country and implementing policies based on the philosophy of equality, equal opportunity, excellence and empathy?
We are proposing this act at a time when we arrest our citizens for no good reason and no trial, using the instrument of oppression no longer suitable for an ultra and hyper-modern society such as ours.
We are proposing this out of desperation and out of sync with the mass sentiment of the day; at a time when the Berlin Wall of our Balkanized race relations is crumbling by the day, each brick in the wall ripped off by the power of the digital tsunami.
We are hearing this proposal coming from a race-based coalition government that wants to ensure that the divide and conquer and sub-divide and sub-conquer policies of British colonialism prevail in the filter-funneled minds of our little brown brothers and sisters.
The need to go deeper
Perhaps what we need is not another act to add to the ambivalence of acts such as The University and University Colleges and the Internal Security Acts but to go deeper into our public institutions and ask why we have not progressed much in race relations after all these decades.
We should investigate further how the New Economic Policy itself as a grand Stalinist-inspired programme of national development has contributed not only to the deterioration of race relations but has cemented racism in newer forms – both subtle and open.
We should investigate how the topic race relations has been taught in our community centers, schools, universities, and other public institutions to see what goes into the mind of our citizens by way of schooling, indoctrination, training, and education – to see what went wrong and what is still not right.
We should examine governmental policies and see if we indeed uncover practices that promote equality, equal opportunity, and empathy in place; policies that ought to have improved race relations, inclusionary, and integrate rather than disintegrate the different races.
This will be a mind-boggling noble proposal for us to contribute ideas. Do we need a new act? Or will a new government with a brand new ideology suffice?
But as peace and justice-loving Malaysians, let us offer constructive ideas to this proposed act.
Let us propose that only a truly multiracial party that has the will, motivation, intelligence and the set of acquired skills should be given the mandate to implement a Race Relations Act. Any communal-based party is too much a contradiction to put their act together on this one.
Back to basic, battle agains corruption is the main issue, corrupted opportunist regardless race or religion, as government they’ll listen to no one. They only pretend their listening, as we witness the avalanches of our ranking in “TI CPI” reports today.
http://blog.limkitsiang.com/2008/09/24/abdullah-ultimate-failure-in-battle-against-corruption-malaysia%e2%80%99s-worst-ranking-in-14-years-of-ti-cpi-no-47/
Only if we neutralized the evil spirits, we can start talk about fairness in race or religion. Money is the main key they stick to BN’d rules anyways.
Race Relations Act – why now? I thought you guys in the opposition want ISA to be watered down so that a person can be tried via other means! The race relation act is a good tool where instead of being interned under ISA for potentially anti-race related matters, the authorities can instead try a person within the legal provisions of the act.
You simply can’t please all the people all of the time, can you!
if they are sincere, should hv this 1970 or 1971 (latest), now it’s 37 years late, it would take at least 10 years of sincere implementation to bring any results.
The question is does the government of Malaysia have the will and sincerity to set things right, simple as that . No need for grand design, complicated and complex terminologies, superbly sounding and verbose piece of writing, seemingly fair and sound terms but interspersed with preconditions and conditions such as…but someone else should be given special privileges and “ketuanan” status, etc., etc.
Enough of such nonsense and questionable, eye-washing, ulterior motivated intrigues.
For goodness sake, a simple piece of writing strictly written with complete sincerity, accountability, transparency, impartiality, integrity, practicality, genuineness, believable, and according to the needs of current time and situation would suffice. No one ethnic group would be above anyone else. Completely EQUAL AND IMPARTIAL, nothing more, nothing less.
Anything short of these requirements would render whatever intentions unacceptable and useless. Unless there are other motives to further strengthen a particular segment of society more impervious and protected, pampered and accorded more “ketuanan” privileges, at the expense and against of the greater good of the masses.
Let’s open our eyes big and wide to see what the proposed act would accomplish, if it does indeed get to see the light of the day.
The question is does the government of Malaysia have the will and sincerity to set things right, simple as that . No need for grand design, complicated and complex terminologies, superbly sounding and verbose piece of writing, seemingly fair and sound terms but interspersed with preconditions and conditions such as…but someone else should be given special privileges and “ketuanan” status, etc., etc.
Enough of such nonsense and questionable, eye-washing, ulterior motive laden intrigues.
For goodness sake, a simple piece of writing strictly written with complete sincerity, accountability, transparency, impartiality, integrity, practicality, genuineness, believable, and according to the needs of current time and situation would suffice. No one ethnic group would be above anyone else. Completely EQUAL AND IMPARTIAL, nothing more, nothing less.
Anything short of these requirements would render whatever intentions unacceptable and useless. Unless there are other motives to further strengthen a particular segment of society more impervious and protected, pampered and accorded more “ketuanan” privileges, at the expense of and against the greater good of the masses.
Let’s open our eyes big and wide to see what the proposed act would accomplish, if it does indeed get to see the light of the day.
Its only a Public Relation exercise by the BN goverment as far as I am concerned. So long as BN exist in the state they are in how can the RRA be enacted. Won’t BN will be illegal then?
The Act should outlaw all RACIST political parties… i.e. UMNO, MCA, Gorekan (gorek the master’s balls only), MIC.
Listen RACE RELATION CANNOT BE LEGISLATED.
RACE RELATION GROWS BEST ON THE FERTILE GROUND OF EQUALITY AND FRATERNITY.
If there is a right, conducive environment for racial harmony there would no need for Race Relation Act (RRA). Similarly, if the environment is antagonistic and frictional, hundreds of RRAs will still be useless!
It’s just like passing a law to decree that there must be love among husband and wife. Do you think love will blossom if every day the husband and wife are forbidden to sleep or allowed to spend time together or taunted daily with quarrels over money and religion? And passing a law to decree love will make it any better? How are you able to pass a law for compulsory love or, for that matter, unity?
The people advocating for RRA must be shortsighted or they must be incredibly naïve! What is the point for RRA if there remain the inequitable and discriminative policies such as the NEP, 5% discount to millionaires for purchase of houses, lopsided university entry, university comprising of entirely one race, lack of promotion opportunity in Public Services, “ketuanan melayu”, forbidden inter-faith discussion, body snatching, religion supremacy, awarding of Government contracts to cronies, etc, etc. These are the root causes for racial disharmony and to achieve racial harmony these inequitable and discriminatory impediments must be removed!
What this RRA will achieve is an artificial means of the bottling up of anger and frustration which will ultimately lead to a more explosive outcome. It will become another draconian means for the already proven racists in UMNO to abuse their powers and preserve their cling to power in Malaysia. What punishments do the RRA has that the Sedition Act and other existing laws don’t have?
The fact that RRA has been successful in UK and other developed countries doesn’t mean that it will be successful here in Malaysia. One MAJOR difference is that there are no equivalent discriminatory policies in these countries such as the NEP, race supremacy, forbidden inter-faith discussion, university made up of entirely one race, etc.
It is very glaring that the whole RRA thing is very hastily done. It comes as no surprise that it is none other than MCA which promulgated the idea and UMNO hastily acquiesce to the idea. Can the RRA can be successful with all the existing inequitable and discriminatory impediments placed in its path? Wouldn’t it will make more sense if the impediments or root causes of racial disharmony to be removed instead of enforcing RRA with all the impediments intact?
This is all an eye wash with the intention to placate the non-malays giving UMNO and the BN lap dogs more time to cling to power.
Three decades ago, there were no RRA, yet all the races co-existed happily among one another. It is not wrong to say that UMNO is the main cause for the present racial disharmony in Malaysia. You don’t have to look deeply to see that UMNO‘s hands and legs are all over the place in all the incidents which caused racial disharmony in the past few years. One can only surmise that the racial disharmony was intentionally done for UMNO’s own selfish agenda.
Remove UMNO and all will be well! There would be no need for RRA!
