The article below was written by Dr David Quek, President of MMA in The Malaysian Insider. He is spot on the issues that are happening in this country.
Just before I read David Quek’s article, a friend of mine wrote some interesting comments on my earlier post (Racism/Quality & Transfers) linked to my Facebook. I do agree with him that there are more and more youngsters who can’t speak Malay in our country. Majority of these people are from the Chinese ethnic group. Most of these people are below the age of 20 years old. As a doctor I do see them in my clinic. At times it is rather amusing because the parents can speak good Malay/English but the children can’t. This is a peculiar scenario that we are seeing now. Why is this happening?
Again, we need to go back and see what happened 20 years ago that has progressed to this stage. Way back in the 1960s and 1970s, many vernacular schools were on the verge of being closed down due to lack of enrolments. Many non-Malays felt that they need to go to the National Schools to be part of the country they called home. They wanted to learn Malay, English and mingle around with other races. At that time, the syllabus was still UK-based and was in English but was slowly changed to Malay by end of 1970s. Majority of the teachers were non Malays with the Malay teachers were mainly involved in teaching BM and arts subjects. There were hardly any racial slurs or remarks that were made. All religious societies were freely formed in these schools. The missionary schools were well-respected and was still run by the missionaries with assistance from the government. In fact, most of the school canteens were run by Chinese !! No issue about halal or haram! I was among the lucky ones who just manage to go to National schools at the end of 1970s but then, I realise that something is not right.
Instead of integrating and uniting people under 1 education system, our politicians decided to separate us even further. MARA colleges, boarding schools, ITM(later UITM), matriculation were formed to help the Malays. No doubt that these were necessary to help the poor Malays in the rural area where good schools were not available, in fact there were no secondary schools in a lot of rural areas. But what about poor non-Malays in rural area? they were just left behind! unfortunately what started as a welfare system for the poor rural Malays were soon hijacked by the more urbanised Malays. Slowly, most of the enrolments in these schools were Malays from the urban cities as they were definitely performing better than their rural counterparts. I feel that there is no need for MARA colleges and boarding schools now since we have both primary and secondary schools available in most rural areas nowadays.
After standard 5 exams (equivalent to UPSR today), a lot of my Malay friends disappeared to MARA colleges, agama schools and boarding schools ( one of them supposedly Sheikh Muzaffar, the so-called astronaut). Then came SRP (PMR equivalent) after which the rest of my remaining Malay friends disappeared. So much so, my school (a premier school in Seremban) only had 1 Malay student in the entire Science stream till Form 5! Despite getting good results in SPM, non of the Non-Malays ever received any JPA scholarship!! In fact one of my non-Malay friend(an Indian ethnic) were told directly to his face that JPA scholarship for medical education is only for Bumiputeras, during the interview (back in 1989)! why bother calling for the interview then? His father was just a Tamil school teacher and his mother was a housewife! Talk about social background. At the same time, I can here a lot of my Malay neighbours who got inferior results than me receiving scholarship to go overseas. The worst part, they are better off economically than us!
So we all ended up doing STPM (Form 6) for 2 years to be eligible to enter local universities. And yes, not a single Malay in our school Form 6 science stream. Those who did SPM and got good results were immediately absorbed into matriculation, another BUMI only course! Thank GOD, we did very well in our STPM and got into local university to do medicine. Again, all local universities had quota system not based on merit. Indians were allocated only 16 slots for medicine in UM. Imagine how competitive it was for the non-Malays to enter local university then. Probably that is what that made us better and stronger, survival of the fittest!
Soon, people began to realise that they do not get any benefit by going to national schools and learning BM etc for unity. They are never treated as equals and discriminated in education opportunities. Slowly, they lost interest and started moving away from the national schools thus the mushrooming of vernacular schools again (please read my post on ” 1Malaysia Education” under education page). This coupled with the racial discrimination, racial remarks in schools only made the situation worst. With the introduction of KBSR/KBSM by late eighties, the entire education system was manipulated to benefit the ruling government. History book were revamped and the contribution of non-Malays were wiped out. The students were made to be in cocoons! You can see this with the current quality of university products, which is the extension of our schooling system.
