in the beginning
Put your faith in the stars and this is what happens - you go berserk and lose it all when in the name of science, a comet gets smashed into. There is a real living God, why not put your faith in the Creator of the universe who also created Adam and Eve?
A Russian astrologist who says NASA has altered her horoscope by crashing a spacecraft into a comet is suing the US space agency for damages of $US300 million.
posted by Servant of YHWH עבד יהוה at
3:46 pm
11 Comments:
Read it all. In Mahathir's Malaysia, over 40% of the population lives under Constitutionally mandated and perpetual state sanctioned racism. It is verging on illegality to even bring up the subject - even in parliament.
Non-bumis live under widespread and considerable electoral, educational, economic and even religious restrictions and also have to live with the risk of racially motivated stirring from malay politicians who could put one nation to shame. And don't ask about illegal aliens, they're safely locked up in detention centres.
Unsurprisingly, some malay polices have played upon resultant fears of racial tensions and the difficulties non-bumis face in creating their own political voice to shore up a captive vote in the ethnic electorate.
Starting up a company or even purchasing land and property is harder and more expensive for non-bumis. The only way to alleviate their permanent designation as a second-class citizen is to convert to Islam and thus enjoy partial legal acceptance as a bumis.
This Malaysia, a land where racism is used to justify racism, is Mahathir's creation and if that isn't the pot calling the kettle black, then I need a new palette.
Perhaps you may have heard of the axiom making its rounds among the Malaysian bloggers:
"If it is a malay issue, it is a national issue. If it is an Indian issue, it is not an issue. If it is a Chinese issue, it is a racial issue."
That is the problem with Malaysia. The Chinese and Indians are made to feel as if Malaysia is for the malays, and not for the citizens of Malaysia. Even the textbooks are often written as if addressing the malays instead of Malaysians, with references to Islam and other malay cultural aspects.
Just look at Singapore. In spite of their being a multiracial society completely lacking in national resources, they are now a developed country. Why?
Because the people there are united. There is no presumption that the average citizen is a Chinese or any serious programme giving a particular race special rights.
The presumption that greed, dishonesty, and betrayal are innate qualities of a Chinese is simply as abhorrent as the presumption by some Chinese that malays smell bad, are lazy, and are extremely religious to the point of martyrdom. Such stereotyping accomplishes nothing.
If Chinese kids won't die for Malaysia, we should not jump to the conclusion that Chinese cannot be trusted. Instead, we should consider it equally among other possibilities, such as the government's policies creating a feeling of unfair treatment despite the premise that we are all equal as citizens of Malaysia.
We know what the original intentions of the malay special privileges provision in the Merdeka Constitution were, but to maintain that it is a carte blanche for all manner of discrimination based on the bumi/non-bumi divide is certainly straining credibility.
Now that the commanding heights of the Malaysian economy have fallen into the hands of malay capitalists 48 years after independence, is it wrong to appeal for a new consensus based on social sector and need instead of race?
From the above, it is clear that the question of the constitutionality of the quota system as it has been practised since 1971 especially in totally bumi institutions has never been tested.
Because the government imposes racial quota in education and government departments, therefore Singapore and other countries take fortune at the tide. For years, there has been brain drain to our neighbour.
I called my newfound friend earlier who works in Singapore. Somehow, the conversation ended up on Malaysians holding top positions in Singapore.
Well, I have a good friend who is currently working with a top-notch investment company in Singapore. When my new friend found out, immediately said, "No wonder that Pak Lah person was mentioning about the brain drain in Malaysia!"
Well, I know a lot of doctors and scientists are working overseas. A number of my school alumni are actually working overseas and not in Malaysia. Some are doing well in Boston, London, to name a few. It's even funnier to hear stories of some of my school alumni to accidentally meet each other when they are overseas. Yes, my school is guilty for contributing to the brain drain……….
Closer to home, I wonder if Pak Lah knows about our own Malaysian companies that are also contributing to the brain drain. No name mentioned, but I know of one company, due to the change in business process has forced a number of the disgruntled staff to leave the company.