///This will be a mind-boggling noble proposal for us to contribute ideas. Do we need a new act? Or will a new government with a brand new ideology suffice?///– Azly Rahman
Yes, we need a new government with the ideology that all races are equal under the Malaysian sun. It is the government that needs to observe a race relations act, and the people should be allowed free discussions on race relations without inhibition so that the government would be informed about deviation in its government services. But when namewee’s negarakuku provides the memorable lines on what happen on the ground, he was hauled up by the police to provide Malay translation when others could have done so. That too was said to be part of the investigation under the Sedition Act.
Arguably though that racism is everywhere, the Malaysian brand of institutionalized racism which is organized and sponsored by the state and institutionalized in government apparatus is a unique kind in the world.
The government knows very well that the removal of the provision for review in the constitutional amendment to article 153 not only prevented a closure to racism, it has also given rise to people claiming that the special privileges afforded them was a recognition of their superiority rather than a need for assistance.
Article 153 provides that a reasonable proportion of education facilities should be provided to Malays. But under NEP the government has kept almost exclusively such facilities like scholarships, places in Mara colleges to Malays. The government has gone beyond the provision of Article 153 in implementing NEP which should have been withdrawn 18 years ago.
The government reserves all boarding schools for Malays, and yet it considered it useful to organize the so-called national services to promote unity. Polarization of people by race is the results of government policies. The cause of disunity is NEP as implemented based on UMNO’s racist formula. UMNO cannot be trusted to be fair to non-Malays, and it has to be removed from the federal level before it can learn how to govern again.
This is just a plain piece of UMNO-BN sh*t…solely for propaganda purposes. This Race Relations Act will not be of any use, if the heart is either unwilling or insincere. Good try though but, the rakyat are not easily taken in by such hallow piece of legislation.
As long as there is UMNO with her present set of members and their racist mind-set and all their insecurities and gutless character you can forget about anything coming out of the Race Relations Act or for that matter whatever Act/s that is/are being proposed in the future.
In the Race Relations Act, I wondered if brandishing of a kris would be a punishable act?
Also, if an Umno official were to utter something that incite hate and anger amongst other races, the journalist shall write it out in the papers, will they put it in words that the journalist shall be punishable under ISA while ANYONE FROM UMNO who gets entangled in this mess will only be punish with a tap on the wrist.
They have to put all this in words, yunno, otherwise I dunno.
Coming from UMNO, I can categorically say it is a bloomin’ charade! Period.
We need PR to come up with the real thing. Not a mirage from BN.
If BN wants to show some goodwill, say, even some decency or maybe a modicum of sanity, why don’t they begin with the repeal of the ISA. That’s an obvy (obvious thing!)
All BN component parties should be dissolved to form a single BN party. That I think will be a start to rid Malaysia of racist politics. ISA is a national security apparatus and needs to remain firmly in place.
sounds like very good law in preventing discrimination on the grounds of race: thus discussions abolish nep, questioning special privilege, and mca tak guna will be outlawed and kasi masuk penjara…… (slowly transform into isa/osa-type law)….
“RACE RELATION CANNOT BE LEGISLATED”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Race_Relations_Act
UK Race Relations Act 1976 – the best thing the UK did in the last 40 years. The “Vote labour if you want a nigger for a neighbour”, “paki-bashing” and “No Irish” didn’t go away immediately, but having some clear law on which to prosecute racially-motivated injustice helped.
“If there is a right, conducive environment for racial harmony there would no need for Race Relation Act (RRA).”
This comment is Truly Malaysia(TM) – I’ve seen full page advertisements in what passes for newspapers here where a demagogue reminds citizens to “don’t cause trouble”. What country with functioning law does that? Also, if everybody agreed to drive at 80km/h, you could save money on speed signs and traffic cops.
Just copy the UK’s RRA and make it law. It’ll hurt for a bit – it did in the UK. My 85 year-old father still blames “wogs” for everything that isn’t the fault of ‘queers’. But his son doesn’t, and neither do his son’s friends, wogs and queers included. And nor do any of our children. Make it law, catch the transgressors and offer them resignation as an option. I imagine there’s plenty of untapped younger talent in Malaysia waiting to do a better job.
How has Malaysia, as a nation, progressed in race relations?
We must realise that the Montgomery Bus Boycott happened not too long ago in 1955 and it was only in the early 1960s that Martin Luther King, Jr., and others managed to bring to an end racial discrimination and prejudice in the United States. Not too long ago!
While significant progress in race relations in many countries had been made in recent years, we cannot say the same in Malaysia.
In fact, on the contrary, race relations in Malaysia have gone worse under the Umno-dominated BN government. We are still reminded again and again ketuanan Melayu and pendatang. I Melayu, you bukan Melayu! Sad, sad, sad!
What exactly is the problem that this “Race Relations Act” is designed to solve?
Is it designed to punish the likes of Ahmad Ismail who uttered racist remarks not only during the ceramah, but repeated them in at least 2 subsequent Press Conferences?
If so, don’t we already have enough laws to punish the likes of Ahmad Ismail? What exactly are the short comings of the existing laws?
What makes us think that with this new law, we are going to see anything different happening to the likes of Ahmad Ismail?
Someone mentions the analogy to passing laws to force married couples to love one another. I think there are strong similarities to that … definitely, no laws are going to force 2 people to “love” each other. Similarly, no laws are going to be able to force the different races to “live in unity”. Laws by design are intended to be deterrents.
And look at this another way. With a Race Relations Act, will this stop the incumbent Government from detaining the likes of Teresa Kok and Tan from being detained under ISA? If not, what use do we have for this Race Relations Act, if EXISTING laws can still be mis-used?
I have grave reservations on this proposed Act.
To put it simply, it is simply redundant, and merely adds another tool to the Government to misuse it, should they choose to do so.
The RRA will eventually end up as another weapon like the ISA to selectively persecute those who stand in the way of UMNO and its cronies holding on to power.
The government say they are looking at the RRA of other countries like the UK’s RRA for guidance. Look, their RRA’s attempt to stop discrimination from flourishing and taking roots in their countries which have non-discriminatory political systems, beliefs and policies. The ruling party, the BN, thrives and survives openly and unashamedly on a discriminatory divide and rule system, beliefs and policies. Remove those shameful things and race relation in Malaysia will automatically become better and better by the day. There is no need for any RRA. Keep holding on to and doing those shameful things and a hundred RRA’s will not improve race relation one bit.
The truth is that if we are sincere in seeing and working on better race relation, BN and its major component parties will die a natural death by becoming irrelevant. The whole concept and set-up of the BN is incongruent with the concept of non-discrimination and therefore antithetical to the concept of fostering better relationship between the various races in Malaysia.
It is another piece of nonsense from the BN. I hope the UMNO, MCA and the MIC will not embarrass themselves further by trying to promote acceptance of the RRA becuase it is so antithetical to their innermost beings.
YB Lim,
What good is law & act when the country’s judiciary is biased & the law enforcers are corrupted !!!!! YOU CAN HAVE MILLIONS OF LAW BUT NO ONE TO ACT !!!!!!!!!
A real piece of crap coming out from a coalition of race-based political parties especially with UMNO bent on ensuring the supremacy of Ketuanan Melayu.Just who are they trying to kid?
Very critical questions as usual from Dr Azly but sadly no answers will be forthcoming from the UMNOputras.
RPK, through his writings, has been promoting good race relations and respect among various racial groups.
RPK, through his writings, has highlighted the unfair treatments of all racial groups by certain individuals of a certain racial group.
RPK, through his writings, has highlighted Muslims who understood the religion and pseudo Muslims who twisted the religion for their benefits to suppress other Muslims and nonMuslims.
And why is RPK regarded a threat to national security? Will the RRA help him?
RRA is a brainchild of MCA. When we look at the background of the current MCA leaders, the great majority are of enviable academic qualifications. OTK is an engineer by training. LTL, a master; and Wee, a PhD holder.
These are the people who have survived the unfair treatments and policies of the government. They gained entry into the local universities with distinctions and became competitive.To them, stumbling blocks could well be turned into stepping stones.