So, talking about patriotism, why should these people be blamed for not able to speak Malay and thus called unpatriotic! As I have always said, we need to look into the root of the problem before making any comments or remarks. If you are at the receiving end, you will know the answer. People have lost faith in this country as the discrimination only seem to be getting worst. Of course, those who have benefited from the system will not know the problems the others are facing. Even though at times I do get angry with people who can’t speak Malay or English, I feel pity for them as circumstances have made them to be like that. Circumstances created by our ruling party, divide and rule policy! Below I attach one of my friend’s comment in my facebook , saying the same as what I have said:
but if one were to target just the chinese by quoting “wa tak tahu cakap malayu” … pls be sensitive about this issue. many of the older and some younger generations are not proficient at all with the national language. i can excuse the old generations because some are direct migrants from china and many live amongst themselves being self sufficient. in fact, i can tell u with so many middle man & touts & corrupt tradesmen running around, i can tell u its still good living in this country without knowing the national language well. but does this make them any less malaysian ?
as for the younger generations, many policies in this country have forced the non bumis in this country to give up hope learning the language well. (but that doesnt mean they are any less malaysian than you) Many were educated overseas or private schools or chinese schools where BM were not emphasized at all. why ? because all the local universities are biased against them, all the govt contracts will not be allocated to them, even in nasional schools many are racially ostracized, even the courts have given up the idea of making our bahasa compulsory for ALL documents. and with many middle men serving their needs, there is practically no chance for the non malays to grasp the language well. again, does that make these citizens any less patriotic than you ? (patriotism does not mean can sing national anthem and speak BM … it also involves of many many other factors u know … glorifying racism does not mean one is patriotic)
last but not least. you said many don’t bother to speak malay while staying in this country. actually the truth is, many bother to speak but had no good teachers in school to teach them lah. all languages the same, takes a good while to pick up the language lah. for the extreme ppl who really cant speak anything, those form just a super small minority. its like someone who dont speak english in this part of the earth, i mean english has been the ubiquitous language, why more than half of the ppl on earth cant speak the language well ? does that mean they should go home to outer space or balik hutan where all of us walk out from ?
bahasa melayu is still a very young language. i can say it is one of the easiest language to learn on earth and it can be a beautiful thing to be able to sing songs with it. but by targeting the chinese and saying one is not a malaysian because this person cannot grasp the language is totally wrong. knowing the language is just one of the many factors to call yourself patriotic but it is certainly not the only criteria. besides, even if we were 100% patriotic, will we all be accorded the bumiputera status and be recognized as a true malaysian and enjoy all the benefits of this country ?
this country is currently in a mess from top to bottom, across all boards. sparking controversial debates using the chinese descendents is very very unfair. fyi, i am already the 5th generation of migrant in malaysia, why am i not considered a bumi ? i speak malay, though i am not a muslim, i understand this country and its history, i know my rights, i know the constituition, i know the culture and i know my public holidays, i also know my agong and the sultan, i know all the ministers and i know the national anthem. i also know what merdeka is all about.
lastly, the indonesians. have you met indonesians who cant speak a word of indonesians ? how many indonesians have u befriended all your life ?
?malaysian earlier than any of us ? does that make them any less malaysia who had no idea how to speak BM properly. blame who & blame what ? aint they here in …malaysians and eastern asli have come across many orang i do agree with you many are not proficient in BM. iyes
Rising racism, 53 years on
This year, I became a senior citizen. I can now withdraw my EPF savings and I qualify for some discounts for travel and surprisingly even for some buffet meals at some eateries.
But as I ponder upon ‘retirement’, it is sad to see the Malaysia that I know and live in, grows increasingly uncertain, diffident and bogged down in self-made crises, one after another.
Our previously phenomenal economic growth has now trickled down in a dizzying spiral of middle-income trap – not helped by the 2008 global financial crisis.
Our foreign direct investments have dwindled as our competitiveness, our productivity, perhaps our systemic corruption and wastage, have now been exposed and called into question.
Even our inborn entrepreneurs are investing overseas because of the uncertain future and shifting policies, which have made us face the truth of our competitiveness and value as a nation.
Instead of maturing gracefully, we appear to have become trapped in a petulant phase of angry adolescence breaking out senselessly to attack convenient bogeymen -race and religion appear to have become the easy targets, which breed even more political and economic uncertainty.
As a fourth generation Malaysian, I was born two and a half years before our fateful Merdeka. I am still wondering whether we are truly ‘liberated’ as befits the meaning of ‘Merdeka’, so gloriously proclaimed by our Bapa Merdeka, Tunku Abdul Rahman Putra Al-Haj, in 1957.
That Merdeka was to have ushered in the birth of what some would have called ‘an unlikely nation’, one that appeared cobbled together in a slapdash manner, juxtaposing a disparate if hodgepodge peoples – predominantly Malays, Chinese and Indians- and akin to mixing oil in water. Yet again, does any one in such serendipitous circumstance have that conscious sense of history and historicity of these singular moments?
To be fair, even then, no one dared to dream that the idea of Malaya and later Malaysia could succeed. But truth be told, we did do very well for so many years, becoming one of the rising ‘Asian tigers’. It’s just these recent years that we have foundered and perhaps lost a little faith in ourselves.
So many other post-colonial new nations had self-destructed in interethnic, religious or tribalistic clashes and conflagrations. We nearly did in May of 1969.