The worse thing, these staff left and joined the competitors that are not Malaysian owned. And even worse, some staff actually decided to leave Malaysia and work at greener pastures.
They could have stayed in Malaysia, but no company in Malaysia could afford to pay the expected salary due to the staff being former scholars and studied overseas during the economic crisis.
Sad really. Now wonder why Pak Lah has an uphill task.
Clearly, there has always been movement of highly skilled people in and out of a country. If there is brain drain from a particular country, it can scarcely develop. On the other hand, if it can keep its talents and successfully attract its skilled citizens to return as well as foreign talents to come, it will prosper.
By
Anonymous, at 4:01 pm
Wow, that is quite an inspirational story……..
But can I ask, what is meaning of nation? What is meaning of freedom? And what is meaning of citizenship?
What is meaning of slavery? Etc.
I hope will read story with more care to get these answers!
Our government sucks, our legal system sucks, our sport sucks, the people sucks too……
Is there anything about Malaysia that doesn't suck?
That is why I sent my son to study oversea. I want him to learn the culture of other people not just the standard of study in this country.
Any welcome to Malaysia - the only country in the world (another world record) where majority needs the protection from minority.
Actually we have a very good country.
We have a very good people, multi cultured, multi racial, we live very happily long long time ago even before independence.
But after Umno taking over the country, everything, many things change!
The protectionism and bumi special rights are the roots to our today problems.
I myself feel very sad to see what is happening in Malaysia. The country is getting sick, very sick!
I was in the same situation way back in 1980s. My only choice was to go to Australia. I am happy I did. Now I can retire in any country I want, including Malaysia. If I had been accepted into the Malaysian university, I would have less than a fifth of what I have now.
Hoping some miracles will happen in future……….
By
Anonymous, at 2:39 am
The NEP was introduced in 1970, as a consequence of the 1969 racial riots, with the idea of positive discrimination coming about as a result of Dr Mahathir's controversial book - The Malay Dilemma.
The book pointed out the polar differences in the economic power held by the various ethnic groups in Malaysia - primarily pointing at the fact that the ethnic group with the most number of individuals (the malays) had the least economic clout, and vice-versa.
The rationale behind the NEP's act of positive discrimination is the idea that given appropriate backing and resources, the malays would be able to shake away the restrictions that are imposed by poverty and in a level-playing field, be able to achieve their maximal potential.
Of course, nothing is that simple.
And what happens in an economic crisis? You find a scapegoat, which in Indonesia's case, were the wealthy Chinese.
It is disheartening though, that many of malays have now come to believe that this policy is a 'right' and not a 'privilege'. And this is where things start to go wrong.
The policy was meant to last for a finite amount of time, with the eventual aim of developing a generation of self-supporting malays who have the self-belief and capability of going about by themselves. Not a group who have come to rely on the existence of this policy to prop them up.
The fact that there are those who misuse these opportunities does not go down well with the non-malays either, and who can blame them? It's a common assumption that the Chinese especially, are rich and are more than capable of financing their expenses.
Then there are those who are only interested in getting projects, pumping it into a listed company, and hope that they get a huge profit when the share prices rise. Wanting to get rich quick without contributing to the management or development of the company nor wanting to give back to society.
It's a sad thing to say, but I do believe the main thing that's holding back malays is not the Chinese or the Indians, but the malays themselves. That's why Dr M and Pak Lah have been quoted as telling to throw away crutches and work hard to face the challenges of globalisation.
And what was the response? An uproar.
It is my belief that the NEP should be gradually changed into one that is based more on levels of economic hardship.
Malaysia, given the current government mindset and thinking, will be permanently relegated to the sidelines in the great game of globalisation. Which will exacerbate the already serious brain drain from the country. And accentuate the racial divides as the pie shrinks. Truly, one reaps what one sows.
Nor would any European expatriate want to put their family in a place where racial sentiments are openly bandied. As a consequence, one can forget about Malaysia ever becoming a hub for anything - biotech, finance, high tech, info tech, transportation, etc.