My question is: How about those Chinese with less “A”s? When leaders of MCA are representing Chinese as ministers in the cabinet, they should remind themselves that they are not there to help formulate policies to safeguard the interests of the cream of the crop only, but rather that the majority of their people who are not “as smart” be given fair treatments as well.
OKT once said his ambition was to be a medical doctor. But the number of “A”s he got and the color of his skin only allowed him to become a biology student in MU. With unwavering resolve, he went on to become a President of MCA. Maybe it is interesting if OKT, an idol to many a Malaysian Chinese like me, could let us know how his from 5 & 6 classmates, who did not make it into the universities or get to study what they aspire for, feel.
There were several classmates of mine who were enrolled to read engineering, accounting, dentistry, and law but none for medicine in the local universities and colleges. Those who aspired to become doctors, went overseas with scholarship, include FAMA (father & mother), to have their dreams fulfilled.
We already have a Race Relations Act. The highest form of it is called ISA. This is followed by the Sedition Act. If such tough laws are not enough to ensure racial harmony what would an additional Race Relations Act do?
We don’t need more bullshit legislation to ensure ‘racial harmony’.
You cannot just promote unity, harmony and peaceful coexistence among the various Malaysian races with just a piece of writing called Race Relations Act, do you ?
Whatever form it takes, there must be complete sincerity and honesty in the ruling party leaders to promote this precious unity and harmony among the races without any ulterior goals in the minds of any race.
If the RRA is to be implemented, then those in power should abandon any hints of superiority of any one race over another; promote religion without any intrusion into the sensitivities of another religion ; implement policies strictly based on needs i.e assist those groups of people who are poor , disadvantaged or disabled irrespective of race as in the Rukun Negara.
There should not be any ulterior motives involved in policy making and implementation especially at the local councils, govt departments etc. This may take time but a start must be made otherwise whatever good is there in the Act will be negated.
Unity and harmony starts from the individual then the family and finally the wider sections of society. Everyone should think Malaysian first and last and not race. In this respect, the education system should be reviewed and if necessary overhauled.
The police, the judiciary and the executive arms of the government must be the first line in the implementation of the Act and act fairly irrespective of race, religion and position.
There shall be no attempts to divide and rule as in the subtle case of promoting splinter parties to provide a basis for ” I am the bigger party than you ” and therefore deserves more.
Dr.Azly, dont get conned! This is another hoodwink by the UMNO govt.They introduce all kind of Acts just to protect their pockets and power.You mean they are sincere in helping the Malays in the kampongs and the poor Indians and the poor Chinese?You must be kidding!This is best called THE GIMMICK ACT.
Since the previous writer has put it so well, I will not expand on his points. However, I will add my support to his points.
Spending time overseas, I noticed hunters in the middle of the forest mulling over which buck to harvest because their licenses only allowed them to take a male buck.
Most hunters were concerned with the meat, hide and of course the rack. ( Antlers )
So.. .they would bide their time… and save their shot for when a nice specimen came along.
This is miles away from any enforcement. Same goes for the bag limit of the trout fisherman and the rabbit hunter. I almost never saw a poacher. All were hunting at the right season.. with the right weapon and bag limits were respected.
Legislating a law is useless unless you can enforce it and have the people respect it.
Respect it. For that to happen, it has to be fair. It has to be well written.
We cant even get Malaysians to line up at the LRT and stop trowing trash out their cars when they are travelling. If the cops ever stop patroling the roads, we will be parking in our neighbours driveway, driving the wrong way down a one way street and speeding no end.
Then you can see in Europe, mothers putting their kids into baby seat… because it is the right thing to do.
The right thing to do……. and respect. If they even asked these questions before writing any laws and making any idiotic statements.
Boh-liao Says:
>> And why is RPK regarded a threat to national security?
Hi Boh, I will assume that you are a non Muslim, as as such you will not be familiar with Arabic or with legislative classical Islamic texts etc.
We judge by what people say and write. RPK has been given ample opportunities to explain himself and on occasions he holds his silence and on other occasions he insists on his stance without evidence. I have no problem if RPK claimed ignorance for which he can be excused; the problem is that he actually believes and persists in anti-Islamic info dissemination.
There is an article entitled “the great tudung debate” on his blog today (he must have horded plenty of them before his arrest so that someone can continue posting on his behalf :^) Here you will find a blatant attack on an established Islamic institution (re: the hijab). He tries to disprove an established Islamic fact that is proven through Islamic legislative sources. By deliberating on an issue that he clearly has no knowledge of, nor of it’s sources, nor of the creed-related to it nor of jurisprudent issues relating to it, he creates a sour atmosphere of hate and ignorance. He also does not allow anyone to contend his ignorance (I’ve been blocked from posting on his blog).
RPK is a truly nasty piece of work who goes beyond the political facet of blogging and touches upon fundamental issues to discredit Islamic creed and history for a selfish agenda he holds. “A blasphemer of the worst kind” one politician called him, I would say he is a willful Islamophobe, who should have stuck to the political agenda of his blog rather than an anti-Islamic one.
Race Relations Act? Is this some sort of joke?
Race Relations Act can never be implemented successfully if the following are not abolished:
1. Ketuanan Melayu
2. Priveleges accorded to the Bumiputeras (5% discount on property purchase, quota system etc)
Even if the above are abolished, how would they handle cases of apostacy? Would they allow a Muslim to convert???
Anyone involved in subversive activities that are detrimental to the social stability and peace of a country needs to be dealt with firmly. I don’t think any country would compromise their security in the name of ‘civil liberties’.
Will Umnoputras be subject to the RRA? We already have a Sedition Act which is not enforced for Umno members. What is the use of another law if it is selectively enforced; how will it stop racist like Ahmad Ismail from stirring the pot?
It’s just like the useless code of ethics for BN proposed by Gerakan. BN thrives on racism so more laws and code of ethics are just plain useless without the will to enforce them on Umnoputras who fall foul of them.
There is no need for race relations act in Malaysia. There are already existing laws to punish those that raise sensitive racial/religious issues. And we have recently seen them in action.
Have these helped promote better race relations? No. So what will this additional act provide other than more avenues for the government to clamp down on dissent?
zak_hammaad Says:
Anyone involved in subversive activities that are detrimental to the social stability and peace of a country needs to be dealt with firmly. I don’t think any country would compromise their security in the name of ‘civil liberties’.
Martin Luther King would have fully qualified as a person that was involved in subversive activities that were detrimental to the social stability.
In your world Zak_Hammaad, everyone accepts their lot in life as dictated by their all knowing leaders and raises nary a complaint. For no true peace loving citizen would jeopardize their society’s harmony by raising unsettling issues.
Ask those umnoputras, what is their suggestion first! I guess they will come up will all those brilliant putra ideas that will “SHUT ALL MOUTH ” except umnoputras.
This race relation act is just rubbish.How can the race relation act be effective.When you can,t openly talk about race and religion openly.
This act won,t work when you have one race which claim to be above the other races.
Sorry to digress.
I saw quite a number of police reports have been lodged against Anwar for being a threat to nation & economy. ISA on him soon?
But we all know the hard fact is the BN government led by AAB, Najib & Syed Hamid is the root cause of the recent racial tension, economic instability by brainlessly, brutally & maliciously invoking ISA on ordinary peace loving citizens of Malaysia.
How come NOBODY from PAS or PKR or DAP or NGOs lodges any police reports against these arrogant leaders??????????????????????????????
Watch MCA minister Liow’s evasive TALK:-
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DfLSXHljljk
Another NGO ( READ UMNO ) had made a police report againts DSAI.Saying he is a threat to the country.
PLEASE!!!! CAN SOMEONE TELL THIS BRAINLESS PUPPIES THAT DSAI IS NOT A THREAT TO THE COUNTRY.DSAI is only a threat to UMNO and BN. (
The Race Relation Act if ever it is enacted will be another WHITE ELEPHANT like the RUKUNEGARA – write for the purpose of writing only! Ask the BN government how much of the Rukunegara has been realized? In fact, if you study the Rukunegara carefully, it contradicts to the actions of the BN government.
