The Reality In Malaysia

I have a summary of a report that was passed to me not too long. It's about the discriminatory practices meted out by the ruling majority against its own minority citizens. It's fairly accurate, so here goes nothing :

• Malaysia has all the hallmark of a racist and religious extreme state on the following foundation;
  

a) The Federal Constitution entrenched with a racist provision vide Article 153 ( Malaysian brand of apartheid)

b) The State sanctions racist and religious extreme laws and policies

c) State control of Government Administration by 1 race/religious group

d) State channel of most funds for economic/education/development programs and licenses, permits etc to 1 race

e) State control of Religious freedom to disadvantage of non-Muslims, imposition of Muslim religious laws and compelling jurisdiction of Syaria Courts on non-Muslims.

f) State sponsored violence/threat of violence both directly and outsource to other groups on objections by citizens

g) State sanction of draconian, punitive laws and the blank cheque given to Police to make arbitrary arrests on dissent.

h) State declaration that the Malays are the masters (Malay Supremacy) and sons of soil.

• Ethnic groups in Malaysia : Malay 53.3%, Chinese 26.0%, indigenous 11.8%, Indian 7.7%, others 1.2%.
• Religions: Islam (60.4%), Buddhism (19.2%), Christianity (9.1%), Hinduism (6.3%), other/none (5.0%). - US Department of State 2011

• Malaysia is a country based on a subtle, pervasive and increasingly aggressive form of racism. The conflict that lies just below this artificial calm state, is so well concealed, that to someone with just a cursory knowledge Malaysia would find it hard to believe and this is part of the problem.

• Malay supremacy or Malay dominance is the claim that the Malay Muslims are the tuan (masters) of Malaysia. The Chinese and Indians, who form a significant minority in Malaysia, are considered beholden to the Malays for granting them citizenship in return for special privileges as set out in Article 153 of the Malaysian Constitution.

• Article 153 is a deep-rooted racist provision in the Constitution which sanctions implementation of all racist policies in Malaysia to the disadvantage of the minority non-Malay/Muslim population. Questioning any matter, rights, status, privilege ect of Article 153 is considered a challenge to the Malay Supremacy, insulting the Royal Institution and Islam. It is also deemed a threat to National Security, an offence under the Internal Security Act which gives powers of arrest for unlimited period without trial and under the Sedition Act which provides for imprisonment between 3-5 years.

• Since the Democratic uprising of Hindraf in 2007 and the subsequent loss of its 2/3 Parliamentary mandate in the March 2008 elections, Government has outsourced its overt racist agenda to NGO’s in particular PERKASA. This is an NGO led by a Pro Government Parliamentarian who promotes the Malay Muslim supremacy agenda and has the explicit support of top Government leadership including the former Prime Ministers, ex Army officials and ex Inspector General of Police.

• PERKASA works intimately with a more militant group known as Pekida and another underworld Para- military group known as 3 LINE. Together they perpetuate racial hatred and cause fear among the non-Malays.

• Government budgetary allocations.

1. All Government projects are primarily given to Malay Muslim Bumiputra individuals and organizations.
2. All Government contractors have to be licensed by the Finance Ministry before being given any Government projects.
3. Malays have been promoted in the Civil service to assure that the highest policy-making positions will be filled by Malays regardless of objective performance standards.

• As of June 2005, more than 85% of the Civil Servants were Malay Muslims. This was an increase of close to 25% from 1971.

• The FELDA Scheme – Federal Land development Authority
• There is a systematic and wholesale exclusion of Non-Malays from this program. Indian plantation workers who were being actively displaced at the time of the growth of this FELDA scheme in the 1970s and 1980s were not considered part of the target group, because they were not categorized as being from the rural community. This was convenient way to exclude. An estimated 800,000 Indian plantation workers have been displaced from plantations without any alternative programs/compensation.
• FELDA, FELCRA, PERDA, KEDA, KETENGAH, KESEDAR, KEJORA and a host of other development agencies use procedural techniques of one form or another such as this to entirely exclude the deserving non-Malays.