By
Anonymous, at 2:41 am
The statistics on share ownership by malays at 19% quoted, has no statistical basis and therefore cannot be trusted. The 30% expectation included in the NEP document was a memorandum item, stating for example that should be an objective to aim for.
Indeed 35 years since the advent of the NEP, an undisputable basis for computing that 30% share has yet not been established. This shows that the 30% was not a necessary condition for peace in Malaysia.
The government might argue that the need for NEP was in response to the disparity between economic status of malays and non-malays. In other words it was a case of jealousy where the malays were envious of the rich Chinese and Indians. It is a case of emotion.
True, there are a few rich Chinese and rich Indians, but there are many more poor Chinese and Indians. Similarly there are also a few rich and prosperous malays.
Are we to believe that poor malays will only harbour envious feelings against the rich non-malays, but not against the rich malays!
Umno used the NEP genie to perpetuate their hold to power. Once released, the malays masses were made to believe that NEP is good for them. Little do the ordinary malays realise that although hard work is needed to compete against non-malays, but hard work alone would not be enough for them to compete against malays who are connected to Umno.
There cannot be fair play in the name of the NEP, since it is the government minister, or senior government official who could use their discretions to favour whoever they please.
Some malays may think that they might become Umno-malays. To them I would say think about fairness to other ordinary malays, if not Malaysians in general.
For that to happen the NEP should cease, although non-malays should now be the beneficiary under the new NEP. Politicians should stop making race an issue; they should stop sowing the seed of hatred and suspicion between people of different races.
By
Anonymous, at 2:45 am
This country would be a great country if there is no division of races. With its richness of natural resources, Malaysia should be one among the most developed nation in Asia.
Bitter to say, all those money lost to corrupt politicians and cronies, and unprofitable projects.
This is what saddens me as Malaysian.
However, I do believe a brain drain is inevitable. I believe it is happening. As a student in long-ago school, I see it every year. Each and every year after the holidays, there are a few less people in class. Why? Their parents emigrated down under West.
I left the country in the 90s because of the injustices in Malaysia perpetrated by Umno. I made my fortune and no returned home but I thought Mahathir had somehow managed to turn the mindset of Umno around into focusing on global competition, instead of petty race-based competition.
Now I am certain that those in power want the affirmative action policies to continue, not because these policies benefit the general malay population, but because these policies give Umno the right to continue to plunder the country.
Legalised theft is what they are after, and if anyone dares speak out, they just tell you to leave the country so that they can continue their plunder.
It's sad, but my children don't have to live through this injustice. They can go anywhere they want in the world, and I encourage them.
There are many people who made big names as Malaysians only when they are treated better in other countries, not because they are Malaysians but because they are treated as one of their own.
That's explain why they choose not to come back. Treatment was so good that they offered their family to emigrate over there.
Since Umno is playing the race cards openly, the coming future for non-malays is suffering through endurance. How many more years should we Malaysians suffer? It is not only the non-malays but also the poor malays struggling for survival in isolated villages.
Anyway, these people voted with their feet and wrote about their experience. They wanted to tell you about this country and how its government discriminated its minority people.
I can feel they love this country too but this country or rather this government did not love them. I can also feel their sadness and how things are turning for their malay brothers and sisters who are getting weaker and weaker in this globalised world, and all this is Umno's fault.
They realised if this is not stop immediately, this country will eventually go down the drain like those fourth world banana republics.
Their ancestors have helped this country to fight for independence and even fought off Japanese invaders but our government has never been grateful and instead discriminated against them to the hilt.
They also saw that they have become second-class citizens in their country of birth, and were very disappointed when Indonesia labours can become first class citizens whereas foreign spouses of non-malays took years just to get a PR. Even terrorists like Hambali and Abu Bakar can become PR holders easily. Something is definitely wrong with this country.
Here maybe you are malay and oblivious to others who are suffering and as a Muslim yourself, is this injustice reconcilable to the tenets of Islam?
Tony Gunawan also voted with his feet and went on to become USA's first world badminton doubles champion. Instead of helping his original country to badminton glory, he helped another country to become a potent rival.
