DSKT: "Misalnya apabila Kerajaan Selangor semasa pentadbiran saya menubuhkan Pusat Kebudayaan Melayu dengan peruntukan RM 20 juta, kaum Cina dan India turut mendapat peruntukan yang sama.
Presiden MCA, Tun Tan Siew Sin, dilaporkan dalam akhbar tempatan bertajuk "Tun Tan Answers Critics on special Previleges" dalam pada 30 april 1969, berkata:
"The Malays, through UMNO, were generous enough to relax the citizenship laws of this country to such extent that within 12 months of independence, 90 percent were still non-citizens after nearly 100 years of colonial rule in the Malay States. In return for this major concession. the MCA and the MIC agreed to continue the policy of preserving the special position of the Malays while at the same time upholding the legitimate interest of other communities."
- Sumber Tan Sri Khalid Awang Osman, Malaysia - An Anthology, Vantage Press, New York, hal. 38-39.
UCAPAN PRESIDEN MIC merangkap MENTERI KERJAYA RAYA, POS DAN TELEKOM, TUN V.T. SAMBANTHAN DI DEWAN RAKYAT PADA 1 JUN 1965.
"Now, in 1955 we won the elections with a great majority. Then we obtained freedom in two years time. During this period, we had to discuss citizenship and various other things. Now what did the Malays do - since we are speaking on racial lines - what did the Malay leadership do? The had 88 percent of the electorate still with them. What did they do with citizenship?
If we look around in Asia and East Asia, particularly, you will find that my race the indian race, is not welcomed in Ceylon, is not welcomed in Burma. Look at my brother Chinnese race, it is not welcomed in Thailand, in Vietnam, in Cambodia, in all the other areas. What help do they get for citizenship in all these territories? In Burma, as we know, Indian have been send packing, in Ceylon they refused them citizenship and in Burma it is likewise. I know it, you know it. And yet in Malaya what happened? Here we found that the Malay leadership said, "We shall tkae them unto ourselves as brothers, we shall give them full opportunity to live in this country, we shall give them every opportunity to become citizens." And so, in 1957, for the whole year, we waived language qualifications, and tens of thousand of Indians, Chinnese, Ceylonese and others became citizens...
As I said, it has been my great good fortune to have born in this country. Where else can you find a more charitable, a more polite, a more decent race than Malay race? Where else can you get such politically decent treatment for any immigrant race? Where else in the history of the world? I ask you. These are the facts. Who are you to safeguards us? I am 10 percent minority race here. But I am happy here.
My response: I despise the Malays questioning their own rights in the Constitution. Having said that as well, I do know that numerous Malays are furious not because of their Constitutional rights, but how some leaders are treating them and getting away with blatant abuse of power. That is why we have a democratic process whereby the majority decides who they want as their leader.
As for the other races, the chinese and the indians, the question about the constitutional rights is a non-issue. It is not that easy to amend the constitution especially when the Malays are the majority. Having said that, there are moderate chinese and indians who do not question the rights and want to live in peace and harmony with the Malays as long as their rights are not taken away from them, likewise there are moderate Malays who share the same philosophies. Even Tun Mahathir said that it's better to share a pie that's growing rather than not have a pie at all.
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2 comments:
why is there such a huge drop in the involvement of non-malays in nearly all sectors of public service? i'm comparing this to the composition of staff round about the time when Tun Sambanthan made those remarks...
why are there hardly any non-malays in the uniformed services?
for the ruling elite, the answer to that question might be "no interest", "not loyal to the country", etc... simplistic and pea-brained answers. i expect nothing less though.
after all, there is a 'good' reason loyalty of non-malays to the nation is continously played up and talk about this 'rights' is omnipresent, despite the fact that non-malays have got on with it for years. why the panaroia?
my question now will be, why is the involvement so low? many malaysians are as chinese and as indian as Tun Tan S. S and Tun Sambanthan. why so different now? we had malay rights then, we have malay rights now, nothing has changed there. no one has questioned anything there.
So how come it's like this today?
chinese and indians reluctant to join because it's becoming more and more malay. Malays in civil service feel there's no interest among them to join.
RMC is becoming more and more 'Malay' due to the reducing number of non-Malays entering. Did we ever impose an NEP-like policy there? Did we systematically prohibit non-Malays to join? The answer is - it's simply lack of interest because of the 'perception'. Did you perceive RMC as an elite Malay institution? So why is it different now?
Why is UNITAR strongly monoracial? Why are the Indians not getting entry? Lack of interest or perception that it's a chinese institution?
Why was Sungai Siput given to an Indian candidate? Why was Subang and other parliamentary seats were given to the Indians where the Malays are majority? Any discrimination there? Granted there are more indians in the opposition now than in BN, but whose fault is that? MIC candidates lost badly - whose fault is that? Blame it on UMNO?
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