A Cool Saturday

The rain this morning was indeed cooling and comforting after the awful heat of Thursday and Friday. On Thursday when I entered my car that had been parked for about half a day, the temperature reading was 39ºC. I guessed not a very uncommon reading nowadays. It is only May and we haven't really reached the peak of the dry season yet. I just wonder how hot it will be in July and August, what with the El Nino expected to cause a lot of weather havoc. Hopefully Selangor will not have to go through water rationing again. Somehow I am apprehensive about believing that the water problems will not happen again.

My two cats are lazily stretching on their favourite ports, Mickey on the boxes that I have arranged with at least two layers of blankets outside on the porch and Tam on the boxes filled with books that I had topped with about one inch of old newspapers near the front door. They keep changing places though. After sometime Mickey jumped up on the top of the book shelves and Tam moved to Mickey's spot. Later again Mickey went upstairs to his favourite perch on top of my boxes of odds and ends. However not before he stopped a few minutes in front of Comot's cage, hissing and growling to intimidate the kitten. Comot is the little orphan kitten I am rescuing and finding a home for later on. After a little while Tam too went upstairs to perform her own daily inspection of Comot.

Even if  she is just about seven months old herself, Tam is rather cool with her scrutiny of the little kitten.  She doesn't hiss or growl anymore when Comot is near. She sits in front of the cage staring at Comot for a while. Then she jumps up on top of the cage and looks down on Comot, almost inviting her to play together, even if Comot is inside the cage. Actually that was Mickey did when Tam was in the cage, during the first few weeks that I took her in.

What is this Comot kitten
doing in my cage?

Let me see you kitten.
Are you scared of me?

May be I can see her better
from up here.

Yeah, I can see you clearly
now. No wonder wan nyah
called you Comot. Your fur
is comot in colour.

Nowadays, on days that I do not have my physiotherapy session, part of my morning will be spent scanning and reading through some of the local socio-political blogs. I think I have become a little addicted to them. Among my favourites are Syed Outside The Box, The Scribe A.Kadir Jasin, Aspan Alias, Din Merican, Helen Ang, Apanama, Articulation, No Holds Barred RPK, Kassim Ahmad, Rantings by MM and of course the well known Rocky's Bru by the veteran Ahiruddin Attan. Articulation has stopped writing for quite some time, I don't know why and Rocky has gone riding to the Middle East I heard and has put blogging on hold for a while I supposed.

It is while reading these blogs that I came across the writings of the famous Mariam Mokhtar, the columnist, as far as I know, for the Malaysiakini and Free Malaysia Today portals. I think Ms Mariam is very clear, analytical and articulate in her writings and she commands the English language very very comfortably. I make a point of reading all her articles even though I do not agree with many of her ideas. On the other hand, many of her points I think are truthful and spot-on. I myself very much believed that being truthful to the the reality of our situation is of paramount importance  if we are sincere about improving ourselves. If we cannot be truthful to ourselves, the majority of the Malays as a community will always be lagging behind. We can be in self-denial mode, but sooner or later reality will catch up with us.

Pasted below are two of Mariam's articles, the first of which appeared in Malaysiakini in early 2010 and the other in Free Malaysia Today in late 2013.

Malays are their own worst enemy

Mariam Mokhtar,  Feb 18, 10

A new year, a new beginning. Or so it should be, except many Malays prefer to cling on to their old world, where nothing changes and where they are the only victors.They are duped into the government’s “social engineering” drive which gives preference to only one race. Like it or not, the ordinary Malay is the most oppressed in the country.

The Malays who claim supremacy call the shots. The ordinary Malay hopes one day to call the shots too, but the reality is that most of them never will. Malays suffer from crab mentality.

Why, and for how long, should we continue with these exclusive ‘Malay rights’? God gave us natural talents and ability, coupled with a brain with which to shape our own destiny.

Instead, we conjured ways to avoid making full use of available opportunities. A muscle that lacks exercise becomes weak.

Rising to the challenge

In a similar fashion, we’ll waste away because we lack motivation and aspiration. We are spoon-fed and breed generations of Malays blaming other races for our under-achievements.

We repeatedly gravitate to the stereotypical image of ‘laid-back civil servant Malays corrupted by hard-working, business driven, money worshipping Chinese’. How about rising to the challenge?

The pioneering spirit of our forefathers which took them to northern Australia, the Cocos Islands, and South Africa to establish colonies is lost.

Being ‘bumiputras’ is like scoring an own-goal. It transformed us into close-minded people.

Instead of the world being our oyster, we seek refuge under the tempurung (coconut shell). We adopt the parochial, rather than a global outlook.

