Why do we bother about Singapore Malays. They have been taking care of themselves since 45 years( Singapore was asked to leave Malaysia in 1965). What they have achieved is owned by them. how they got where they are today is largely a product of who they are and what they can become. More of what they can become. Because in the final analysis, the determining factor is the achieved norm- what you can do with your abilities.
They may not have a high CPI compared to the Singapore Chinese and Singapore Indians. Their lot is a cause for sympathy because of our ethnic identity, but we can't interfere nor can we judge them. the recent speech given by one of the Malay thought leaders at a Berita Harian do, represents the thinking of Singapore Malays generally. He was saying that Malays in Malaysia have no reason to be judgmental on them. They adapt to the enabling environment in that country.
I tend to agree with his assertions. I have always felt that Singapore Malays have a robust thinking personality. They know they have to pull themselves up by their own bootstraps. They have to advance through education and hard work. They depend less on government assistance. They qualify themselves for government assistance by helping themselves first. Hence many mosques were built by government matching the Malays Dollar by Dollar. Some are now built by harnessing the Malay community's own resources.
Having empathy with them, regretting their lot relative to the more affluent Singapore citizens is another matter. This emotional kinship should not be translated into open political agitation. Singapore Malays deserve sympathy and encouragement and not used as a negative role model and a continuing reminder of what Malays in Malaysia can become.
Here in Malaysia, we have often heard about this slogan- Tidak Akan Melayu Hilang di Dunia. What can happen is the other way round- Melayu akan hilang dunia mereka. They will lose their world if they don't adapt to new enabling environment. That the way forward in this world is through educational excellence and hard work. These and the right enabling environment provided by good leadership.
Without these- Melayu akan hilang dunia nya!
a petra sudah dedahkan dokumen rahsia mesyuarat kabinet berhubung PKFZ....
ReplyDeletehttp://malaysia-today.net/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=33463:did-liong-sik-cheat-the-cabinet-or-did-the-cabinet-cheat-malaysians&catid=20:no-holds-barred&Itemid=100087
Siapa lagi terlibat ?? Baca sendiri dan buat kesimpulan....
Dato,
ReplyDeleteI would put you on level with the Singapore Malays.
Being from Johor, I have the benefit of viewing Channel 5 where we see Malay MPs and Ministers debating in Parliament. I can tell you, they are a class above our local MPs and Ministers.
The suave Malay leaders there carry themselves with elan and dignity. They speak English well unlike the jungle warriors from Kinabatang, Pasir Salak, Batu Pahat or Sri Gading.
Some of our Ministers speak like morons - listen to Hishammudin and even Rais Yatim.
Please forget MP Ibrahim Ali. He is fit to be foot stool for Sinapore Malay MPs.
Dato',
ReplyDeleteMelayu tidak akan hilang di dunia sebab mereka yang rajin dan cerdik pandai ini adalah dari golongan yang berkacukan seperti Melayu-Arab,Jawa,Mamak,Mualaf,Turki Jerman dan lain2. Kalau nak banding dengan Melayu Singapura, toksahlah kerana mereka ini telah dibentuk dgn "mindset" yang berkompetitif dan "survival of the fittest".
When Singapore was asked to leave
Malaysia in 1965,according to what was written by Former Spore PM Lee Kuan Yew in his Memoir,he himself was not too confident whether they could make it as a Nation. He has to hide in Changi with special guards to protect his life. But with some his comrades and appointing the right man for the right job, he was able to overcome the victory and build a successful nation without much natural resources. Here in Malaysia, just name it, we have it everything under the sun, yet we still struggle with race, education and business equality after more than fifty years of Merdeka.Now we are going backward with the slogan of 1Malaysia.Oh, Malaysia the Land of Glory, Wake up or we will all hilang as a "Malaysian" in this century.The Ghost of our Founding Father will wake up and haunts every night in our sleep.
Hidup Melayu,China India, Bengali, Kadazan dan lain2.
"Their lot is a cause for sympathy because of our ethnic identity...Singapore Malays deserve sympathy and encouragement..."
