A common man, a simple aspiration.
General Elections is on March 8 2008. The coming general elections will be the 12th edition after 50 years of independence from the British administration. I felt very proud that a least we are still able to go to the election booth to cast our vote. But saddened me most is, after more than 50 years, we are more narrow minded then ever before. Increasingly, racial and religious issues are being used as fear factors to intimidate the voters to support racist agenda. Umno, MCA, and MIC will go around claiming that the are the champion of the Malay, Chinese, and Indian respectively. While the PAS will go around championing the causes of Islam.
In a coffeeshop in USJ, I was approached by a MCA member. He stated to me that, as a Chinese, I must continued to vote for MCA to ensure the Chinese are represented in the government, otherwise, the Chinese will lose out the opportunities. A fair statements ? But I beg to differ. First of all, I am not a citizen of China, I am Malaysian. In the first place, there is nothing for me to loose what I already don't have. To paraphrase one of our greatest judicial comedian, “I look like a Chinese, Sound like a Chinese, but I am a Malaysian”. So, on this score, I will vote for a candidate from a multi-racial political party.
The saddest part is, when race based political parties play dirty politics along the racial lines, there will always be narrow minded racists supporting the race based political parties for fear of losing their racial and religious dominant over other groups of Malaysians. Bit by bit, the country will be further divided, and national unity will forever be an illusive dream. The country will never be competitive and progressive, because all elected representative will be selfishly looking at narrow minded religious and racial agenda to sustain their political survival, instead of strategic agenda to unite Malaysians to achieve excellence and competitive spirits in the global market place.
Now, as a common man, I am not interested in electing politicians to champion the superiority of my race and religion. I am more interested in whether there are any true Malaysians standing as candidates to champion the universal human rights and the economic well beings of all Malaysians.
Putting racial issues aside, what are the issues concerned Malaysians the most ?
I still can not comprehend why we have to pay such a high petrol price even though Malaysia is a net exporter of petroleum. Petroleum are natural resources gifted by God to all Malaysians. To make the matter worst, almost all the major highways are privatized roads where Malaysians are asked to pay substantial toll charges. It is disheartening to note that Petronas is making RM 80 billion profits every year, and these revenues are not being allocated to bring down the cost of petrol, and to finance construction of toll free roads for the benefits of all Malaysians. For a start, why can't the present administration make used of the petronas revenue to de-privatize the toll roads and make it toll free for all Malaysians ?
I am a strong believer of quality tertiary education. The most sacred commitment a government can have towards education in this country should be the preservation of academic excellence at all costs. Universities are nurseries for producing the country's future talents and human capitals. The most talented and best students must be retained in our local universities. Likewise, the local universities must also ensure that the best lecturers and professors are engaged to train and teach these young brains. Of what benefits can the nation derive if unqualified and undeserving students are engineered into the local universities merely to derive political satisfaction of achieving higher number of graduates ? Instead of expanding the existing local universities capacities or building more universities to accommodate more numbers of unqualified students, perhaps it makes more sense to built more community colleges and voccasional colleges to prepare these unqualified student with better employable skills for the employment markets. The question we need to ask ourselves is, is it fair and economically justified to deny deserving students fair opportunities to tertiary education, while unqualified students are given scholarships and places in the local universities ? Let us not be euphorized by the political shouting of Malaysia Bolih. Our record speaks for itself. Our universities' ranking are the lowest in the world. Some of our universities are ranked even lower than Universities in Burma !
The barometer of racial tensions between races is slowly increasing to an alarming level. Malaysia is a country blessed with abundance natural resources, good whether and fertile land for agriculture, a strategic location in the global map, and a unique mixed of races. With slightly more than 10 million registered voters, the economic cake is big enough for everybody. Sad to note that, incompetent and corrupt politicians resorted to stir racial sentiments that each race's entitled wealths are being deprived by other races, and to strike fears into the minds of uneducated and racist voters to perpetuate racial politics to sustain their relevancy and stay of office. May 13 1967 is a classic case of racial bastards and pariahs stirring racial sentiments and instigations to cause great disharmony and pains to all Malaysians. May the souls of all these racial bastards forever rot in hell. Malaysians has to realize that, the enemies within are not between races, but corrupt and race based politics.
On the issues of religion freedom. Let us respect our supreme constitution which emphasized Malaysia being a secular nation, and the respect for freedom of religion for all Malaysians. It saddened me to see fanatics are trying to remove this fundamental fabric of secularism in Malaysia. My heart bleeds to see sacred places of worships are being demolished without due consideration to spiritual needs of the followers of the affected religions. It is also very disturbing to see churches are being located in shop lots within the hub of commercial activities. Malaysia has abundant land reserves, why can't the local authorities allocate lands and provide development fundings to these religions to built proper places of worships ?
I honestly hope that, the politicians who stand in this coming general elections are qualified, competent, and open minded individuals capable of understanding and managing economic issues, create environment of academic excellence, support equality of races, and respect freedom of religion. I sincerely hope we can all think and act as responsible Malaysians to refrain from supporting politicians who are only capable of shouting racial rhetorics, making rent seeking demands, and championing fanatical religious intolerances.
