Tanah Rezab Melayu di bandar semakin hilang, kata Ku Li

Tanah Rezab Melayu di bandar semakin hilang, kata Ku Li
Muda Mohd Noor
Sep 23, 06 Malaysiakini

Bekas Menteri Kewangan, Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah berkata sedikit demi sedikit tanah rezab Melayu di kawasan bandar dibatalkan statusnya tanpa sebarang gantian.

“Sekalipun perlembagaan negara menuntut mereka yang berkuasa berbuat demikian (menggantikanya), namun tuntutan ini semakin tidak dihiraukan. Semuanya atas nama pembangunan,” kata dalam syarahan perdana di majlis dialog Kongres Kepentingan Bangsa peringkat Wilayah Persekutuan semalam

Katanya, dulu pembangunan negara dilihat sbagai dokumen mulia yang mesti dipatuhi dan ia menjadi dokumen kontrak sosial yang menjadi bentang terakhir kepada perjuangan orang Melayu.

“Kini ramai yang melihatnya sebagai bebanan yang menyusahkan. Sebab itulah walaupun perlembagaan kita menjelaskan seiap anak Melayu dan Bumiputera yang ingin belajar setinggi-tingginya berhak mendapat biasiswa.

“Kita sendiri menganggap ini adalah tuntutan yang menyusahkan dan tidak munasabah, sedangkan ini hak kita yang tak sepatutnya dipertikaikan oleh sesiapa,” tegasnya.

Majlis yang berlangsung di ibukota semalam dianjurkan oleh Sekretariat Kongres Kepentingan Bangsa dengan kerjasama Persatuan Peniaga dan Penjaja Kecil Melayu Wilayah Persekutuan. Ia dihadiri kira-kira 300 orang.

Tiga ahli penal majlis dialog tersebut ialah bekas Pengarah Institut Teknologi Mara, Tan Sri Dr Arshard Ayub, Tan Sri Basir Ismail dan bekas Ketua Pengarah Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka (DBP), Datuk Dr Hassan Ahmad.

Perbandarkan Melayu
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Mereka membicarakan mengenai masa depan ekonomi, pendidikan dan sosiao budaya bangsa Melayu:antara impian, realiti, status quo dan reformasi.

Tengku Razaleigh juga berkata, sasaran 30 peratus pencapaian Melayu dalam semua bidang telah gagal dicapai dan bangsa Melayu kini semakin jauh kebelakang.

“Bangsa lain semakin jauh ke depan dan jumlahnya boleh menelan kita pada bila-bila masa. Sekiranya landasan sosial, ekonomi dan politik kita berada pada asas yang rapuh, kita boleh dimusnahkan pada bila-bila masa.

“Dulu kita ghairah bercakap tentang pencapaian 30 peratus penglibatan Melayu dalam semua bidang. Kini sasaran ini telah gagal, tetapi tidak ada sasaran baru yang hendak dituju. Bahkan tidak banyak lagi suara yang bercakap mengenai apa-apa sasaran” katanya dalam syarahan perdana di majlis dialog Kongres Kepentingan Bangsa peringkat Wilayah Persekutuan semalam.

“Benar, jumlah anak-anak Melayu dalam bidang profesional dan usahawan semakin meningkat, tetapi hakikatnya kita semakin jauh kebelakang. Bangsa lain semakin jauh ke depan dan jumlahnya boleh menelan kita pada bila-bila masa.

“Kerana itu kita mahu satu sasaran baru untuk orang Melayu..berapa ramaikah jurutera dan doktor Melayu dalam tempoh lima tahun akan datang,” kata Tengku Razaleigh.

Beliau berkata, tiada jalan singkat untuk mengangkat mertabat bangsa Melayu kerana pelbagai sebab seperti amalan rasuah, menjual kontrak dan menjual baja subsidi, pukat dan enjin nelayan.

Melayu Pulau Pinang

Katanya, jika amalan ini tidak dikikis di kalangan orang Melayu, maka yang akan menghancurkan orang Melayu adalah bangsa mereka sendiri.

Tengku Razaleigh juga mencadangkan supaya dikaji semula program membandarkan orang Melayu dengan cara mengajak mereka secara beramai-ramai datang ke Kuala Lumpur.