ReplyDeleteI can't understand the logic of these statements.
Does a Jew lose his ethnic identity because he lives in California, or an Indian Malaysian in Perlis or a Chinese Malaysian in Kota Bahru?
The Singaporean Malay has never been asked or compelled to change his name (as all have been in Thailand and Indonesia), his religion or cultural heritage. Many maintain their ancestral links with Indonesia and Malaysia. They are not punished for it. If he is economically disadvantaged, he is given assistance as any other Singaporean disadvantaged is through affirmative action policies.
Many here may be used to dollops of state-aid regardless of economic standing.
But where is the iniquity in Singapore?
Sound too condescending to me!
dpp
we are all of 1 race, the Human race
Dato',
ReplyDeleteI agree that we shouldn't interfere with our Malay brothers in S'pore. They are doing quite all right on their own.
If at all we want to assist, a better way is by maintaining their mesjids, like how some of our own Malaysian personalities are contributing substantial sums of cash on a monthly basis.
"Pahala di dunia dapat, akhirat pun beres, insyaAllah'.
DRZ
Dato'
ReplyDeleteI fully agree with you that the way forward for all, regardless of their race, is education and hard work.
And with good leadership and the right environment, Malays too can be successful as in the case in Singapore.
The ball is now at feet of Melayu Malaysia, to embrace or to reject this new challenge.
A: 'What are you thinking now, Tun?'
ReplyDeleteB: 'Ssshh not so loud, especially with the title.
I am thinking about TJ Low.'
A: 'He's young, cute and rich, Sir.'
B: '(eyes roll). No, dear Sofea. I am only interested in essential principles.
He was born into a rich family, went for good education, realized early in life the importance of friendship, worked hard, played even harder, and tapped financial opportunities even during bad times.
Now, if he had been born rich but took a wrong turn, frittered away his wealth, and became just a layabout, what would be his story today?
The essential principles i am thinking here are these:
first, one must be constantly aware of blessings turning into burdens; likewise, burdens which can turn into blessings. If he had taken the wrong road, today he might be a pauper instead of a millionaire, no? It's a matter of how one perceives how one should conduct one's life, yes?
Let me add here and now before i forget that i think the biggest failure of an education system is not to enable the young to figure that one out as early as possible.
Perhaps that might have helped all to avert thinking our oil deposits are a perpetual blessing, instead of what they are turning out to be, a burden arrived.
Second, the wheels of fortune turned for him in three regards. Now, what i want to suggest here is that the three regards happened successively which means there is a process which means there is a method.
The process for JTLow was this: he first got human capital; then he got social capital; and finally, he got asset capital.
By human capital i mean good education. He went to Harrow, a polishing school where he made well-heeled friends. Then he went to Wharton, the Eton of Wall Street, and made some more friends. From the way he had talked in the interview, we can gather he's a fairly straight-talking young fella, which is more than one can say for many of the finance guys in that predatory jungle.
In fact he reminds me of one other young fella i had met here some years ago. The pallor of the skin meant he was out of harsh sun, perhaps in temperate climates for years. The smooth handshake showed he didn't have to hold cangkuls. The kinetic half-shy half-aggressive personality showed he was swarming with ideas but pressured by the need for time to execute them to realize gains.
Unfortunately for him the idea he had was to see an opportunity for cheap long-distance VOIP calls long before the telco's saw them coming as a market, especially for our foreign workers. Because when he tried to move from project paper to newsstand corners, the local muscles elbowed him out once they realized how big that market was.
And that's because unlike Low, he didn't develop enough the next aspect - social capital - to sustain momentum. You know, without momentum, one can easily get torn by centrifugal and centripetal forces.
No man is an island. Just ask Hanks in Marooned. Even for investors, wealth is built on trust by others which propels trends which create opportunities.
2
ReplyDeleteThat is why i am so against anything which divides people. Because divisiveness will lead to island-formation and then it will be pitting brothers against brothers. However, to get to a higher stage of cooperation, two things are needed - patience and perseverance. And to have both, one must carry inside not just the long view and a right worldview, but also a certain philosophy about human nature beyond crass cynicism.