But good sense and firm actions created a novel social re-engineering feat (the NEP) in its wake, to bring about some semblance of order, reasonable interethnic tolerance and suppressed racial tensions.
For the next four decades, we have lived a reasonably harmonious if distinct existence, although seething fault-lines appear now and again to threaten the veneer of our touted ‘Truly Asian’ unity among our unique pastiche of colourful normalcy.
Forty years hence, ratcheted-up rhetoric is beginning to sunder this extraordinary relationship. Polarised insistence on continued affirmative action in stylised if arbitrary terms, remains a bone of contention, which powerfully fans the embers of resurgent ethnic fears and pride.
Sadly, as we celebrate this auspicious anniversary, we seemed mired in increasingly rabid and insulting racism, which greatly threatens our flimsy unity and contrasting diversity.
Extremist leaders continue to spew so much hurtful invectives that these would have shamed the most neo-Nazi right-wingers, the world over. Most modern societies would have punished such hate-mongers if not for their senseless racial baiting but then for their ad hominem attacks on just about anyone who dares to challenge their warped if narrow worldview.
Perhaps the media can play their roles better by downplaying these media hounds, whose purposes are so sickening and depraved.
Racist rhetoric
It appears that more and more politicians are flogging the twisted if populist concept of ethnic supremacy and extraordinary rights (of ethnic ketuanan) once again, as if to bolster their public images as racial champions. The loudest and the most strident appear to be those who are now commanding the greatest publicity and arguably some perverse following.
Our authorities appear timorous in not wanting to directly confront these vociferous bullies, for fear of some unintended backlash. But in so doing, the government loses even more credibility. The government of the people must serve as a fearless just arbiter of a firm and respected Leviathan, and not be held ransom by some mindless minority.
There cannot be distorted applications of the rule of law, where any one can flaunt and challenge the wisdom of the law, at wanton will. There seems to be no more respect for anyone else except for the self-righteous bully pulpit arrogance of voluble tyrants disgorging more and more hatred and painfully shrill racist ideologies to the hilt.
Freedom of speech implies rational discourse and debate, not threatening and insulting rantings. It certainly does not absolve anyone of despicable spewing and inciting of ethnic or religious intimidation or hatred.
But who really is to blame for the recent rise in racist rhetoric?
It appears that some components of the government are still pushing the propaganda machine to perpetuate the concept of racial supremacy and denigrating all other ethnic groups.
The Biro Tata Negara (BTN, National Civics Bureau) instead of instilling national civic consciousness, appears to relish in inculcating and indoctrinating any civil servant or would be scholarship holder, in a time-warped belief system that only the Malays are true patriots and truly deserving of their Malaysianness.
This is still happening 50-odd years following Merdeka, and one wonders why non-bumiputeras don’t sometimes feel any greater sense of belonging to this nation of ours.
Surprisingly such BTN programmes appear to have been a ‘recent’ phenomenon. My sister and brother-in-law who are senior government servants in the Ministries of Education and Higher Education respectively claimed never to have been subject to such gross demeaning indoctrination or abuse – perhaps, they too have been too polite, too programmed, to acknowledge. It did not take place when I was a clinical lecturer for seven years at Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia in the 1980s and early 1990s.
But as MMA president, I have received some angry verbal complaints (many are traumatised, frightened and do not want to be quoted for fear of reprisals) that even non-bumiputera junior medical specialists and house officers, who aspire to join the service or to be confirmed, are currently subject to physical and mental abuse. Mind you, these are not students of impressionable age, but grown men and women in their twenties and thirties.
Some have been made to squat and huddle together in front of other bumiputera peers, rudely woken at early mornings, shouted at, called pendatang, usurpers of scholarships and positions, depriving the true bumiputeras of their places and rights, told in uncertain terms that they are here only at the behest and kindly generosity of the bumiputeras, and that they can always ‘go home’ or balik kampung which means China or India.
Groups have been bullied into subordinating to and acknowledging the official ‘dogma’, or risk having the entire group not ‘passing the course’. Do these utterances ring a bell?
Less than a year and a half ago, one young returning teacher broke down from such radical abuse and hazing, that her family decided to pull her out, repaying the loan in full – enough is enough! So can we not see how this will perpetuate the cycle of blatant racial baiting and hatred when these ‘officers’ return to their respective services, after such provocative BTN courses?
Mustn’t such propaganda stop? Is the government truly sincere in wishing to stem such state-endorsed racism? Is this government truly espousing the 1Malaysia concept for whatever it is worth?
Last year, Minister in the PM’s Department Mohd Nazri Abdul Aziz acknowledged that the BTN must be overhauled. He had revealed that courses by the BTN were racially divisive and used to promote certain government leaders. While Nazri was bold enough to expose this, he was nearly alone in defending the need to overhaul the BTN courses.