Beliau berkata, membandarkan orang Melayu bukan sekadar untuk meletak mereka di pinggiran dan hidup sebagai buruh murah.

“Kemiskinan Melayu di Pulau Pinang adalah isu lama tetapi dinyanyikan semula dan kita dengan mudah menyalahkan pucuk pimpinan kerajaan negeri kerana ia bukan Melayu.

“Namun, suara Melayu tidak kurangnya. Kenapa suara itu tidak cukup lantang? Atau kita sudah ketandusan idea dalam menghadapi kemelut kemunduran orang Melayu yang tidak dapat diselesaikan,” katanya lagi.

Tengku Razaleigh berkata, sedikit demi sedikit tanah rezab Melayu di bandar dibatalkan statusnya tanpa sebarang gantian walaupun perlembagaan negara menuntut supaya tanah-tanah diganti semula.

Katanya, perlembagaan negara merupakan satu kontrak sosial yang menjadi benteng terakhir kepada perjuangan orang Melayu tetapi kini ramai yang menganggapnya sebagai bebanan.

Pemimpin Melayu tidak berkualiti?

Pemimpin Melayu tidak berkualiti?
Muda Mohd noor
Sep 23, 06 Malaysiakini

Bekas Ketua Pengarah Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka (DEB), Datuk Dr Hassan Ahmad berkata ramai yang beranggapan bahawa kuasa politik orang Melayu masih kuat, tetapi pada hakikat sebenarnya ia semakin lemah.

Katanya, ianya berlaku kerana orang Melayu tidak bersatu dalam politik kerana mereka yang tidak sealiran akan dianggap sebagai musuh.

“Orang Umno kata orang PAS musuh dan sebaliknya. Jika orang yang menyertai parti alternatif juga dianggap musuh,” tambahnya.

Menurutnya, kelemahan orang Melayu ialah pemimpin mereka termasuk alim ulama tidak berkualiti dalam bidang bidang, termasuk ekonomi, politik dan pendidikan.

Mengenai ekonomi, Dr Hassan berkata dasar penswastaan kerajaan yang bertujuan untuk melatih orang Melayu dalam bidang pengurusan ekonomi gagal kerana kerajaan melantik mereka yang tidak berkemampuan untuk melaksanakannya.

Menurutnya, sebahagian besar mereka yang menggerakkan dasar penswastaan adalah orang Melayu.

Diejek bangsa sendiri

“Akibat daripada kegagalan tersebut mereka telah diejek oleh orang Melayu sendiri. Orang Melayu tidak percaya kepada bangsa mereka sendiri,” katanya ketika menyampaikan ucapan dalam majlis dialog Kongres Kepentingan Bangsa peringkat Wilayah Persekutuan di ibu negara semalam.

Dua lagi anggota panel adalah bekas Pengarah Institut Teknologi Mara (ITM), Tan Sri Dr Arshard Ayub dan bekas Pengerusi Malaysia Airports Holding Berhad (MAB) Tan Sri Basir Ismail.

Dr Hassan berkata, dasar penswastaan yang diperkenalkan pada awal 80-an oleh bekas Perdana Menteri Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad adalah untuk menggantikan Dasar Ekonomi Baru (DEB) yang bertujuan untuk menyusun semula ekonomi khususnya membantu orang Melayu.

“Tetapi apa yang berlaku kepada dasar itu? DEB sendiri tidak menguntungkan orang Melayu,” katanya lagi.

Sementara itu, Basir berkata, identiti Melayu sudah ditukar menjadi bumiputera tetapi tidak ada pihak yang mempedulikannya.

Katanya, penukaran istilah tersebut adalah salah kerana orang Melayu dan bumiputera adalah berbeza.

“Apakah orang Melayu sama dengan kaum minoriti di Sabah dan Sarawak? Oleh itu kita kena jaga masyarakat kita. Kalau kita tidak menjaganya, apa akan terjadi kepada negara kita pada masa akan datang,” katanya.

Istilah Melayu

Menurutnya, bekas Perdana Menteri Tun Abdul Razak Hussein tidak menukar istilah Melayu menjadi bumiputera apabila beliau memperkenalkan DEB pada 1970.

“Tetapi dalam buku Rancangan Malaysia Kesembilan (RMK9) tidak ada satupun istilah Melayu...semuanya menjadi bumiputera,” tambahnya.