Now, where was i? From human capital to social capital, you need a bridge before you can get to asset capital.
Luck. There are three types of luck. Good luck, bad luck and no luck. Let's not go into religions here but let's just stay empirical.
By that, i mean good luck hits maybe one percent of the population; likewise bad luck, except when the trend is itself not based on fundamentals in which case it may hit almost ninety percent of those who are non-contrarian, as in the recent mortgage crisis.
It is no luck that we are concerned about. No luck is all the luck ninety nine percent of the population will get. But there is a saving grace. You don't get no luck all the time. Sometimes you get a bit of good luck to compensate for the no luck and sometimes we get bad luck to remind us to be humble and to stay focused on essential principles.
Now, was it Edison who said good luck was ninety nine percent perspiration? He was only half-right. And i say that because he had cheated a better and more fertile mind, an immigrant called Tesla.
A: 'What a longwinded speech, Sir!'
B: 'No, Sofea. I am in fact drawing out the mind of the businessman. For that matter, anyone.'
A: 'But what has all this to do with Singapore and Malaysia Melayu's?'
B: 'Everything, Sofea. First, the successful person creates his own bridge. That's because he wants to beat no-luck. It's a game to him. He doesn't calculate how much effort he needs to put in. Like TJ Low, he just goes for it. Of course there will be sacrifices and suffering. The bridge may collapse while he's walking over it for the first time. He may blame his own karma or what. But he gets up and does it again. Maybe it's a gambling mind. The next throw will be better, that sort of thing. But everybody is doing it. So when a Malay sees someone else shines wealth, he should not be racially envious but instead be mindful of the two statistical weightings, that for every one that succeeds, nine would have failed, and for that one success, ninety nine percent perspiration was needed.'
A: 'Then how do you explain that so many could have that one percent inspiration?'
B: 'Because they kept faith in human capital and social capital to build asset capital, Sofea.
When one works hard to earn something, one wouldn't be in such a hurry to fritter the first pile. It would be used to reinvest in the hard work, albeit with rueful regret and mutterings. But it will be done so that the next generation will get to build their human and social capitals more easily. It's a chain reaction, sayang.
I mean what's the point of using the first pile to buy a shiny car? The moment they hand the keys to you, you cannot resell without losing some thirty percent of what you have paid. Allow a small exaggeration just to make the point?'
B: 'But if what you say is true, why so many people don't like what TJ Low is doing?'
3
ReplyDeleteA: 'That's because he touched a raw nerve without knowing it. Young lad, no market assessment.
He came in because he saw opportunities for financing. That's ok because we do need financing. But he didn't see that our society is livid with anger against anything that smells of cronyism. Because everyone is suffering today from the state of our economy made inefficient by bloated costs outcome of cronyism for the past thirty years. Remember, when you add 'd' to anger, you get danger (cough).
Cronyism takes away more revenue from the state which could have relieved tax collection from the rakyat. Cronyism adds inefficiency to terms which could have yielded better returns for faster growth.'
A: 'But the speed of access is what clears red tape and moves markets, doesn't it, Sir?'
B: 'Yes - provided everything is above board. Which means if i send you flowers and trinkets, you should not be in any way compelled to buy into my idea to such an extent that your underlings in your administration will take it as a hint to put my proposal on top of the pile for FIFO consideration, no? Everything should be leveled for equal consideration so that the best proposal can serve the state. Like when a corruption file is ingressed, it is not be pushed down to long-term KIV just because the named is wired to someone in office or party, no?
A: 'But if there is no financing which comes in with the proposal, then how can the project even get started?'
B: 'If the proposal is good, who wouldn't want to finance it on the open market? Secondly, if we condone cronyism in any form, it will lead to a bad standard practice. Next thing will be corruption. Then money politics. Then degradation of integrity in society. Then malpractices leading to injustice. How then can an economy be sustained when one won't know how many are actually walking away with their investments without fanfare the moment they see how slanted is the table they are asked to deposit their tender? And what with open tenders and commercial deal-makings, so too with other forms of distribution. And that's exactly where we are today.'