Just take the words “membina masyarakat yang ADIL”. How can this ever be achieved if BN insists on maintaining Malay Special Rights? So it will be just another case of ENACTING for the sake of ENACTING only!!!!!!!!!!
“It’s just like passing a law to decree that there must be love among husband and wife.”
No it isn’t, that’s nonsense. Rational, practical law serves mostly to constrain its subjects to a range of behaviour that is acceptable to the community they live in. The UK’s RRA is intended to limit the extent to which UK citizens may discriminate against persons on the grounds of race. The RRA is an attempt to outlaw socially divisive practices. Very few laws (outside of religion) compel anybody to do anything – that’s not what they’re for.
The RRA has worked, and continues to work in the UK. If you’re at all familiar with the UK, you will know that you’re never more than 5 minutes away from a Chinese (we use “a Chinese” to describe the takeaway business or the meal, never a person of Chinese descent). You will also know that it’s a rare Chinese takeaway or restaurant in the UK that employs people who are not (or don’t appear to me to be, I don’t take DNA samples) of Chinese descent. Nobody contests this. We have all seen Stan / Loretta in Monty Python’s The Life of Brian and know when we are struggling against reality.
Small scale racial discrimination is alive and well in the UK. What has mostly gone is systematic discrimination by employers, schools and the civil service. The availability of convenient, cheap and effective law, and largely unfettered press ready to pounce on careless racists means that it’s simply financially prudent for organisations to ensure they’re not favouring a particular race. Very few individuals ever feel the direct effect of the RRA, but without large organisations fanning the flames of discrimination, the language and practice of racial discrimination has become socially uncommon and even unacceptable. Unless you live in a particularly depressed area in the UK, or one with a high proportion of immigrants who have brought racist habits with them, or you find an old person that has rejected all cultural change since the Crusades, you are very unlikely to hear anyone use race to describe another person.
“There are already existing laws to punish those that raise sensitive racial/religious issues.” That’s not the same thing. Those laws prohibit discussion of racial discrimination, while permitting racial discrimination to continue unabated. I suspect those laws are there to protect the discriminatory provisions in other Malaysian laws.
Don’t be too quick to mock a Malaysian Race Relations Act. There are many people writing on this website that they’d like Malaysian Law to be amended or repealed. What justification would a government give for making those changes, other than by doing so they are bringing older laws into line with a better one? The problem is obvious – a Race Relations Act would be contrary to almost every other Malaysian Law. But the change has to start somewhere.
I too, can picture BN applauding and smiling at LKS and saying “Uncle Lim, you and your blogging friends were right all along, we’ve done everything you asked for, come here for a group hug and please, sit in the big chair” but it won’t ever happen. You might just have to accept the change you want being implemented by someone else. I realise that’s an optimistic view. If their RRA is more of the same old tripe, I’ll be using my worst Anglo Saxon monosyllables on it, same as any other sane but powerless bystander.
Some of you are really naïve. What do you think of Race Relation Act? To punish people like Ahmad Ismail? High hope man! To me Race Relation Act is to FORMALISE the followings:
1. Racial cooperation, and cooperation here means learn to accept incompetent people be given important jobs and function. Don’t complain, by race it is their divine right to be given important jobs even though they screw up big time;
2. Racial tolerance, yes must learn to keep your mouth shut, some race is more superior than others because they have more rights than others to this country;
3. Institutionalised indoctrination – yes we must teach our young whose culture, religion and race are more superior than others’ and all must learn to accept the historical “reality” of this country;
4. Learn to accept your lesser racial position. If you don’t and start complaining, it is a subversion to national peace and stability and you can be sent to Kamunting;
5. Learn to accept tokenism because if you don’t you are trouble maker. You must let your “leaders” representing you and speak on your behalf, never mind these leaders are spineless half baked scum bags.
katdog Says:
>> Martin Luther King would have fully qualified as a person that was involved in subversive activities that were detrimental to the social stability.
On the face of it, this may seem like a valid point, but the main difference with MLK was that his approach was reconciliatory and less confrontational. He did become more ‘radical’ in the course of his career, in the period leading up to his assassination.
He once said “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere”; how you can compare 1960’s America to today’s Malaysia is beyond reason.
OrangRojak Says:
>> The RRA has worked, and continues to work in the UK.
I can categorically say this statement is a load of tosh. It looks good on paper ( you can view it at: opsi.gov.uk/acts/acts2000/ukpga_20000034_en_1 ) – However in practise, it is difficult to implement because of vague and general outlines that are difficult to interpret.
The failure of race equality organisations and activists over many years to include Islamophobia in their programmes and campaigns appears to be an example of institutional discrimination:
insted.co.uk/relations.html
They want to continue race and religion politics……that worked for them ..till last election.
They keep pushing same thing…but will not work.
Now applying…cannot beat them..join them…sort of tactic….not uniting the races as one….the Malaysians…but race relationship…only they know…what that means.
It is race and religion politics…..now described in a different way..by UMNO.
They keep twisting…and denying…thus making absurd suggestions.
Without race and religion politics….UMNO is gone.
It is already gone….with less than 35% of voters supporting them.
Like Anwar said…they keep ignoring the facts and keep denying.
Once..a brave man tell the truth…he has to resign ….like the Min.Of Law did.
How many more are as brave as that man?
NONE….after him.
If there is a race relation act, it should be applied to instigators like Ahmad Ismail and the newspaper which stir up the havoc. Now the authorities want to investigate the food. Why should they investigate the food if it was not investigated before the ISA thing ? They feel so guilty because they know they are wrong and now they are trying to find something to bury their guilt. If they have not ISAed anyone, this food thing will not become an issue. It is crazy and it does not make the authorities look good. Of course, it is understandable that cops are under orders. But the one who issued the order must take the blame. Has he not been sleeping well ? If the people handle the citizens correctly and fairly, there is no need for a race relation act. The guilty person is Ahmad Ismail, his supporters and the newspaper. But how nice they are not being chased after by PDRM. Never mind. His guilty conscience will forever remind him of his big stupid mistake. Adding to this is the betrayal by the same race. Chinese betray Chinese so that they can get Malay’s favour. Do they have no shame ?
If the government is really serious about race relation,Get rid of the term BUMI and NON BUMI.Go back to the schools.No more feeling of forms which asked for oneS race.IT SHOULD JUST BE MALAYSIAN NON MALAYSIAN.
There are so many things that are happening in our schools now adays that are pushing the children apart.
CHANGE THIS FIRST THEN ONLY TALK ABOUT THE “” RACE RELATION ACT””
cemerlang, it does not seem as though it is only Chinese who are betraying Chinese to ‘win’ Malay favour; Malays are also politically split, each group with it’s own vested interests. National unity looks like a distant dream at the moment.
to look another way, if gov to pass RRA, then umno, mca and mic are “illegal” coz their party are race based! just like umno once kena banned for having phantom voters…….
the objective of RRA to avoid racial discrimination, isn’t “umno”, mca and mic are already discriminate since cina cannot join umno or malay to mic ? i;m not saying indian coz some of them manage to join umno, wait, they still cannot join mca – maybe after RRA is passed only mca and mic are illegal (umno in fact is multi racial party, if you study closely!)….
“The failure … to include Islamophobia” is not a failure. The law successfully excludes ‘Islamophobia’, whatever you believe that term to mean.
For race relations law to be practicable, it must be written in terms that apply to any race. Including specific groups would weaken the power of the law for groups that are omitted. I realise that might appear an odd thing to say in Malaysia. The only rational way to defend races against discrimination is to remove all references to race from law. How can law defeat discrimination when it the law discriminates?
Also, Islam is not a race. The conflation of race with religion in Malaysia is a local quirk, nothing more. In much of the world outside of Malaysia it is common to make lifestyle choices that are not dictated by pedigree.
