Are Malays and minorities marginalize in S'pore?
-
Most Chinese Singaporeans will not think so. But would like to hear from Malay Singaporeans and other minorities Singaporeans.
See below what a former Malaysian MP has written to Malaysian PM:
Dear Prime Minister.
May you and family be in the best of health and blessings.
If there is a way, can you ask local papers or media channels to stop from reporting or discussing the remarks made by MM Lee about Malaysian Chinese?
I say this coz comments published in Singapore (supporting MM's comments) are made from a skewed angle and do not take into account the historical reasons.
The comments so far are made by Chinese Singaporeans who do not really understand the issues. They also seem to suggest that similar problems do not exist in Singapore when, in fact, Singapore Malays in their own motherland, Singapore, are treated more dismally that Malaysian Chinese in the land of Malay Bumis.
Indeed, if this issue is to continue, then it is only fair to show that Chinese leaders in Singapore are doing greater injustice to Singapore Malays than Malay Malaysian leaders to Malaysian Chinese.
The Malaysian Chinese are not bumis in Malaysia yet they get nearly every thing:
a) Right to have Chinese vernacular education from preschool to university.
b) Right to retain their Chinese names [The Chinese in Indonesia and Thailand get nothing of that sort. Worse, they have to have Thai or Indonesian names]
c) Right to display Chinese names in Chinese characters in huge public adverts in buildings and public places
d) In development projects, they reap early profits as all projects require infrastructures and these materials are controlled by Malaysian Chinese
e) Voting strength by constituencies also show so many Chinese advantage.
It is good for us not to say that Malaysian Chinese are "marginalized".
If they want to talk about marginalization or injustices, it is better that they talk about Singapore Malays who, in their own motherland, are marginalized and subject to so many injustices:
1. Malay language has lost its stature in the State and industry
2. Chinese language has now become a universal precondition in employment
2. Malays are "cordoned off" in National Service. Many key security sites are out-of-bounds to Malays [Even Malay Ministers and MP's are not allowed to enter such areas]
3. The Civil Defence takes in high proportion of Malays considering the lower stature of CD and the higher death and injury risk in CD services
4. No Malays are holding key positions in government and statutory boards.
5. Malay MP's are given sinecures. In fact Malays are deemd fit only to be Ministers in Sewerage, Drainage, Refuse, Welfare and Drugs matters
6. Promotions and postings in government and statutory boards also show the Singapore Chinese' disdain towards Singapore Malays
7. Recent retrenchments also reflected that Singapore Malays "should go first"
8. Proportion of Singapore Malays who remained unemployed is high, notwithstanding good educational and vocational qualifications
9. Vast in-take of Chinese from China, Hong Kong and Taiwan into Singapore but strict control of Malays from Malaysia and Indonesia.
I hope your office would do something to stop thsi, or rectifiy the matter by giving the issue its proper balance.
I cc this note to BH Singapore and Malaysia.
I do not cc to Straits Times as they do not publish letters of this kind.
I cc to TODAY coz two strong letters were piblished in todays TODAY edition.
Regards
Mansor Haji Sukaimi
Former Member of Parliament (1976-1984) -
1) English is our first language. If we are moving towards a more English speaking society, that is not marginalisation. It shows the globalisation of our economy.
2) Certainly, this pre-condition does not exist in the public sector. If private companies want to employ Chinese-speaking people, it's not the government's job to interfere.
3) If more Malays want to join the Civil Defence, that is not marginalisation.
4) This may be true, I guess, because we are surrounded by Muslim countries.
5) Same as number 4
6) This is his personal opinion. Please show some statistics. Generally, the better qualified people get promoted.
7) Please show some statistics. The least qualified ones normally go first.
8] Also show some statistics.
9) I'm not sure what he is talking about. Is he talking about students, immigrants, tourists or who?
Talk about skewed angle. I wonder why he didn't list the injustices done to the Malaysian Chinese and the advantages received by the Singapore Malays? Given some of the vague answers, I wonder if a Malaysia MP will really write something like that. -
1. Malay language has lost its stature in the State and industry
Most people use english, the reason why chinese in Singapore border to learn mandarin is because of China
2. Chinese language has now become a universal precondition in employment
Because the China economy is many times bigger than Malaysia, the only country in the world that uses the Malay language
3. Malays are "cordoned off" in National Service. Many key security sites are out-of-bounds to Malays [Even Malay Ministers and MP's are not allowed to enter such areas]
Do you think Singaporeans really border about such thing?