4
ReplyDeleteA: 'But what has all this to do with the topic of this thread, Sir?'
B: 'It has to do with the whole philosophy of nation-building, Sofea. If we lay a bad foundation, the buildings of the nation will sooner or later come crumbling down. We are seeing it today and since the foundation hasn't been changed, we will see it tomorrow. You don't need finite element analysis to tell you that.
Now, down over at that dot, it would be hard to dispel the putative perception that they do things by the book and things are above board, not like here where more things get moved under the table cloth. So if you say we need the financing, let me ask you back who would bring in their hard-earned money to plant business here if their concerns are not professionally soothed away?
Now over there, their economy is growing. It was hit but it is recovering and they are moving again. The key property they have is resilience. It is their national asset capital. And resilience brings market growth which brings business opportunities which attract more financing.
Now the Malays there have the right human capital. And because all face the same global pressures, the social capital of that puny state is a forced imperative based on mutual pragmatism shaped by market competitiveness. True, their private sector may practice selectivity and preferences. Which private sector anywhere doesn't? But a good and clean public sector can set the benchmark and example to toggle society to demand cleaner governance in the private sector. It's a conscience thing that comes from years of professional adjustments. But such adjustments can only be built on the foundation of good business ethics strengthened by learned human capital and unprejudiced enforcement. In Japan, for instance, entire governments fold with unfailing regularity because of political kickbacks.'
A: 'So you're saying the Malays there have more human and social capital and because of that they have more asset capital than here?'
B: 'They have more self-earned asset capital than here, Sofea. That's the difference. ‘
A: 'But some have said they lose out in other areas.'
B: 'Like being admin clerks when they should be manning machine guns? Sofea, silo thinking tends to warp reality.
Let's take your example. What's the reality? An israeli defense model. Wouldn't that make anyone think twice about giving a machine gun or a fly-by-wire missile system to someone who might be a fellow citizen but is also more someone of a faith whose other members throughout the world would only like to erase that state whose defense model is being used, especially in this region where militants have surfaced, one with a similar predisposition actually having been expelled from that dot's defense force recently?
Nevertheless, I understand they're having more higher-ranked Malay personnel over time so it could be a matter of criteria based on qualification and so on, the sensitivities of strategic placements aside.
Can we say the same over here? Any other examples? Non-debatable defense purchases, perhaps? F-18's that have usable missile systems, perhaps? Armored carriers that can move, perhaps? Submarines that can submerge below conning tower depths, perhaps? Even a national carrier that doesn't have to service three different types of commercial engines, perhaps?
What is the most important thing in nation-building in today's climate, Sofea?
The economy must grow so that people can have jobs so that they will have the money to raise their own human, social and asset capitals, and then carve their own destinies with the splendor of their own dignities.
Sure, we can have a socially-prejudiced welfare state. But it is not sustainable and i am not so sure it has worked at all in our case.
5/5
ReplyDeleteOtherwise how do you explain why a minority without aid can be economically better off today than a majority with aid for so long?
And if we say the Malaysian Malay majority need more help than the Singapore Malay minority because one is more and the other is less, than what about the Malaysian NonMalay minorities who have done better without help and would have done even better than the Singapore NonMalay majority if national policies had been kinder to them?
And if we say it's because the race was born underprivileged, what about the other races also born underprivileged? Aren’t all babies born without teeth, for instance?
And aren't all except the Orang Asli's also immigrants one time or other?
So if the policies are to aid the underprivileged, why must the Orang Asli's have to ask for a bridge laid for them be not taken away from their village when the timber miners moved on?
Or why the women's minister has the nerve to announce only so much later after the Penan matter had come out for so long that she was now finally ready to visit their village?
Or how come the One who had initiated the Bakun Dam project can now write as if he didn’t know the submarine cable was part and parcel of the project from the very beginning, considering which company was slated to receive the cable part of the contract?’
A: 'Wow! Sir, i'll never know what you will be saying next.'
