Malays Royally Screwed By BN/Umno

Contributed by Krishna Singh

Umno, the Malay Chamber of Commerce, Perkasa, Ibrahim Ali, and whatnot
are shouting, ranting, raving, screaming and hollering about‘nasib
Melayu’ or the plight of the Malays, in particular the Malays of Penang.
I don’t know what Ibrahim Ali was doing back in the mid-1970s but judging
from the age of many of those others in the crowd I think many of them
tak sunat lagi back in the mid-1970s. Tak sunat lagi means you are so
young that you are not circumcised yet and your little dick still has its
foreskin.

Yes, back in the mid-1970s -- 35 years or so ago when I was still in my
20s and not even 30 yet -- I was already fighting to improve the lot of
the Malays. And 35 years ago those shouting, ranting, raving, screaming
and hollering today were either too damn young or were not even born yet.
We realised even back then that if something were not done the Malays
would be left out. We realised that unless something were done now, 35
years ago, the Malays would be left behind. So we sat down with various
Malay leaders and those who walk in the corridors of power -- the Prime
Minister included -- to plan and chart the future of the Malays. And we
did this for more than twenty years from the mid-1970s to the mid-1990s
before I decided it was a lost cause and that I had better move on to
other things.

The problem we faced was as what the then Minister of Trade and Industry
Rafidah Aziz said: Melayu mampu daya maju tapi tak mampu daya tahan. This
came from the Minister herself and means the Malays can be viable but
can’t be sustainable. Malays can achieve success but can’t sustain the
success.

The Minister then revealed details and lamented about all the wealth the
government gave the Malays in the form of land, concessions, permits,
‘pink slips’ on new stock exchange listings, and whatnot, which, if the
Malays had kept, would mean the Malays would have far exceeded the 30%
target of the New Economic Policy.

But the Malays did not keep this wealth. The Malays sold it. The land,
concessions, permits, ‘pink slips’ on new stock exchange listings, and
whatnot, were all sold. So the Malay holding reduced and ended up in the
hand of the non-Malays. This was what troubled the government, the Malay
leaders, those who walk in the corridors of power, and us in the Malay
Chamber of Commerce.

So they now lament about how left behind the Malays in Penang are. They
should chart the progression of the Malays in Penang from 224 years ago
until today and analyse at what point it went up and went down again.

Were the Malays driven out? Were the Malays pushed out? Or did the Malays
sell out? And why and how did the Malays sell out?

There is such a thing called the law of supply and demand. There is such
a thing called market forces. There is such a thing called willing buyer,
willing seller. When there is a demand there will be a seller. And since
there was a demand for land in Penang then for sure the landowners would
sell. It is all about making a profit.

So Penang developed. It became known as the Pearl of the Orient. So the
capitalists moved in, as capitalists always do anywhere in the world
where there is money to be made. And the Malays saw the route to easy and
quick cash available to them. So they sold their land for a lot of money
and moved on to another place where the land was cheaper. Now they could
have their cake and could eat it too. They sold their small piece of land
in Penang for a lot of money and bought an even bigger piece of land, say
in Kedah, for a small amount of money and still had a lot of money left
to go to Mekah, send their kids to university, and what not.

Today, many of those old folks and landowners of the 1960s and 1970s are
dead. They are no longer alive. Their land in Penang had been sold off
long before they died. And their children and grandchildren no longer own
land in Penang. This is because the old folks had sold it off when they
were still young or before they were born.

Today, the Malays are angry because the land in Penang is owned mainly by
the non-Malays. But this is so not because the non-Malays stole the land
but because the Malays sold it for a lot of money. It is what any
property owner would do when the property they bought for RM100 two world
wars ago can now fetch RM500,000 on the open market. Only a fool would
turn down RM500,000 in profit.

The more the Malays scream about being left behind in Penang the more the
Malays would look stupid and would be revealing their weaknesses. Back in
the 1970s the government already sighed and lamented that come the year
2000, the Malays would still be left with nothing.

We can help the Malays, the government said. We can do what you want us
to do. But if the Malays just sell off whatever we give them, then come
2000 the Malays would still end up with nothing. And then the Malays
would turn round and blame the government. The Malays would say the
government does not care about them. They will never admit that the
government did so much for the Malays but the Malays chose quick cash
instead of sustaining and maintaining for the long term what the
government gave them.

Say what you like about Rafidah Aziz and those many of the 1970s and
1980s era. They did try and they tried very hard. I should know because I
was part of it. But we all knew that it was a futile effort. We can try
to help the Malays to get rich. But they will not stay rich. They will
sell all for quick cash and then will become poor again. And then they
will blame the government because they are poor.

This was anticipated 35 years ago back in the 1970s. And the government
told us this would happen. But we still tried. And now it is proven that
the government was right, 35 years ago.

Today, Pakatan Rakyat is ruling Penang. But Penang was founded 224 years
ago back in 1786.

Tomorrow, Pakatan Rakyat would have ruled Penang for exactly two years.
For 222 years before that it was not Pakatan Rakyat that was ruling
Penang. But Pakatan Rakyat is being blamed for 224 years of Penang
history.

Yes, Perkasa, the new ‘Malay rights’ movement headed by Ibrahim Ali. Ask
Ibrahim Ali how much the government gave him since the 1980s. In the
1970s when I was already fighting for the Malays he was still a student.
Ask Ibrahim Ali to total up everything the government gave him the last
30 years or so. That figure should come to at least RM200 million-RM300
million.

How much does Ibrahim Ali still have left? Can he even find RM1 million
in his bank account? Where did all that hundreds of millions go? Yes, ask
Ibrahim Ali to ask himself all these questions. Then he will understand
what happened to the Malays. What happened to the Malays is exactly what
happened to him. He sold off everything and spent all the money just like
hose other Malays. And now he blames the Chinese because he is broke.