A definitive piece. This blogger irregularly because he believes in a very, very well-researched posting that makes each one worth the wait. Questioning the NEP? not only re-educates the like P. Gunasegaran and Nazir Razak on how this country owes much of its successes to the NEP but at the same time points out the not-so-obvious flaws in the pro-meritocracy arguments of the Art Haruns (re Eh, Tun Dah Lupa?) among us.
Jebat Must Die does not ridicule them or insult any of them or us, he's just reminding us that the NEP was put there to create a level-playing field for a lop-sided multiracial country that was at the edge of chaos and racial strife. And that it hasn't exhausted its usefulness.
Saturday, August 28, 2010
Defending NEP, Questioning Meritocracy
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Dato
ReplyDeleteJust wondering if my reply to Jojo's comment in the post headed "Malaysia-Indonesia and the dude ..." saying "Melayu sendiri are fools" re stating facts and findings on Rumpun Melayu will be published.
I called him bodoh in return and asked him to buy and read the book, "The Malay Civilization", published by the Historical Society of Malaysia, c/w book price and location of their premises. I suggested that he can comment further after he reads the book.
I am in no way associated with the Society other than knowing 1-2 of the Committee members and one of them suggested that I join the Society. There's certainly no commission involved in the book sales if they happen.
I'm not out to promote the book but the historical facts therein, in the light of the problems in the country now and the irritants in Malaysia-Indonesia relations at the moment.
This message may also be relevant in this post here - the historical facts in the book would help Malaysians understand and be better disposed to the NEP.
Thanks.
good post by jebat.
ReplyDeletea thinking man will feel humbled when reading it.
a racist will pooh pooh it
an idiot will side step it by criticising other unrelated issue
a guilty fellow will shout the loudest against the post
JOHN DOE
Its high time somebody put a stop to all this NEP bashing business.
ReplyDeleteIf that article doesn't give a knock to everyone's heads, nothing will.
Might as well get the Mossad to attack Malaysia once and for all!
Its high time somebody put a stop to all this NEP bashing business.
ReplyDeleteIf that article doesn't give a knock to everyone's heads, nothing will.
Might as well get the Mossad to attack Malaysia once and for all!
Dear Dato',
ReplyDeleteYes i agree on the excellent article by Jebat Must Die. Everyone worth their salt should read that article and be brave enough to accept the facts highlighted by JMD.
Whatever strategy the PM is adopting in trying to avoid the subject is clearly sending the wrong message to the malays. What are all his advisors doing? Sleeping? Are they wolves in sheep clothing?
BMW Club Member
Bravo JMD.
ReplyDeleteMy take Malays are bad at articulating issues. Case in point, M'sian & Indonesia 'satu rumpon' etc, etc. Didnt the GPS proves that it all happen in M'sian water's.
Back to JMD article, arguments like this and facts are the tools to counter the chinese perception. Most chinese are fed 'hook' line and sinker' by alternative media and political parties.
Malays must learn to articulate arguments. Malays must learn to counter every negetive postings with arguments and facts.
I have seen how the thai and indon ministers (some of them at least) handle problems soundly with good argument and facts. Pak menteri m'sia hummm, did anybody check their IQ's.
Stop being apologetic, get the FACTS and ACT on it QUICKLY, example;
1) Tok ketambi (spelling??) Tak tau apa apologise dulu
2) Headmaster (did she or didnt she?)
3) Masjid painting (law is law)
4) Namawee (enough is enough, what say you MCA? Nothing?? Ok drag him to court)
Banyak lagi.
Mitigate every issue quickly and swiftly and need be with the harshness it require.
This will ensure;
NO more the likes of teressa making noise about chinese/malay girl in police custody.
NO more wrong accusation of HM.
NO more spray painting or burning incident- consequent to harsh.
NO more out of taste artistic expression.
NO more non-muslim giving sermon in masjid (WHAT ELSE CAN IT BE), use the community hall lah!
I think Rocky your readers got my drift, sorry for the long post.