B: 'Well, Sofea, what i am going to say now is this. I am going to ask you this question.
When one goes to Cambridge for instance and sits their tripos exams, what is required except brains and knowledge? Nothing else, certainly not race or religion or rights or what have you. It's just questions to be answered.
Like life and nation-building and success or failure, it's just global reality and dimensional thinking, long view and worldview, problems and solutions.
Although i personally think more of Oxford's Balliol and London's Imperial (cough), just ask those Malays, whether from here or across the causeway, who had sat the Cambridge tripos.'
A: 'I'm sure you would be forgiven for not mentioning Oxford's Said Business School, Sir.'
B: 'Because of this? http://is.gd/dUBWB
(sighs). No end, no rest, no peace, the rakyat weep for old Malaysia. Sofea, you do know each land has spirits. I call them spirits of the land. How can we face them for what we have done to their country? Even for those deaths of foreigners in detention, let alone our own? We have to return to fundamentals and essential principles.'
A: 'I fear it might be too late.'
B: 'Do we have a choice, Sofea? For the sake of the young, for the future of what's left of this nation.....'
A: 'Sir, you're great.'
B: 'But i thought young, cute and rich moves you?'
A: 'No, i change my mind now. It's old, wise but poor.'
To Malaysian Malay
ReplyDeletebetter to take care of our own family rather than worrying about the Spore Malay.
You are talking crap. You should learn a thing or two from the fate befallen the Singapore Malays.
ReplyDeleteThe fact that Malaysian Malays are still around becomes the "obstacle" to thoroughly "bullying" the Singapore Malays (SM).
Many books have been written about the marginalisation of the SM, one prominent writer is the niece of the first Prime Minister of Singapore.
Even the UN representative have found troubling concerns over this very same marginalisation.
You as UMNO member should take heed that if YOU are not careful and the chinese takes politicsal control after they now own the economic power - the constitution WILL change and then 'nasi akan menjadi bubur'.
Sesal dahulu pendapatan sesal kemudian tak berguna.
P.S. Watch and take microscopic NOTE of the way the opposition rules the states they won. The DAP is weilding real power while PAS is being conned thru nik aziz sore grudge against UMNO while PKR still play wayang kulit.
Sak - don't kid yourself by acting magnanimous. The time for sopan santun is over. Trust your eyes, ears and heart, ignore your 'intellectual' brain for a while, take a step back and go with your gut feel.
"Their lot is a cause for sympathy because of our ethnic identity...Singapore Malays deserve sympathy and encouragement..."
ReplyDeleteMany Singaporean Malays will feel pissed off if they read that above statement.
Dato',you SIMPLY never understood the psyche of the Singaporean Malays.They chose to stay in Singapore in 1965 because they're seeking for jobs.
Why symphathize and encourage them when their median household income stands at 9000RM?!In fact,many Singaporean Malays symphatize their fellow kins because they voted for wrong party,which is of course UMNO.
How about Malaysian Malays?Can their success be attributed to their own efforts even through skewed policies?!!?Or is UMNO telling the minorities to get out of Malaysia in a non-provocative way?
Dato,
ReplyDeleteI beg to defer your use of word 'empathy' on the Singapore Malay.
Having regular opportunity to visit my son who is a PR in Sing and I particularly love to go round the market and meet up with all guys like an enumerator to try fishing out how people's lives in the nicknamed little red dot.
At Bugis MRT hub, there's an American fast food outlet where the shop manager is a Malay chap. I had patronized his shop twice. He's such a friendly chap and a professional marketing manger he would not forget to promote his never in Singapore offer of buy one meal and get one free offer to his step in clients!
During my chat with him, I did throw him one very sharp question - "Being a Sing Malay, do you know anything about our Tun Dr. Mahathir?"
"Yes, why not, I at times used to visit his blog and know that he's a very good writer".
"Then, i am sure you did read about his empathy talk on the grievances of Sing Malay that you guys here have been very much marginalized, agreed?"