You may categorically state what you please. If you are not absolutely sure, perhaps you could try introducing your opinion with “I think …”, or “It appears to me …”. If you really are absolutely convinced that what you say is undeniable fact, then I envy you. That must be a great feeling.
Has the relationship between the various races in Malaysia really deteriorated until this piece of legislation is needed?
All this talk about this RRA started after that Ahmad Ismail issue, and further fanned by those recent ISA detentions, but socially, we Malaysians still go on with our lives, interacting peacefully with other races while at work, at school, shopping, etc.
Fortunately, many of us are level-headed enough not to be taken in by the racially charged rhetoric from such a politician like Ahmad Ismail, who no doubt must have scored lots of ‘hero’ points within his own party. It is unfortunate that he was given an equivalent to a slap on the wrist and escaped prosecution under the present legislation, which was in turn used against the reporter who had exposed him. Under such circumstances, it is doubtful that this RRA could do any better.
So, how do we deal with such a politician who raises racial sentiments in order to drum up support?
Just ignore the bugger and let common sense prevail.
Dear Malurian,
Before engaging in such topic as racial relations, may I invite you to take a look at the following scenario:
Ahmad, Ah Beng, Sami have qualified for the 100m race final. The referee placed Ahmad at the 50m mark to start the race. Lo and behold, he won the gold medal.
Actually, Ahmad could potentially run as fast as, if not faster than, all his peers.
Look around us, we have many successful Malays, the likes of the Sidek brothers, for instance, who have won the admiration and respect from all on the basis of meritocracy. When Chong Wei became the silver medalist in the last Olympic Games, the world over also knew that his coach was Misbun Sidek.
The quota system is meant to protect the weak, not the strong.
For those hardcore racist who drum up the so-called Ketuanan thing, please look into the mirror and ask yourself: If you need protection of the quota system to gain entry into the university and become beneficiary of the NEP, and knowing that it is at the expense of other races, then there is nothing really great to trumpet about.
With due respect, I have no intention to insult any race. In fact, I have many hardworking, talented, and learned Malay friends, associates, and neighbors whose achievements are enviable, let alone those of our founding fathers of Malaysia and other true Malay icons.
Only my foot to those weaklings who have all along been protected and yet show their arrogance instead of being appreciative.
@ekans
“it is doubtful that this RRA could do any better.”
It is doubtful that any law could do better than the ISA. I’m sure the ISA can trump speeding tickets too. With the ISA in existence, nobody who invokes it can be said to have done wrong. Merely saying so would be subversive, wouldn’t it?
I’ve enjoyed reading the comments about a possible RRA, but it seems to me that the ISA is the supreme law of Malaysia. Discussions of law, under the circumstances, should be for entertainment value.
If, in some hypothetical otherworld, the ISA did not exist, would the appropriate charge for the case mentioned above not be “Wasting police time”, “Harrassment”, “Perverting the course of justice”, or any combination of these? I’d imagine the UK’s RRA wouldn’t have terribly much to say about a case like that one, and any one of those crimes would be more grave.
Is the RRA story really related to Ahmad Ismail’s recent contribution?
//umno in fact is multi racial party, if you study closely!// melurian
__________________________________
I did a close study as your advice. Correctly you should say many UMNO members are pendatang from Indonesia, India and Middle East countries..
I love BN politcians especially UMNO. Sometimes they just need to stop and listen to hear what they are going to say or what they have said. But, after more than 50 years of voting them into power I don’t blame them for thinking that rakyat are bodoh and will buy any comments from them. So, They would think Race Relation is the way to solve all the race and religion issue. However, I believe there are more fundamental problem that we need to resolve first.
# 1 dissolved all race base parties….
Latest Poll: Who do you DISLIKE or HATE most in Malaysia?
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It is easy to damage……harder and time consuming to fix, in particular an issue like race and religion.
It took 30 years for our country’s race relations to come to this unacceptable stage. It would take at lease 3 times to fix it.
Decades of narrow, short sighted and damaging politics of race and religion had done enormous damage…..the people don’t trust each other anymore. The damage is permanent and long term – there is no quick fix.
Low-paid migrant Indonesian and Filipino workers may use the Race Relations Act as a leverage to sue their employers for the low wages they receive, claiming that they are discriminated because they do not belong to any of the predominant races (i.e Malays, Chinese and Indians) in Malaysia.
The government has to tread carefully when formulating the Race Relations Act lest it becomes a time-bomb in the migrant job-market.
hahahahaha……Race and Relations Act!
They cannot even relate to everyday ……simple truths.
They cannot see us as Malaysians…but Malays…Chinese and Indians.
When one cannot see or learn simple things….or admit mistakes being made…one cannot learn or act at all!!
So how can that person lead the country……with good Acts for the Nation?
The only ACT I know UMNO is good at….is acting…acting and acting…..like..movie..”Do RE MI”.
Red lips should be voted best dressed actor…best future clown.
Dollah…best low budget sicom actor. Best actor with hall empty…no one wants to see his movies.
Khairy……best future
“Han Tuah’ remake…..but too short..to fat!
Hussein…..Best future.”Han Jebat”…..but no vooom power!
Albar & Toyo..Best Laurel & Hardy….very goof future!
Toyo…Best natural Japanese actor. No need make up….very natural! Get Koh Tsu Koon…as Chin Peng….then real good sell out movie…entitled…
“The March to the River Gombak by Chin Peng”
Mahathir..wait for his final role…..as a wise man..giving so call wise advises…and got the whole country fall under enemy’s hands.
That will be the biggest movie.involving all actors .
Race and Relations Act….you say???
These are NUTS!! How to depend on them?
why the idiot ahmad ismail who always like to show his index finger and talk like a co*k against chinese,never appreciate the 6 billion tax that paid by penangites to the federal gomen,and the federal gomen is using the tax to pay him the salary,to fund the public nationwide,to construct mosques,to buy perdana or merze for the excos,to fund the sekolah kebangsaan……..who are or which race received the most?ahmad idiot?
why cant you say the positive issue rather than negative ones?I THINK YOU HAVE YOUR AGENDA,not the reporter,IDIOT! :-(
The biggest problem with this race relation act is that the first word in public came out from Syed Hamid Albar. Talk about the wrong messenger AND likely ball carrier. The man relishes twisting words to fool people too much.
Before considering the RRA, can the BN government ask all bodies to address all Malaysians as Malaysians or Malay Malaysians, Indian Malaysians, Chinese Malaysians, etc., rather than erroneously as Malaysian Malays, Malaysian Indians, Malaysian Chinese, etc?
Before considering the RRA, we should demand MCA and MIC to close shop or to change to CMA and IMC, if they still claim to represent Chinese Malaysians and Indian Malaysians, respectively.
MCA and MIC help Umnoputras to ridicule and hentam Chinese Malaysians and Indian Malaysians by perpetuating the unnationalistic and expatriate terms of Malaysian Chinese and Malaysian Indians, respectively.
The ISA was meant to be used against those who wage an armed struggle to overthrow the government through violence, terror & chaos, but over the years, it has been abused to subdue or suppress political opposition, even on politicians who had been legitimately elected.
Recent events have already created more doubts over the proper enforcement of ISA as more Malaysians are beginning to believe that this piece of legislation is being abused for political purposes.
So, how can we be so sure that the RRA wouldn’t be abused and twisted like the ISA, allowing politicians who behaved like Ahmad Ismail to get off with only a slap on the wrist?
If we get rid of BN especially UMNO, there would be no need for Race Relations Act. If we put DPM, Krismuddin and Ahmad behind bars, there would be no need for Race Relations Act. Race Relations Act is proposed purely because of the chauvinistic and racists attitudes of UMNO.
Is it a breach on RRA? if a job vacancy required andidates to speak Mandarin? What if the vacancy ask for ability to speak Japanese? French?
daryl Says:
>> # 1 dissolved all race base parties…
So will you be asking Pakatan to disolve PAS, which is inherently a Malay party and DAP, which is very much a Chinese party?