Non apologetic malay.
art harun is one melayu liberal yg tak sedar diri
ReplyDeletemeritocracy means the freedom to ignore the poor, the handicapped and the disadvantaged
artie fartie, why do they provide a handicapped lot in all carparks - isn't this against meritocracy?
and in most written exam format - the actual test is one of memory, nothing to do with real talent or intelligence
the ones rich enough to employ dozens of tutors will be the ones who excels in written exams
this is not a true test of MERITOCRACY
and in some tiny nations, "performance bonus" is SECRET although they shout they practice meritocracy, why??
and of course that nations army shuts out the Malay Muslims, meritocracy, artie fartie??
nama art tu datang dari mana eh?? Melayu Islam konon
NEP was put there to create a level-playing field for a lop-sided multiracial country that was at the edge of chaos and racial strife.
ReplyDelete???
Thought NEP is just an excuse for breeding cronies at the expense of the rest of the people, no?
Defending your old boss the Mamakthir again ? He not only invented the Malaysian crutch, he kept refining it until it became an automatic crutch. No UMNOputra can live without the crutch today, so the only solution is to get rid of UMNO.
ReplyDeleteDon't you agree, Latuk Locky ?
Godfather
http://www.icbankingroup.com/investorrelations.php
ReplyDeleteNow, how much is Daim's shareholding in ICB Group AG worth ? Josephine Sivaretnam is Daim's guard-dog.
Latuk Locky, is this part of the 30 pct bumiputra quota ? If not, why not ?
In the ongoing case between Khalid Ahmad and Rahman Maidin, where it is clear that Realmild is owned by UMNO, is that also part of the 30 pct bumiputra quota ? No ? Why not ?
Shame on you guys - constantly wanting the Never Ending Policy so that you can get to the level of riches of these UMNO "pioneers".
Godfather
There is a secret to globalisation that all should know, it is not the main cause of India and China's accent
ReplyDeleteIt came much earlier, due to agriculture reforms in the 70s and 80s but definitely, globalisation helps in the light industry expansion
And China actually uses state owned companies and tarrifs to protect the local companies until they are strong enough to compete globally
So it is exactly what Mahathir is doing, a gradual free economy is what Mahathir envisions, he wanted the local companies to be strong enough just like what India and China is doing before it is sent to the cuthroat world of globalisation and free trade
What Anwar plan in 1997 for Malaysia was crazy, for all e local companies to fail not due to their doing but due to currency speculators who devalued the Thai Baht and leading to problems with the RM
Once the companies fail, those who financed Anwar would then come in and take over the local companies on the cheap, and in one sweeping motion, takes over Malaysia's independence
It was a sophiscated act to destroy ones economy by a group of bankers which includes non-Jews as well, mostly members of freemasonry and Illuminati, to enrich the few (themselves)
Kid ourselves not, go and study economy, political science and so on before condemning NEP because it is a sound idea
I am not saying the UMNO now is awesome, I am saying even for his faults, Mahathir was AWESOME and those who criticise him has no clue to the difficulties he has to encounter to bring Malaysia forward
That is why Singapore ranked 8 best city in the world and KL can't.
ReplyDeleteWhose fault was it that Malaya was a lop-sided multiracial country on 31 August 1957? Blame it on the Brits?
ReplyDeleteAre you faulting the Chinese and Indians in Malaya pre- and post-1957 for working hard and taking advantage of any opportunity available to them? Are they to blame for having cultures where learning, industriousness and thrift are deemed important?
Seems to me that the culture of blame and victimization are more palatable than working hard, learning as much as one can and not relying on handouts. Sure the former is easier to sell and rationalize.
Did anyone ask Dr Mahathir how he got to study medicine at the then Raffles College in Singapore? Was he admitted on merit or because he was a Malay or because some influential person wrote a nice recommendation for him or because there were quotas in place? If he got to study medicine on merit, then it is hypocritical of him to criticise meritocracy!
Datok,
ReplyDeleteI suggest you disassociate yourself with that known Najib ball carrier from your blog.
Jebat is just an asslicker trying to be the champion of so called ketuanan melayu.
If you start giving him airtime, Malaysia will be doomed for having a racist clown like him in our midst.
He should be hounded by you for not championing 1Malaysia. From all his articles, he has nothing good to say about those who are in the opposition.
His compliments only reserved for Najib and Umno!
Is this what we call responsible blogging?
Very informative and well researched articles. We should now seriously asking the quota for Bumis to be increased to minimum 60%.
ReplyDeleteBILLY
Rocky,
ReplyDeleteGood article by JMD. Reminded me of Tun Mahathir.