• FELDA show a total turnover of RM 11.8 Billion. The profits before tax alone are RM804 million5.
• A RM 120 million residential school for FELDA children - a Maktab Rendah Sains Mara (MRSM) in Trolak, Perak. Compare this with the recent promise of an allocation of RM100 million by the Prime Minister for 523 Tamil schools in the country, for which there is no evidence of disbursement anyway. There are 42 MRSM schools like the one above in the country.
• In 1980, the World Bank raised concerns over the ethnic bias in FELDA settler selection by pointing out that if the government was serious “about increasing the non-Malay share in agriculture, some increase in the non-Malay share of settlers was warranted
• The Tekun Nasional scheme is a scheme to provide micro credit and to develop majority Malay Muslim entrepreneurs.
• For the year 2008 alone TEKUN Nasional has provided RM 182 million as loans to 19,000 entrepreneurs.
  
• That is close to RM1 Billion -not to mention almost all those loans went to Malay Muslim entrepreneurs. Participation in the Tekun program of Indians is miniscule - a total of 93 Indian entrepreneurs received loans amounting to RM761,000 on July 24, 2009 in a ceremony.8 That is less than 0.1% of that disbursed to the Malay Muslim entrepreneurs.
  
• The collusion of the various arms of the Government to keep dissent in check

Some of the key ones are :

1. Government Linked Companies

2. Government Investment Companies

3. Economic Planning Unit

4. The Federal Cabinet of Ministers

5. The various Ministries

6. The Royal Malaysian Police

7. The Attorney general’s Office

8. The Judiciary

9. The Government Administrative Services

10. The Government owned Banks

11. The Government controlled media

• The Government has used suppressive laws like the Internal Security Act, the Official Secrets Act, Printing Presses and Publications Act, the Seditions Act during this period to implement these terribly racially lopsided development plans while allowing the racist system to grow

• Given the need to maintain a racist regime, the Police have become a primary instrument of control for the majority Malay Muslim party in Government –UMNO. Police violence, abuse of power and human rights abuses occur very regularly. Cases of death in custody, partial handling of criminal disturbances, violent dispersal of peaceful protestors and other form of human rights violation continue. This has created a climate of impunity and normalization of violence, abuse of power and violation of human rights in Malaysia.

• More than 77% of the Government administration members are of Malay Muslim ethnicity. About 20% the Indian members and about 60% of the Chinese members of the Government administration are teachers in the Government Vernacular schools. If they are excluded from the numbers employed by the Government administration, the picture that emerges is about an overall participation of 85% Malays in the administration

• The Malay Muslim employees of the administration go through special programs of training called National Civics Bureau where they are all educated on how to keep “the wealth of the family within the family” in short how to operationalize the racist policies of the Government. This is a much criticized activity, but the Government continues with impunity as it is a key approach in recreating that racist bureaucracy.

• The Mainstream media blocks out, demonizes and distorts information of any organization that speaks out against this racist system in a coordinated fashion. The Government uses the Printing Presses and Publications Act and limiting ownership to known allies to control the Media to do this.

• There are an estimated 150,000 – 200,000 Indian children who are stateless due to the States’ reluctance to recognize them as Malaysians. This is operationalized by the racist state bureaucracy. As result they are not admitted in Schools, enjoy health care and other benefits a child enjoys.

• The racial bias in the educational system is the area where racism is most blatant – all the way from pre-school and primary education up to Tertiary levels.

• There are 42 fully residential elite Maktab Rendah Sains Mara (MRSM) (Mara junior Science College) (NST 5/4/08) with 12,440 places also in the fully residential schools (BH 21/11/09 at page 7). These schools have been almost exclusively for Malay Muslim students

• Non-Malays are also almost 100% excluded in other elite schools like the Royal Military College, Aminuddin Baki Institution, Matriculation courses and the Malay College Kuala Kangsar.

• There are two streams for entry into the Public Universities. One is through the Matriculation 12 month program specifically tailored for the Malay Muslim students and the other is through the 18 month and much more stringent STPM program

• Admissions into public Universities is more than 80% reserved for the Malays Muslims. One university with a student population of 170,000 in 2011(UiTM) is for Malay Muslims only. The other 19 public Universities with about 170,000 enrolments in all have a 60% Malay Muslim students making it 80% for Malay Muslims in all Public Universities. This does not even talk about the composition in the various courses offered.