Arshard pula menggesa supaya kerajaan mengkaji semula dasar pendidikan dengan mengadakan lebih banyak kursus kemahiran dan vokesional.

Beliau berkata, ini kerana orang Melayu masih memandang kepada ijazah dan bukannya kemahiran yang mereka perolehi dari pusat pengajian tinggi.

“Jangan hanya memikirkan untuk memasuki universiti sahaja. Adakah orang yang kelulusannya lebih rendah mahu memasuki universiti juga?

“Saya mencadangkan anak-anak muda yang gagal memasuki universiti mencari kemahiran dan bekerja dalam bidang itu,” katanya.

Mahathir: LKY 'arrogant and not very clever'

Mahathir: LKY 'arrogant and not very clever'

Sep 23, 06 Malaysiakini

Former premier Dr Mahathir Mohamad rained criticism on Singapore’s Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew, whom he said has been marginalised by the Chinese around the world.

Mahathir, who shared anything but a rosy relationship with the former Singapore premier during his 22-year tenure, described Lee as “arrogant and not very clever”.

According to Bernama, he was responding to Lee’s recent remark that the Chinese in Malaysia and Indonesia had been systematically marginalised.

The 81-year-old former premier said the 83-year-old statesman had no respect for his neighbours.

“He (Lee) thinks he is strong, he has become arrogant and he does not bother about his neighbours. That is why he raised the issue (of marginalisation) knowing it is a sensitive issue,” he told reporters after a function in Terengganu yesterday.

Singapore’s former premier ruffled feathers when he claimed that Malaysia and Indonesia had problems with the Chinese because the community was successful through hard work.

Malays in Singapore

Continuing his attack, Mahathir said Malaysia could also ask why the Malays in Singapore were marginalised.

“We can also ask what is the status of Malays in Singapore, why are they not allowed to carry arms in the army or be provided with firearms training. Why are Malays in Malaysia so skilled in the military field but in Singapore, they cannot hold high positions?

“Why are the Malays marginalised to the point that they have no standing at all. This is done deliberately by Singapore. No other country does this,” he added.

In Malaysia, Mahathir said Chinese officers in the army could reach high ranks.

“The Chinese here can hold positions such as General, Major-General and so forth. But (what about) the Malays in Singapore, what is their per capita income compared to the Chinese there.

“Have an independent inquiry, why are the Malays being left behind in Singapore. Not that they are any less than the Malays in Malaysia but they are pressured, marginalised and victimised. That is the government formed on the views of Lee Kuan Yew,” he added.

Mahathir had also criticised the minister mentor in his speech earlier.

“You (Lee) take care of your own rice bowl. You are not clever. In a small group, you may look clever. (But) when he goes to China. The Chinese there don’t listen (to him).

The Chinese don’t respect him because he has been marginalised by the Chinese around the world,” he said.

Study: 30% bumi equity target exceeded

Study: 30% bumi equity target exceeded
Andrew Ong
Sep 23, 06

The New Economic Policy (NEP) target of 30 percent bumiputera corporate equity ownership has been well exceeded but the method is an inefficient barometer of Malay wealth, suggested a new study.

The study, by the Asian Strategy and Leadership Institute (Asli), estimated that the rightful figure should be around 45 percent, when based on September 2005 Bursa Malaysia figures.

In making that estimation, the study - titled 'Corporate Equity Distribution: Past Trends and Future Policy' - estimated that 70 percent ownership of government-linked companies (GLCs) was attributable to bumiputeras.

Based on a 2005 report by UBS Equity Research Malaysia, the study said GLCs made up about one-third of total market value at the time.

Met recently, Asli’s Centre for Public Policy Studies director Dr Lim Teck Ghee said from the UBS report, the top-10 GLCs alone - which include Tenaga Nasional, Telekom Malaysia, Maybank Bhd - roughly made up around one-third of the market value in 2005.

Asked to substantiate the 70 percent estimation, he said: “Our study was established based on the best available information and informed opinion. The government does not make data available easily (to the public).”

Wrong priorities

According to Lim, Asli’s study was aimed at providing updated facts to support the argument that the NEP’s 30-percent target had been achieved.