Tun once said that we need to be wary of the concepts and terms coined by ppl eg. Globalisation, market liberalisation, etc. It may not be good to us. Before we accept what meritocracy is, we better be sure that it benefits everyone here in malaysia. Not just the chinese.
Happy ramadhan!
I am a proud product of the NEP, I am convinced that in this Malaysian multiracial environment, the call for meritocracy is nothing but a call by those who have crossed the bridge but now wants to burn the bridge so others are not able to follow or compete with them.
ReplyDeleteI agree with JMD that "if meritocracy favors only the rich, and the rich are made up with people of the highest per capita income or comes from one racial community, then meritocracy is indeed, a racist tool disguised under the cover of a really nice concept we call ‘meritocracy‘".
Lee Kuan Yew's meritocracy: Deceptively racist, hypocritical & fascistic – Part 1
ReplyDeleteAs usual, reactionary critics of Dr Mahathir Mohamad misread him – again. Or they deliberately misread Dr Mahathir because to admit that he is right is to admit to their flawed and lopsided outlook.
Dr Mahathir has consistently poked holes in his critics determined deconstruction of time-honored race building and relations contracts.
His consistency is legendary: he wrote that famous letter chastising Tunku Abdul Rahman for dealing poorly with the Malays’ economic disconcertment, his seminal The Malay Dilemma explaining Malays economic discomfiture was the building blocks of the NEP and now, cautioning critics that the Social Contract’s cogency remains solid despite crude attempts to modulate its existence as a historical aberration.
And now, he has rounded up his consistent defence of Malay rights and privileges in impugning meritocracy as defined and implemented by Lee Kuan Yew.
Don’t get Dr Mahathir wrong: he is for merit, unless they merely flaunt one race’s dominance over weaker ones. In all cases, Dr Mahathir saw the insidious imperfections of Lee Kuan Yew's Malaysian Malaysia and he has again set about to debunk it.
Yes, Lee Kuan Yew’s ballyhooed meritocracy, as a concept, is ideal, but as a practical means, it had been downright deceptive. If you're smart (sly?) enough, there are ways to get around its moral code.
There are plenty of examples where “meritocracy” the idealism actually works against its real spirit. Golf is one area besides socio-economic grievances where meritocracy is not what it really is.
As the greyest area in the meritocracy construct, it works like this: on the strength of the current crop of professional players, it is indeed merit based (Tiger Woods can be beaten and anyone can win the Augusta Masters, even unknowns). But then there’s the concept of the ‘handicap’ bestowed on players, especially competing amateurs, to play “at par” with the professionals in a tournament.
Depending on their ‘handicap’ rate, golfers playing with handicaps don’t compete on a level playing field even if they beat the professionals. Yet, such obvious “inequality” is acceptable, a professional “crutch” which, amazingly, has been globally feted. Yet, when Malaysia imbues the practical usefulness of the golf metaphor into the NEP, Malaysia is roundly vilified.
In the political realm of socio-economics, the Chinese – by virtue of their thousands of years of evolved civilisation, from migration, war, imperialism to ruling, management, business and societal mores – packs a multi-level advantage over weaker rivals forced to play catch-up, one of which is devising mechanisms like the NEP, not so much to compete fairly which is impossible, but to ensure that they don’t lag to the point of pecuniary submersion.
That’s all there is to the NEP, the policy version of the golf handicap but ill-advisedly, the NEP was abused, misused and deliberately ran roughshod that now, only the powerful or influential few get the ‘handicap’ advantage during its 20-year implementation. Hence Nazir Razak’s well-meaning but precise prognosis in lamenting its bastardisation.
Bro, I'm trying to upload a 1,300 word missive on yr blog regarding the meritocracy claptrap but yr blog has rejected it. Apparently, there is a 4,000-odd character limit. Any chance it can make an exception for my thesis?
ReplyDeleteBandit
Bro,
ReplyDeleteNak sharing program ni.... sebagai peringatan... Especially the people in power... Jangan terkejut next election yang elit elit akan di ketepikan sebab rakyat fed up dengan abuse yang telah bermaharajalela.....
Jangan cakap pasal demokrasi kalau yang kaya makin kaya dan yang miskin terpinggir.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article18236.htm
Keturunan Jebat
Latuk Locky,
ReplyDeletePart of the reason why we go to polling booth is because we only want people with certain quality to be given privileges to manage the corridors of power.