The same could be said of our citizens who voted with their feet. Many went to Singapore and worked for companies that became our competitors. If our country and government has been kind to some of its citizens, this additional competition wouldn't have been created. I hope the present government will realise its folly and there is no substitute to real meritocracy.
The non-malays don't want everything but only fairness and social justice, a very tenet of your malays great religion. If you can't even subscribe to the tenets of your own religion, I am afraid you may be branded a hypocrite and a very racist one at that.
It is not true that there will be no policy that can keep every race happy.
Only the person who thinks that he should be treated better than others would object to a policy that is fair to all.
That feeling of "entitlement" is created by politicians who have found a convenient way to retain power in parliamentary democracy.
As a grass root, I hope that all Malaysians will live in harmony and work towards a better tomorrow, a better environment for the children.
By
Anonymous, at 2:51 am
I have been boycotting the media since few years back.
And now the boycotting has been made easier with the online version of newspapers. At least I won't be forking out money to buy those imbalance news reporting paper.
So do TV3 news; I just watched the main headlines only. I will never sit in front watching TV3 Buletin Utama till end. I don't want my mind being poisoned.
I prefer to surf the web for more accurate reporting.
Of the 3 mainstream English outlets, I think is referring to "The Sun" which is more balanced in reporting. The other 2 are purely BN official magazine.
No matter how the mainstream media criticize the government, they always leave a backdoor for themselves. They need the government to renew their printing license every year.
This made the media favored the government's policy indirectly. The TV stations are now all controlled by the government. Wa FM is gone, Ai FM is part of RTM, 988 is controlled by MCA.
Not much different voices left in the air. The only alternative is here - the Internet!
Though the media freedom in Malaysia is lesser and lesser, I still read newspaper. It is a habit, what to do?
For the TV stations, it has been years since I tuned in to RTM1, RTM2, TV3 etc, I rather spend my time productively watching Discovery Channel or National Geographic.
Can you imagine even on the eve of Merdeka day when everyone should be tuning in to see what our PM has to say, I was watching other channels on Astro to amuse and entertain myself.
In the past, for many years, I noticed that whenever the PM addresses the citizens, he would say, "Agama kita", "Bahasa kita" or "Bangsa kita".
Who do you think he was addressing the message to? If I as a Malaysian is not included in his message, why should I listen anyway?
I was there when the late Tunku declared independence at the Merdeka Stadium and every year since, Merdeka day was something special to me, but now sad to say, no more and the reason, as mentioned above.
Another dark day in the 2006 year for Malaysia media, newspaper is only good to report accidents, murder, robbery cases and not forgetting some business news and cartoons, and not for justice purpose and exposing scandals.
The cops?……….corrupted to the core.
The government?……….it is the animal farm all over again.
The media?……….no credibility with no moral compass.
I said before and I will say it again, with the current state of affairs in Malaysia, I am ashamed to call myself a Malaysian
And some of you want to make a change?
Wake up……….we are not fools.
By
Anonymous, at 1:45 pm
Perhaps it is also time to ask Mahathir to account for the many billions he spent with impunity - CyberJaya, his palace, Putrajaya, the Twin Towers, and million lost in derivatives, speculation, tin market, etc.
What happens now is an extension of what he established - the culture of extravagance and corruption.
This is a golden opportunity for local universities to do something good for the country: set up a group of thinking scholars to critically and objectively - analyse the positive or negative contributions of Mahathir during his tenure as our PM - do the various projects initiated by Mahathir - really bring benefits to Malaysia and Malaysians?
(e.g. the Bakun dam, the Bank Bumuputra incidents, the highway, the Multimedia Super Corridor, the Petronas Twin Towers, the Proton car projects, Putrajaya, the steel industry, the attempt to corner the tin market of LME, the toll contracts signed with the operators, etc.)
How much money has been lost? Would it be better if the money were distributed to the citizens of Malaysia?
Vision 2020 is destined to fail because Malaysia has the naive mentality of "buying its way" to "fully-developed nation status".
Ask ourselves: Are we mentally ready? Are we socio-economically ready?
