The New Malay Dilemma

"Changing culture is far more difficult than changing the policies of government". This is what we've talked about a few posts ago on the mentality of the Malays and the mental revolution required as discussed part 1 and part 2.

By former Prime Minister Dr. Mahathir Mohamad on
Malays remaining behind others despite privileges.

The Malays are among the few people whose race is legally defined. Thus, the Malaysian Constitution states that a Malay is one who habitually speaks Malay, professes the religion of Islam and practises Malay customs. There is nothing said about the definitive culture of the Malays. It follows that changes in culture do not make a Malay person a non-Malay.

Culture is made up largely of the value systems accepted, even if not actually practiced by a people or a race. Observations have shown that the culture of a people determines whether they are successful or they fail...

Europeans, Asians, Africans and American Indians can all be successful and can all fail. It is, therefore, not the race or ethnicity which determines success. It is the culture.

When I wrote The Malay Dilemma in the late 60s, I had assumed that all the Malays lacked the opportunities to develop and become successful. They lacked opportunities for educating themselves, opportunities to earn enough to go into business, opportunities to train in the required vocation, opportunities to obtain the necessary funding, licences and premises. If these opportunities could be made available to them, then they would succeed...

But today, the attitude has changed. Getting scholarships and places in the universities at home and abroad is considered a matter of right and is not valued any more. Indeed, those who get these educational opportunities for some unknown reason seem to dislike the very people who created these opportunities. Worse still, they don't seem to appreciate the opportunities that they get.

They become more interested in other things, politics in particular, to the detriment of their studies. In business, the vast majority regarded the opportunities given them as something to be exploited for the quickest return...

They learn nothing about business and become even less capable at doing business and earning an income from their activities. They become mere sleeping partners and at times not even that. Having sold, they no longer have anything to do with the business. They would go to the government for more licences, permits, shares, etc...

Why has this thing happened? The answer lies in the culture of the Malays. They are laid-back and prone to take the easy way out. And the easy way out is to sell off whatever they get and ask for more. This is their culture.

Working hard, taking risks and being patient is not a part of their culture. It should be remembered that in the past the Malays were not prepared to take up the jobs created by the colonial powers in their effort to exploit the country. Because the Malays were not prepared to work in rubber estates and the mines, the Indians and Chinese were brought in. At one time, the migrants outnumbered the Malays. Had they continued to outnumber the Malays, independent Malaya would be like independent Singapore.

But the Malays have apparently learnt nothing from the near loss of their country in the past. Today, they are still unwilling to work and foreign workers are again flooding the country. And because they are not equipping themselves with the necessary education and skills, they have continued to depend on others.

Their political dominance will protect them for a time. But that dominance is fading very fast as they quarrel among themselves and breaks up into small ineffective groups. Their numerical superiority means less today than at the time of independence...

The Malays, together with the other Bumiputeras, make up 60 per cent of the country's population. But in terms of their political clout, it is now much less than 60 per cent. They are now more dependent on non-Malay support, both the government party and the opposition.

Economically, of course, they have less than half the 30-per-cent share that has been allocated to them. If we discount the non-Malay contribution to the nation's economy,Malaysia would be not much better than some of the African developing countries.

To succeed, the Malays must change their culture. They must look towards work as a reward in itself. They must regard what they achieve through work as the true reward. There should be some financial reward but this must not outweigh the satisfaction obtained from the result of their work...

Changing culture is far more difficult than changing the policies of government. It is easy enough to propose affirmative action but it is not easy to implement it. The recipients must have the right attitude if the results are going to be obtained...


Unfortunately, their view is that their crutches are symbols of their superior status in the country. The sad thing is that they are not even using the crutches properly. As a result, they gain nothing or very little from the availability of these aids...

So what is the new Malay dilemma? Their old dilemma was whether they should distort the picture a little in order to help themselves.

The new dilemma is whether they should or should not do away with the crutches that they have got used to, which in fact they have become proud of.

There is a minority of Malays who are confident enough to think of doing away with the crutches, albeit gradually. But they are a very small minority. Their numbers are not going to increase any time soon. They are generally regarded as traitors to the Malay race...

There will be a host of protests over this generalisation about Malay attitudes. We read almost every day about blind Malay people and other handicapped Malays graduating with university degrees or driving cars or doing all kinds of work.

This does not prove that the generalisation that I make is wrong. These are exceptions. They only prove that if the right attitude or culture is adopted, even the handicapped can succeed.

The dilemma faced by those few who want to build a strong, resilient and independent Malay race without crutches is that they are most likely to end up becoming unpopular and losing the ability to influence the changes in the culture and the value system which are necessary.

It seems that they should not try and yet they know that without the cultural changes, the Malays are going to fail.