Any democratically elected government is duty bound to listen to the people's request. And by right only they (the government) have the merit to do so (fulfill people's request).
What people mostly want is a fair share of the economic pie. Definitely they have to put some efforts but still there is a need for a policy that would create an equal opportunity for all.
NEP is one of that policy that is formulated based on what people want. Not suprisingly, it is in line with the constitution. In fact, those who champion the NEP are actually the true champion of meritocracy.
Padlock Home
Bandit, welcome back.
ReplyDeleteAfraid I didnt even know about the 4000 limit. You'll have to break up your masterpiece into several parts, just like Warrior usually does. I see you are doing that already with the Part 1 ..
Cheers, where have you been, anyway?
Jmd is a rare Malay writer breed.
ReplyDeleteArticulate yet humble and full of manners. A true Malay traits at it best.the way he reply to sarcasm,insult is a class of it own.Never read any vulgarities in his writing.
If there is any chances for UMNO inclined bloggers to persuade on the fence or even tolerant non Malay is him.
conviniently left out in the article about breeding cronies, corruption.. malpractice ... that as a result make NEP a shortcut to the priv few.
ReplyDeletethese ppl are the one that cause NEP to be ineffective.
Also, happily singing the praises for NEP but take every opportuniries to bash the non-malay for discussing the NEP....
who are the ungrateful bunch!??!
NEP allows Mamakthir's children and cronies to steal in broad daylight. Even the pious Badawi tried to get into the act by stealing from MAS.
ReplyDeleteThe AP was supposed to go to relatively new and poor Melayu motor traders. Instead it went to rich Malays who could afford to commute in helicopters. It went to a son of Mamakthir's and a niece of Rafidah.
Tak malu ke ? Mau lagi ?
Stealing public money in the name of the poor Malay is a sin, in case you assholes don't realise.
Godfather
Godfather,
ReplyDeleteYou are bloody gansterish for saying "Shame on you guys - constantly wanting the Never Ending Policy so that you can get to the level of riches of these UMNO "pioneers".
You must belong to the family that brought the secret societies, thugs and gangsters when Menteri Larut gave some of you fellows capital to start tin mines in that part of Perak he ruled in the mid19th Century.
Or you came out from that line of Ghee Hins and Hai Sans yourself. No gratitude to Ngah Ibrahim, your ancestors fought among themselves, got the Malays involved, started the Larut Wars and the Capitan Cina and 44 gangsters petitioned the British in Penang to help recover mines lost to rival gangs, a bloody treacherous act that led to British intervention and colonial rule in Malaya.
You and your kind are still menacing this country. The Police has spent a lot of money and human resources to maintain the Anti-Secret Society branch set up by the British colonialists and operating for scores of years until now.
Your kind exists even at the Selangor State Secretariat offices - One PKR ADUN and one PKR MP said one DAP Exco has meetings with the Underworld at the very State Government premises.
I have seen your comments here which are invariably gangsterish and anti-Establishment kind, insensitive to racial sensitivities.
I have not commented against you but in the past now I think it's time that, because you question the NEP and the Special Position of the Malays and the Bumiputeras of Sabah and Sarawak, I join the others who have started to ask people like you to surrender your passport and stay in this country as a PR or leave.
Remember, your citizenship was the quid pro quo or was in exchange for the Special Position of the Malays and the Bumiputeras.
I don't agree with you that NEP is successful when it has created the 'wheel chair' mentality of the Malay.
ReplyDeleteYou know why in his 23 years as P,M, of Malaysia he had done everything except to get hold of the 30% share of the country's economy
for the Malays ? He was too busy to steal and enrich himself and his cronies.
The NEP was created as an excuse by shenanigan Mahathir to steal for himself and to enrich his children and his cronies. Also he did it to ensure his cronies in Umno to continue their support as President of Umno and thus as P.M. of Malaysia and for nothing else. Also he did so absolutely without any regards to the more than 10 millions of non Malays who are also Malaysians. I repeat more than ten millions not just 100 or 1000 or even 100,000 contributing tax contributing Malaysians.
Most important of all without any regards to the country's ability for whatever he was stealing from and worst of all with borrowed money !