• There are 62,000 diploma places and 60,000 degree places for 2010 at 27 Polytechnics in Malaysia. These are exclusively for the Malay Muslim students.

There are 163,779 students studying at the 19 other Public Universities nationwide at an annual expenditure cost of RM 2.6 Billion15. Our estimate is a mere 5 % of this expenditure will accrue to non-Malay students.

• RM 2.8 Billion is allocated for the 2010 National Budget for student’s assistance scholarships. Most of the funds go for scholarships to Malay Muslim Students.
  
• 1,266,671 students (estimated 90% Malay Muslims) have benefited from the government PTPTN (Government Higher Education Loan Fund) study loans till 2009. 147,441 such loans were approved at RM 17.0 Billion (UM 25/3/08 at page 31).
  
• The constitution provides for freedom of religion; however, the constitution and the government placed restrictions on this right. The constitution defines all ethnic Malays as Muslims at birth and stipulates that Islam is the "religion of the Federation."
  
• Civil courts continued to concede jurisdiction to Sharia courts on cases concerning conversion from Islam and certain areas of family law involving disputes between Muslims and non-Muslims.
  
• Forced religious conversions and religious intolerance are evidence of creeping Islamization in Malaysia. Whenever there is a conflict between Muslim and non-Muslims, the tendency is for Muslim Laws to prevail over the non-Muslim issues regardless of the merits of the case.
• The decision of the Court of Appeal on 21st August 2010 in the case of Maniam Moorthy is a disturbing trend in the role of the Judiciary which has abdicated its powers to the inferior Sharia Courts which was meant to serve the Muslims only on matters (personal) pertaining to marriage, divorce, property distribution ect.
  
• Lina Joy, 42, who was born to a Malay Muslim couple, became a Christian when she was 26.
  
• She lost her final round of appeal when the Federal Court dismissed her appeal on 30th May 2007 against a ruling that the National Registration Department was right not to allow her to remove the word "Islam" from her identity card.
  
• In August 2010 The newspaper of the Catholic Church in Malaysia, The Herald, filed a legal suit at following warnings that its permit could be revoked if it did not cease use of the word "Allah" in the Malay language section of its newspaper.

• Several Malaysian churches have been attacked and fire bombed, leaving at least one badly damaged, in an escalating dispute over the use of the word "Allah" by Christians.

• A religious edict (fatwa) by a Muslim cleric in the state of Sabah caused the Sabah state government to cancel the construction of a 108 feet Goddess of Sea Mazu statue by the Taoist in 2008.

• In August 2011 The Selangor Religious Department raided a Church dinner function organised by an NGO on allegation of Christian proselytizing campaign.
  
• According to the government, it allocated 428 million ringgit (approximately $125.9 million) to build Islamic places of worship and 8.1 million ringgit ($2.4 million) to build Christian, Buddhist, Hindu, and other minority religions' places of worship between 2005 and the end of 2008. (in answer to a Parliamentary question)
  
• Throughout the years since Malaysian independence in 1957, the government has been disregardful of the systematic destruction of Hindu places of worship, which previously stood on estates and state owned estates and land. An estimate of about 10,000 Hindu places of worship have been demolished.

• The government justifies the demolition of the places of worship on the grounds that they were illegally constructed or were occupying government land. Planning and building laws never existed at the time of the construction of these places of worships.
  
  
  
  

The full report titled, ”Institutional Racism and Religious Freedom in Malaysia” can be downloaded by clicking on the link.

Ironic

Just thought I'd share something ironic of what  I just saw. It's the biography of 2 individuals that are somewhat iconic in Malaysia, stacked side by side at the Borders bookstore.

One builds dreams and the other one destroys them with impunity. Let history be the judge.

This Is So Fucking Embarassing

"On July 9, 20,000 Malaysians gathered in Kuala Lumpur to demand more transparency in electoral laws in connection with next year's national elections.

