A traitor again?

By Hussein Hamid

Yesterday I received an email that disturbed me. It disturbed me because of the venom that it spewed on me. It said that as a Malay I am a disgrace to my race. That I deserved to be put in ‘neraka’ (hell) for advocating that the Malays no longer should be with UMNO. Do I not know that the orang Cina, India and ‘others’ together with DAP want to take over this country – that it is not ‘keadilan dan demokrasi’ that they want. What they want is the Political Power that now is in the hands of the Malays. We are the Malays! Are you not a Malay…they ask me?

Then I am reminded of the screaming newspaper headlines that I see in the “National” Malay newspapers.

  1. “Ketuanan Melayu Tercabar”
  2. “Jangan Persoal – Ketuanan Melayu bukan jenaka yang boleh dipermainkan”
  3. “Bangkitlah Melayu – Bersatu hadapi tuntutan kaum lain yang makin keterlaluan”

To those that understand Bahasa there is no need for me to translate. To those that do not I will not translate lest I am accused of inciting racial discord.

This is not the first time that I have received emails of this nature. In the past I have patiently read through what they send them and try to understand where they were coming from. We are all entitled to out point of view and it is not only the Malays that have these ‘ultras’ so do the Chinese, the Indians and others. So why did I linger over this particular email? Something clicked in my head. Why not try to reason with this person and bring him to my way of thinking? Not possible. A face to face meeting would probably result in me being verbally abused at best or physically abused at worst. Two things I dislike – rejection and pain! And meeting him will probably expose me to both. I made a cup of green tea and went back to the email and I decided to write this.

In the beginning my first conscious memory of this racial thing was when I was around six years old living in Pendang in Kedah. I remember clearly that our house was beside the road that the Chinese Funeral procession will take on their way to the cemetery. I remember the wailings and the long processions – sometimes with a band. And I remember that the Malays did not say “Cina mati” …but “Cina mampus” – a derogatory term of death not use by the Malays unless it is to denote disgust for the dead. That memory has stayed with me until now that I am 63 – but only the memory for many years ago I stopped using the term ‘mampus’ to describe the Chinese who have died.

Is it not natural that those who have been bought up to dislike – or even to hate another race for whatever reason – that this dislike, this hate will stay with him or her for a very long time? So what will chage them? It cannot come from within them. It must come from without. For me the beginning was my education at MCKK. This was an all-Malay boarding school in Kuala Kangsar but we had wonderful teachers of all races. Race was never an issue. I left MCKK completely at ease with being amongst the ‘others’ around me. And after MCKK I never looked back to those Pendang days.

Now I am even more aware what we Malays need to do to achieve our own level of comfort amongst the others in Malaysia. But it is my own personal goal wherever I am. I always want to better myself whether I am in London, Bombay, Adelaide or Kuala Lumpur. Race has got nothing to do with it. We must each educate our children of this. How we tell our children to see others will make the difference between the Malaysia that we see now and the Malaysia that we want. It will take one or two generations to make that change but it starts with us and it starts with the right education.

Then we will know that in the time to come our children will not be receiving the kind of emails that I got this morning – an email that is a sad commentary of what UMNO has made some Malays into. A Malay obsessed with Kutuanan Melayu. A Malay haunted with the worry that PAS and Anwar will give DAP ‘kuasa politik Melayu’ and control over the Government in this country. A Malay unable to understand that for the ‘others’ to love Malaysia they must be given equal opportunity and Justice in all things Malaysian because to do otherwise would not be ‘adil’ to those that call Malaysia “HOME”.

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22 Replies to “A traitor again?”

  1. “Yesterday I received an email that disturbed me. It disturbed me because of the venom that it spewed on me. It said that as a Malay I am a disgrace to my race.”

    Well, I don’t really blame the author of that email. While other governments are trying to inculcate harmony within a civil society, our government is doing just the opposite. Many have been poisoned because they don’t use their brain and are just led by their nose.

    Life on earth is only temporal. Isn’t that what Islam says too? UMNO is definitely NOT Islamic in the true sense of the word. UMNO is all about money, Usurp Money Nepotic Organisation.

  2. The latest initiative Government Transformation Program (GTP) with Idris Jala again shows how Najib is actually not better than Badawi. Its all still a denial that what is needed first and foremost is political change. Not any management issues.

    The huge energy focussed on adminstrative and management talk is largely about avoiding political change. The corruption, the sense of entitlement – those need to change first or its just pushing up against a wall.

    It may be harder to topple Najib simply because Najib does not have old Malays decent sensibility that Badawi still held that brought out the less cynical and better vision for Malays and Malaysian. Its harder to topple Najib because of ingorance of his supporters not a strength that is to be respected or even give excuse for not toppling him…

  3. Forget all this mess of BN or PR, lest it is getting messier in a rotten system.

    Go for Interim Government for Good Governance IGGG.

    I am prepared to show the way – the only way forwards lest we go further irrecoverable and surely and quickly nihilism under the SHIT rotten system of Selfish Hideous Illegal Trap or SHIT.

    pw: Joralemon Steven

  4. All For The Road asks:

    “Is Malaysia really ‘united’?

    Najib says it is, hence his motto 1Malaysia. But what really puzzles me is that the country is still celebrating Hari Kebabgsaan Malaya. As for the people of Sarawak and Sabah who joined Malayans on 16th september, how they celebrate this date each year is none of Malayans’ business so long as Malayans get to control their kayu balak and minyak!! ME, you ask? well, I am neutral because I am only a “PENDATANG”

  5. Sure, corruption happens everywhere but what distinguishes Bolehland from “everywhere” is that the criminals are never caught. Ah Bian was sentenced to life imprisonment, and so was Fujimori.