We are junkies, addicted to the ganja of NEPs and the like. We become violent when we are denied our fix.

The government acts as a dealer and uses it to control or subjugate the masses.

We are ‘conditioned’ to depend on government hand-outs, accept government inspired platitudes, and told ‘to stop other races gaining the upper hand lest they overpower us and sell our country to the foreigners’.

Ironically, little bits of Malaysia have literally been sold to Singapore to increase the island-state’s lucrative land reclamation and development projects.

Who were the perpetrators of this illegal sale and smuggling of sand? Low-level Malay officials.

Persecution complex

Sadly, we swopped an enquiring mind for a persecution complex. We remain in denial, and exude self-pity. Being cocooned in our self-importance limits progress.

Moreover, our extreme sensitivity to criticism restricts growth. Adopting discriminatory Malay/bumi rights is like a community that practices in-breeding; defects are pronounced.

Malays wonder why they should work; they want riches obtainable with little effort. Rather than being productive, they get lazy.

It is similar reasoning that drives millions in Britain to depend on welfare aid, rather than work; where girls deliberately get pregnant because as a single mother, they are first in the queue for a free council house. Privileged bumi rights eroded our self-respect.

We must dispense with preferential treatment in education, jobs, banking, housing, etcetera.

Would your child learn to tidy his room if the maid cleans it for him? If you complete his schoolwork, he gets top marks but is eventually ‘exposed’ when he fails his examinations.

This dependence is wrong. It is like undergoing a nose job. The reflection may be good, but it is not the ‘real’ you.

You may be proud of your cute retrousse nose, but the truth will be revealed when you give birth to a child with an enormous conk – if the genetic trait of bulbous noses runs in your family.

The NEP and other perks, is like the surgeon with the knife. He shapes you into what you desire, but he can’t alter what you really are. Isn’t it better to capitalise on what you have? It’s all a question of attitude.

Misplaced pride

Modern Malays have misplaced pride. Their arrogance with Ketuanan Melayu and brandishing the keris look infantile and repulsive.

They show contempt of others by fire-bombing non-Muslim places of worship, and desecrating the cow’s head.

Will the Malays be able to shake-off their complacency? The political elite will not relinquish their share of the economic pie.

And as the Malay population increases, the proletariat will each have a smaller share of the pie, thus the poor will become poorer.

That is why we see increasing numbers of dirt-poor Malays.

Many have finally realised that they are a pawn in the political machinations. They are aggrieved that the politicians are destroying their children’s future.

Only last week, a friend told me that his son had applied for a job, for which he was well-qualified.

The job went to the son, of another Malay with political clout, who called-in a favour from the boss of the company. He was employed despite being unqualified.

Some Malays refuse to accept a vision of Malaysia for all Malaysians. They also undervalue the concept of earning respect.

The ethnic Malay believes he is a first-class citizen; the Chinese, Indians and other races are immigrants.

So are the few Malays who dare question Malay rights considered persona non-grata, perhaps?

Despite all the claims of supremacy, we fail to acknowledge that Malays constitute the highest percentage of drug addicts, divorce rates, incest, domestic abusers, abandoned babies, HIV/AIDs sufferers. These are nothing to be proud of.

If Malays want a united Malaysia, then they must boost their self-confidence.

You don’t need special privileges to succeed. And forget race-based politics – they only serve to divide and conquer.

For decades, we were brainwashed into thinking we were not good enough. Low self-confidence is self-destructive.

It manifests itself as negativity. Self-confident people are more positive and believe in themselves and their abilities.

They are successful and happier. Isn’t it time for a change so we can hold our heads up high in public and the wider world?

MARIAM MOKHTAR is a non-conformist traditionalist from Perak, a bucket chemist and an armchair eco-warrior. In ‘real–speak’, this translates into that she comes from Ipoh, values change but respects culture, is a petroleum chemist and also an environmental pollution-control scientist.

1 Malaysia but 2 Malays - Mariam Mokhtar

It is impossible to know what the hundreds of thousands of Malays truly want in the way of political reform. Most are reticent about presenting their real views. Others cannot articulate what they want without being emotional or illogical.

After being brainwashed by the likes of former prime minister Mahathir Mohamad (right) and other extremists, most Malays have no clue what constitutes a real democracy.

All they know is that they do not want to lose their exalted position.

Malays do not have the luxury of their own Tahrir Square and all that the Egyptian revolution represents.

When Mahathir warned the Malays that they would "lose their power" if Pakatan Rakyat were to come to power, he also labeled Pakatan leaders a bunch of self-serving, racist politicians.