Police unleashed tear gas and chemical-laced water on the demonstrators and temporarily detained nearly 1,700 of them. According to reports, authorities also detained six opposition activists without trial and accused them of trying to use the rally to spread communism. Police said they found T-shirts and other materials linked to communist figures.

Apparently, these measures didn't suffice for some of Malaysia's nervous ruling elite. The editors of Utusan Malaysia, owned by Prime Minister Najib Razak's United Malays National Organization ruling party (UMNO), defaulted to a time-tested maneuver: When in doubt, blame the Jews!

The Jews? Most citizens of the overwhelmingly Asian economic giant have never and will likely never meet a Jew in their lifetime. And yet the folks at Utusan Malaysia, which is influential among Muslims in rural areas who rely on government-linked media to shape their worldview, are apparently confident warnings about a "Jewish plot" would resonate in a land without Jews.

To understand why, you need only look at the track record of the man who dominated his nation for a quarter of a century, Malaysia's fourth prime minister, Mahathir Mohamad.

Mahathir was credited with engineering Malaysia's rapid modernization and spectacular economic growth. He was a dominant political figure, winning five consecutive general elections. He also used his political clout and controversial laws to detain activists and political opponents.

And Mahathir is an anti-Semite.

Back in 1970, in his treatise on Malay identity, "The Malay Dilemma," he wrote: "The Jews are not only hooked-nosed ... but understand money instinctively. ... Jewish stinginess and financial wizardry gained them the economic control of Europe and provoked antisemitism which waxed and waned throughout Europe through the ages."

In August 1984, a visit by the New York Philharmonic Orchestra was canceled when his Information Minister demanded that music by composer Ernst Bloch be deleted from the program. His crime? He was a Jew and the selection chosen was based on Hebrew melodies.

In 1986, Mahathir charged "Zionists" and Jews with attempting to destabilize the country through allegedly Jewish-controlled media. He subsequently banned The Asia Wall Street Journal for three months describing the publication as "Jewish owned." In the 1990s, Mahathir used the Malaysian news agency, Bernama, to accuse Australian Jewry of conspiring to topple him.

Mahathir, who made Islam a central component of Malaysian identity, made this chilling charge in 1997: "We are Moslems, and the Jews are not happy to see Moslems progress."

Perhaps that would help explain the resounding ovation which greeted his screed at a Islamic Leadership Conference in 2003: "The Europeans killed 6 million Jews out of 12 million ... but today, the Jews rule the world by proxy. They get others to fight and die for them."

And just last year the elder statesman of anti-Semites said this at a conference: "Jews had always been a problem in European countries. They had been confined in ghettos and periodically massacred. But they still remained and still thrived and held whole governments to ransom. ... Even after their massacre by the Nazis in Germany, they survived to be a source of even greater problems to the world."

All this may help explain why Hitler's "Mein Kampf" and the infamous "Protocols of the Elders of Zion" are on prominent display at the Malaysian capital's International Airport.

But there are some signs that in 2011 not everyone is drinking Mahathir's toxic Kool-Aid. Maria Chin Abdullah, one of the organizers of the mass rally that sought to prevent electoral fraud, charged that Utusan Malaysia's warning of an alleged Jewish conspiracy was "nonsense that is being spread in very bad taste," adding, "To rely on this claim of Jewish support is to insult the people's good intentions of seeking important reforms."

Perhaps Kuala Lumpur hasn't paid much attention to the Arab Spring. Maybe its time they did, especially since it was inspired by Muslims demanding more freedom and democracy. It isn't world Jewry that is driving members of minorities to the streets of Kuala Lumpur, but the failure of a democratic government to provide equal rights and opportunities to all their citizens. It's time for Malaysian leaders to grow up. Relying on big-lie Jewish conspiracies is no substitute for honest and transparent governance".

Original post can be found here.

I hate to say this but a vast majority of Malaysians of the Muslim faith IN MALAYSIA are full blown anti-semites. I suppose it shouldn't come as a surprise with all the indoctrination they've been subjected to at their homes and/or religious schools. I think they should free their minds and get rid of the hate. Jews are the easy targets here as there are no Jews in Malaysia to defend themselves. Unfortunately, Christians are also their favourite target of discrimination. This is too damn depressing, I can't go on. Give me a holler if you want to discuss this.

