Mahathir: A poorly crafted concept of societal development
Mahathir has decided to do all in his power to undermine the government headed by Anwar Ibrahim. The aim is not to make life better for the Malay community or make them richer or politically powerful, but he is set to destroy Anwar's rule as Prime Minister
After decades of belief in a multiracial and multicultural society for Malaysia, fighting the other political ideals like communism and ‘Malaysian Malaysia’ while demonising the Islamic way of life in the process, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad has suddenly discovered a new system that will, according to his new beliefs, unite and protect the Malays.
Mahathir has never been in favour of an Islamisation of Malaysia. Now he is the de-facto Ustaz of the Parti Islam Malaysia a party he fought and bullied for decades.
In the process he is calling his buddies from the MCA and MIC or Gerakan the ‘pendatang’ in Malaysia. That is they do not originate from Malaya and are not followers of the Malay culture.
To be Malay you must follow Islam and speak Malay as well as wear Malay costumes. However, to be a Muslim across the globe is to abide by Islam and its customs, and these customs and practices are different at times from the Malay customs. Does that make the Muslims outside Malaysia non-Muslims because they do not abide or practice many of the Malay customs?
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Mahathir and a new Malaysia
In essence, Mahathir is trying to create a new society in which the Malays will have 100% powers and the pendatang May become second class citizens without the same rights enjoyed by the 'original' race.
Many are saying everyone is a pendatang in Malaysia and if we go down in history, there was a time when no humans were living on this land. What is Malaysia today, was not made to measure of one race or religious beliefs. It was for animals and other living beings who were ruling and enjoying the fruits of this wonderful land.
Humans may have come to this particular land much later after the arrival of Adam AS on earth. That makes the land here an unoccupied territory by humans until the first travellers reached the area. We have lost touch with history and we do not know who was the first to arrive here. Yet, it does not matter who came first because the land was unoccupied by man before the first humans arrived.
That makes it easier to agree that everyone here are pendatangs. Nevertheless, Mahathir has started a racial segregation campaign that is probably against the charters of the United Nations and maybe in violation of human rights as we know it today.
This alone may turn Malaysia into the next Myanmar in the Asean with active race segregation policies and the future treatment of minorities as second class citizens. An eerie reminder of the once mighty Nazi regime with its labour camps and race purifying techniques?
On the other hand, without knowing how it will really work in reality, Tun M is also pressing for a society where the Malay community will be the richest since they will have the cake and they will eat it too, which goes against the idiom “You can't have your cake and eat it.”
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Behind in societal development
In the Emirates as well as in Saudi Arabia etc, the residents who originated from the time the countries earned their independence are the ‘original’ people. They are categorised as such by the right of birth and earned the citizenship of these emirates after independence.
They own the entire country, they rarely work since they do not have jobs but they are richer than the pendatang because the pendatang earns a living by working for a salary that will never raise your standard of living higher than the locals.
In Malaysia, the country started with a multitude of races earning their citizenship by right of birth and right of residing in the country at the time it gained its independence. The Merdeka of 1958 was not for the Malays only. It was for everyone who earned a passport and an Ic biru as per their constitutional rights.
Those rights are now being questioned and the minorities may face the full brunt of conservatives who probably want to recreate Malaysia into an emirate that favours the majority race and makes it more difficult for the monitories. As said earlier, this could be in direct violation of human rights and the UN charters guiding the societies in ‘free’ countries like Malaysia.
If that is what Mahathir has in mind, I bet he is going to leave behind a fragmented society that will be eternally rigged with internal strife, thus running the country and sending it down into the drain.