There’s always a cause and an effect. Do we need RRA? The answer lies in the cause…and the cause is not the law abiding general public but you know who, which is an entirely different situation than in UK.
RRA for who really?
RRA is to protect Rakan Rakan Ahmad (Ismail) …
RRA is to eliminate Rakan Rakan Anwar …
///How many members of Parliament will be arrested under the Race Relations Act based on the nature of speeches they had given?///– Azly Rahman.
The Question raised by Azly helps us to find answer to improve racial relations in the country. Indeed, the members of parliament are the people who should be made to observe good race relations among the people. So, the race relations Act should be used to reign in politicians, including those who aspire one day to be members of parliament or of other elected offices.
The individual persons have their own experience on how they feel about their acquaintances and they form relationships with those they have to deal. They are the leaders who have an influence over the people in subscribing to polarized thought. The efforts to forge good relationship should begin from preventing leaders who spurt hurtful remarks for molding the opinion of their followers. The leaders who had an axe to grind are members of political parties, and they have ample examples that racist champions have easy reach to the power ladder. Thus, political parties particularly those race-based parties should stop the usual practice of creating racial issues to create vote bank, and at the same time nurture the career of their racist opportunists.
It is clear that racial relations could be influenced more by politicians than by ordinary citizens. So the law should restrict the actions of people who have the power to exert more influence because of their affiliation to political parties. To neutralize the influences of such person, people found guilty of infringing that the Act should be denied the right to association with political parties. They should be expelled from the party which will be responsible to pay a fine until the members is expelled. Further, political parties should also observe the Act not only in their statements but also in their policies and manifestoes. Else, it should be outlawed.
It is a fact that Seditious Act has been selectively used by the ruling party to persecute. It should be removed. If the BN government is interested in improving racial relations rather than paying lip services, it should first stop all those programmes which have been well documented in Azly Rahman’s present essay, and which have only been introduced after emergency rule in 1969. I doubt BN’s sincerity. That is why a change of government is absolutely necessary so that UMNO leaders would reconsider their roles as leaders of a political party.
If Tengku Razaleigh commands a support of some UMNO MPs, he should lead them to form a new government so that UMNO can start early to map out its plan as the alternative power base comes the next election.
RPK is said to be ISAed because of his article which is said to be against Islam.
Islam is a religion practiced by people in all the 180 plus countries, and over a billion people in the world. So the government is using ISA to serve all these people all over the world. But ISA is said to ensure national security for Malaysia. How is it that ISA now serves the world?
Talking about race relations, let’s recap what happened when an UNMOPutra shouted that the Malays in Penang had been marginalized.
It turned out that he was found to be same guy holding the directorship of a long list of GLCs (close to a hundred or more, I heard. Correct me if I am wrong).
It has been the likes of these politikus who have marginalized their own people, robbing away the allocation from the NEP meant for the poorer Malays.
It rings a bell in the late Zakaria. His son ordered the removal of the satay stalls owned by some poor Malays in the vicinity of Palace Zakaria, only to build a magnificent satay house for himself without a license.
We have yet to hear any actions by the authorities being taken against such crimes and the prime culprits pocketing the ill-gotten gains and making others as scapegoats, thus creating the distrust and disharmony among the races.
As a Chinese, I am very much happy to see my Malay classmates, friends, associates, and neighbors faring better than me in wealth-building.
My idols include Misbun Sidek, the coach for our our national hero Chong Wei. Dato’s Misbun was himself a champion, and he did it in line with the practice of meritocracy. To respectable Malays like him, they do not need any quota system, let alone protection, to outdo their peers.
Wait a minute. Race Relations Act? What the hell is this Act?
Its about race relations. That is quite obvious. But do we know its content, the legal provisions inside?
We cant be debating about a book based only on its title.
For all we know, umno may even incorporate the ketuanan thingy in the Act. Of course now we have sufficient voice in parliament to oppose such an attempt.
Anyone has a copy of the Bill – before an act is passed by parliament and turned into Act it is known as a Bill. Enlighten us pls.
Since it is still at bill stage I propose the following to be included:
(1) Give the word “bumiputra” a proper legal definition and make sure the definition is broad enough to cover all malaysians.
(2) Incorporate provisions to prohibit discrimination based on race, culture and religion.
It is fair to say, as Taiking did, that one can’t comment about Race Relations Act (“RRA”) before reading the detailed provisions and their implications.
Pending that however this much however may be generalised:
· RRA will not contradict Bumiputra status institutionalised in constitution.
· Any Act including RRA inconsistent with Constitution will be struck down as invalid to extent of the inconsistency;
· However everyone knows it is the institutionalised dicotomy of bumiputra vs non bumiputra that has helped worsen race relations in the country;
· So if the bumi/non bumi dichotomy cannot be questioned, then the RRA would serve litle purpose except to prohibit further non bumi from raising any race issues or grievances related to them.
the ONLY PEOPLE who needs Race Relations Act Education Right Now is HERMIT, AHMAD ISMAIL & HIS BN followers and those who thinks ISA is good ofor the Nation since there are so many communism among US!!!
since nashit ALWAYS BOASTS that teh on-going national training for the students IS GOOD in fostering racial harmony, why not ALL POLITICIANS OF BN go for this training instead of sending ‘cows to taiwan to learn eating new grass!’ as i see it, both these courses incur hugh amount of rakyat’s money !!
i believe pk components should also go for this training because sometimes pas and dap doesn’t see things eye to eye also !! if that’s the case, pk will also split due to internal problems just like what bn is facing now!!
i see no firm affirmation of dsai on ruling malaysia because the talk on the street is that the different political ideology will be put to test.
i just wonder how can pkr, dap and pas rule malaysia if there is problem especially in respect of religion as from what i see, there are some fanatic youth pas showing arrogance to other non-muslims about banning concerts, dress-codes, entertainment outlets and gambling and not to mention ‘males’ at a side while ‘female’ on the other side!!
Race Relations Act – why now? BECAUSE BN IS SINKING….but IMO ITS BETTER LATE THAN NEVER!!!! another key point is,abolishing Vernacular School is a MUST..the basic thing is education mah.not just a stupid act,just to cover BN stupidity.yuckss
I salute comment from Lim Koo.he is a truly Malaysian..beware veddy.lum74,you are insulting other race.dont be emotional kay.If we have more chinese people that can mix well with Malays and Indians.we dont need stupid RRA anymore.yea,we dont hate any races.but still,some things must be done to help poorer people especially Malays and Indians and other races..50 richest people in Malaysia got so few Malays and Indians.so what?? thats why we need to assist others.dont be so arrogant and greedy.be grateful my dear Malaysians…
The term ‘bumiputra’ refers to the indigenous peoples of Peninsular Malaysia, Sabah & Sarawak, which not only includes the Malays, but also the Orang Asli of Peninsular Malaysia, and the natives of Sabah & Sarawak.
However, thanks to UMNO, this word seems to be now reserved for only the Malays, leaving the non-Malay bumiputras lagging behind. This is evident when the Jaringan Orang Asal SeMalaysia organised a march to the Istana Negara to highlight the injustice which they had experienced; for example, the invasion of their ancestral lands by outsiders, private companies, for commercial use. Thus, while UMNO has been exhorting about protecting the rights of Malay bumiputras, what about the rights of their fellow non-Malay bumiputras?
It’s obvious that there is also discrimination even between the Malays and the non-Malay bumiputras.
@cheng on
“Is it a breach on RRA? if a job vacancy required andidates to speak Mandarin? ”
It wouldn’t be in the UK. As others have observed, and as Azly’s article says “government asks for suggestions”, there is no such Act in Malaysia yet. That means our answers are all hypothetical. The UK’s RRA would have nothing at all to say about a job advertisement that says “must speak Mandarin”, unless Mandarin was not essential to the business. If you were being hired to work in a Chinese restaurant, or as an agent dealing with Chinese partners, you would have to be able to speak Mandarin, naturally. Language ability is not the same as race. If a fluent-Mandarin-speaking person of Jamaican descent applied and was rejected, you would have to come up with some convincing reason why another candidate was chosen, if the candidate raised a complaint. No-merit complaints are probably as common as ones with merit – I don’t know. UK law works on the basis of presumed innocence, so no-merit cases don’t have to be the end of anybody’s world, even if they are irritating.