Making a Dung Heap out of a Mole Hill

A group of 100 Malay protesters congregated in front of Masjid al-Ikhlasiah in Kampung Kerinchi here today to protest against a lawyer from MCA who purportedly applied pressure to stop the mosque from using loudspeakers to play the Muslim call to prayer.

The group consisting of members from Muslim welfare group Pekida and Malay rights NGO Perkasa claimed that a “Chinese lawyer” had demanded the mosque stop the “azan” (call to prayer) recital.

The demonstrators also held posters naming the lawyer and displaying what they claim to be his home address in Pantai Hill Park condominium.

At the protest, chairman of Pekida’s Lembah Pantai chapter, Zakaria Awang, demanded that the man be arrested for sedition.

“We want him to be arrested under the Internal Security Act for threatening national harmony or he can change his citizenship to a nationality of his own liking,” he said.

He added that the “lawyer” should also make an open apology to the Muslim community in the country.

The group also distributed copies of a fax purportedly from the man, and said to have been sent to the Prime Minister’s Office asking for the volume of the mosque’s loudspeakers to be lowered.

by Asrul Hadi Abdullah Sani
themalaysianinsider.com




These are my observations :

1. why are they burning their pillows?

2. there's no specific mention of this bogeyman/MCA lawyer. Who is he? Reminds me of the time in Perak where a mob stormed a church in Perak trying to stop a mass conversion of muslims to christianity. Turned out to be false. And the lying Perak Mufti got away scot-free for nearly plunging the country into some form of nasty extremism.

3. I am quite sure during the Prophet's time, there wasn't a need for loudspeakers. So what's the beef? That's a hadith right there. Like a lot of other hadiths, this one is unauthenticated too.

4. I think it's just UMNO (United Malays National Organisation) trying to galvanise the Malays to prepare for the coming General Elections. Let the siege mentality begin. 'You are either with us or against us'

5. the banners were written in red ink, I suppose it was to denote blood. I see 'peace' written all over it

The Same Bullshit Replayed (And Yes I Think We Are Sliding into Dhimmitude)

Tan Yi Min is now Eilliyah Foong Abdullah. This child is Tan Cheow Hong's daughter. She was born into the Tan family. Her grandfather belonged to the 'Tan' clan, as did her great grandfather and her great, great grandfather. Her mother Fatimah Foong Abdullah has with cold calculation misused Islam to deprive 'Eilliyah Foong Abdullah' of her birthright - the 'Tan' surname.

The Malaysiakini report said Fatimah converted Yi Min on Nov 9 at the Selangor Islamic Affairs Department. She snatched her from school on Nov 8. This time-line indicates that Fatimah converted Yi Min the very next day.

Remember that the child has lived with her father these past three years. She has never been taught Islam and knows next to nothing about the religion. Yet barely 24 hours after being snatched with the help of the police and the Islamic officials, this little girl could miraculously declare - before another different set of Islamic bureaucrats - that she wishes to embrace Islam.

“Bagaimana budak Cina tujuh tahun boleh mengucap dua kalimah syahadah?” This question was the first thing to cross the mind of Sharifuddin Abdul Latiff, administrator of the mediawatch group Hartal MSM.

You try saying this: 'ašhadu an la ilaha illa (A)llah, wa ašhadu anna Muhammada(n) rasulu (A)llah'. Now imagine a traumatised little girl who had just been kidnapped and driven pell-mell from Penang to Selangor reciting the syahadah in a language she'd never spoken a word of before; and doing it twice correctly (a procedural convention) in the presence of intimidating strangers in an alien environment a long distance from home.

When Yi Min ostensibly bore witness as a 'Muslim', she would have had no conception of who the Prophet Muhammad was. Sharifuddin further points out that when the Prophet received his calling, he was a mature man 40 years in age.

It's impossible that an immature child grasped the message of Islam in the matter of a mere 24 hours. How could the officer-in-charge then proceed to stamp approval without first ascertaining that the conditions for conversion were properly fulfilled?