The Malay chap manager simply smirk and and then burst into sweet smiling then he put it in such a professional way of reply - "Oh ya Mr., what i can say that much is, your Tun Mahathir probably seldom visit Sing and he knows quite little about our way of life in Singapore, as the Malays"!
"You see, we are proud to be a Sing Malay. What those comments in the blog of Tun probably is his imagination and he's putting us in the Malaysian Malay's shoes and that's totally out of the issue, i mean, in comparing our lives with the Malaysian lives!"
He further remarked, "At least our government here dun restrict us in many aspects of cari makan and also freedom which you Malaysian people like to talk about".."You see, I am English educated all the way from childhood and my daughter is married to an Aussie and she's now an English lecturer in Sydney and all these are the freedom i am talking about, even in education wise."
Pause, he continued - "You see, if i am in Malaysia, i can't even wear like what i am now and working in this place of American own selling steaks and pork chops with whine and liquor etc. I am working here for more than 6 years already."
"In fact, if you ask me, I actually feel more pity for the Malay friends in your Country. Just because of a glass of beer, she got to be rottan, this will never happen in Singapore!"
A simple conversation but you can find what's the difference in between!
Dun trust me, just go and ask many of our youngish Malay brethren they are working in Singapore, do they regret?!
I don't think much of Singapore or Singaporeans or their Malays.
ReplyDeleteSouless people with kiasus on their mind and behaviors.
Have you met them at seminars or any functions overseas?
Most of them have the attitude that they are better than us.
The Singapore Malays are rather annoying with conversations beginning with "Kat Singapore kan we.....blah, blah" boasting about their small nation and their way of life.
You know about the saying insecure people brag the most.
They are that.
"OK Chinese and Indian, take our place, take our rights, let us compete fairly." - says the stupid Malay.
ReplyDeleteNot only Singapore Malays are better.. Singapore Chinese are much much better than Malaysian Chinese in terms of International exposures and business acumen.
ReplyDeleteIt is the same for all races.
Here we fight among each other for what is on the table and only a small struggling handfulls put food on the table while many just sit there waiting to be fed.
Cheers .. to good life while it lasts.
While there are not a lot of rich Malays in Singapore and gap between the rich and poor is very high in Singapore, the fact of the matter is the gap between average Chinese Singaporea and Malay Singaporean are SMALLER, much smaller than the gap between the average Chinese Malaysian and the average Malays here. Check the numbers..
ReplyDeleteOh man....or may I say ..oh Allah..
ReplyDeleteanother one of those...Malay who needs some pat on the back by other people of other races to make him feel..Im worth it.
A real inferiority complex..to the other races but a superiority complex to his own kind...
Go home and think about it....your mind and maturity or the lack of it..couldn't tell the difference between god and allah..
I can go on...but your lifeless soul wont be able to comprehend.
I studied in SG and had stayed thr for a decade.
ReplyDeleteI don't quite agree with what you all have said.They contrast with what I've seen and experienced.
I had Malay and Indian ladies as my form teachers for the last 4 years of the primary school education.Btw,the Corporation Promary School's Principal is a "Dont mess with me" Indian lady.
They are excellent,strict and dedicated teachers who incorporate alot of methods and the use of technologies in their teaching.
I love the "show and tell" sessions during the English class.
My English teacher start the ball rolling by sharing with us her experience to Mecca on her own to perform the perform the Hajj pilgrimage.(She paid everything by herself and she was in late 20s back then.
)
She told us about how she got kicked by a man over thr and no 1 come to her help.All she could do was crying her eyes out.When her mum learnt about this,she merely told her that that's what she "get" for always kicking the family cat.With that ,she ends the story by telling us that there is really a God watching over you and how her faith in God is fortified.
There are so many wonderful things that i would like to share.The list can go on and on.
Perhaps I should start a blog.However,the current standard of my English literacy is so bad that my English teacher may scream at the top of her lungs and pull my ears off.
Check out my primary school website!
ReplyDeletehttp://www.corporationpri.moe.edu.sg/cos/o.x?c=/wbn/pagetree&func=view&rid=51182