The Malays were the target of Umno brainwashing. For the past 53 years, Umno frightened these Malays and then demoralised them.

They told the Malays that to vote Pakatan meant Malaysia would be "sold to the highest bidder". In the opinion of the Ketuanan Melayu brigade, Malaysia would be sold to the Chinese.

Mahathir told the Malays that the nation should be rightfully called Tanah Melayu, that the Malay is "tuan" and that the constitution accords Malays "special rights and privileges".

It is all about power. By exercising control over the Malay mind, the power is Umno's.

It doesn't matter if the message is from Mahathir, Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak, his deputy Muhyiddin Yassin, the Home Minister Hishamuddin Hussein or Ibrahim Ali (left) of Perkasa.

Blinkered minds

Malays are kept in a hopeless and continually pessimistic state. The ministers give the Malay populace a low quality education but they send their own children overseas to be educated.

The policy of placing the Malay language at the forefront of education in the 1970s was ostensibly designed to unite the peoples of Malaysia, but also to control the access to thought and information of the Malay.

By placing limits to learning another language well, the government effectively blinkered the mind of the Malay so that it would become insular and regressive. How many Malay books or publications challenge the intellect or expand the mind?

Local Malays are told about the evils of Western democracy. They are not taught to be critical or think creatively. They are kept in the Felda settlements or rural areas as vote banks. Government and blue-collar jobs are easily theirs.

The only reason Umno wants to perpetuate the NEP is to benefit themselves. Najib (left) may claim there is 1Malaysia, but in reality, there are 2Malays - the Umnoputra Malay and the ordinary Malay who make up the rakyat.

How convenient then to attack the non-Malay as the root cause of the poverty and problems inflicting the majority of Malays.

Children of the Umno warlords may have access to superb education, but many of these children turned feral because this is what easy money from their parents corrupt lifestyle, does to them. Malay kids grow up to treat mat rempits as heroes or bully non-Malay children. This is the mindset moulded by Mahathir

The Umnoputra adult goes drinking either in the KL clubs or abroad. He plays poker in his home with members of the judiciary or the police. He frequents casinos, for all night gambling sessions, when he is overseas.

At home, in Malaysia, he is the typical, hypocritical sanctimonious Malay/Muslim.

He toys around with women without getting into trouble whilst his lowly cousin, the ordinary Malay, is an easy target for the moral police. The ordinary Malay risks his life hiding from the khalwat squads by clinging onto ledges on high-rise buildings. If he is caught, he is fined, jailed and flogged.

In addition, can the ordinary Malay obtain licenses for big business? Can he buy expensive homes with big discounts? Will he have money to buy the shares that are allocated to Malays?

The answer to all the above is probably "no".

No real chance

How realistic is it for the ordinary Malay member of the rakyat to attempt to secure big projects worth several million ringgits?

Most of the small tenders (RM 500K-1 million or below) are transparent enough. However, there is no point in even trying for the "big ones", without political clout.

Last week, the advertising agency behind the award-winning "Malaysia, Truly Asia" tourism campaign charged that it withdrew a bid to renew its contract with the Tourism Ministry after being asked for bribes in exchange for the deal.

That is a serious allegation and sadly it is a true reflection of what happens in government tenders.

Malay friends of mine have found so many abuses in the tender system that they too, shun government contracts. Bribes are openly sought especially for the tenders worth millions of ringgits.

There is no point trying for tenders up to RM1 million as the people who will get them have already been selected. The ministry goes through the pretence of calling a meeting to 'discuss' tender requirements. It is all just a sham.

For tenders worth under RM10,000, a donation of a few thousand ringgits, to the ministry's "sports" body is often a requirement.

Recently, a friend who successfully won a bid to supply goods (worth up to RM80,000) to a ministry, was asked to discuss the finer details over lunch and was instructed to meet at a restaurant in KL. My colleague and his assistant ordered the set lunch at RM20 each.

The three people from the ministry ordered the most expensive items on the menu which cost RM250 each. The bill for a "supposed" work-lunch was RM800. And there was no discussion.

Perhaps this is where the junior officials cut their corrupt teeth before they progress to the bigger contracts where they fleece unsuspecting companies for bigger and more expensive items, and not just a lobster thermidor lunch.

Is this what Najib and Mahathir are proud of - a corruption of the Malay race where there are no morals, no pride and even less self-respect?

MARIAM MOKHTAR is a non-conformist traditionalist from Perak, a bucket chemist and an armchair eco-warrior. In 'real-speak', this translates into that she comes from Ipoh, values change but respects culture, is a petroleum chemist and also an environmental pollution-control scientist.