By Mahathir Mohamad

Mindset Part 2: The Mental Revolution

So I recently picked up a book written by Senu Abdul Rahman, former UMNO Sec Gen. It was written in 1971 about the mindset of the Malays. Even then, we were talking about the laziness and the slow progression of the Malays (in general term of course) economically and socially.

"The "I want to help Malays" way leads to less action because the help is for others. A person will help others as far as he can without affecting his position and sacrificing too much of his comfort and leisure. On the other hand, the plans for progress among the Chinese, the Jews, the Americans, the Germans and the Japanese, which are drawn up by individuals for themselves, are vigorously implemented by those concerned, because they are working for their own gain. Though this is selfish, the total result produced by the full implementation of these plans exceeds the total result produced by the aggregate approach of the Malays. The aspirations and plans of the Chinese, the Jews, the Americans, the Germans and the Japanese can be fully implemented, whereas those of the Malays are not implemented or only partially implemented. This is the difference, and this is clear from the results".

The other interesting part, besides the obvious issues that we talk about till now, is about vocabulary. There is no such Malay word as "persistent" or "initiative". On the other hand, there are no English words to describe "latah" or "merajuk". "If a word does not exist in the language, this shows that the object does not exist in the society".

The book is the brain child of UMNO Youth and I reckon it should be made compulsory reading for members and recommended reading for the general public.

(TDM's Mental Revolution Campaign in 1981)

Mindset Part 1

Mindset is defined as “a fixed state of mind” according to Merriam Webster. Notice the word “fixed”.

The big buzz in Senator Obama’s US presidential race is “Change”. A change in the way the country is run, a change in foreign policy and how he thinks America should handle the Iraq war, a change in increasing tax for the rich and minimizing the astronomical deficit. The most important change that might happen is getting a black American elected in office as POTUS. Talking to some American rig hands on board – they blatantly answered that America is not yet ready for a black President and this is coming from grass root people. Sure, poor Black Americans especially those discriminated during Katrina in New Orleans would willingly vouch for Obama, hands down, but does this swing the entire pendulum to Obama’s side? Less than 50% turned up to vote in 2004 and it was almost a 50/50 split. It clearly means 50% of voters (who didn’t turn up) don’t really care and have better things to do.

However, Obama did set some tones in his “change” regime such as the use of Facebook for campaigning and the massive fund raising he collected through the Net. Clinton staffers were still struggling to teach her how to use the Blackberry. What does this have to do with mindset? It’s got to do with everything. If majority of Americans who turn up to vote has a fixed mindset that they’re not ready for a black President, then they’re not ready. Simple as that. Not because he’s not qualified or he doesn’t represent the right values, but because he’s black – period. Like it or not, some Americans will vote for him because he's black and some will not vote for him because he's black.

How about Malaysia? People are still interested about bloggers, freedom of speech, DSAI, why Pak Lah should step down, demonstrations, provoking Malays by questioning their rights, why Malays need the crutches and why Malaysians deserve more subsidies because Petronas is churning out money left, right and center?

While we quarrel about things that happened in the past like the Tun Salleh Abas saga, Vietnam is set to overtake Malaysia in terms of GDP soon (although the calculation of GDP is questionable in today’s economic sampling). Australia has exported their proven fuel cell technology. The French number 1 export is electricity from nuclear power. US is adamant to keep their tertiary education system private and competitive, as it is the best in the world (Harvard boasts of approximately USD20B in endowment funds). China is now set to produce more than 6.4 million passenger vehicles a year with 120 car makers in the country and will overtake Germany as the third biggest manufacturer, after the US and Japan (In 1979, China was just manufacturing 13000 cars). Cars in the future are expected to be cheaper, lighter, smaller and more fuel-efficient. Americans are trading in their humongous SUVs for efficient Prius (to some extent. Houstonians still love their Cayennes, Lincoln Navigators and big Ford pick ups – very “oil field”-like). This is the global scenario.

While Google, Johnson & Johnson, Ebay and Swatch Group continue to increase their global economic influence and decentralize their organizations like a starfish, we are still bickering about petty things (some think they're not petty). Obviously the majority of Malaysians mindset is still fixed at being at “bickering petty issues” level (like whether to wear the Songkok when swearing in or whether we should raise our left hand when swearing in as MP). We vote for our politicians for certain criterion and they are our voice at Parliament. If some of the rookie and veteran MPs at Parliament are labeled as childish and talking rubbish, they represent the voice of their constituents, isn't it ‘safe’ to conclude that the Malaysians they represent are still thinking about petty things? If this is not so, why did we vote for that politician? Or is it because we vote for the party regardless of candidate? Or is it because the lack of viable candidates these days? In the end, it boils down to our mindset as voters, politicians, constituents, Malaysians.