“I and many other experts believe that the 30 percent bumiputera corporate equity requirement should either be removed or reformed,” he said.

“Firstly, it was part of the larger NEP programme which was supposed to end in 1990. It is now more than 15 years.

“The NEP programme has already long achieved its objective of nurturing a dynamic Malay business community and strong Malay wealthy and middle class,” he added.

Lim warned that if such ‘crutches’ continued, it would only encourage rent-seeking and induce other distortions and inefficiencies that would hurt our national interests.

Instead of encouraging race-based corporate equity ownership, he said it would be better if the government encouraged efficiency, competition and productivity of our economy.

Transparency needed

In view of the study’s findings, Lim hoped the government would exercise more transparency and publicise the methodology used by the government in providing its own figures.

Asli’s proposal was published in February this year meant for various government agencies, but it was also distributed to various groups including a number of members of parliament.

The NEP was born after the 1969 racial riots and was aimed at bridging socio-economic disparities between the races.

The Ninth Malaysia Plan had revised yet again the 30 percent target until the year 2020, and stated that between 2000 and 2004, bumiputera equity ownership remained stagnant at 18.9 percent.

DAP agrees with LKY, slams BN leaders

DAP agrees with LKY, slams BN leaders

Sep 23, 06

Politics of denial!

This is how opposition party DAP views the objection raised by Barisan Nasional (BN) leaders to Singapore Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew’s claim that Chinese Malaysians are marginalised.

DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng expressed ‘disgust’ with MCA president Ong Ka Ting and Gerakan top leaders Dr Lim Keng Yaik and Dr Koh Tsu Koon for denying an ‘obvious fact’.

“... The Chinese and other non-Chinese have been systematically marginalised by discriminatory government policies that only favour the rich and politically connected,” he said in a statement today.

“Such politics of denial is dishonest as BN leaders themselves have stated that discriminatory policies such as quotas and the New Economic Policy (NEP) are necessary for racial harmony and national stability,” he added.

He said as long as BN leaders, including former premier Dr Mahathir Mohamad, cannot rely on reason, facts and logic to disprove Lee’s claim, then “their emotional denials are like empty vessels making the most noise to cover up the politics of Umno dominance and discrimination.”

Perverse logic

The DAP leader also took Koh to task for saying that the minister mentor did not understand and appreciate the challenges in administering a country bigger, more complicated and diverse than Singapore.

“This is perverse logic. If so, then can we support the apartheid policies of South Africa in the 1980s just because South Africa is bigger, more diverse and complicated than Malaysia?

“How can Koh (who is also Penang chief minister) be so thick skin to say the Chinese are not compliant when he was compliant towards Umno by not daring to even respond to the attacks by Penang Umno Youth leaders who humiliated him publicly with demonstrations and banners?” he asked.

Lim then trained his crosshairs on the MCA president, who argued that it was unfair and subjective to say the Chinese in Malaysia are marginalised because any injustices will be resolved by MCA.

“If that is the case, why is it that in cabinet, four MCA ministers could not convince but had to submit and bow to one Education Minister Hishammuddin Hussein?” he asked.

He was referring to Hishammuddin’s public admonishing of Deputy Higher Education Minister and MCA vice-president Ong Tee Keat over a disclosure that Education Ministry officials had allegedly pocketed funds meant for vernacular schools.

Tee Keat was also reprimanded by the cabinet for his action.

“(What is) worse, Ong has not explained why he supported the Ninth Malaysia Plan’s refusal to build a single Chinese or Tamil school out of the 180 new primary schools proposed,” he added.

'Selfish acts'

As for Keng Yaik’s statement that the “Chinese here will not follow and listen to what he says”, Lim said it reflected how out of touch BN leaders are with the feelings of ordinary Malaysians.

At a press conference yesterday, Keng Yaik, who is Gerakan president, urged journalists to report that what Lee had said “was wrong, wrong.”

Meanwhile, Lim described the ‘false denials’ by BN’s Chinese leaders as ‘selfish and politically motivated’ to enable them to cling on to their government posts.

Lee ruffled feathers recently when he said that the Chinese in Malaysia and Indonesia have been systematically marginalised.

He said this was because Malaysia and Indonesia had problems with the Chinese because the community was successful through their hard work.

