Multatuli wants to know when this nightmare will end
I often marvel at the resilience of the non-Malays; how they plough on through the travails of a system that punishes them at every turn.
I marvel at them but at the same time feel ashamed of what we have done to them.
The recent demand that the freighting business must give up 51% to bumiputras is the latest (but not the first) episode of ‘smash and grab’ by the government.
The dhobi list of ‘daylight robbery’ goes back a long way – from rice milling to transport to banking; we force them to give us a share of the fruits of their toil without us doing a stitch of work. All because we have the muscles to do so. Have we Malays become gangsters? Demanding ‘protection money’ for allowing others to operate their businesses.
Imagine this; you put in years of mental and physical sweat, you risk your savings, you live frugally, watching your pennies; you deprive yourself of the nice things in life in order to build up your business. After years of sweat your venture pays off.
Now you are told by the government – YOUR Government – that you must give up the majority share to someone else who has done nothing to build up the business. The recent controversy about the durian orchards is exactly the same. In that case the irate growers chopped down their trees on which they toiled for five years. But a freighting company takes longer and costs more to build up. I am afraid some will take the Robert Kuok route out of the country; take their money and expertise elsewhere. How can you do business in a country where you pay taxes and is legislated out of your business?? Where is the fairness?
As a Malaysian I feel for them. As a Malay I am ashamed.
In the fifties and sixties there might have been justification in levelling the playing field through government action. Article 153 of our constitution was meant to do that. But while Article 153 which was meant only as a temporary provision of the constitution, gave the Malays certain privileges (for a fixed time) at the same time it safeguarded the “legitimate interests of the others”.
The goal posts were shifted to favour the Malays very strongly after the seventies. The benchmark was the Malays owning 30% of the country’s wealth and that was achieved at least a decade ago. So now we don’t even bother to justify our actions in taking over businesses owned by non-Malay Malaysians. We have the power so we take!
We have met our needs sometime ago. If many Malays have been left behind it is not because of the non-Malays but because our own Malays have cheated us. They have enriched themselves at our expense.
What we are doing is pure greed. We Malays have become greedy! To be more specific so as not to tar every Malay with the same brush; the Malay upper middle class and ruling elite have become more greedy. I say this because ordinary Malays do not benefit from this daylight robbery.
On this freight forwarding business (as in all other businesses) it is wrong to impose this new ruling on existing operations. You can’t move the goal posts. By all means if you want to impose new rules on future businesses go ahead. Then those who go in do so with full knowledge that it must be majority Malay owned.
Our leaders talk a lot about Malay maruah but they do things that bring our dignity down. They shame us. We are not pimps living off the proceeds of someone else’s work.
Although the rule of the 51% Malay ownership has been put off till December 2022 it still remains; waiting for a more opportune time to implement it.
We Malays have been operating on the basis of “Might is Right”; because we have the muscle we can do as we please. Only gangsters and bullies behave like that. We are not like that, we are “nature’s gentlemen” as the British once opined. I would like to think we still are deep inside us.
(The views expressed are those of the contributor and do not necessarily reflect the views of Rebuilding Malaysia.)
By Multatuli Murtadi, Kelantan
Three Malaysians – Malay, Chinese, Indian – in hot soup
The MoF has spoken frankly of the
majority Malay Elitists Mind !
Now we see that some of the deep Malay state may want to go up to Nationalisation of all NM Ownership
in time ! How long more the Extremists will take to reach 100% , we don’t know !
But this the result of Ketuanship shock should be Rejected by All True Malaysians asap !
Let’s hope more Malays speak their minds for the National and not the Racist interests ?
If this Racist Economics grows , the Brain Drain will worse and we’ll be rapidly sliding into a Failed State !
Let’s hope the Budget 2022 is more Malaysian rather than Racist Then we will all haveGad it !
This is like a family that has three sons. For no good apparent reasons the eldest son gets preferential treatment. The younger sons were tolerant all along to give the elder brother. Too much dependence on them is sure to rebound one day.
With all the facts coming out on the scoundrels and Mafia oriented governance…yet is there anything concrete heading our way for a just and fair treatment of governance to all Malaysians
Frank,dignified and timely expression of
the daming truth, which must gather momentum and the numbers from those who are bold enough to accept the truth from within and be counted.
What is happening is so wrong in the eyes of Man and Allah. As a Malay, I hang my head in shame. How on earth have we became so greedy, feeling so superior and lack in shame?