Training Wheels and Article 153
Training Wheels.
Article 153 and all the provisions contained therein were intended to help out the underprivileged. As Sakmongkol was writing this, his formidable thoughts stimulator, Walla described the underprivileged, the policy meant to help. He said thus: The people the policy was originally conceived to help were the millions who congregated in the RM1 sector, not the dozens who congregate in the RM1 Billion sector. Sakmongkol could not have described the group more graphically than Walla..
The really need help group. Little education, training, skills, social networking capital and so forth. In the 1960’s Tun Razak and his friend Taib Andak developed FELDA. 100 thousand of the lumpen-proletariat were given 10 acres each to cultivate with palm oil or rubbe. (see the comments of my intellectual soulmate, de minimis on this.
Sakmongkol remembers reading a Far Eastern Economic Review on Tun Razak in 1974 where Tun said, he wanted to give the Malays a fishing rod each so that they learn to fish. His intention was to create an independent minded malay man.
By creating these feldaniks( felda settlers) Tun Razak created what? To Sakmongkol, the intention was to create an independent minded Malayman who depended on his efforts and wits battling with the elements. Toughened him and making him more rugged. Imbued with the pioneer spirit. The early FELDA settler’s homes were nothing more than hovels. Very basic and rudimentary.
Two, and an aspect which Sakmongkol thinks more important, was the purposeful decoupling of the Malay lumpen-proletariat from his previous cultural milieu. A cultural setting hitherto steeped in mythologies, ancient customs, excessively conservative and so on.
Unfortunately, a permanent revolution was never carried out. Left to their own devices, the Malays easily regressed to their indolent ways- you know the salad days of whiling away time at warungs and cock fightings, bull fights, playing Malay chess and so on.
By the way, to sakmomngkol’s mind, the Malays with their cultural conditioning require a decisive and, for want of a better term, authoritative leadership. No flip flops, tweedle dee-tweedle dum kind of leadership.
Because of the absence of continuous permanent revolution in the form of cultural conditioning and firm leadership, Malays are sucked back into a cesspool of dignity robbing dependence.
One of the manifestation of this affliction is the training wheel syndrome. Sakmongkol is borrowing this term from the comments of an astute observer looking from outside the box. The rapier mind of a Mek Yam. The malady is further compounded by the fact, that even among Malays who have managed to liberate themselves or even they who had not depended on the training wheels continue to support an unquestioning application of article 153. Sakmongkol is not certain whether unquestioning support is a reflection of a filial duty or the only form of mengenang budi.
Training wheels (also known as stabilizers) are an additional wheel or wheels mounted parallel to the rear wheel of a bicycle that assist learners until they have developed a usable sense of balance on the bicycle. Typically they are used in teaching very young children to ride a bike. The term "training wheels" is commonly used in the
The spirit of article 153 is to help the under privileged. The reality is, its being exploited by a powerful elite for their own benefits. With article 153, the Malays are still behind in many ways. Without article 153, the non Malays are still able to hold out on their own.
Therefore, the Malay is not defined by article 153 nor are the Chinese constrained by it.
But while we debate on article 153, it is also worth noting of the bad side effects of the training wheel syndrome.
According to the motorcycle safety article, training wheels can be counterproductive. Once removed, a bicycle without training wheels will require counter steering ("steer left to turn right") to operate, whereas training wheels develop reflexes that are opposite of what is required or counter steering. So perhaps, it is worth looking at one alternative to using training wheels- the use of a balance bicycle. That’s for another time.
6 comments:
If I may provide a personal testimony to the damage that training wheels on bikes has done to me. Since the day I took them off of my bicycle, I have never been able to ride the bike properly ever again. And I still can't till this day. All I can do is ride in circles until I fall out of balance.
I prefer the training wheels remain on the bike as long as I still have toddlers to use it later on. It’s cumbersome to remove and reinstall them later. I will get a new one once my kid is competent enough to ride.
Ayuni
KJ Ejen CIA?
