POLITICAL CORRECTNESS IN MALAYSIA

By : STEPHEN YAMAN

RAYMOND Tombung last Sunday May 20, 2012 wrote about “The perils of political correctness” and what are happening in the West about heads of government trying to balance their opinions on certain 'catch 22' issues – some very interesting accounts.

And he mentioned the intricate issue of the way things are in Malaysia. I would like to add that in Malaysia whatever the opposition people say are lies no matter how true they are. Many politicians claim that they only know many issues when they read the newspapers. BN politicians give us the impression that they never seem to make any mistake and/or apologize (only the PM apologized but for what) – so, deny, and deny… as we have seen over the years.

A sex scandal politician can still run a major political party in Malaysia while saying that an opposition party has given a false impression that Penang has a successful administration to impress the Chinese community. Are the citizens not matured enough to develop their own impression if the opposition or the BN is right?

If that is so, his party or the former party that rule the state should convince the Penang voters and wrest back the state from the opposition in the coming election which is the only way to prove that the opposition is wrong and the two parties system works for Malaysia. But I read otherwise the opinion of a foreign journalist’s article in a local newspaper a few months ago (the strides and successes the opposition in Penang has made since 2008 and some information based on the parliament reports).

What he was saying in a recent article is not so fair “that if a certain party gets the Chinese support all the problems faced by the community will be solved”. As a Chinese party, MCA has for many years got the Chinese support but how come they never seemed to solve many Chinese issues.

They have instead been involved in so many party squabbles and infightings that we lost count over the years and some shady situations yet unsolved. Yes, nobody is a “superman” as he said but give others due credit when credit is due. Don’t we all know that Penang has done pretty well in the four years since 2008 – to see is to believe so go to Penang and visit?

In a recent issue, the government is saying that “The Malays depend too much on government”. Who is there to blame? Are the people in the government examining themselves when issuing such a statement?

When the politician mentioned Malays, does he mean all Malays or just some who are not in the opposition (because the Malays in the opposition are not getting any favors)? Even Malays within a certain government group are not necessarily getting favors. He expects the Malays to gain control of the economy but is the government giving equal chances to all Malays over the years?

Why don’t we look at Malaysia as “Malaysian” to justify 1Malaysia concept like Americans in USA rather than people of different races? So we see today a great grandson of an ex-slave in USA becoming first black President - kudos President A. Lincoln for abolishing slavery.

To a certain extent, we as Malaysian are getting a certain level of political maturity not yet enough to fully practice a two party system seen everywhere overseas. We should not be thinking “Malay this and Malay that”, but “we are Malaysians”. Until such point in time that we begin to think as “Malaysians”, we will continue to segregate ourselves as people of different races.

In Sabah and Sarawak, we have always been thinking as Malaysian and the 1Malaysia concept is nothing new. When the concept was first introduced, we (in East Malaysia) just said “What is new?” For more than 10 years I worked in Kuala Lumpur and many states from Johor to Kedah and Perlis, it is only in West Malaysia that people are oriented by “UMNO for Malays, MIC for Indians, MCA for Chinese, etc”.

Then there were breakaway parties in BN. A party in East Malaysia is just a concept and grouping of people with similar ideas. Leaders of BN component parties are still oriented on race and toeing a line – Malay, Chinese. Indian, and so on. Until we really change and become 'Malaysians', we stand segregated.