Fatimah Foong holds no 'sijil perkahwinan' (Muslim marriage certificate). Yi Min was not conceived in Muslim wedlock. Yi Min's father was not present to give his consent. This makes the conversion of his daughter, a minor, against civil law.

That Fatimah's mockery of justice was entertained by ketuanan Islam is beyond a dereliction of duty; it is criminal mala fide.

If this sick, shotgun conversion is not immediately voided, Yi Min is doomed to Hotel California - you “can check out but never leave”. Like Banggarma (below), remember her? Like Revathi. Remember her too?
It's high time that Malays here do some deep soul-searching and ask yourselves what kind of saudara baru you're all acquiring in droves.

Parental duty is a shared responsibility. As a Malay man or woman, how would you feel if your estranged Malay spouse was to snatch and decide alone to convert your little boy to Hinduism in a Hindu-predominant country, or to Christianity in a Christian-predominant country?



Helen Ang
Jan 6, 2011
Malaysiakini

Effing Coppers

This is a common scene outside my apartment, fucking cops not doing their jobs and just sleeping in their patrol cars. Sometimes they will come the apartment and harass the boys working downstairs and seek bribes, their main source of income.

That's the problem isn't it, the government sweeping all these unemployables off the streets and giving them jobs irregardless of qualifications. And we wonder why the civil service sucks

Wonder no more!



Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Leader of all Malaysians? Errrr.....Ok!

Reproduced from the Malaysian Insider

The leader of all Malaysians. Once it captured the spirit of optimism that accompanied Abdullah Ahmad Badawi into office as the country's fifth prime minister.

Today, it is a reminder of what should have been; what could have been; another unfulfilled promise by a politician who promised to blur the racial and religious lines but ended up delivering an even more polarized nation five years on. The leader of all Malaysians.

Once it offered the umbrella of comfort for non-Muslims, planting hope among the 45 per cent of the country's population that the difficult issues of conversion, places of worship and freedom of religion would be tackled.Today, these five words have been buried by a community feeling increasingly despondent about their place here and the ability of important institutions to protect the rights of all Malaysians.

The numbers tell the story. A comprehensive survey on political developments since Election 2008 show that only 18 per cent of the 3,000 people polled identified Abdullah as the leader of all Malaysians, with only 7.3 per cent Chinese believing that he had done enough to deserve the moniker. Generally, more Indians and Chinese feel that he protects the interests of Malays more than he looks after the other races.

Even the anecdotal evidence suggests that the despair is coursing through the veins of many non-Muslims. Datuk A. Vaithalingam has always been a straight-talker. He never fudged or hedged when he was a top official in the golden era of the Malaysian sports scene, the days when the country's football team was a source of national pride and Isthiaq Mubarak was clearing hurdles at the Olympics.

But he outdid himself last Wednesday. Speaking as the president of the Malaysian Consultative Council of Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Sikhism and Taoism, he gave a candid appraisal of the non-Muslim sentiment in the country to Abdullah.

"I must report to you that many non-Muslims feel marginalised in today's Malaysia. There is growing discomfort with the rapid Islamisation of our society. Universal values of ethical conduct and good governance, values which are shared by all religions, are appropriated by some to be only "Islamic", '' he said at the 25th anniversary of the council.

He cautioned the Prime Minister - the guest-of-honour - that unless concrete steps were taken to assure 45 per cent of Malaysia's population of fair treatment, the outflow of talent from the country would continue unabated.

Abdullah thanked him for his honesty and made the usual sounds on the need to be fair to all races. But even the PM knows that his government has not come close to delivering on any promises to non-Muslims since he came to power in October 2003.

Questions of body snatching or the status of burial rights for non-Muslims whose conversion to Islam was unknown to the dead person's family remain unresolved.

Abdullah promised to put in place a mechanism after the nastiness surrounding the burial of Everest hero Moorthy in 2006.

Little has changed since then. Similarly, there has been some disquiet over the plight of mothers whose husbands convert to Islam and then, avoid their commitments under the civil law to their former family. Non Muslims are unhappy that the courts are allowing one parent to convert children to Islam even if the other parent does not consent.

