Mr. Stephen Doss, why must you ask?

Mr. Stephen Doss, there is a second part waiting. I actually must thank you for posting the article KJ- satu enigma. It provides just the right timing to answer some of the drivel raised by some people with the intellectual capacity of gnomes. You know those who can't answer ideas with ideas but will spew vile invectives like ass licker and all those shit. They, like the character of the German officer Kurt Steiner played by Michael Caine in the Eagles have landed retorted to his superior- remind me of something that floats in the gutter- totally unpleasant and detestable.

There was a commentator who asked me, so and so didn't think highly of this article. My answer is this. That so and so is entitled to his opinion. His opinion is grossly overestimated. What can an intellectually-challenged gnome do? This so and so was the recipient of the white feather long ago which makes him a ball-less sycophant who got his earth shaking orgasm when standing beside a previous prime minister. Don't take my word for t- look at the photo.

Challenge him to explain what 1Malaysia means. So what does one Malaysia mean? For the muahahaha and wakakaka crowd 1malaysia simply means, Malay this, bumiputera this and that. What they actually mean, is putera first- bumi last. This is the kind of Malaysia which they want. They create a ruckus about ECM Libra but opted to act dumb and mute when this Mr. x son of papa x took over GAMUDA and got a bullet payment of more than RM 1 billion. This is the 1Malaysia they are thinking of. Hell, with that kind of money, I too can do wonders besides splashing on marquee cars and palatial homes. That is the Bumiputera Dream what...and I shall be humming to the tune of James Brown's Papa's got a brand new bag.

The rest of us, the majority of us know that we can't move ahead if everyone thinks in straitjacket racist terms. 1Malaysia, we know poses a challenge of balance. It is to balance the valid aspirations of descendants of immigrants who did well to this country with the equally valid emotional attachment the Malays hold of Malaysia. The discontented must "also appreciate the collective consciousness of the Malay community in which exists a sense of heritage and identification with the origins of this country's civilisation and the pivotal role that the Malay culture and system of governance played in it.

Does 1Malaysia mean, Malay sensitivities and the interests (politics, language, economics, and culture) that reflect them are diminished? The answer offered by KJ calls for an understanding from non Malays that "while this nation is for all Malaysians, it has its roots firmly within the Malay community, the sense of sacrifice that this community still feels for agreeing to create a nation where everyone could belong and call this land our home, is not something that exists only in the imagination of UMNO leaders and Utusan Malaysia readers. It is a collective Malay feeling that may never dissipate, not even with the passage of time. There is no disputing that these facts are pertinently clear in the public sphere".

We have therefore competing demands. The Malays with this sense of residual and overriding ownership of this country insist that their sacrifices must be compensated. The Chinese unhappy over many things that are considered discriminatory against them, a feeling arsing not unsubtly from the collective smug, that it is they who bankrolled Malaysia's economy.

The danger occurs when the two major races in this country adopt trench warfare tactics and strategies. The Malays with their uncompromising belief in their inherent rights forget that rights are worked and earned; the Chinese digging in with aggression arising from economic power flattening the equally valid hopes of others. By others, I mean Malay and other non Chinese. With their economic power, the Chinese are unconsciously living out their middle kingdom mentality.

It would be unfortunate if the question of balance is appreciated only among the select few. Among Malays, willingness to appreciate the issue of balance exists only among the cafe latte crowd and the smoked salmon society and among Chinese only among the liberal minded sons and daughters.

Such a danger has been astutely pointed out by KJ who have correctly pointed out that, the concession from Chinese on the position of Malays is a highly localised awareness existing as it were "only within enclosed communal conversations and perspectives – almost as though there is one reality for a group and one for another"

What is the consequence of that?

The ethnic Chinese in Bangsar who demands absolute meritocracy in admissions into public universities seldom properly appreciates that there is an ethnic Iban in the interior of Sarawak who may justifiably require some form of hand-up to enter university, leaving behind the longhouse and proud parents who never had a taste of formal education.

Among the Malays?

The ethnic Malay who prescribes sacrosanct status to the 30-percent rule does not always do so with constant awareness that there are many ethnic Indians living in poverty, Malaysian-Indians who feel they haven't been given a fair go at the pie. In the absence of empathy and a national dialogue encompassing a broad perspective for all Malaysians, it is little wonder each group seems to know only of its own grievances.

What has led to this road? To my mind and I am also pleased to see this belief shared by a young UMNO leader- this is all the baneful results of conservative and old school politics. What is it?

The practice of old school politics "where politicians and political commentators have not been helpful in bringing about this new politics of empathy. Politicians from both sides of the aisle have spent entire careers mastering the art of selective fact-presentation, tragically designed to win only a section of the people and leave out the rest. The same day one may fall back on the race card to boost popularity within his own party, another laments why we have so few non-Malay Headmasters whilst conveniently disregarding the perceived exclusion of ethnic Malays in the private sector. Needless to say, this goes against the agenda of promoting an empathetic society: to see things not as they are according to you, but as they are according to others".

So Mr Stephen Doss- look around you. I don't think this kind of thinking (which may be flawed) is capable of being produced by the muahahaha and wakakaka crowd. I am not about to give free service to point out where the thinking is flawed. Instead let us sing:-