Serangan peribadi sememangnya menjadi lumrah politik, dan KJ sudah lama dilemparkan dengan bermacam-macam tohmahan dan fitnah untuk kepentingan sempit individu seperti Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamed dan anaknya yang tidak berani berdebat. Yang terkini, KJ dituduh ejen Amerika dan CIA oleh blogger kroni Mahathir, AnotherBrickInTheWall (hyperlink), di mana gambar seorang lelaki orang berkulit putih sewaktu hari penamaan calon untuk PRU 12 di Rembau yang diambil dari blog Pro-Khairy menjadi asas untuk tuduhan ini.
Saya amat kecewa dengan tuduhan terbaru ini bukan sahaja kerana ia menyerang integriti dan patriotisme KJ sebagai orang Melayu dan warga Malaysia, malah ia merupakan usaha berterusan oleh kumpulan pro-Mahathir untuk memberi gambaran bahawa KJ adalah pengkhianat bangsa dan negara, yang bersubahat dengan CIA, Kerajaan Singapura, Yahudi, dan lain-lain.
Penulis blog AnotherBrickInTheWall mendakwa bahawa lelaki kulit putih yang gambarnya terpapar di blog tersebut adalah sama ada Tom Daniel atau Mike Thompson. Walhal yang sebenarnya, dia adalah Nordin Abdullah, suami kepada Jumaatun Azmi yang merupakan sahabat karib isteri KJ, Nori Abdullah. Nordin yang berkulit putih itu berasal dari Australia dan memeluk Islam sebelum berkhawin dengan Jumaatun. Dia bukan Tom Daniel atau Mike Thompson yang dikhabarkan oleh penulis blog tersebut sebagai kakitangan Kedutaan Amerika Syarikat dan Penasihat Pejabat Luar Whitehall yang disyaki bekerja untuk CIA dan MI6. Ternyata sekali yang lebih mengenali dua individu ini adalah penulis blog itu sendiri kerana maklumat tentang mereka yang dikongsi beliau – entah fakta atau rekaan – cukup mendalam.
Selain itu, penulis blog juga mendakwa lelaki kulit putih (Nordin) itu sering kelihatan bersama seorang lagi lelaki kulit hitam yang diungkapkan sebagai "negro" walaupun perkataan itu tidak lagi sesuai pada abad ke-21. Di sini saya ingin menjelaskan bahawa lelaki kulit hitam itu adalah abang ipar KJ iaitu Diamond Ibrahim Ogbeide, suami kepada kakak sulung KJ, Mona Jamaluddin.
Penulis blog itu juga menyoal keperluan orang asing sewaktu tempoh berkempen untuk KJ di Rembau. Mereka itu sahabat dan ahli keluarga KJ, jadi apa salahnya jika mereka mahu bersama-sama saya atau membantu KJ sebagai calon Barisan Nasional?
Taktik kotor seperti ini memang konsisten dengan usaha sekian lama untuk mencemarkan nama dan maruah KJ dengan menuduh KJ bersekongkol dengan ejen negara asing. Saya amat berharap bahawa sandiwara dan mainan politik ini dihentikan, terutamanya apabila ia membabitkan serangan peribadi terhadap sahabat dan ahli keluarga KJ.
Saya menyarankan penulis blog AnotherBrickInTheWall buat 'research' dan 'homework' sebelum membuat sebarang tuduhan. Kes ini jelas membuktikan bahawa penulis blog ini bukan hanya mempunyai niat jahat tetapi tidak buat risikan yang tepat dan hanya berjaya memalukan diri sendiri dan juga majikannya, Dr Mahathir dan anaknya yang kurang sifat jantan.
KopKunKhap Khun Sakmongkol...
Institutions are man's creation to better manage interactions and reduce chaos....policy actions are mere delivery tools for achieving a stated objective.....
Article 153 framed the thinking of the Bumiputra lot....all this discussion from the perspective of non-beneficiaries of A.153 as well as previous abusers of A.153 who could no longer dip its fingers into it are counter-productive to the whole process. If the problem was the delivery mechanism than fix it, dont go into do "we" still need such a policy..given the fact the intended objective is still far.