If the job advertisement was for Bradford town centre KFC, I doubt an advertisement that specified ‘must speak Mandarin’ would go unchallenged. The way these kind of laws work in the UK might not be obvious from overseas. Gordon Brown does not send the SAS to Bradford town centre KFC when he hears they’re looking for Mandarin-speaking employees, and he does not publish a full-page advert in the Daily Mail saying “Racists take heed. You will be black bagged. Don’t cause trouble lah.”
What usually happens is somebody wants to work in Bradford town centre KFC, sees an ad that specifies Mandarin, goes to the store, sees all the Mandarin-speaking employees building a Fried Chicken Enclave behind the counter and … what? In the UK they might go to the police or to the Citizen’s Advice Bureau. They’d probably send them to the Town Council first, who would pay a visit and point out the relevant legislation, although the police might do that too. The advert would be changed, and that would be that. The Race Relations Act has had such a huge effect in the UK that it would be unlikely even to see such an advert. The advertising staff at the newspaper would point out “you can’t do that”. If they put the ad in the store window, the window cleaner would point it out. It’s not really because punishment under the RRA is severe, it’s because after a generation or two growing up under the RRA, most people regard it as A Very Good Thing.
Because legal assistance is very easy to get in the UK, and because most people living there regard most of the law as A Very Good Thing, and because newspapers love to report on lawbreakers, particularly rich, powerful and famous ones, it is very much in a person’s favour NOT to break laws. If you’re in business, you simply comply with the law. If one of your competitors is not complying with the law, a simple suggestion of the fact to a policeman, journalist, activist or civil servant can put your competitor in the toilet. No-merit cases and nuisance cases carry are covered by other legislation, so it’s not a free-for-all with funny looking people you don’t share a human ancestor with shouting “is it because I is ginger?” and threatening to take you to court.
I hope that explains my support for a RRA in Malaysia. If it was like the UK’s RRA, it could have enormous effect on other laws that discriminate for no good reason. Malaysia’s Law needs a lot of competent attention. You have to start somewhere.
“All BN component parties should be dissolved to form a single BN party. That I think will be a start to rid Malaysia of racist politics. ISA is a national security apparatus and needs to remain firmly in place ” quote Zak
Chinese MCA Red color, Malay Umno blue color,indian MIC Yellow color
u add up all this three color it will became black,how can u get back those ppl to govern the rakyat?
the current government are too deep in their dirty black can’t be trusted anymore.
ISA still need for what ? i can’t find a good reason for ISA to stay,other than for Bee N to used it for thier benafit like current used of ISA to detained RPK Teresa Kok and Miss Tan
FREE RPK now FREE RPK NOW …….
Abolish ISA now
Abolish ISA now
bclee Says:
>> the current government are too deep in their dirty black can’t be trusted anymore.
I totally agree. That is why BN will need to be rebuilt if they are to survive. Pakatan on the other hand will not and should not be allowed to wreak further havoc on the nation.
I was just thinking about the relevance of the RRA to the ISA and could think of none. When I refer to RRA, I mean something like the UK’s RRA, which says essentially: you must not discriminate (not against, nor for) on the basis of race. I’m not a lawyer, so help me out:
Say a Malaysian government – any government – tore the ISA pages out of the rule book and burnt them in the car park because there was ‘no reason to keep it’. Wouldn’t there be thousands of Malaysians calling their lawyers and claiming compensation? Uncle Lim! What is your hourly rate for detention without trial? If a government were to admit you were detained for ‘no reason’, wouldn’t that make a compensation claim possible? I’m not asking about the morality of such a claim, only its technical legitimacy.
Am I wrong about the possibility of compensation claims? Would a Malaysian government really just repeal the ISA like that? Or the NEP – if a government were to just make it disappear, it must have disadvantaged as many people as it benefited over the years. Isn’t there a risk that individuals and businesses may want to be compensated for their decades of losses?
If it is the case that a sudden change in the law might make the government liable to compensation claims, what government would do it? OK, abolition would be good, but is any electorate willing to make massive payments for injustices that may have happened long before they became politically aware?
Wouldn’t a government be more likely to implement some more recent law that made the older one untenable, and claim that there never was a good reason to change the old law until the new one came into force? It seems to me that way they could claim “the law was the law then, your loss was justified under that law, the new law means it won’t happen again. History is history” and make no further statement regarding the legitimacy of the old law. If they said “it was a mistake”, wouldn’t it be their mistake, because they would be the government (I mean even if, somewhere over the rainbow, the government is not BN)?
I can’t help thinking that if a Malaysian government were to do away with the NEP or ISA, they would need a non-fault method to do it. Something like enacting the RRA so they could say the NEP can’t be applied under the new Act, and perhaps ratifying the Universal Declaration of Human Rights to say “in the light of recent changes, the ISA is no longer tenable.” without referring to its past legitimacy at all.
I’m not saying anybody will be looking for compensation. I’m only wondering if it’s a potential consequence of abolition, and if it is, is it possible to avoid being liable for what could be by now a considerable sum? Could it be that a RRA is one way to get what most people writing on here really, really want?
bn is being nothing …….
it’s an organization like mafia ……
we, rakyat are their slaves ……
we throw away our birthrights by being a chicken when we all were borned as eagle …
zak_hammaad Says:
So will you be asking Pakatan to disolve PAS, which is inherently a Malay party and DAP, which is very much a Chinese party
zak_hammaad I think you been confusing yourself with too many fancy words.
PAS consists of mostly Malays BUT it is NOT a race based party. It’s main requirement is that one must be muslim to be a member. And as you conveniently keep forgetting being muslim does not automatically make you malay.
Similarly while DAP consists of mainly chinese, again it does not prohibit members of other races from joining. It has many Indian members and a small number of Malay members as well.
Contrast this to MCA, MIC and UMNO. Contrast this to UiTM which is EXCLUSIVE for Malays only. Get the picture?
katdog Says:
>> I think you been confusing yourself with too many fancy words.
There is nothing fancy about my words. PAS is a Malay based party while the DAP is mainly Chinese; do you deny this!?
This in essence makes them race-based. They are driven by their own race and their seperate ideology. I would like to see some of PAS members move over to DAP (since they are part of the same Pakatan party), you know this will never happen!
You are simply forcing your illogic to explain away this simple and clear fact.
Please note this.All the criminal and thugs and gangsters are walking around confidently with guns and parangs in the broad daylight sometimes directly in front of police eyes.They are not a national threat in this country.But the moment you bring out the corruption and truths relating to UMNO you become a national threat and the next moment you are behind ISA.Where does RRA fit in.These are peanuts thrown at the monkeys (we rakyat) to keep us occupied while they make big plans to stabilise their seats.
ganges Says:
100% agree
Just a word to Zak,
nothing is more tragic than mentally initial,mentally initial is the breeding place of fear.
To Zak,
just because a party consists predominantly of a particular race does not IMMEDIATELY infer that that party is race based.
Quick example would be the Democrats in US. Are they a white men’s party because they consist predominantly of white men? How about PAP. Are they a chinese party? Do they only serve to further the goals of the chinese because their leaders are chinese?
Here i will hint that my definition of ‘race-based’ means a party interested only in the needs and views of a specific race, only accepts or employs members of a specific race and only champions policies or goals of interest/benefit to a specific race.
So your logic is somewhat flawed. Yes DAP and PAS do consist primarily of a specific race. But no, that does not immediately infer that they are race based.
Please it would be nice if you provided a bit more evidence as to why DAP/PAS is race-based cause your current reasoning based on the racial make up of the party is not as solid as you would like to believe.
The enormous problems facing our country are not about unity of a particular race or racial political party….it is the decades of bad, narrow and damaging leadership of the party and proper governance our multi racial and religious country as a whole.