Do we have the skills, perseverance, knowledge and above all - the right attitude and ethics?
Look at all the developed nations. Is there any one country that has achieved its developed nation status by chance? There is surely no short cut!
Are our management and system of this country failing?
Having good and efficient leadership is one thing, but having a management without a good system is scary, because good leaders come and go and we can't depend on just that……….therefore having an efficient and good system is crucial or else, disaster is waiting to happen.
By
Anonymous, at 1:46 pm
Yesterday was undoubtedly one of the most difficult in my life, because like tens of thousands of Malaysian parents, I sent my children to standard one.
But the strange thing was I honestly did not know how difficult it could be, until I had to go through the process with my wife.
The whole bitter sweet experience began the night before, when we had to try hard to get our children to go to bed early, to prepare for the next bright new day when they would enter standard one in a Sekolah Rendah Jenis Kebangsaan (SRJK), or better known as a vernacular school, just like I did 40 years ago.
I remember then, on my first day in school, my mother walked me to the SRJK; there was no traffic jam, no pushing and shoving. Forty years later, there is still this same SRJK catering to the expanded population with the same basic facilities utilised way beyond capacity, bursting at the seams.
Such a school typically accepts enrollment way beyond reasonable teacher-student ratios, and creatively has a SRJK II or basically an afternoon school using the same facility.
My wife sent our children in while I drove our car further away to avoid causing more congestion; she came out later to take over the car and I went in to see how our children were coping.
As the morning school was still in progress, the children of the afternoon school were all made to sit passively on the floor of the assembly hall according to their respective classes.
It then dawned on me that our children today do not have my joy of going to school early, and having a whale of a time playing with schoolmates in the field or in the canteen exchanging smuggled - in nasi lemak some 40 years ago.
I went to my children, hugged and kissed them, telling them how proud I was feeling, in witnessing their first step towards this grand notion of education which I passionately promised would lead them into wonderful careers of their choice.
Then I reluctantly walked away from them. As I looked back into the assembly hall and seeing the images of my children sitting on the floor with so many other children, while waiting for the morning school to vacate their classrooms, I could not suppress my frustration any further, tears started to roll.
What are we doing to our children?
Within such close proximity to the Twin Towers, we, the dutiful taxpayers have to go through hellish traffic jams to send our children to such a congested facility. Our children had no space at all to play, mingle or interact with each other.
What are we doing to our children?
Why were there no expansion of facilities and streamlining of infrastructure in and around such a good and reputable school?
The whole issue boils down to our ruling government's aspiration of, and stubbornness in promoting a single failed education system under our Sekolah Kebangsaan (SK).
What are we doing to our children?
How far can our beloved country progress in an increasingly competitive globalised world, with so many of our politicians still lacking in confidence in urgently resolving this destructively perpetuated dilemma on education facing such a wide spectrum of our society?
Education today has to be a liberal means to enlighten the people bringing out the best in them, and to connect our society to that of the larger globalised world.
In fact, the narrow view of the government to use education as a tool to influence the people towards a certain direction for clear political reasons will be inherently regressive and unwise.
We owe it to our children to be responsible in offering them a decent environment to study in.
Unless we confront the issue pragmatically, it will be increasingly easier to justify the massive brain drain that we are currently suffering.
By
Anonymous, at 1:48 pm
Malaysia for sure is better than Singapore as per below:
Better in making a fool of ourselves to the world - water talk, Proton car etc
Better in illegal stuffs - pirated VCDs, DVDs etc
We brag about Twin Towers - (serves as a white elephant) - tendency rate is so low - it is losing $$$$$……….
Don't fool ourselves - go check on the Internet and see what other countries perceive us……….
Yes, nationalism and irrational pride have fooled most people in Malaysia.
Petronas operations in exploiting the national treasure (oil and gas) are essentially run wholly by the highly paid experts.
My expert friend in Petronas told me that he does most of the work (analyze, study, writing reports and recommendations) and the local national managers take the credit. He has no quarrel with that as long as he got his good salary. (A typical Malaysian engineer earns RM5000 a month while he earns RM50000 a month.)