To day he is continuing his racist policy so that he will never be indicted for the many atrocities he committed during his 23 years tenure as P.M.. He knows that he will as soon as he looses that support !
Just you wait and see where he will be when the opposition takes over as government. He is already preparing to immigrate to China with his 50% Chinese grand children and he will even renounce that he is not a Malay !
Thank you for a studied analysis of the situation. Your thoughts on this matter ring home the truth as it is. As a non-bumi, your article represents to me the reality of this country today. It is this very reality that makes me embarrassed to see my fellow non-bumis going on in this fashion. They have become quite shameless and lacking any sense of cognitive analysis. I personally find it quite insulting that the non-bumis continue to beg for equality etc.
ReplyDeleteAre they so blind and foolish that they are unable to understand that such a scenario is a pipe dream? What is really sad is that the non-bumis have lost their original sense of survival. They all emigrated from whereever they came from on the basis of social or economic persecution in the hope of building a better future. Now that they have hit a wall here, why continue to cause more strife? Respect the Bumiputera call and leave. I totally agree with Ibrahim Ali and Ridhuan Tee that they should get out. Clearly a lot of them have read the writing on the wall and have begun to move their interests and families to places they find more conducive.The recent privatisation and focus by non-bumi businesses overseas is one example of that along with the call of most non-bumi families to their children studying overseas not to return. As the principal in JB said, just cause you’re sitting in the Proton Saga driven by Ali, it doesn’t meant you own the car! Why are these non-bumis so thick headed. How many times do they need to be shown where they stand!
I hope and pray that the non-bumis will heed the call of the true citizens of this country and pack-up before they cause more harm. Yes, you have gotten comfortable here…but at what price? It may be difficult to start all over again but consider then what it was like for our ancestors. Have we become so lulled by our material comforts that we have lost our sense of self-respect and dignity?
They too had to make some tough choices but imagine that they didn’t……………….you wouldn’t be where you are now.
Please leave the Bumiputeras alone and let them have what they want. Give them back their country. If the NEP has shown us anything, Malaysia can thrive and prosper without the non-bumis and their constant requests for equality! We had a good run and now the equation has changed.To my fellow non-Bumis and other pendatangs I say, wish the Bumis well and find some backbone and go somewhere where you are more welcome. To the Bumiputeras and rightful owners of this country, I say, Thank you for your kind hospitality and I sincerely hope that the country will continue its meteoric rise into the stratosphere of rich and succesful nations.
Jebat, once again, thanks for your very erudite and thoughtful piece. It is obvious that some of my fellow non-Bumis will never see the light…………….let them stay and wither away into oblivion.
Bro, I link your posting to my blog. I am a newcomer to blogging. Hope you can guide me. My blog is at tokpapa.blogspot.com
ReplyDelete"If meritocracy is blindly used as a sole guide to measure one's eligibility to any rewards, conferments, etc., and if misusing led to serious drawback, all race will suffer."
ReplyDeleteEinstein
Bandit,
ReplyDeleteGood analogy there. Thanks.
Bro, I've been around - stalking, listening, observing, thinking.
ReplyDeleteLee Kuan Yew's meritocracy: Racist, hypocritical & fascistic – Part 2
Stated bluntly, the NEP’s deranged misdirection mocks its noble objectives of equality and offends Malays/bumiputeras who believe in its egalitarianism, that everybody gets a chance even if they don’t make it to the top.
It can deduced that the Chinese, at least the likes of Lee Kuan Yew and his ilk, are averse to the NEP because affirmative action, no matter how virtuous, goes against their grain, instinct, breeding, greed and delusions of supremacy, honed by thousands of years of calculative leadership, control and progeny.
Taking an obvious cue from Lee Kuan Yew, Malaysian Chinese, for a long time the DAP and now the MCA, are now querying: why must they be forced to stick to a dominant 70 per cent control of the economy when virtually 100 per cent is there for the taking? Why must they be impeded from ruling Malaysia when they are obviously the more superior economic controllers? Lee Kuan Yew must be smacking his lips.
Lee Kuan Yew shrewdly advocated meritocracy as a means of maintaining Chinese supremacy – only the best in breed can lead, manage or control. Which is all right in its magnanimous concept but where is the meritocracy in manipulating the downtrodden masses that only selected ones can rise up in Singapore? And virtually all of them Chinese? The idea that Malays, or even the well-compensated Indians, cannot excel beyond a certain “invisible” ceiling has been a generational insult.