3. The Civil Defence takes in high proportion of Malays considering the lower stature of CD and the higher death and injury risk in CD services
I think this has got to do with education level and this has got nothing to do with our education system.
(Actually, most singaporeans who like to KENG would be very glad to be posted to CD, regardless of races)
4. No Malays are holding key positions in government and statutory boards.
No comments
5. Malay MP's are given sinecures. In fact Malays are deemd fit only to be Ministers in Sewerage, Drainage, Refuse, Welfare and Drugs matters
No comments
6. Promotions and postings in government and statutory boards also show the Singapore Chinese' disdain towards Singapore Malays
No comments
7. Recent retrenchments also reflected that Singapore Malays "should go first"
This might be due to the fact that a high percentage of the blue collar workers are malays.
8. Proportion of Singapore Malays who remained unemployed is high, notwithstanding good educational and vocational qualifications
This has got nothing to do with races, but track record.
9. Vast in-take of Chinese from China, Hong Kong and Taiwan into Singapore but strict control of Malays from Malaysia and Indonesia
What does this got to do with the Malay singaporean? -
Put it this way, we might have a shady defence policy on ethnic make up of the defence forces, but we do not have explicit policy that can deny any ethnic group from the right to education and the freedom to earn a living legally
Think about it
-
Crap.
By these facts you want to justify the fact that chinese is not "marginalised" in Malaysia. Better luck next time. Anyway , I doubt that it was written by a former Ms'ian MP.
1 simple answer to those "so call privileges " if you think they are :-
WE FOUGHT FOR INDEPENDENCE. 3 RACES fought for IT!! not 1!!!
Malay - Tunku Abdul Rahman
Chinese - Tun Tan Cheng Lock
Indian - Tun Sambanthan
And..it was because M'sia can show their unity ...unity among these 3 races, British granted M'sia independence.
So..SO PLS DONT COMPARE with Indonesia and Thailand. -
1. the malay language lost of stature in the State and industry, reflects the poor economic standings of malaysia and indonesia, vis a vis other major economies which uses english.
2.the chinese language recent rise... reflects the rising economic value of mandarin considering the 1.4billion market of China.
europeans, americans, japanese and koreans have noted the value of mandarin... even malaysian malays was reported to be keen in studying mandarin.
3.security areas are for authorised personel only... skin colors(yellow or brown or purple) and asian frame is not an acceptable criterial for entry.
4.the CD is not of lower stature... only a barbarian would consider saving lives and rescueing people in need of help, irreguardless of race and religion, at the risk to personal safety as of lower stature.
5.who do i blame for not being made a minister.. i yellow skin leh.. somemore i speak 6 languages.
we need to make more minister post... add another 10,000 minister post to go around leh...
6. promotion... i wish to protest... i am chinese... but miss promotion many times liow leh... not fair!!!
7.retrenchments... singapore malays retrench... some monkey up north also KPKB, malaysian chinese got retrench leh? nobody cares...
8.same as 7... nobody cares for chinese...
9.malaysia got NEP mah... where got so many malaysian malays with backbone who would wanna leave malaysia? -
You don't talk c o c k. I won't say you are dumb...what you know about politics?Originally posted by outofcontrol225:1) English is our first language. If we are moving towards a more English speaking society, that is not marginalisation. It shows the globalisation of our economy.
2) Certainly, this pre-condition does not exist in the public sector. If private companies want to employ Chinese-speaking people, it's not the government's job to interfere.
3) If more Malays want to join the Civil Defence, that is not marginalisation.
4) This may be true, I guess, because we are surrounded by Muslim countries.
5) Same as number 4
6) This is his personal opinion. Please show some statistics. Generally, the better qualified people get promoted.
7) Please show some statistics. The least qualified ones normally go first.
8] Also show some statistics.
9) I'm not sure what he is talking about. Is he talking about students, immigrants, tourists or who?
Talk about skewed angle. I wonder why he didn't list the injustices done to the Malaysian Chinese and the advantages received by the Singapore Malays? Given some of the vague answers, I wonder if a Malaysia MP will really write something like that. -
Other races in M'sia are also marginalized.
