I don’t often write letters to newspapers, but a letter that appeared in the Star’s Mind Our English section last month was just screaming for a response.
Here’s the letter that got me in the mood to rant. And here’s my response.
I kept referring to the writer as ‘the writer’ in my letter simply because I wasn’t sure whether Cheah Teik Ee is a man or a woman. Apologies to him/her for that.
His/her letter was doomed right from the opening sentence:
USING a pronoun before a subject is named, is stupid.
Actually it’s not stupid. Know what is though? That comma. Heh. Well, to be fair to Cheah Teik Ee, I see that particular mistake often in Malaysian newspapers (at least in the Star and the NST), so I suppose he/she is no worse than some Malaysian journalists and editors in that respect. But that’s a rant for another day.
I know, I know. So many major world issues out there worthy of passionate letters to editors, and yet this is what I choose to write in about. Heh.
Thanks to Sashi for telling me my little rant had actually been published.
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Somas do they have codeine in them.
Codeine. Allergic symptoms signs codeine.
9 Comments
Nice one!
How long before you become published as “Mr. Angry of Puchong”?
I get worse examples at work that I have to correct before it can be read. But to be fair most Malaysians are not too bad with their English since it is not usually their first language. This letter however was probably walking around with a bull eye on it.
Anyway I have been following your blog for a while. Very nice - please don’t give up even if you have writers block. I am interested in reading your views from the point of a matsalleh with a Malay wife, since I am in a similar position.
BTW – let’s see more of Smokey!
Regards
List of racial discriminations in Malaysia, practiced by government as well as government agencies. This list is an open secret. Best verified by government itself because it got the statistics.
This list is not in the order of importance, that means the first one on the list is not the most important and the last one on the list does not mean least important.
This list is a common knowledge to a lot of Malaysians, especially those non-malays (Chinese, Ibans, Kadazans, Orang Asli, Tamils, etc) who were being racially discriminated.
Figures in this list are estimates only and please take it as a guide only. Government of Malaysia has the most correct figures. Is government of Malaysia too ashamed to publish their racist acts by publishing racial statistics?
This list cover a period of about 49 years since independence (1957).
List of racial discriminations (Malaysia):
(1) Out of all the 5 major banks, only one bank is multi-racial, the rest are controlled by malays
(2) 99% of Petronas directors are malays
(3) 3% of Petronas employees are Chinese
(4) 99% of 2000 Petronas gasoline stations are owned by malays
(5) 100% all contractors working under Petronas projects must be bumis status
(6) 0% of non-malay staffs is legally required in malay companies. But there must be 30% malay staffs in Chinese companies
(7) 5% of all new intake for government army, nurses, polices, is non-malays
(8) 2% is the present Chinese staff in Royal Malaysian Air Force (RMAF), drop from 40% in 1960
(9) 2% is the percentage of non-malay government servants in Putrajaya. But malays make up 98%
(10) 7% is the percentage of Chinese government servants in the whole government (in 2004), drop from 30% in 1960
(11) 95% of government contracts are given to malays
(12) 100% all business licensees are controlled by malay government e.g. Approved Permits, Taxi Permits, etc
(13) 80% of the Chinese rice millers in Kedah had to be sold to malay controlled Bernas in 1980s. Otherwise, life is make difficult for Chinese rice millers
(14) 100 big companies set up, managed and owned by Chinese Malaysians were taken over by government, and later managed by malays since 1970s e.g. MISC, UMBC, UTC, etc
(15) At least 10 Chinese owned bus companies (throughout Malaysia, throughout 40 years) had to be sold to MARA or other malay transport companies due to rejection by malay authority to Chinese application for bus routes and rejection for their application for new buses
(16) 2 Chinese taxi drivers were barred from driving in Johor Larkin bus station. There are about 30 taxi drivers and 3 are Chinese in October 2004. Spoiling taxi club properties was the reason given
(17) 0 non-malays are allowed to get shop lots in the new Muar bus station (November 2004)
(18) 8000 billion ringgit is the total amount the government channeled to malay pockets through ASB, ASN, MARA, privatisation of government agencies, Tabung Haji etc, through NEP over 34 years period
(19) 48 Chinese primary schools closed down since 1968 - 2000
(20) 144 Indian primary schools closed down since 1968 - 2000
(21) 2637 malay primary schools built since 1968 - 2000
(22) 2.5% is government budget for Chinese primary schools. Indian schools got only 1%, malay schools got 96.5%
(23) While a Chinese parent with RM1000 salary (monthly) cannot get school-text-book-loan, a malay parent with RM2000 salary is eligible
(24) 10 all public universities vice chancellors are malays
(25) 5% - the government universities lecturers of non-malay origins had been reduced from about 70% in 1965 to only 5% in 2004
(26) Only 5% is given to non-malays for government scholarships over 40 years
(27) 0 Chinese or Indians were sent to Japan and Korea under “Look East Policy”
