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Monday, August 23, 2010

Multi-racial Malaysia


I have been asked "What is the meaning of a multi-racial Malaysia to me?"

Being multi-racial does not mean the same thing to every multi-racial country e.g. Singapore claims to be multi-racial but basically it is a predominantly Chinese State.

Because of the refusal of the descendants of migrants from China and India to be assimilated by the indigenous people we have to accept the retention of the identity of Malaysian citizens of Chinese and Indian origin. The people of Indonesian origin chose to be assimilated by the indigenous people, so they don't constitute a separate entity.

Multi-racial countries are usually unstable. Racial conflicts occur frequently. If Malaysia is to avoid racial conflicts it must try to reduce the differences between the different races.

We cannot change ethnicity. So we have to accept the ethnic differences. Religious differences also cannot be changed.

However, various aspects of the cultures can be made common. Chinese food in Malaysia reflect the influence of Malay and Indian tastes. We can celebrate each other's festivals etc. etc.

But economic disparities pose a major problem. Yet this is one area where corrections can be made and can reduce tension in a multi-racial society.

If we care to look we would notice that even in a single ethnic country, disparities in wealth distribution lead to conflicts. The principal reason why the Socialist and Communist ideologies were formulated and then espoused by the working class is because of the extreme disparities of wealth between the workers and the employers. But Socialism and Communism tended to reduce economic growth, causing not only the rich to suffer but also the poor.

Trade Unions also tend to stunt economic growth, as they are often abused as for example the holding of nationwide strikes for political reasons.

These confrontations between workers and employers, basically between poor and rich, happens quite often even in single-ethnic countries.

Now if the workers and the poor are made up largely of one race in a multi-racial country and the employers are rich and are of another race, then class confrontation would be amplified by racial animosity. That was the basic situation in Malaysia pre-1969, and we know the results.

The Malay, Chinese and Indian leaders of that time agreed that the disparities in wealth between the races must be corrected. That is why we introduced the New Economic Policy which proposes to eliminate the identification of race with economic functions.

Unfortunately the affirmative action we have to undertake must result in discrimination against Chinese and Indians in favour of the Bumiputera. This caused resentment because even the economically prosperous race must have a fair number of poor members. These people will feel the discrimination more acutely.

Malaysian races are symbiotic and they really complement each other. Even though multi-racial Malaysia will still be ethnically multi-racial, Malaysia would remain relatively peaceful, capable of good economic growth and exhibit relative harmony between races if the leadership of the country understands this problem and knows how to manage.

That is as much as we can hope for since we are opposed to the adoption of a single mother tongue and culture and to dropping the identification with the countries our ancestors came from.


p/s:So,what do you think? (^_^)

1 Write Down Your Opinion:

Ahmad said...

http://chedet.co.cc/chedetblog/2008/06/multiracial-malaysia.html

I found the same article in the web address above. Whenever you copied from others, please cite the reference or get the permission from the writer. If you don't seek the permission, people consider you plagiarise others. Stop plagiarism.

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