Tuesday, 03 April 2007
K George reminds Johor Chief Minister Abdul Ghani Othman that we are all
children of the one God after Ghani declared that the Malays are a
superior
race.
Johor Menteri Besar Abdul Ghani Othman declared, like a bolt from the
blue,
that the Malays are a superior race. To prove his contention, Ghani quoted
the supreme law of the Federation - Malaysia's Constitution, which states
"the races as Malays and others" in the country. Alas, it took 49 years
for
a Menteri Besar to discover that the Malays are a superior race. But
sadly,
he missed the teaching of his own religion - Islam.
May I submit that I am not a Muslim; I was born to a Christian family.
Nonetheless, out of curiosity, I have gone through some of the teachings
of
Islam. One of which is glaringly specific: "No race is superior to
another". Have you come across this most wonderful teaching of your
religion, Mr. Menteri Besar? You, as a Muslim, and I, as a Christian,
should have learnt that Almighty God, having formed the Universe, created
humans, to whom he bestowed the greatest gift - common sense. Humans would
spread to all over the world, where there would be different races,
cultures, languages and customs.
I wish to reiterate that a person can only belong to the Malay race if he
was born in Malaya, speaks the Malay language, follows Malay culture, and
over and above it all must be fully committed to the Faith of Islam.
Prophet Muhammad made it clear that one can only claim to be a follower of
Islam, if one complies with all its teachings - which in effect means that
any deviation would automatically deny one the right to be a Muslim. In
simple English, neither the Malay nor any other race is superior to
another.
Special position of Malays (bumiputeras)
The word 'special position' was inserted in the Federal Constitution with
the concurrence of the MCA and the MIC at the request of the first Prime
Min
ister of Malaysia, Tunku Abdul Rahman. The economic and social situation
of
the Malays before Merdeka in 1957 left much to be desired. Most of the
Malays lived in villages, lacked education, depended on agriculture and
were
deprived of reasonable income. Hence, they really deserved special
attention by the government. Originally, it was anticipated that within 15
years or so, the condition of the Malays would improve sufficiently. While
certain Malays started talking about special privileges and special
rights,
the Constitution clearly stated that non-Malays will not be denied their
rights.
Malaysia is a wealthy nation. But unfortunately, the poor, with the
exception of a few, remain poor because the Barisan Nasional government's
economic policy, including the New Economic Policy, was a failure.
Ex-Klang Town Councillor Datuk Zakaria Mat Deros was once a railway-gate
keeper; now he is the owner of a four-storey palace located on land
comprising eight lots that were originally meant to be allocated to the
poor. The land, estimated to be worth RM1.3 million, was sold to the Datuk
for a mere RM180, 000. Are we to believe it was a straightforward deal?
When the local media carry stories of millionaire Datuks divorcing
existing
wives and marrying new ones and spending millions, we can well imagine the
reactions of the downtrodden folk. We, ordinary people, watch with
frustration when our elected government creates millionaires, bails out
cronies, privatises revenue-earning projects such as highways, telecoms
and
postal services, and ventures into white-elephant projects.
The economic policy of a capable and committed government must be aimed at
emancipating the poor and providing the people with satisfactory health
care, education, employment, water, electricity, and other infrastructure.
Fate of other purveyors of a superior race
The Second World War was launched by German dictator Adolf Hitler in
September 1938. The primary purpose of the war was to establish the
superiority of the Aryan race. He started killing Jews and then went on
attacking England and a number of European nations. In the process, Hitler
managed to kill a million people. He met his Waterloo when he attacked
Russia despite having a peace treaty with Stalin. False pride prevented
him
from surrendering; instead Hitler committed suicide. That ended the chase
for the superiority of the Aryan race!
During the war, Japan exploited the opportunity and took control of a
number
of Asian nations that were colonised by England and other European
nations.
Japan, an Asian nation, hardly faced any resistance from the illegal
colonial occupiers. That convinced the Asians that the mighty whites were
no super men nor did they belong to any superior race. In due course,
almost all the Asian became independent.
The concept of 'apartheid', introduced in South Africa by the British, was
crushed by the black people of South Africa, led by Nelson Mandela. It
took
several years of struggle and sacrifice by the African people before the
mighty white occupiers arrived at the inevitable realisation that they
(the
whites) were no superior beings.
Buddha, born a prince, left the palace; Sri Krishna, born in a cow-shed,
lived with the poor; Jesus washed the feet of his disciples; Prophet
Muhammad preached Islam and reiterated that there was one and only God;
Gandhi, son of a chief minister, led a simple and humble life and fought
for
the independence of India with the weapon of 'Ahimsa' (non-violence) .
They
preached to all the people to love each other and to help each other.
There
were many others who were great and preached faith in God.
In conclusion, I wish to emphasise that there is only One God and we are
all
born equal. While Islamic teaching is specific that there is no race
superior to another, no other traditional religions imposes superiority on
any of their followers.
As far as Abdul Ghani Othman is concerned, he is the Chief Minister of a
few
million people in a state; hence it is neither desirable nor becoming of
him
to treat his people with discrimination. In any case, he is a Muslim and
is
duty bound to submit to all the teachings of his religion.
----------------------------------------------------------------
This e-mail has been sent via JARING webmail at http://www.jaring.my
No comments:
Post a Comment