(28) 128 STPM Chinese top students could not get into the course that they aspired e.g. Medicine (in 2004)
(29) 10% place for non-bumi students for MARA science schools beginning from year 2003, but only 7% are filled. Before that it was 100% malays
(30) 50 cases whereby Chinese and Indian Malaysians, are beaten up in the National Service program in 2003
(31) 25% is Malaysian Chinese population in 2004, drop from 45% in 1957
(32) 7% is the present Malaysian Indians population (2004), a drop from 12% in 1957
(33) 2 million Chinese Malaysians had emigrated to overseas since 40 years ago
(34) 0.5 million Indian Malaysians had emigrated to overseas
(35) 3 million Indonesians had migrated into Malaysia and became Malaysian citizens with bumis status
(36) 600000 are the Chinese and Indian Malaysians with red IC and were rejected repeatedly when applying for citizenship for 40 years. Perhaps 60% of them had already passed away due to old age. This shows racism of how easily Indonesians got their citizenship compare with the Chinese and Indians
(37) 5% - 15% discount for a malay to buy a house, regardless whether the malay is poor or rich
(38) 2% is what Chinese new villages get compare with 98% of what malay villages got for rural development budget
(39) 50 road names (at least) had been changed from Chinese names to other names
(40) 1 Dewan Gan Boon Leong (in Malacca) was altered to other name (e.g. Dewan Serbaguna or sort) when it was being officially used for a few days. Government try to shun Chinese names. This racism happened in around year 2000 or sort
(41) 0 churches/temples were built for each housing estate. But every housing estate got at least one mosque/surau built
(42) 3000 mosques/surau were built in all housing estates throughout Malaysia since 1970. No churches, no temples are required to be built in housing estates
(43) 1 Catholic church in Shah Alam took 20 years to apply to be constructed. But told by malay authority that it must look like a factory and not look like a church. Still not yet approved in 2004
(44) 1 publishing of Bible in Iban language banned (in 2002)
(45) 0 of the government TV stations (RTM1, RTM2, TV3) are directors of non-malay origins
(46) 30 government produced TV dramas and films always showed that the bad guys had Chinese face, and the good guys had malay face. You can check it out since 1970s. Recent years, this tendency becomes less
(47) 10 times, at least, malays (especially Umno) had threatened to massacre the Chinese Malaysians using May 13 since 1969
(48) 20 constituencies won by DAP would not get funds from the government to develop. Or these Chinese majority constituencies would be the last to be developed
(49) 100 constituencies (parliaments and states) had been racistly re-delineated so Chinese voters were diluted that Chinese candidates, particularly DAP candidates lost in election since 1970s
(50) Only 3 out of 12 human rights items are ratified by Malaysia government since 1960
(51) 0 - elimination of all forms of racial discrimination (UN Human Rights) is not ratified by Malaysia government since 1960s
(52) 20 reported cases whereby malay ambulance attendances treated Chinese patients inhumanely, and malay government hospital staffs purposely delay attending to Chinese patients in 2003. Unreported cases may be 200
(53) 50 cases each year whereby Chinese, especially Chinese youths being beaten up by malay youths in public places. We may check at police reports provided the police took the report, otherwise there will be no record
(54) 20 cases every year whereby Chinese drivers who accidentally knocked down malays were seriously assaulted or killed by malays
(55) 12% is what ASB/ASN got per annum while banks fixed deposit is only about 3.5% per annum
There are hundreds more racial discriminations in Malaysia to add to this list of “colossal” racism. It is hope that the victims of racism will write in to expose racism.
Malaysia government should publish statistics showing how much malays had benefited from the “special rights” of malays and at the same time tell the statistics of how much other minority races are being discriminated.
Hence, the responsibility lies in the Malaysia government itself to publish unadulterated statistics of racial discrimination.
If the Malaysia government hides the statistics above, then there must be some evil doings, immoral doings, shameful doings and sinful doings, like the Nazi, going on onto the non-malays of Malaysia.
Civilized nation, unlike evil Nazi, must publish statistics to show its treatment on its minority races. This is what Malaysia must publish……….
We are asking for the publication of the statistics showing how “implementation of special rights of malays” had inflicted colossal racial discrimination onto non-malays.
this human book guy is getting silly
can he not submit a link to his own blog/website for this stuff (which is not even relevant to the current topic)or at least back up his claims and stop spamming.
Rob: Hey, nice to meet you (well, if this can be called meeting). I agree, Malaysians don’t do too badly considering English is not their first language. Having tried to learn several languages (with varying degrees of success), I have great respect for anyone who can learn one well enough to get by. On the other hand, I’m an English teacher, so I guess I expect a lot from people who are supposed to be proficient in the language. Just getting by just won’t get by.