    In Bolehland, you are treated as a hero when you steal and your hands are caught in the cookie jar, but you are deemed stupid if you don’t steal. In Bolehland, if you steal billions, then they form a super task force to ensure a super cover-up.

  6. I can emphatise fully with the author’s sentiments towards the ‘ultras’ in ALL races.

    Many a times I had to endure the sense of exasperation trying to convince my fellow non-malays to shed their disapproval and disdain towards the Malay race – “give everybody a chance to do things their way”, I always say. Who are you to think that what works for you, works for others as well?

  7. //In Bolehland, if you steal billions, then they form a super task force to ensure a super cover-up.//

    Yes, it is true. More studies and more task forces will be formed to “look” into PKFZ. By the end of it all, no one really knows who did what. In no time, people would have grown old and died. This is the usual modus operandi – if the government is not going to do anything, what it needs to do is to just go on talking about it

  8. why not the chinese be fair first????talking about equality,are you people fair enough??agriculture right to real estate chinese businesses is already impossible for non-chinese to hold any executive position.Y you tell me….
    I put it to you LKS and the whole DAP can change,but can the others change?
    A huge majority of chinese is still very poor and worst still many of them relying on selling through stalls,shoplot and so on just to reach at 11 hour.
    why not go and ask them out of 10 customer,do all 10 of them comes and buy things???most probably 3 is lost and the reminder 7 left.out of 7 it just takes 3 more out to bring great disaster to their family.
    Teach your kind to be human first before you and your type demand others to be so.

  9. harisO1 above #11

    UMNOputras cannot even be fair to their own kind……..how do you expect them to be fair to you-a Chinese “PENDATANG”

    Millions of Malays are still very poor. The billions meant to up-lift their livelihood somehow never reached them. The money went into the bank accounts of UMNOputras, their relatives,cronies and ‘good friends’ – mostly relatives of women they bedded.

    A fortunate thing for Malaysia is that the Malays and rakyat of other races have woken up.

  10. UMNO is telling that Malay guarding the Chinese factory that he should be proud that he is the real “Tuan” since the Malays are ruling the country.

    Umno is telling the Malays that working as handmaids and labourers in pendatang owned factories does not lower their status as “Tuan” since UMNO is the government.
    Never mind if the Malay with a degree is selling stamps in the post office. After all he is Malay and he is “Tuan”.
    So let us defend UMNO and we all remain ‘Tuans’.

  11. Sometimes I wonder why KLS permits this piece of writing published in his blog…what are the intentions? DAP claims to be colour-blind…..but its action shows otherwise….…This article is exclusively about ‘Malays’…A Malay who received a disturbing e-mail written in BM….I can sense this kind of article is full of hidden agenda….

  12. These hate mails while on the fringe, represent the fringe of a larger tendency or leaning of Malays as a whole. More importantly its a fringe that the majority refuses to condemn and stand firmly against. They are not for it, but they find partnering with the devil they know acceptable rather than stand against them not knowing who they can count on or rely on to do those dirty things they want done but not by themselves.

    Its no different than garbage. If we did not hire people to clean them, we would just complain, not clean them up ourselves e.g. recycling..

    Just like the problem with waste, it takes investment, a plan and determination to clean up – a political solution, followed by administrative and cultural change. But there is nothing now from BN that offer even the start of such a scenario. Najib is doing everything he can to avoid a real political solution. At least Badawi offered a political solution although without a real plan to carry it out.

    Najib-Muhiyiddin represents our indecision as a country and Malay indecision more than anythig else. It is Malays indecision that must be resolved before we can move forward…

  13. I experience the same thing among my Malay friends. They will say “Cina Tok Pek Mampus” or “Keling Mampus” instead of “Mati” when referring to non-Muslims who died. These are those whom I called my friends. From what I know, they are not allowed to say “mati” or “meninggal dunia” when referring to dead non-Muslims.

  14. “I can sense this kind of article is full of hidden agenda….” (cintanegara)

    The hidden agenda is now being exposed: The agenda is to tell all Malaysian people that the concept of “Ketuanan Melayu” is a despicable concept of Malay racist fascism!

  15. “I can sense this kind of article is full of hidden agenda” (cintanegara)

    The message here is simple. Malays have nothing to fear from the non-Malays if they continue to seek to improve themselves in all ways. For it is only the weak and the cowardly who are constantly filled with fear. The strong and the brave do not dwell on their fears.

    The hidden agenda here is clear. It is a call to the Malays to start believing in themselves and to carve out their own paths with their own two hands instead of leaving their fates to the whims of UMNO. It is a call to Malays to strike out boldly into the unknown future and to leave behind their cradle called UMNO.

    The hidden agenda here is to EMPOWER Malays. (something UMNO absolutely does not want to see happen)

  16. katdog at #

    AGREED 100%. UMNO Baru want to see the Malays united but at the same time economically weak so that they have to cling to UMNO Baru for their survival. In that way they have no choice but to vote UMNO Baru in every GE. A well-informed, progressive minded and economically well-off Malaysian Malays will benefit the nation and its people including the non-Malays. UMNO Baru is the stumbling block to Malaysia’s progress.

  17. “When I first read the news report in the Star that YAA Tan Sri Zaki, the Chief Justice, had told 2 errant High Court Judges to voluntarily resign, my initial reaction was one of pleasure.”

    What bloody justice system are we practising in Malaysia? Errant judges should be taken to court, period. If there are no cases against them, don’t call them errant judges!

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