No doubt, these selected Singaporean Chinese are qualified and genetically well-bred but precast in such a way that only their kin and kind filters through. In the event that a non-Chinese threatens to make it, “unseen obstacles” will be erected or blatantly barricaded, like the suggested directive that no Malays can lead law enforcement or the military or fly a fighter jet.
Malaysia has at least allowed that invisible ceiling to be smashed: an Indian has led the Royal Malaysian Navy and many capable Chinese are top senior civil servants and policemen. Malaysia even paraded a good-looking Chinese female fighter pilot who has become the pride of the RMAF and a poster girl too. Can Singapore beat that and break the Chinese monopoly?
No wonder Dr Mahathir and many Malays, including those in Singapore, regard Lee Kuan Yew’s meritocracy as another form of favouritism/chauvinism, only disingenuously disguised and stage-managed. Lee Kuan Yew’s tenacious bullshit and bully pulpit progress beyond first base with most right thinking people but not the brownnosed international critics who dubiously confer Singapore with corporate governance and anti-corruption awards.
Bro, I've sent Part 2 of my thesis on LKY but yr comment webpage sternly tells me that the URI can't accept too bid a posting. Did it appear it yr blog edit several times? I'll know it when you publish it.
ReplyDeleteBandit
http://celahgelegar.blogspot.com/2010/08/isu-ekuiti-bumiputera-soi-lek-menentang.html
ReplyDeleteBandit
ReplyDeleteHave you read Guntor Sadali's riposte to Dr Mahathir's comments on Singapore Malays?
As Rocky can no doubt enlighten you, Guntor is the editor of the Berita Harian Singapore.
And his dismissal of Dr M's comments was apparently so cogent and effective that, up to now, the good Doctor has not come up with a counter-rebuttal.
As for your asinine comments on golf handicaps, suffice it to say that there are no handicaps on the elite US PGA and LPGA tours. Nor are there handicaps in the Grand Slam tennis tournaments.
And I suppose that anyone who plays against Nicol David in a WISPA tournament asks for a handicap?
Why don't you address the point I raised as to how Dr Mahathir qualified to study medicine at the Raffles College in colonial Singapore? Was he admitted on merit or for other reasons? Simple question, yes?
NEP means keep billions of ringgit in cronies and give only millions of ringgit to ignorant kampung folks.
ReplyDeleteMeritocracy means give according to needs i.e billions of ringgit to assist then upgrade the mindsets of kampung folks so that they can stand on their feet asap.
I believe Brother Rocky able to have his article appearing in MyPaper in Singapore is purely based upon Meritocracy and not NEP link.
ReplyDeleteROCKY BRU AND GANG- THE LAST DEFENDERS OF APATHEID.
ReplyDeleteSHAME ON YOU!
NEP = right to steal by UMNO.
ReplyDeleteHow can anyone defend the indefensible ? Nobody is questioning Article 123 of the constitution. The Malays need help and must be given priority, but not in the way that UMNO has implemented for the past 35 years. Any comment against UMNO implementation is quickly dismissed as "ungrateful" or "seditious" or "inflammatory".
Is stealing in the name of Article 123 justified - by law or by morality ?
Godfather
NEP is better than DAPapatheid. At least not only Malays and cronies share the cake but also non Malays. The DAPaptheid is worst, breeding own cronies without giving chance to others. In just 2 years there have been so many support letters issued, can you imagine if 10 years or 20 years. Lu fikir la sendili...all projects will go to the same asslickers. Malays and Indians will be coolies for the rest of their lives.
ReplyDeleteAwang
Lee Kuan Yew's meritocracy: Racist, hypocritical & fascistic – Part 2
ReplyDeleteStated bluntly, the NEP’s deranged misdirection mocks its noble objectives of equality and offends Malays/bumiputeras who believe in its egalitarianism, that everybody gets a chance even if they don’t make it to the top.
It can deduced that the Chinese, at least the likes of Lee Kuan Yew and his ilk, are averse to the NEP because affirmative action, no matter how virtuous, goes against their grain, instinct, breeding, greed and delusions of supremacy, honed by thousands of years of calculative leadership, control and progeny.