Countries grow and wealth becomes more concentrated that is a typical behaviour of market economy with some help from the hidden hands of government....not just for the case of Malaysia...
Lets go back to 1950's had we not put in A.153 how would the current composition of wealth in Malaysia be? In the early years of its implementation the people most negatively affected from it are the foreign companies who came along with the western colonial powers??? Who cares about them, if i was PM then i would have nationalised everything as send those good for nothing invaders back where they came from.....
Read A.153 carefully...who is tasked to undertake the function?? Agong ..so if the people who you have delegated perform poorly/or abused the delegated responsibility then he should with the powers vested under the constitutions undertake a full audit of the whole activities involved....
Perhaps it is time for Malaysia to have a full analysis ala Royal Commision of Audit on the Performance of NEP, A.153 and the future challenges facing the Malays in a globalised environment and make strategic recomendations to the Rulers on how best for them to undertake n monitor their own performance in upholding A.153--> This can be a private and honest report submitted to the Rulers and it is for them to then direct the parliment and government to act/adopt the recomendations if needed..
Be brave folks the more u sapu crap under the carpet the more u have to clean up in years to come..i think even the pakcik makcik in the kampung have evolved in their thinking....to be able to appreciate about what the problems are......
Wassalam
SatD
bro jinggo,
kita tgh discuss article 153. u pergi cerita kisah KJ. anyway i rasa ada kena mengena jugak kan. kj adalah penerima faedah a.153 yg tertinggi sekali. pak mentuanya adalah chief implementor a.153. jadi kita lihat mcm mana kehebatan beliau anak beranak mempergunakan a.153 ini utk mengumpul kekayaan dari bumi melayu ni selama 5 tahun ni. sampai negara tunggang telanggang baru kecoh nak reform last minute. pasal tu ler org bengang dgn kj. pasal dia ler bn nyaris nak tombang.
Atok Podeh
Very interesting series of postings on Article 153/NEP and very thought-provoking responses particularly from Walla and De Minimis.
As I see it, the NEP is/was the main tool in a major social engineering exercise undertaken in response to the race riots of '69. The stated aims of the NEP were "poverty eradication regardless of race" and "restructuring society to eliminate the identification of race with economic function". Presumably, reading from the stated aims, the basic underlying reason for the riots was economic disparity, both intra- and inter-ethnic.
The policy got off to a good start. More Malays went to university, the Malay share of the national wealth increased, and poverty was reduced quite substantially. Unfortunately along the way, the policy was gamed by the elite of all ethnic groups to benefit them leaving both the intended "beneficiaries" (Malays/ Bumis), and the "victims" (non-Malays) discontented with it. There is much argument now between the Bumis and the non-Bumis about quotas, equity, and so on. They are arguing about those things because that's how the end-points, and therefore success or failure of the NEP, are supposed to be determined, viz number of Bumi grads, Bumi companies, number of hard-core poor, etc.
I'm sticking my neck out but I think we're using the wrong yardstick to measure the NEP.
Having "hard" end-points, no matter how seemingly arbitrary some may be (30%?), is good because they are relatively easy to measure; but are they enough? Being the major tool in the great social engineering exercise started 30+ years ago, shouldn't the NEP have a third hitherto unstated aim? Shouldn't the hard end-points be surrogate markers for a far more significant end -- that of racial harmony? After all, the NEP was conceived in the aftermath of disastruous racial violence, so shouldn't the measure of the success of the NEP be the achievement of racial harmony?
If we use racial harmony/national cohesion as the supreme aim and the others as just road markers, then things would be easy. Malaysians won't need to expend energy arguing with each other and the NEP (or some similar policy) can be modified without raising howls of protest from anybody. The NEP can be more targeted. There won't be a blunderbuss approach to problem solving.
In the meantime the faulty implementation (no arguments there) ought to be overhauled and just like the 5-year Malaysia plans (I'm constantly reminded we're on the 9th Plan - sorry can't resist the dig at you-know-who), the progress of the NEP should be reported to Parliament and debated regularly.
PS. When I use the word Malay, I of course include the Ibans, Orang Ulu, Bajau, Penans, etc.
Post a Comment