Showing posts with label Tun VT Sambanthan. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Tun VT Sambanthan. Show all posts

Monday, July 28, 2008

Responding to Dato' Seri Khir Toyo's entry

There was a pretty good article about what the leaders in the past said about power sharing concept and distribution of wealth (taken from Dato' Seri Dr Khir Toyo's blog):

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.

Malah kerajaan Selangor di bawah pentadbiran saya merupakan yang pertama melancarkan tabung khas untuk pendidikan anak-anak kaum India yang miskin di bawah Tabung Pendidikan Anak-anak Pekerja Ladang. Kerajaan Selangor juga menaja lebih 100 orang anak kaum India yang miskin untuk belajar kemahiran di Inspens".

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.