Most of the ruling elite, including the deputy premier had sided with those who refused to acknowledge Nazri’s contention that the BTN was a mockery of the 1Malaysia concept. Of course, former premier Dr Mahathir Mohamad joined in and insisted there was no need to revamp the BTN courses, which led Nazri to call the former PM a “bloody racist”, even conferring on Dr M the title “the father of all racists”.
So are we surprised that Perkasa, school teachers and principals, public officers, resort to such ‘ingrained’ behaviour, notwithstanding the so-called ‘provocation ‘ from their charges, their students, who must surely be so ‘insensitive’ as to other’s religious practices?
Pursue the perpetrators
Yet, when called upon to investigate such racist behaviours, the authorities appear to be dragging their feet, and instead concentrate with such efficiency to question and charge a rapper (NameWee) who merely was bold and foolhardy enough to serve as a conduit to expose these wrongdoings.
Can the police and authorities not see the biasness of their actions, by pursuing the messenger and not the perpetrator of possible crimes?
Can the authorities not understand why thinking Malaysians and non-bumiputeas are beginning to feel persecuted and discriminated against, more and more, despite utterances to the contrary by our political leaders?
Can the authorities not understand why more and more disgruntled non-bumiputeas are making a beeline to emigrate whenever and wherever they can – hardship, uprooting displacement and starting over, notwithstanding? This has got nothing to do with patriotism, when one is constantly told that he or she is unequal as a citizen, and that they are unwanted.
Can every Malaysian non-bumiputera truly feel that he or she has a fair and reasonable share of this piece of earth called Malaysia? Do our authorities truly appreciate talent, merit or worth of any non-bumiputera at all, or is this mere lip service? Can they not see the hollowness and insincerity of their pronouncements – when we can hardly see the ‘walk’ from the ‘talk’?
Such crescendos of racist ravings seriously undermine the carefully constructed dream of a true Malaysian nation, shattering the much-bandied ‘unity’ slogan already so tattered among our terribly troubled diversity.
Hurtful cries to demonise and belittle other races as unequal, pendatang and lesser than themselves cannot but help demoralise every peace-loving non-bumiputera Malaysian who aspires for a better tomorrow, a better Malaysia.
We fully recognise the special position of the bumiputeras, but as non-bumiputeras we also increasingly demand our rightful place in this nation of ours. Lest it is forgotten, our position is also enshrined in the constitution. This is not arrogance, but a statement of fact as a human right of any citizen.
We do have a long way to go. We have many mindsets to change, to engage, to dialogue with in sincerity and humility, so that race and religion cannot be made a bogeyman for every travail or challenge that the country is facing.
We have our work cut out for us, but as rational Malaysians, we must all try even harder to persuade the government to be one for all Malaysians and not for mere sloganeering alone or for any one racial group.
We must flush out all closet racists. We must instead cultivate greater rational discourse and dialogue without preconditions of threats and top-down dictates. We need to work on closer cross-ethnic cooperation, tolerance and acceptance so that together we are truly more than the sum of our rich individual strength and heritage.
We must nurture greater cohesiveness by lowering the tempo and temperature of racial baiting and shrill cries and rhetoric of ethnic pride and irrational fear-mongering. We must work towards greater confidence of sharing and building and not engage in divisive dismantling bigotry based on artificial barriers of so-called ethnic or religious sensitivities.
This government must be seen to act without fear or favour, by espousing fair and just policies, by directly confronting and stemming the tide of racism and racial-baiting. Divisive ravings drive uncertainty and suppress confidence. We need to reverse such negative rhetoric if we wish to improve the climate for economic buoyancy in this country.
By staying the course of inept inattention, we stand to lose our global competitiveness even more, as we Malaysians lose confidence in ourselves and our grip on the future.
We must do this right and soon, or risk losing everything! 53 years hence, and Merdeka then would have been in vain.
“We came into the world like brother and brother, And now let’s go hand in hand, not one before another.” – William Shakespeare, in the closing couplet of ‘The Comedy of Errors’ [V.i.425-26]
DR DAVID KL QUEK was the editor-in-chief of the MMA News (bulletin of the Malaysian Medical Association) for 11 years and is currently president of the MMA.
Pagalavan's Avatar 
A very good evening to u doctor
im ushananthini and currently im working in one of the hospital in ipoh and im looking forward to join in your hospital. i came for interview in your hospital in july but till now im still waiting for a good feedback from your hospital.
i really wanna be your staff and in the same time my house is very near to your hospital. i really hope that u would help me doctor.
thank u for your attention…..
Please contact Catherine, the HR manager at my hospital to find out what happened. We are slowly recruiting more staffs.