“In fact, Lee is half right in that it is not only the Chinese who are marginalised. The Indians and poor Malays are also marginalised,” said the DAP secretary-general.

Malaysia: Challenges facing a multicultural society

Challenges facing a multicultural society
By Maznah Mohamad

The Straits Times
Publication Date: 23-09-2006


Malaysian society is now gripped by a fundamental question: Is the country, which is more than half Muslim, an Islamic state? In practice, various religious and ethnic groups give Malaysia a distinctly multicultural character. But the Malaysian Constitution provides room for arguments on both sides of the question, and the relatively secular status quo is facing a serious challenge.

Drafted by a group of experts in 1957, under the auspices of the country's former British rulers, the Constitution includes two seemingly contradictory clauses. Article 3 states that Islam is the religion of the federation, and that only Islam can be preached to Muslims. But Article 11 guarantees freedom of religion for all. As a result, Malaysia has developed both a general civil code, which is applied universally; and Islamic law, which is applied only to Muslims in personal and family matters.

But recently, some Muslim groups have pressed the government to proclaim Malaysia an Islamic state, on the basis of Article 3 and the Muslims' population majority. Ultimately, they would like Malaysia to be governed by Islamic law.

For years, there was little need to resolve this constitutional issue. For example, if a Muslim decided to renounce his faith, the matter would be handled outside the legal system, or conversion records would be sealed. Today, however, every Malaysian must declare a religious affiliation, which is registered with the government - a requirement that has made it difficult for a Muslim to leave Islam without formalising the change of status through the legal process.

The country's attention is now fixed on the fate of ordinary citizens such as sales assistant Lina Joy and former religious teacher Kamariah Ali, who are trying to change their religious affiliation through the legal system. Muslim professional organisations and the Islamic opposition political party hold the view that renunciation of Islam is punishable by death. Likewise, the defence by civil reform movements of individuals' freedom of conscience has been denounced by some religious leaders as an attack on Islam.

Malaysia has no law that imposes the death penalty on apostates. Yet public movements have been formed to highlight this Islamic tenet. If it is not applied, the argument goes, there will be a massive exodus of Muslims to other faiths. The immediate goal is to keep the courts from allowing Lina Joy or Kamariah Ali to convert.

Attempts by other democratic civil society groups to debate this issue in peaceful public forums have been thwarted by threats of violence from a coalition of Muslim non-governmental groups calling themselves Badai (the Malay acronym for Coalition Against The Inter-Faith Commission).

Concerned about sparking an ethnic clash, Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi has proclaimed a ban on open discussion of these issues, threatening to arrest Internet news providers and activists if they continue to fan such debates.

Datuk Seri Abdullah is right to be worried. Since independence, national politics in Malaysia has reinforced group identity, especially among ethnic Malays, an exclusively Muslim community. Identity politics allowed ethnic Malays to assert their claims to control over land, language and religion. All attempts to reduce Malay influence serve to mobilise this community - in ethnic and religious terms. Malay politicians have learnt to play this card very effectively.

Ethnic Malays' special status has long been codified in affirmative action policies giving them special economic benefits. However, as Malaysia engages with the global economy, these privileges may eventually be removed in order to heighten the country's competitiveness. As a result, many Malay-Muslims increasingly worry about the loss of familiar economic and political safeguards. In particular, tensions have grown between the Malay majority and the country's large Chinese minority, which has been quicker to benefit from Malaysia's economic opening to the world.

Moreover, efforts to Islamicise the state come at a time when conflict in the Middle East has further politicised Muslim movements in Malaysia. They view themselves as counter-forces to cultural domination by the West, asserting their religious identity in the face of what they regard as imperialising ideas such as secularism and human rights.

Small disputes are magnified by this underlying conflict. Disagreements are increasingly depicted as being rooted in an East-West divide, as a struggle between believers and apostates.

Many Muslims are wary of this brand of identity politics. They recognise that the intolerance of Islamist groups can easily be turned against moderate Muslims.

But all Malaysians must learn how to manage pressures that seem to be pushing their country's constituent communities away from one another. Defending a multicultural national identity in the face of religious intolerance is thus the great challenge facing Malaysia's state and society.

The writer is deputy dean of graduate studies at the School of Social Sciences of Universiti Sains Malaysia.