-
Erm, so what's your point of view?Originally posted by Lowclassman:You don't talk c o c k. I won't say you are dumb...what you know about politics? -
This thread is really not worth discussing. Half-truths everywhere.
-
Correct me where I am wrongOriginally posted by Lowclassman:You don't talk c o c k. I won't say you are dumb...what you know about politics? -
The "historical reasons" phrase is inappropriate. We do not live in the past whatever happened historically shall only be kept in museum.
We should live for now, and for the future based on what we have now. What we have now is a multi-racial society, and we should capitalize on that. Let's not amplify the weaknesses of such society. Build on top of it instead. -
c o c k tunnel view lor... wat else can u expect from lowclass people?Originally posted by outofcontrol225:Erm, so what's your point of view? -
Originally posted by PoRen:
i question the authenticity of this letter.
.
I do not cc to Straits Times as they do not publish letters of this kind.
I cc to TODAY coz two strong letters were piblished in todays TODAY edition.
Regards
Mansor Haji Sukaimi
Former Member of Parliament (1976-1984) [/color][/b]
the former malaysian member of parliament spelled because as 'coz' and published as 'piblished'. not a very formal letter yeah? -
... looks like they don't have Speak Proper English campagne over there..Originally posted by foxtrout8:i question the authenticity of this letter.
the former malaysian member of parliament spelled because as 'coz' and published as 'piblished'. not a very formal letter yeah?
-
maybe its malay spellingOriginally posted by foxtrout8:i question the authenticity of this letter.
the former malaysian member of parliament spelled because as 'coz' and published as 'piblished'. not a very formal letter yeah? -
I can only guessed that the original is in Malay language, and that someone else had translated it.Originally posted by foxtrout8:i question the authenticity of this letter.
the former malaysian member of parliament spelled because as 'coz' and published as 'piblished'. not a very formal letter yeah? -
Originally posted by mistyblue:maybe its malay spelling
I can only guessed that the original is in Malay language, and that someone else had translated it.
perhaps...
-
Over the 41 years they have been intervening in our internal affairs on and off and on many occasions they are trying to harm the racial harmony in Singapore so as to score their political point.
-
They are oso commenting on our militiary stuff
-
well let me bring employment into this matter coz the rest i dont really care...
majority of the people here is CHINESE...and govt r inviting more n more china ppl who doesnt speak english here...therefore everyone need to know mandarin to accomodate those ppl who cant speak anglais...
and chinese prefer to employ chinese...becoz they have this stereotype that malay r lazy...
for chinese ppl here of coz they dont understand...its whene when they moved overseas and is treated like minorities then they understand how sucks it is for minorites -
I think they are reli quite 'ego'.
The issue of MM Lee's intentions/meanings aside, i just hope that those words from Malaysia would not provoke our fellow malays. It is for ourselves to see what is the actual situation. It is rather worrying to see our neighbor adopting such an attitude to us. From the water issues to current ones, i don't know whether it is us who are impudent, or them. -
dont think the malay wud be provoked..da same goes to other minorities...no one have a say in this country anways .we know majority wins...in order to compete wid china ppl..we have to learn ur language...Originally posted by aeskay:I think they are reli quite 'ego'.
The issue of MM Lee's intentions/meanings aside, i just hope that those words from Malaysia would not provoke our fellow malays. It is for ourselves to see what is the actual situation. It is rather worrying to see our neighbor adopting such an attitude to us. From the water issues to current ones, i don't know whether it is us who are impudent, or them.
at least in malaysia..the MALAY is the official language..so no one can argue bout it not being fair for da rest to learn malay...but in singapore English is the official! its sad that we still need to know mandarin to get jobs just coz some ppl aint good in english.. -
If Malays were marginalized here, would there have been TWO Malay Singapore idols in a row???
-
If the minorities in Msia are marginalised, how come there are two non-Malay Malaysian Idols? There is another singing competition recently, One in a Million, and the winner is Chinese.Originally posted by ShutterBug:If Malays were marginalized here, would there have been TWO Malay Singapore idols in a row???
But then, it's silly to use winners of singing competitions as examples of marginalisation.
As I've mentioned before, you cant talk abt marginalisation until you've experienced it before. Lots of jobs want "Chinese speaking" ppl, in other words, Chinese ppl. It doesnt matter if you are non-Chi, able to speak Chi, coz I have Malay friends who can speak Chi, yet the employers still want Chinese ppl to work for them.