Zak is a little confused.
I am a chinese. Therefore, I can never be an umno member. I wonder if things could be different if I were a malay speaking chinese (i.e. baba).
What if I were a muslim. Then technically, I would come under the bumiputra political definition. Could I then be an umno member?
Even then, there is still the problem of appearance. I look neither malay nor mamak. My chinese look is just too typical of chinaman. Could the malays and mamaks in umno accept me? Can I be an umno member?
Take a look at hang tuah. Look at how he is ex-ed by the umno government from our history book when research result suggests that he is chinese. Imagine a character like hang tuah – so deeply entrenched in the malay culture and yet so briskly chopped of – raising his keris in umno. Can that be possible? He was a muslim and he spoke malay and presumably adopted the malay culture as well.
Apply the same argument above mutatis mutandis to dap and pas. With umno I am forced to deal with hypothesis. With dap and pas we all can see for ourselves real examples. If Zak is a malaysian, he certainly could be a member of dap or pas. What about umno? A mat salleh in umno? Need I say more?
Malaysia has pledged to be at the forefront of an international effort to fight “Islamophobia”.
Ha, ha! LOL! Look at the behaviour of the present bunch of Muslim ministers and police, and look at how they detained RPK without trial, do we expect them to fight Islamophobia? How not to create deeper Islamophobia?
The Ampang Jaya Municipal Council (MPAJ) officers involved in tearing down a Hindu temple in Ampang acted against a state government directive not to destroy places of worship.
Little Napoleons in a PR-controlled state having full liberty to act as they pleased to stir up religious trouble? Or were they directed to do so?
Msia will never truly achieve first world status with all the race based parties around. & keeping wasting time arguing along racial lines, No first world status countries is like that.
If ever Msia achieves a first world status in future? Can Msia be an exception ?
Can we trust the current regime with this ” RRA’s ” ? For as long as we can remember, any policy drafted to date will ensure that benefits are within the elites. The poor remains poorer and the rich ones can even afford to buy plane. I am not against wealths or riches but if it is at the expense of tax payers then that it is akin to daylight robbery. Those perverts are taking it under the guise of special projects and they have had been robbing this nation’s coffer since.
Read from the MSMs that even the head of orang asli’s mentioned that he is happy with extra funds being set aside for them BUT wonder whether it will amount to more than 10% of the actual amounts allocated. What a sad day for Malaysians with such statements and we all know fully well that he can’t be too far off !
What we need is real enforcement with true justice for whatever policies intended. Not another set of written laws that is clearly spelt out but when it comes to implementation and execution, it will be biased because of “little napoleons” narrow mindset. Let those with a balance mindset with no political standing being empower to draft the ‘RRA’s’ if it is indeed needed. It may just be my dream though for such a request.
“A mat salleh in umno?”.
Actually I was recently toying with the idea of setting up the NMWMC – the Non-Malaysian White Man Congress – but when I asked my neighbours, they didn’t seem interested. Perhaps they felt excluded by the title? I asked my wife, who is Malaysian, not white and not a man. She said I would be on my own. I asked my kids, who are also Malaysian, not men and not as white as I am. I don’t think they understood, but then, one is less than 3 years old, the other only 6 months old.
I was very excited by the election. I’m impressed by a lot of the things LKS has written, so I was keen to attend the local DAP rallies. I was disappointed. This bit is difficult for me – I’ve grown up in a country where referring to someone’s race is considered more rude than asking how many sheets they use to wipe their arse – it’s simply a personal matter. The crowd at the two DAP rallies I attended appeared to me to be entirely of Chinese ancestry. The posters around the rally were in Chinese script, the handouts were in Chinese script. Right at the back of the crowd were a few people who didn’t appear to be of Chinese ancestry – I wonder if they even understood the speeches? All the speeches I heard (save one, in BM and Mandarin) were in Chinese.
On the available (to me) evidence, it would be easy to mistake DAP for a one-race party. I suspect as much as anything else, it’s simply a matter of old habits and some loose ends not properly tied up on DAP’s branding. If you go to the UK to see politicians campaigning (or the USA, I guess), you will see politicians putting tee-shirts and baseball caps on to visit ‘under privileged’ areas. They’ll be wearing Saville Row suits to go to privileged areas. There are many websites accusing David Cameron of addressing potential voters: “wassup my niggas, vote for my muthahumpin partay”. I doubt he has uttered the phrase, but the point is, they do tailor their message for their audience. While there are a lot of Malaysians who appear to have Chinese ancestry and commonly speak a Chinese dialect in the area where I live, perhaps the targeting could have been a little less precise – it’s not a monoculture around here.
There are some small things DAP could be doing to reduce the damage of accusations of racial bias. This website has an unfortunate front page: “Blog (English), Blog (Chinese), Malaysian First” could be improved. Why not “Blog, ??, Malaysian First”? I think the way it is now emphasises the omission of BM. Readers of roman script don’t need to know that there’s a Chinese script blog, and I’m sure I’ve seen frequent contributions in BM on this side of the blog.
How organised is the party? Wouldn’t it be possible for rally organisers in places where polyglots are more thinly spread to send their handouts and posters back to HQ for the addition of at least basic info in BM, Tamil and English? I refuse to believe there aren’t BM-, Tamil- and English- speaking DAP voters in a place like Port Dickson who wouldn’t mind taking the stage for a few minutes to provide a more complete message, and also to break the monotony – I was incredulous at the length of some of the addresses. Impressed by the stamina of the speakers, but also shocked – whatever else Malaysia may be, it’s not Cuba. Do voters really want to be harangued for 2 hours without a break? Sorry, that last bit is off-topic.
The racial bias accusation isn’t that hard to overcome. For an extra 5% effort on publicity, you could appeal to 3 times as many voters. I know from dealing with companies in Malaysia that there tends to be strict divisions between ‘turfs’, so maybe the same thing goes on in politics, but it’s simply an error, in my view. Not only do you risk alienating your non-target group, you also risk alienating voters who wish for less racial bias in politics.
What’s this got to do with suggestions for a Race Relations Act? Not much. Language is not race, it’s been said before. But it’s an easy mistake to make.
Yesterday, I was at buka puasa dinner, held in a buffet restaurant. I saw there were several tables which had Malay & also non-Malay customers sitting together. One table was occupied by Malay & Chinese colleagues from a company. One table had a Malay family and a Chinese family, eating together. Another table was occupied by Malay & Chinese business associates. Does it look like there is already some serious breakdown in inter-racial socialising which would justify the need for a race relations act?
Would be better to have ANTI-RACISM ACT. Why so many ACTs in Malaysia? It is a failure of the education system to address this. Children are ‘colour blind’ in this issue.
Looks like the authorities have decided the ‘reward’ the criminal behaviour of ISA detainees:
Shah Alam: The Selangor Government has offered cash aid to families of 17 Internal Security Act (ISA) detainees for Hari Raya and Deepavali.
Rodziah Ismail, who chaired the state’s Welfare, Women’s Affairs, Science, Technology and Innovation Committee, said the families, including those of the five Hindu Rights Action Force (Hindraf) leaders and Malaysia Today editor Raja Petra Raja Kamarudin, would receive RM500 each.
As expected, there are still people who think that to dissent or being a dissident is equivalent to misbehaving like a criminal, even in a democratic society.
A veteran politician, an elected MP and a former ISA detainee, receives a death threat letter with a bullet in it. So, who is the real criminal?
The home of another politician, also an elected MP and also a former ISA detainee, gets attacked with petrol bombs and also receives a death threat letter. Again, who is the real criminal here?
Ekans says: “A veteran politician, an elected MP and a former ISA detainee, receives a death threat letter with a bullet in it. So, who is the real criminal? The home of another politician, also an elected MP and also a former ISA detainee, gets attacked with petrol bombs and also receives a death threat letter. Again, who is the real criminal here?”
Let’s promote more Islamic values, not Islamic rituals, and we may yet see a better Malaysia.