Vaithilingam also noted: "In schools, our children are not permitted to and do not get education in their own religion. Moral lessons are reportedly vetted by the Islamic authorities.''

His litany of complaints on Wednesday was long.

This is not the first time that the council has voiced their displeasure at the state of neglect over the interests of non-Muslims. Deep down, they know that Abdullah is not prepared to champion these issues, not when his own position in the country is precarious.

But they cannot keep the lid on the percolating discontent among the non-Muslims. That is why many of the religious groups backed the move by the Bar Council to proceed with its controversial public forum on conversion to Islam on Saturday.

The forum was eventually stopped by the organizers on the advice of police and threats by Muslim non-governmental groups.

Truth to be told, little good would have emerged from a forum not represented by major Muslim players such as Parti Islam SeMalaysia, Umno and Jakim. But in the absence of any meaningful moves by the government or political parties to resolve issues related to conversion, non-Muslims are prone to support any group willing to discussing these matters.

Abdullah and other Umno leaders have urged the Bar Council and other bodies to discuss sensitive matters behind closed doors but the Prime Minister will know from recent experience that this approach does not guarantee any progress. For example, he knows that many of his Umno colleagues in Cabinet are either against or ambivalent about promoting dialogue between Muslims and non-Muslims. That is why Datuk Shafie Apdal's proposal to have more dialogue on national unity was shot down vigorously by an Umno minister during a recent Cabinet meeting.

A cabinet minister, who declined to be identified, told the Malaysian Insider: "Shafie did not get much support.

Pak Lah did not say much and neither did Najib. It could because this is the Umno election season and nobody wants to do anything which will upset party members. But it could also be in-built mechanism against dealing with any difficult issue, whether judicial reform or other reforms.''

There is little doubt that the party grassroots is ambivalent about reform - and this is a charitable interpretation.

During recent branch meetings, Umno members were focused on Malay unity - specifically the need to stay as one and fight off demands from the increasingly vocal non-Malay population.

There was little discussion on the need to shed the party's perceived arrogance and refill the depleting bank of non-Malay support.

Against this backdrop and with the upcoming party elections in December, no national leader is going to champion the cause of non-Muslims and risk alienating the Muslim constituency.

Certainly not the man who once said that he was the leader of all Malaysians. That claim rings hollow among many non-Muslims today.

Malaysia's Fraying Racial Compact

By Philip Bowring

The informal racial compact that has worked so well for Malaysia since the bloody riots of 1969 is unraveling under domestic and international pressure.

Two anti-government demonstrations in Kuala Lampur last month - one on Nov. 10 demanding election reform and another on Nov. 26 that drew 10,000 ethnic Indians protesting discrimination - erupted in violence and ended in arrests as protesters clashed with the police. The demonstrations, the biggest in a decade, were illegal because the authorities had not granted permission for them to take place.

The essence of the compact is that the mainstream political representatives of the non-Malay minorities - mostly Chinese and Indians - accept not merely the political supremacy and special position of the Malays, who make up three-fifths of the country's 27 million people, but also massive affirmative action programs to raise the Malays' economic and social status.

In broad terms this policy has been successful. Racial peace, if not harmony, has been maintained and the relative economic position of the Malays has risen dramatically. Formal equality targets may not have been met. But unless there is drastic scaling back of affirmative action, an intensification of racial animosities is likely, along with Malay assumptions of entitlement to a perpetual subsidy.

The Indian demonstration was significant for two reasons. First, it drew attention to the fact that Indians, not Malays, are now the most economically disadvantaged group. While Malaysia has a significant Indian professional elite, the mostly Tamil descendents of indentured workers brought in by the British as plantation laborers remain at the bottom of the ladder.

Second, the protest saw an attempt to internationalize the race issue with appeals to India and Britain - a move that angered many Malaysians.

In India, the chief minister of Tamil Nadu state demanded that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh help the cause of Malaysian Indians. The Hindu Rights Action Force, which organized the demonstration, is also bringing a legal case against Britain, asserting that it failed to protect Indian rights at the time of independence.