Petronas is producing 700000 barrels of oil per day (excluding natural gas). Assuming US$40 a barrel and a conversion rate of 1US$ = RM3.8 - the revenue per day is RM107100000……….I wonder where the money goes……….
Proton car in the eyes of the experts is an imitators and the quality does not come close to that of Toyota, Honda, Ford etc.
The university is accepting unqualified students of a certain race and churn out graduates of useless academic degrees, the private sector is well aware of what these graduates skill sets and not hiring them.
If we don't recognize our shortcomings and starts amending……….we will always be stagnant……….
By
Anonymous, at 1:49 pm
Agree with you. Instead, we are always entertained by many clowns and idiot jokers in the parliament.
Yes! Bolehland is having the one of the largest cabinet in terms of ratio to population size in the world.
The ranking performance of each ministry, minister, deputy minister, etc, should be published in local media and forwarded to the PM for the public and PM's post mortem.
The criteria of evaluation should also be exposed to the relevant persons so that they know what is being evaluated and make it easier for them to get better.
Even better, if the criteria are benchmarked with advanced countries such as Japan, Korea, Singapore, UK, USA, etc, according to its relevance.
Furthermore, the evaluation can include indicators such as top 5 performing ministries, ministers, and deputy ministers, worst 5 performing ministries, ministers, and deputy ministers.
Once you start this big government syndrome, you just can't revert back to small government. Everyone is enjoying the gravy train ride and you just can't get them off without adverse repercussions. And Pak Lah as the train driver cum conductor doesn't have the guts and courage to boot them off.
A decade ago, 800000 civil servants were considered too many and there was a temporary freeze in recruitment. But now, even with the IT revolution, we have more than 1.2 million civil servants.
You can see many of them loitering around aimlessly when you visit any government office. And the government has to give them all incentives and annual bonuses to keep them all happy.
It is all about votes and Pak Lah knows it. Smaller government? Most unlikely - Same old ministers will be re-appointed. Old is new and new is old. Get them all hooked up and they will all keep quiet.
All docile and on leashes. Obedient servants. It is the BN way.
Then we preach to the world we have a very stable government, there is racial harmony, we work as a team blah, blah, blah and more blahs.
Many of the ministers are deadwood and from their performance should have been shown the exit long ago. Some have been too long in the cabinet and have run out of ideas.
It is time we not only downsize the ministerial portfolios but at the same time kick out those that are not performing. There is no rational reason to have so many ministers doing so few works.
They are a heavy burden to the taxpayer's money. Pak lah should immediately put to pasture some of the ineffective and long serving ministers.
But not only we need academic excellent, but also charismatic, creative, sharp strategist with high self discipline and religious moral code of leaders, to maneuver Malaysia to its greatest.
They should learn some part of it from our southern neighbour.
By
Anonymous, at 1:56 pm
The younger generations, even though they seem to know the theoretical rationale of the social contract and try hard to live by it, do not have the same understanding of it as the older generations do.
Poor people are poor people, rich people are rich people - no matter which race they come from. Justice and compassion prevails when rich people recognise their responsibility to the poor and the poor use the benefits given to them to better their lives.
Fair and equitable distribution of the prosperity that we enjoy in this country will ensure that our peace and harmony survives. That would probably require a mindset shift within our society.
However, many have experienced frustration under the Malaysian politico-social system, which has failed to recognise their contributions and skills, or ignored utilising them appropriately for the national benefit, or stymied their business ventures.
Many of these people have emigrated to another country where they hope to be more appreciated and where their children may enjoy a better chance of succeeding in life.
We should resolve why the Chinese-Malaysian population is reducing. Official figures have more than one million Chinese Malaysians emigrating over the past 25 years. Why did they emigrate? I am sure the government knows.
While we push young talented people away, other countries notably Singapore, the US and Australia welcome them with open arms.
About 30 percent of top management in both Singapore's government and corporate sector are ex-Malaysians. We export them so that Singapore can compete with, and then whack us.
By
Anonymous, at 5:00 pm
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