MESRA? I don't think so!

This piece of news is just to precious to be true!

Could it be?

Truly?!

I never thought I would live to see the day that a project boasting this magnitude of sheer inexplicity be allowed to see the light of day....and paid for by YOU and ME!! I guess the entire government/academic/political leadership of Malaysia has finally completely fulfilled the Peter Principle.

Well, that's what you get for allowing the same old, same old to be artificially perpetuated: no competition = no need for improvement = less competence required = promotion of less than competent people. It makes on heartsick to see that this situation had been allowed to ferment in our country until we are now officially in the same league of rogue countries like Zimbabwe and North Korea.

But that's not my beef.

What really got my goat was the sheer myopia, racist thinking and commitment to status quo that this initiative represents! Let's take a walk through this latest Iniative by Big Brother BN! (My comments in red and brackets)

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Pilot project to measure racial harmony
("Measure" only, ah? Why not a project to enhance racial harmony? Better still, why not a project to eradicate all forms of racialism?!)

Wednesday, 17 June 2009

By Deborah Loh (The Nut Graph)

KUALA LUMPUR, 16 June 2009: A pilot project to measure racial harmony is underway in five places, with plans to roll out the research nationwide at the end of the year.

The Malaysian Ethnic Relations Monitoring System, known by its acronym Mesra (Will these ridiculous acronyms never end in Malaysia?!), was developed by Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia's Institute of Ethnic Studies (Kita) (No wonder none of our universities can see the backside of any world rankings - our top academics are only capable of dreaming up ridiculous projects like this!!!) and was launched on a pilot basis in February (Shoot! YOUR money and MY money have already been spent on this P.O.S. ka?!!).

The project's aim is to develop early-warning indicators to prevent potential racial clashes. (OK...assuming that there is REALLY such a thing as ethnic strife early warning indicators, what are the preventive measures? ISA? FRU?! UMNO Youth?!!)

Kita founding director Prof Datuk Dr Shamsul Amri Baharuddin said the five places were three around the Klang Valley, one in Sabah and one in Sarawak. (Klang Valley I can understand la, being the place most densely populated by the central leadership of UMNO/BN. But colour-blind East Malaysia?! I think if there's anything to be discovered about peaceful race-relations, we should learn from our saudara-saudari across the South China Sea!!!)

The research methodology includes use of a quality of life index and a perception index to gauge people's needs and feelings about race relations in their area.

Shamsul Amri said the quality of life index included criteria such as housing, health, income and education.

"Combined with the perception index, we can know who is getting what, who is not getting what, and what are the points of differentiation between different ethnic groups," he told reporters at a Kita public forum on race relations today.

"By mapping people's quality of life and their perceptions, hopefully we can see what is making people really unhappy."

(This is the MAJOR P.O.S. reasoning behind this P.O.S. initiative by a loser has-been, and paid for by YOU and ME!!! I'll come back to this later...let me finish venting first! )

Shamsul Amri said Kita hoped to conduct similar research projects in more places by the end of the year with the help of the National Unity Department's officers in these areas.

(OH...MY...GAAWWDDD!!! Even MORE of YOURS and MY money is going to be squandered on this P.O.S. "research project"?! Is this some kind of Blue Ocean Strategy to milk even more of the rakyat's money?!! What? The PKFZ dried up the pot for the rest of you guys izzit? Or is Gerakan being inspired by MCA's creativity in that project and is now busy creating their own piece of the pie??!!)

Koh

The public forum was launched by Minister in the Prime Minister's Department in charge of unity, Tan Sri Dr Koh Tsu Koon, who said the government would support Kita's endeavour as it was in line with the implementation of the 1Malaysia concept.

"The Mesra project will contribute to the empowerment of 1Malaysia. (Yes...this must be what 1Malaysia is all about - STUPID, WASTEFUL P.O.S. NONSENSE masquerading as government projects!! Wait! That's UMNO/BN has ALWAYS been about, isn't it? So...what's new la?!!) At policy level, the government does not want any race to be marginalised. But at local level, we must be able to implement this. (Why "any race", why not "anyONE"??!!! See? These fellas don't care about people - all they care about is RACE!!!)

"Had we known about the living conditions and about the inter-racial relationships in a place like Kampung Medan, we could have taken preventive measures to avoid the racial clash there," Koh said, referring to the riots in a poor residential area along Jalan Klang Lama in 2001. (Does anyone know the living conditions there today? I'm a regular around that area and I can tell you, aside from moving the Kampung Medan squatters into cramped multi-storey concrete boxes, nothing much else has improved! Oh...except that the land vacated by the squatters is now being used to build a high-end mega commercial district! Wonder how all those racially-tensioned, low-income earners are going to benefit from that?!)

Koh said measurements or indicators that could help predict potential clashes were needed, as currently, a simplistic picture of race relations was obtained through the number of police reports on inter-ethnic fights.

Read more at: http://www.thenutgraph.com/pilot-project-to-measure-racial-harmony

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OK, here's what I'm so upset about...

"Koh said measurements or indicators that could help predict potential clashes were needed, as currently, a simplistic picture of race relations was obtained through the number of police reports on inter-ethnic fights."

