12:38 p.m. - 2003-04-26
i want to go Civil Defence.
excepts from Malay leadership: Interest, protection and their imposition
By Zulfikar Mohamad Shariff
From conference, "Political change in Singapore: what next?"
Melbourne Jan 10-12, 2003
"When the book The Singapore Dilemma by Dr Lily Zubaidah Rahim came into discussion, Goh was at pains to argue that Malays were not marginalised. Instead of arguing on the same platform as Dr Lily did, Goh took a different track.
"The book provided statistics on the political and economic trend of the Malays from 1950s to the 1990s. Its determining marginalisation, it argued was the basis of Singapore society. Lily compared the status of Malays as compared to the other races in Singapore.
"But when Goh defended his party, he did not discuss apples. Instead, he chose two main issues. First, the goods that Malays can afford and second, their situation as compared to Malays in Malaysia.
"One of the more amusing statistics Goh used for his first argument, was the use of handphones. According to Goh, in 1990 most Malays did not own handphones. Ten years later, in 2000, a large number of them were using it.
"The fact that most of the world did not use handphones in 1990 seemed to have escaped Goh. Handphones in 1990 was a novelty item. Goh used statistics that were worthess to argue his point. Again, the question that needs to be raised is, why use it if there were better arguments?
"The comparison with Malaysia was also useless. With a larger Malay population and a large rural economy, it is expected that there are more Malays poorer economically in Malaysia, than in Singapore. Goh argued that Malays in Singapore are on par with the other races, that the PAP�s meritocratic system has given them the opportunities to succeed.
"But Goh�s assertion was later contradicted by his own colleague. Abdullah Tarmugi, who was then in charge of Muslim Affairs gave a speech for National day Observance at Wisma Mendaki. According to Abdullah, �From the 1998 experience, 25% of the 12,000 workers retrenched were Malay/Muslim workers.
"This contradicts Goh�s argument that the Malays are catching up. Making up 14.9% of the population, the population-retrenchment difference is a good 10% points.
"In his speech at the Second Malay Muslim convention, Goh said, �It will damage what has been achieved in our 35-year history, during which we successfully evolved and developed our form of multi-racial meritocracy for the benefit of all communities.
"It should be noted that the Malays in Singapore are not against meritocracy. What they wish for, is real meritocracy. But that has not happened yet.
"The thorn in the Malay�s side is the SAF issue. Lee Kuan Yew admitted that he does not trust pious Malays. In the 1970s, Malays were not called up for National Service. But they were also not given certificates of exemption. As a result, gaining employment was a near impossibility.
"Now, they are told that they are not trusted. Tokenism happens daily. It exists even in the PAP ranks. At any one time, there will always be one Malay Minister. The past few movement has seen Abdullah Tarmugi taking over from Dr Ahmad Mattar when the latter resigned. When Abdullah was made speaker, Yaacob Ibrahim was made Minister.
"But one notable consistency remains. Malay Ministers can only hold the portfolio of Community Development and Sports. Unless they are promoted to the Environment. If the PAP is keen on meritocracy, then tokenism should not happen. Organisational dynamics should be allowed to take charge. There should be times when there are more than one Malay Minister. At other times, there can be no Malay Minister. And they should not constantly hold the portfolio of Community Development.
"The PAP has argued that it is meritocratic to its core. But there are quotas even in universities. And this quota is not practised only in Singapore but is demanded from its partner universities.
"The Medical faculty does not have quotas only for female students, they also have quotas for Malay students. A Singapore Malay student studying at a partner university in Australia was informed by the interview committee after her foundation year, that she should not bother as they had accepted 5 Singapore Malay students for that year and were not allowed to accept anymore.
"The policy is across the board."
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There are forces at work behind the scenes.
i do not want to live a life of guilt.
therefore expell me from the chinese race.
actually... i dun want to be a human too.
but anyway, i hope that enough knowledge about the situation is spread so that change can be made.
what if malaysia attacks us?
what if india, bangladesh or phillipines is at war with singapore?
will the servants rise up and kill the masters?
are we truly fair.
we are not meritocracy if certain institutions like the army still practise discrimination.
"o brother, where art thou?"
haha.
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these are things among other things that can make you sad.