Be fair and play fair for a united Malaysia.
In a coffeeshop in USJ, I was approached by a MCA member. He stated to me that, as a Chinese, I must continued to vote for MCA to ensure the Chinese are represented in the government, otherwise, the Chinese will lose out the opportunities. A fair statements ? But I beg to differ. First of all, I am not a citizen of China, I am Malaysian. In the first place, there is nothing for me to loose what I already don't have. To paraphrase one of our greatest judicial comedian, “I look like a Chinese, Sound like a Chinese, but I am a Malaysian”. So, on this score, I will vote for a candidate from a multi-racial political party.
The saddest part is, when race based political parties play dirty politics along the racial lines, there will always be narrow minded racists supporting the race based political parties for fear of losing their racial and religious dominant over other groups of Malaysians. Bit by bit, the country will be further divided, and national unity will forever be an illusive dream. The country will never be competitive and progressive, because all elected representative will be selfishly looking at narrow minded religious and racial agenda to sustain their political survival, instead of strategic agenda to unite Malaysians to achieve excellence and competitive spirits in the global market place.
Now, as a common man, I am not interested in electing politicians to champion the superiority of my race and religion. I am more interested in whether there are any true Malaysians standing as candidates to champion the universal human rights and the economic well beings of all Malaysians.
Putting racial issues aside, what are the issues concerned Malaysians the most ?
I still can not comprehend why we have to pay such a high petrol price even though Malaysia is a net exporter of petroleum. Petroleum are natural resources gifted by God to all Malaysians. To make the matter worst, almost all the major highways are privatized roads where Malaysians are asked to pay substantial toll charges. It is disheartening to note that Petronas is making RM 80 billion profits every year, and these revenues are not being allocated to bring down the cost of petrol, and to finance construction of toll free roads for the benefits of all Malaysians. For a start, why can't the present administration make used of the petronas revenue to de-privatize the toll roads and make it toll free for all Malaysians ?
I am a strong believer of quality tertiary education. The most sacred commitment a government can have towards education in this country should be the preservation of academic excellence at all costs. Universities are nurseries for producing the country's future talents and human capitals. The most talented and best students must be retained in our local universities. Likewise, the local universities must also ensure that the best lecturers and professors are engaged to train and teach these young brains. Of what benefits can the nation derive if unqualified and undeserving students are engineered into the local universities merely to derive political satisfaction of achieving higher number of graduates ? Instead of expanding the existing local universities capacities or building more universities to accommodate more numbers of unqualified students, perhaps it makes more sense to built more community colleges and voccasional colleges to prepare these unqualified student with better employable skills for the employment markets. The question we need to ask ourselves is, is it fair and economically justified to deny deserving students fair opportunities to tertiary education, while unqualified students are given scholarships and places in the local universities ? Let us not be euphorized by the political shouting of Malaysia Bolih. Our record speaks for itself. Our universities' ranking are the lowest in the world. Some of our universities are ranked even lower than Universities in Burma !
The barometer of racial tensions between races is slowly increasing to an alarming level. Malaysia is a country blessed with abundance natural resources, good whether and fertile land for agriculture, a strategic location in the global map, and a unique mixed of races. With slightly more than 10 million registered voters, the economic cake is big enough for everybody. Sad to note that, incompetent and corrupt politicians resorted to stir racial sentiments that each race's entitled wealths are being deprived by other races, and to strike fears into the minds of uneducated and racist voters to perpetuate racial politics to sustain their relevancy and stay of office. May 13 1967 is a classic case of racial bastards and pariahs stirring racial sentiments and instigations to cause great disharmony and pains to all Malaysians. May the souls of all these racial bastards forever rot in hell. Malaysians has to realize that, the enemies within are not between races, but corrupt and race based politics.
On the issues of religion freedom. Let us respect our supreme constitution which emphasized Malaysia being a secular nation, and the respect for freedom of religion for all Malaysians. It saddened me to see fanatics are trying to remove this fundamental fabric of secularism in Malaysia. My heart bleeds to see sacred places of worships are being demolished without due consideration to spiritual needs of the followers of the affected religions. It is also very disturbing to see churches are being located in shop lots within the hub of commercial activities. Malaysia has abundant land reserves, why can't the local authorities allocate lands and provide development fundings to these religions to built proper places of worships ?
I honestly hope that, the politicians who stand in this coming general elections are qualified, competent, and open minded individuals capable of understanding and managing economic issues, create environment of academic excellence, support equality of races, and respect freedom of religion. I sincerely hope we can all think and act as responsible Malaysians to refrain from supporting politicians who are only capable of shouting racial rhetorics, making rent seeking demands, and championing fanatical religious intolerances.
Be fair and play fair for a united Malaysia.
2 comments:
I'm happy to see taiping, my hometown. good to know another blogger from my hometown. wish you all the best in your blogging
Good write!
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