Right, the government admits that there is racial tension in the country. It is also bad enough to warrant serious attention, as there are racial clashes happening around the country at about a rate of 3 per day (these figures are for reported cases only).

So, what's the solution? Eliminate divisive policies? Encourage inclusive policies? Initiate dialogues to foster understanding? Ban racial rhetoric and references?

No...this is 1Malaysia after all. What is 1Malaysia without race?

No...none of those. The solution is...MESRA!

After all the rakyat had been saying to the gomen about race relations through blogs, kopitiam talk and the ballot box, all they can come out with is this lame "research project". And just what is so wrong with it? Let's think this through step-by-step:

"The research methodology includes use of a quality of life index and a perception index to gauge people's needs and feelings about race relations in their area."

So...first things first - how are you going to collect the data?

a) Set up a research centre in these areas? You mean the gomen is actually going to PAY people to sit in a cushy office whose job description is to yak with anyone who wanders in about how their day has been? How pissed off they are with their neighbour of a different race? How they're not "getting the love" from the gomen?

For God's sake!! How many people got the time and affinity to walk into a (gomen) "research centre" and voice their deepest racist grouses to a total stranger - who works for the gomen?

Sheesh!!

b) Gestapo tactics? Secretly recruit members of the community so that they can infiltrate homes and community centres to spy...ooops! I mean "gauge" the feelings and opinions of the public? Shudder the thought!!

c) Set up comprehensive surveillance? Set up cameras in every nook and cranny? Install wire taps in the local Telekom exchange? Send snoop squads into these areas? All in the name of gauging public sentiment, of course!!

As we can see, this whole idea is ridiculous and unexecutionable from the start!! Unless the gomen seriously considering option (b) & (c) la. Come to think of it, that's not impossible as they open up more possible ways for money to "disappear"!!

Shamsul Amri said the quality of life index included criteria such as housing, health, income and education.

This statement begs the question: what has quality of life got to do with race relations?!! But, AH...the following statement enlightens!

"Combined with the perception index, we can know who is getting what, who is not getting what, and what are the points of differentiation between different ethnic groups," he told reporters at a Kita public forum on race relations today.

"By mapping people's quality of life and their perceptions, hopefully we can see what is making people really unhappy."

Ah...so! Our learnerd Professor presents us with the assumptions on which this "preventing ethnic clash early warning system" is based on!

a) Racial tension is a result of "perception".

So inversely, by correcting the "perception" of the people, there will be no racial tension la! Woh...so easy ka? So how you gonna do change people's perception in time to avert an imminent racial clash? Well, the concept of Thought Police comes to mind fairly immediately. Of course, the the concept of Though Police (or Secret Police) is nothing new in Malaysia, is it?

b) Racial clashes is a result of certain groups getting or not getting enough from the gomen.

So apart from rounding up and brainwashing the possible insurgents and rabble-rousers not to cause trouble, the gomen's response is to tweak the tap open a bit more? Give out just enough goodies to lull the "unhappy people" back into peaceful thoughts again? Hmmm...interesting way of handling race relations in this country, no?

c) Racial tension is a result of differences between ethnic groups.

So...ka? Then what about inter-racial marriages? By the good Prof's line of reasoning, those must be hellpits of constant hand-to-hand battles then! RIDICULOUS!! Wonder how this guy became professor la - he's a gomen appointee with an honorary doctorate given to, is it?

The reason why races hate each other is because community and political leaders play up and emphasise the myth of racial differences so much until it seems irreconciliable.

Eh...but we can't address THAT issue now can we? Because THAT is the BN's bread-and-butter! Without UMNO's alleged "Malays under threat from the Chinese",MCA's alleged "protecting Chinese rights from being encroached", and the MIC's alleged "the Indians are being screwed over by everyone else" platforms, the BN would collapse. So the BN's racist sandiwara goes on and on and on...

I don't know about you la, but when I read this crap...I got an overwhelming sense of a good deal of hoohaa to preserve the racial status quo. It's all just sleight of hand.

Because amidst all of this high-falutin talk research of early intervention, etc. why is there no talk of healing the racial strife? Fostering understanding and acceptance between races? Promoting colour-blindness in public and private spheres? Treating ALL citizens honourably as Malaysians?

But there is lots of talk about "who's not getting what", "whose perception is what", and "which race is different in wchich ways" - it's the same old BN crap we've been forced to endure for years. And despite the apparent "progress" by our Hon. Sen. Koh, so-called Minister of Unity, this whole exercise is nothing more than another massive money-losing "projek kerajaan BN".

For all his enthusiasm in endorsing this, it's obvious that Sen. Koh either didn't think this through or was not allowed to do so - either way, it's a stupid idea. perhaps he and his Ministry need to have their own set of KPI to check any more such stupid ideas from being inglicted upon the long-suffering Malaysian public.

Eh...if anyone in power is serious about improving race relations ah, here's an idea (I won't even charge any "CON"sultation fees): tell all the BN component parties to shut up about race issues and start talking about citizen issues. In fact, disband all the BN's race-based parties and ban all race-based organisation in the land! Now THAT would be a revolutionary step in the right direction!!