WRONG ZAHID! It's Malays who owe the non-Malays BIG-TIME

Umno vice-president, Ahmad Zahid, states that Malays are paying the price for being kind to non-Malays. He said non-Malays are getting increasingly arrogant and are insulting the bumiputras, royalty and Islam.

By making such a deft but sweeping statement, Zahid has sized himself up for passing seditious comments that are set to further stoke racial hatred and tensions in the country.

"We allowed them (non-Malays) to be indebted to us without needing them to pay it back; they (non-Malays) are now insulting Islam and the Malays under the pretext of democracy, freedom of speech, and globalization," Zahid was supposed to have told Umno Segambut.

Exactly what does Zahid mean by "non-Malay indebtedness" to Malays?

Who owes who?

Zahid has gone overboard and out-of-line by firing the salvo and is guilty of creating great mischief, suspicion and fear and distrust among the races.

A person of his standing, in making such a stand, though he represents Malaysians of all walks of life should know better than to make such insulting and hurtful remarks against the non-Malays.

And, in the first instance, there is absolutely no indebtedness whatsoever by the non-Malays in this country to anybody as whatever they have achieved is by merit and not favor.

zahid hamidi

In reality, it is the bumiputra community (especially the Malays) who owe the other races big by having to make great sacrifices to supposedly help them (the bumiputras) get out of whatever dilemma they are suffering from time immemorial.

Zahid clearly needs to be hauled up by the relevant authorities for distorting the facts of history and making ridiculous claims not based on sound knowledge and facts.

Let's look at the facts of history

Everything was fine and dandy with Malaya as it gained Independence or "Merdeka" in 1957, and with Tunku Abdul Rahman at the helm, the country was forecasted to do well.

Everything went smoothly until jealousy and envy was promoted by some Malays against the Chinese and Indians who were working hard to seize economic opportunities.

The Malays were lagging, and they were angry and bitter, and this let to the staging of the ouster of Tunku as prime minister following the race riots of May 13, 1969.

This was what the feuding Malay camp wanted, to remove the Tunku, as he warned the Malay community many times over that he will not show favoritism to them but that they had to pull their weight and not be the weak link in nation building.

But the Malays opted for a soft approach and wanted pampering and even more special rights and privileges than the Tunku had already accorded them.

In doing so, in acceding to their requests, replacement prime minister, Abdul Razak, caved-in to break the rules of democracy to create the "bumiputra" community under a style of governance similar to apartheid.

By creating the bumiputra community, which consisted of Malays and others such as the natives of Sabah and Sarawak and the various indigenous groups, the latter really being done to make this bumiputra concept look genuine because if the Malays alone were considered to be "bumiputras," the claim won't hold water, as they are immigrants just like the Chinese and Indians who settled in this land.

By roping in others selectively and forming a bumiputra community, in one stroke, it spelt the looming death of democracy in Malaysia.

BN's divide-and-rule ploy

Needless to say, the push for Independence from the departing British colonialists had backfired terribly especially for the Chinese and Indians.

It is easy for people like Zahid, and many other Umno members, who were spoon-fed from the cradle till now like invalids to voice malicious claims that the Chinese and Indians are insolent and arrogant.

But the Malaysian Chinese and Malaysian Indians that remain in this country have shown great strength and resilience, and despite the evil oppression cast upon them by the Barisan Nasional (BN) government, have stood up well to endure and prosper.

This is really what is eating up Malays like Zahid and gang.

Despite affirmative action in the guise of the New Economic Policy (NEP), New Economic Model (NEM) and the current Bumiputra Economic Empowerment Agenda, the Malays and the other bumiputras are still not considered to be on par with the non-Malays.

This is a major blow and a terrible setback to Malay leaders, who, in the first instance, had acted unfairly to try and keep political power to themselves.

Now, not only are they economically lagging but the political power base of the Malays have begun to erode greatly as even a significant number of Malays belief that BN only wants power to promote elitism.

By BN failing to play by the rules of the game, the Malays now realize they have been taken for a ride with all these affirmative action programmes which is responsible for creating an elite society in Malaysia.

Most Malays now realize they have been duped by BN who have through corruption, collusion nepotism and cronyism built the governing elite in this country.

BN have even abused the royal households by wrongly manipulating them to create this elite and the governing elite in this country continue to watch and look out for each other.

What next? How low will BN stoop just to stay on and cling on to power though the majority of Malaysians have had enough of them?

BN's favored tools - race and religion

In actuality, truth and fact - Malaysia does not suffer from any real racial or religious crisis.

What really is happening is that BN politicians, who are above certain archaic laws in this country, including sedition, play the race and religion cards to pit the Malays against the non-Malays.

There is always this baseless threat promoted by BN politicians that the Chinese and Indians want to control this country or even, and this is really, really absurd, to turn the nation into a Christian state.

Yet gullible and naive Malays swallow whole this propaganda that goes into overdrive by BN whenever they feel they are losing the support of the Malays.

In reality, these ploys have been used often and have backfired that now Malays are careful and wary and suspicious of the ploys of BN politicians.

The only reason why BN wants to stay in power is not because they want to serve the people but they hope to convince the people to serve the BN leadership.

By manipulating the weak Malays and other bumiputras, BN hopes to be able to hold on to power.

Unless and until Malays of all walks of life realize that this is nothing but the favored tools used to manipulate them and instil the fear of the other races in them, there can be no real peace, progress and prosperity in this country.

Malays must get out of this BN propaganda rut and start to think and believe in themselves and not just rely on the government for aid and hand-outs all the time.

By doing so, they will progress even further and be completely free of the dependency mentality on the BN government.  - Malaysia Chronicle