I love hanging out at the venerable Dato Sakmongkol's blog. He makes some very interesting observations and asks some very penetrating questions. There's usually a lively debate on his blog and he is often not spared the vitriol of the UMNO bigots, even though he's aloyal UMNO man himself.
Sakmongkol's latest post has highlighted some very pertinent questions about the future of the Malays in this country and I think it has generated some very intelligent debate. This is a comment I left on Dato Sak's blog, and some excerpts of the discussion to give you a little background. You can read them here and here to get the full picture of what's being discussed over there.
Dato Sak wrote:
Hence we have a society divided. One section is composed of the fortunate ones because we allowed them to become so, the other, consists of the less fortunate because we allowed to become so too. How do we explain this to be so? The inadvertent answer is because the Malaysian environment has made this so.
The question is, if the environment that presides over all of us is common, how is it that one section can pull ahead of us, while the rest stagnates? Could it be that the section that pulls ahead has inside them, an ideology of struggle imbued? That perhaps the response to the Toynbeean challenge within that section of society left behind has not been adequate.
Some comments:
Anonymous said...
It's not ok to accept disparity and social injustices. The other side may think it unjust to continue the NEP? No. It's unjust not to continue it. They already have so much wealth. They should accept NEP if they expect a true Bangsa Malaysia to emerge.
Maybe the response to the challenge within that society is inadequate. But everybody knows that our community has a shorter history, and whatever comes with it, than the others. This is no excuse to be lackadaisical. But let's be fair to ourselves. We have tried, our kind.
Let's be realistic and admit we cannot compete at par. We need the NEP.
Anonymous said...
Sdr Kuldeep
Apa kah sdr fikir Melayu boleh capai tahap kekayaan dan kebolehan berniaga hampir dengan Cina? Secrara realistik nya?
Bukan kah sejengkal Melayu maju dalam perniagaan, Cina akan maju 3-4 jengkal?
kuldeep said...
Of course Malays can be as good or even better than the non Malays...we fail only because we as a group are not sincere and forget that we hv to struggle to succeed
We fail because we don't trust each other..do not network nor strive to develop our own "supply chain" but prefer the easy way to get things done.
If u want Malay success stories all of us can contribute by naming a few...I can cite Mazlan of MMVitaoils...and Dahlan the chocolate King.Can u name a few?
Lets begin to appreciate our own ppl and try to replicate their success.
Anonymous said...
kuldeep
You yourself said we fail because: we are not sincere .. forget to struggle .. don't trust one another .. do not network .. do not develop our own supply chain .. prefer the easy way .. new leadership new cronies will destroy .. opportunities not given to the right people .. etc, etc.
Do you think these, many of which are manifestations of Malay racial characteristics, will disappear in time to come? Early enough for us to catch up or at least be near the Chinese economically? I don't think so.
kuldeep said...
no sir...these are not characteristics of the real malay...its the tendencies of the opportunistic few who became successful peddling their knowwho..
Mazlan and Dahlan >> they succeed thru knowledge,creativity and focussed business sense...and they are building malay networks and supply chains...and they are competitive.
And my own two sen...
kuldeep,
i hear you and i agree 100% your views! Malays need not regard themselves as somehow inadequate. There is no such genetic trait as inadequacy in any race!
Affirmative action is fine, but there must be a deadline for the objectives to be achieved. And the primary objective must be to develop competence, competitiveness and human capital. Otherwise the affirmative action programmes will just be an endless series of free lunches.
Dato Sak, this is a good question:
"Could it be that the section that pulls ahead has inside them, an ideology of struggle imbued?"
I say no. CIRCUMSTANCES force people to respond.
Let's not forget that the first chinese immigrants here were the underclass. Most had no money, all had no rights of citizenship. As such they were extremely vulnerable segment of society. And they still had to find a way to survive despite the odds. if the chinese are economically dominant today, it is despite the difficulties they faced.
My own family is a good case study on how circumstances mould our responses.
As i had said, my uncle was given preference, privileges and protection all his life. and he turned out an utter failure in the end.
His sister, my mum, was treated as something of a maid of the family. My dad was abandoned and had to start working at age 5 to earn his keep.
They both worked their way up in life and was able to give us kids a comfortable middle-class life.
So Dato Sak, there is no such thing as cultural makeup at the genetic level. Individual responses to circumstances will determine the characteristics of a culture. If enough people respond in a certain way, then a culture is created.
As you have said, the desire to succeed cannot be legislated. That's why i proposed the concept of keagungan Melayu. because when enough Malays succeed in their pursuit of personal eminence, a culture of eminence will emerge.
kuldeep has a valid point about this when he mentioned Mazlan and Dahlan. They succeeded not with know-who but with know-how, anchored in their own personal eminence.
Look at these Malay economic heroes. Learn their traits. Emulate their success. Invite them to conduct trainings. Ask them to mentor new entrepreneurs.
This way, the Malays will no longer need the NEP in 20 years. They WILL control their fair share of the economy. And they would have done it by themselves, competing on equal footing.
Salam hormat, Dato
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