Meanwhile Beijing, which has often avoided identifying with its ethnic brethren overseas, may be starting to change its stance as Chinese pride rises and its leadership comes under domestic pressure to play uncle to Chinese everywhere.

On Malaysia's domestic front things are changing too. Gradually, perhaps irreversibly, class is beginning to assume a role in political discourse long dominated entirely by race. Years of strong economic growth and the urbanization of a once largely rural Malay population mean that low-income people of all races are seeing some common interests. Low-income Malays may become more aggrieved than non-Malays if they see the benefits of affirmative action mainly going to the conspicuously consuming elite.

Even at the mundane level of trade, the issues of preferences is an obstacle to a free trade agreement with the United States and could run into difficulties within the Asean free trade area.

In practice, Malaysia has taken a very pragmatic approach to foreign investment, granting waivers in special zones and for export projects. But for non-Malay local businesses, that has merely underlined the extra burdens they face and explains the continued exodus of non-Malay private capital and talent.

Another factor that is putting pressure on informal compact is Islam, which has assumed a larger role in the Malay political consciousness than was the case in 1969. In many respects it has become more conservative. The increased identification of race with religion has added to the racial divides created by preferential policies. In the case of Indians, injury has been added to insult by the destruction of Hindu temples to make way for new development projects.

What is also beginning to trouble an often complacent, Malay-led elite that has been in power for half a century, is the surge of discontent at a time of rapid economic growth driven by the high price of Malaysia's export commodities. This should help the well-meaning but so far ineffectual prime minister, Abdullah Badawi, to a victory in the election, expected in early 2008, large enough to cement his leadership of the governing party. This would provide an opportune time to lead Malaysia away from permanent racial preferences.

Malaysian Media Told To Self-Censor Reports On Ethnic Indian Crackdown

The Associated Press

Malaysia's government has told the mainstream media not to sensationalize a crackdown on ethnic Indians following an unprecedented rally against racial discrimination in Muslim-majority Malaysia, officials said.

Che Din Yusoh, a senior official with the Internal Security Ministry, said newspaper editors had been given "verbal advice" not to highlight sensitive issues related to the Nov. 25 rally by at least 20,000 ethnic Indians that police broke up by force.

"Don't sensationalize what police are doing. Don't give a very negative picture ... We have guidelines on publication, and they have to implement (self) censorship," he told The Associated Press late Wednesday.

Malaysiakini, an independent Internet news portal, reported Wednesday that top editors of all dailies were summoned by the government for a meeting, and were told not to give prominence to Hindu Rights Action Force, or Hindraf, the group that is leading the Indian unrest.

An editor of a Tamil-language daily, catering to Indians, confirmed the meeting took place Tuesday. He told the AP that the government advised all chief editors to be "very careful" about "sharp wordings," especially in headlines. He spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.

Che said he could only confirm guidelines were issued but gave no details.

Most Malaysian newspapers and electronic media outlets are controlled by the government or political parties in the ruling coalition. They also operate with a government license, which must be renewed annually. Internet news sites do not have these restrictions.

Traditionally, Malaysia's mainstream media have been pro-government but some newspapers have become bolder in recent years and have openly discussed issues such as race relations that were previously taboo.

Newspapers gave wide coverage to the Hindraf rally and the court hearings of 31 Indians charged with attempted murder for a head injury sustained by a policeman during the demonstration. The Indians were denied bail Thursday.

Che said the media were told not to play up Hindraf's claims — debunked by most Malaysians — that Indians are victims of ethnic cleansing in Malaysia.

"Instead of trying to tarnish the image of the government ... the media should use their common sense and discretion to refute this kind of allegations," he said.

Che said his ministry monitored the media all the time to make sure their coverage did not endanger national security interests or create social unrest.

Last month's protests have shaken the government and raised fears it would destroy the fragile peace between the country's three main communities - Muslim Malays who form 60 percent of the country's 27 million people, the ethnic Chinese who are a quarter of the population and ethnic Indians who are 8 percent.

Malays control the government and the Chinese dominate the business. The Indians complain they are at the bottom of the society with little wealth, education or job opportunities because of government policies that give preferential treatment to Malays.