Taking an obvious cue from Lee Kuan Yew, Malaysian Chinese, for a long time the DAP and now the MCA, are now querying: why must they be forced to stick to a dominant 70 per cent control of the economy when virtually 100 per cent is there for the taking? Why must they be impeded from ruling Malaysia when they are obviously the more superior economic controllers? Lee Kuan Yew must be smacking his lips.
Lee Kuan Yew shrewdly advocated meritocracy as a means of maintaining Chinese supremacy – only the best in breed can lead, manage or control. Which is all right in its magnanimous concept but where is the meritocracy in manipulating the downtrodden masses that only selected ones can rise up in Singapore? And virtually all of them Chinese? The idea that Malays, or even the well-compensated Indians, cannot excel beyond a certain “invisible” ceiling has been a generational insult.
No doubt, these selected Singaporean Chinese are qualified and genetically well-bred but precast in such a way that only their kin and kind filters through. In the event that a non-Chinese threatens to make it, “unseen obstacles” will be erected or blatantly barricaded, like the suggested directive that no Malays can lead law enforcement or the military or fly a fighter jet.
Malaysia has at least allowed that invisible ceiling to be smashed: an Indian has led the Royal Malaysian Navy and many capable Chinese are top senior civil servants and policemen. Malaysia even paraded a good-looking Chinese female fighter pilot who has become the pride of the RMAF and a poster girl too. Can Singapore beat that and break the Chinese monopoly?
No wonder Dr Mahathir and many Malays, including those in Singapore, regard Lee Kuan Yew’s meritocracy as another form of favouritism/chauvinism, only disingenuously disguised and stage-managed. Lee Kuan Yew’s tenacious bullshit and bully pulpit progress beyond first base with most right thinking people but not the brownnosed international critics who dubiously confer Singapore with corporate governance and anti-corruption awards.
P.S,
Bro, I’ve been around - stalking, observing, listening, analyzing, thinking & reviewing my bearings.
Mind you I too was supportive of the NEP when I had to research the matter way back in 1980 as part of my dissertation paper. Yes, when you read the policy as it is stated its all so nice and wonderful. But what do you do when RM52billion worth of shares is literally handed to Bumis who very quickly sell it off for a quick profit? Why, when listed companies in the last 30 years or so had 30% Bumi shareholdings upon listing now have less than that number of bumi shareholders? They could ahve all held on to their shares and today we would have had bumis holding more than 30% equity maybe!!
ReplyDeleteNo Bru, I don't think anyone who reads the policy as stated originally will have anything to dispute about it. Its what comes after the policy that everyone has a problem with. And I would add that the politics as churned out by UMNO has gone further to undermine the value of Malay produce and labour than anyone imagines. It has also stifled Malay growth more than it has where UMNO's reach has not been felt. The bane of the Malaysian Malay is UMNO more than anyone and anything else.
Up to this day, no Singapore Malays can become Ministers with relatively important potfolios. No malay can become fighter pilots.
ReplyDeleteAll this only shows us that no malays can become anything important in the eyes of its government.
Guntar Sadali must be in denial in the Nile River
The economy now is more lop-sided than it has ever been ! What with so many government-made millionaires !
ReplyDeleteBillions that should have been allocated to the genuine poor malays have ended up in the accounts of cronies both bumi and non-bumi!In theory the NEP can be defended, but its implimentation has resulted in the powerful robbing the poors !Anyway, the NEP was supposed to last for 20 years, but it is now unending ( using, of course, different names !)unless there is a change of government!
Meritocracy is a form of discrimination, like any other and can only be justified in a level playing field. If it doesn't produce equitable results, it cannot be just or moral.
ReplyDeleteThe results speak for themselves. It hasn't stopped the growth of non-Malays, and we haven't seen a repeat of May 13.
Tun Abdul Razak I think knew NEP based on zero-sum games problematic and so encouraged Dr Mahathir with his win-win strategies. This seems to be lost on Mr Nazir.
Lee Kuan Yew's meritocracy: Racist, hypocritical & fascistic – Part 3
ReplyDeleteNo wonder Dr Mahathir and many Malays, including those in Singapore, regard Lee Kuan Yew’s meritocracy as another form of favouritism/chauvinism, only disingenuously disguised and stage-managed. Lee Kuan Yew’s tenacious bullshit and bully pulpit won’t progress beyond first base with most right thinking people but not the brown nosed international critics who dubiously confer Singapore with corporate governance and anti-corruption awards.