I also agree with you about Human Book. To just stick the same long rant in several posts (and way off topic) is silly at best, not to mention disrespectful. Dear Human Book: GET A BLOG.
Jordan: LOL PWNINATION
when english is your second language what usually happens is the the user will think in his native language and then try to encode/decode and then in English. The proper way is to think and talk/listen directly in the language.
It is rainning, when literally translate into Malay/Chinese or Asiatic language will be very hard.
Ini/Ia sedang hujan? or
Zhe shi yu(this is rain)?
Asiatic-English is quite fun/funny really. With
no the/is/a/ing/plural/past/present-tense and orders. But somehow while annoying to read/hear its still quite logical. Anyway english itself is being tranform and dumb down in a way that is quite different then when we were young. Now MTV english talking, thinking and culture is the new dominant defacto. American most imortant consumer export!
DUHHHHHHHHHHH!!!! That’s da bomb, I gonna nuke ya, Nigger!
Dear Human Book,
1) Really? Been in Maybank? Public Bank, and how about international banks where the Chinese controls most of them? And foreign manufacturing companies, telecommunication companies… shopping malls? Low Yat, Imbi…
6) This is arguable
7) Chinese ppl won’t go for a job that pays low. Money is the God, ain’t it? I was in HUKM (not an employee though) and the HR ppl told me number of applicants for nurse/attendants by Chinese ppl is almost 0! Mostly Malays and Indians.
8) Chinese youth don’t want to join army even though the government encourages them to do so. Becoming a soldier won’t make them rich, if they get shot by enemy, they’ll die poor.
13) The sole AP holder for sugar a.k.a Malaysia’s richest man - is he not Chinese? Second richest man, Indian, Third richest man, Chinese. Not enough? What they do with their money? Help the poor? Nope… build more wealth. Contribute to welfare only to reduce tax.
18) When ASB was first introduced, they were many Chinese who pump money using their Malay friend’s name.
19 - 22) We don’t call them Malay schools but National Schools, meaning that they r for every Malaysian students, not only for the Malays. The government tries hard to make the non-Malays understand that it’s important to integrate thru education but objected by non-Malays, they suggest for a shared area, still not honestly accepted. They worry that it will wipe off the Chinese-ness or Indian-ness. Mandarin and Tamil are suggested as the third languages, still this is not good enough for non-Malays. There is a new Global Indian International School in Brickfields (strange name, global + Indian + international? putting anonyms together?). There r many SRJK (CHINESE/INDIAN) but no SR MELAYU.
25) Reduced by discrimination? Give the full statistics pls… for other races too.
30) Or maybe they r mama’s boy and girl, u can’t even pinch them? I was tortured too, once, when I joined cadet and forced to cheer school team. Not tears at all! Hayya, leng chai la u!
39 & 40) Dewan GBL to Dewan Serbaguna (Multipurpose), not to Dewan Haji Ali or Dewan Kak Melah. It’s changed to a universal noun, not to a Malay name. How can this be seen as racist? So it’s ok if we use Chinese name for a public hall but not ok when we change it to a non-race specific name?
31 - 34) They choose to live in a place where they can be more wealthy. E.g. work 1 year in the UK is like working 7 years in Malaysia. This also happens in Singapore even though the government is led by Chinese. More and more of them coming to Malaysia and marry Malaysian Indians and Chinese, Chinese girls from Chinese become prostitutes here under student visas. I live in Brickfield, I see the same for Indian ppl. Most of them are not Malaysians.
35 & 36) False. We keep sending those PATI home especially from Indonesia.
47) DAP is PAP, look at what PAP does in Singapore and Penang.
52 & 54) ‘Fictious’ not factious. By a Chinese extremist.
55) Last year’s divident for ASB is 8.55%. Last two year’s less than 7%! And as far as I know, public mutual gives return of investment up to 85% within 5 years since 2001. Don’t tell me Chinese ppl don’t love money.
56) Maxis prefers Indian candidates during interview. So are many Chinese companies which prefer Chinese candidates and make Chinese-speaking as the condition to work in a local Malaysian Chinese company, where most of the time, the Chinese staff will speak Chinglish anyways.
57) In China, the uyghurs are discriminated by the Chinese government. So are the Malays in Singapore.
So Human Book, if u only see this world as Chinese and non-Chinese, and u think that Malaysia is not a place you will call haven, I suggest that u move to China, Taiwan, or Hong Kong (perhaps for one year) and let me know whether u can be happier living there compared to Malaysia.
Sorry, Jordan and Rob, I know it makes us all feel disturbed talking about racism, but I just wanted to make him see things from the other side of the fence.
That is a bot/robot(automatic scripting which paste message!)
Since it is a bot it don’t read and reply, but just ‘flood’ the comment box, with long and many comments!
yayy!!! applause to Nizar!!!