YONG BLAME ZAHID ON PATRIOTISM

By: DATUK YONG TECK LEE

IT is a double insult for the Defence Minister Zahid Hamidi to blame the ‘lack of patriotism’ for the dismally small number of non-Malays in the armed forces. Having being systemically excluded from the armed forces over the last five decades, non-Malays are now being labeled as less patriotic than Melayu for not joining the armed forces. This ministerial statement must not be left unchallenged.

Zahid Hamidi should not forget the country’s history when Malaysians of all races had fought side by side. Sabahans and Sarawakians from the Rangers and Iban Trackers had successfully defeated the communists during the Malayan Emergency (1948- 1960). In Sabah (then North Borneo), local people of all races had banded together to fight the Japanese occupation. The next time the Defence Minister comes to Sabah, he should visit the Petagas War Memorial and see for himself the final resting place of our martyrs.

In the early years after independence, the armed forces, the police and the civil service were multi-racial. By way of policy and practice, the federal civil service has changed from Malaysian to Melayu. It is not ‘lack of patriotism’ but a ‘marginalization of non-Melayu’ that has turned our armed forces from Malaysian into Melayu.

If you go to Prime Minister’s office in Putrajaya, almost everybody from the security at the main gate to the lift operators, the drivers, tea lady, clerks, officers and top officials are all Melayu. At federal ministries, only non-UMNO politicians and their political aides are non-Melayu. The same pattern is seen in most government offices and agencies. For the country to be strong and united, the BN government should rectify this single-race civil service into a truly Malaysian one.

It is also dangerously racist for the Defence Minister to blame ‘concern over strict discipline and low pay’ as other factors. It is as though non-Malays lack discipline and are interested only in good pay. The Defence Minister does not realize the strict discipline that is required in the private sector and the selfless charity and social work rendered by so many citizens outside the civil service.