So hypocritical is their definition of meritocracy that Lee Kuan Yew could arrogantly design his son to rise up to become PM at the expense of more capable and more senior members – in the name of meritocracy. And why appoint Lee Hsien-Loong’s wife, Ho Ching, to head Temasek when it is logically perceived as cronyism/favouritism. Because Lee Junior and Ho Ching are very “qualified” and “well-bred” that they “got in on merit”. And when family members or friends or cronies or community of the Lee clan set out to control companies and directorships, these are also “acquired through merit” and stated so bald-facedly.
If Dr Mahathir was to carbon copy Lee Kuan Yew’s brazen style to install Mirzan, Mokhzani and Mukhriz to ascend the chain of Government/political administration, a vicious national rebellion would be the endgame.
In Lee Kuan Yew’s merit-based fascism, the likes of S. Rajaratnam, S. Dhanabalan, S. Jayakumar and T. Shanmugaratnam, or others who have paid their dues, will rise high but never acceptable enough to be PM. They cannot because Singapore’s democracy is run by a family dynasty of “Chineseness” with flattering parallels to China. Lee Kuan Yew takes a leaf from Communist China – there is a supreme leader, a president, a PM and minions of sycophants backed by the majority eager to please (read that as scared) proletariat.
Lee Kuan Yew has, in many camouflaged remarks, argued that Singapore is a Chinese homeland. The idea that Malays had maintained a civilisation long before he and his ancestors came is just a historical inconvenience. That’s why he trusts the Indians better than the Malays, enough to dispense some real authority but never to actually rule Singapore.
Lee Kuan Yew should just come out and declare “Singapore is Chinese” outright, rather than muddling the truth with the screwy meritocracy façade.
It is tempting to pigeonhole Lee Kuan Yew as “democratic Communist” but a “democratic Fascist” is more appropriate. The fact that he is clinging to power as the tenuously designated minister mentor proves he won’t retire, gracefully or otherwise. He fancies himself as the Deng Xiaoping of Singapore (Lim Kit Siang is his regional protégé). Is this meritocratic? By Lee Kuan Yew’s perverse characterisation, it is.
And this is what Dr Mahathir meant when he rhetorically asked “Is meritocracy racist?” should his constricted critics care to scour beyond their pathological loathing of Che Det.
Hey Bandit
ReplyDeleteYou pretty well summed up what happens in the red dot.
Great observation, very acute and clinically accurate too.
It was said the lky will rise from his grave to defend the red dot - wow, must be superhuman eh??
Did you notice the loud silence when leehsienloong was giving the nat' day speech. You could almost touch the fear on the faces of the audience.
Their laughter at "jokes" was also obviously uneasy. At times, it almost appeared like a sense of relief.
Bandit 6:17 PM
ReplyDeleteHmm...so why did Dr Mahathir approach the Singapore government for a g-to-g loan at the height of the Asian financial crisis? That, surely, is a matter of record?
And it was only after the Spore govt proposed to tie the loan with a "package" of outstanding bilateral issues between Malaysia and Spore that Dr M threw a temper tantrum and "cold storaged" all the outstanding bilateral issues.
Seeing as how the Spore govt chose to exercise due diligence and prudence over the use of public funds, their stand then could not be faulted.
Following this, there was a spate of "abang-adek" issues between the 2 countries, including asinine calls by certain circles in Umno to cut off water supply to Singapore. Fortunately, cooler heads prevailed, and now Malaysia is no longer in a position to play the "water card" against Singapore.
As for Guntor Sadali, has anyone read the full text of the speech he made at the conference in Singapore, when he rebutted Dr Mahathir's views on Singapore Malays? I note that no mainstream newspaper in Malaysia published tht text of Guntor's speech. Why?
skewedmoron
ReplyDeletewho is guntor anyway and what has he done for the spore malays?
the water card will not be necessary when the recycled water (sewage liquid) will be their own UNdoing
imagine years of drinking "purified" sewage discards - what an oxymoron for skewedmoron
in case you are unaware - the falling birthrates coincide with rising heart diseases, HIV cases, suicide, abortion, divorce etc etc
what a future - rich and unhappy