'Ketuanan Melayu' is a disgusting racist concept which has been devised to allow some Malaysians called Umnoputras to lord it over other fellow Malaysians.'

Still master-slave under 'ketuanan Melayu': Anwar

Harrisman: I don't understand how this controversy of the ‘supremacy' of the Malays has to do with the sultans or Malay rulers. The sultans are the sultans of all races. I am Chinese and I have a lot reverence for my sultan, the Sultan of Selangor, and I have my utmost respect for His Majesty. His Majesty is a hardworking sultan and he has the interest of all his subjects at heart.

So, I don't see how this issue of Malay supremacy could jeopardise the institution of the sultan. Only the actions of certain rulers or their families can destroy the respect the rakyat have for them. A sultan is a sultan of all races, not just the Malays.

The same goes for our Agong. His Majesty is the Agong of all races. Our sultans and our Agong will forever be a Malay. I don't see a Chinese or Indian who can be Agong. The issue is really moot.

Magnus: "However, Anwar argued that the minister's (Mohd Nazri Abdul Aziz) understanding of this is his own interpretation and that it does not carry any weight within Umno."

Bingo! Where a constitutional monarch, king/queen, is the formal head of state, all that means is that s/he is the human face of the faceless entity of the collective people, i.e. the people. The constitutional monarch (or president or those holding similar designation) is merely a symbolic representation of the people of that democratic nation, and in whom the people's collective sovereign power is normally vested/entrusted.

If a constitutional head of state acts in accordance with his/her role, they are respected. But if they act out of order and against their people's interests and expectations, they risk being replaced.

So, ‘ketuanan Melayu' really is a disgusting racist concept which has been devised to allow some Malaysians called Umnoputras to lord it over other fellow Malaysians.

Cala: "The absolute power is with Umno's ruling elites," Anwar claimed. But how do you convince yourself that such is the case? Here are some examples:

i) when direct contracts are preferred over the traditional open tender;

ii) privileged groups are given the APs to import cars;

iii) laws such as the Official Secret Act there to keep informational flow under checked;

iv) appointments to the highest offices are not based on merit, but on the relationship to the executive;

v) implementation of projects are not based on economic principles;

vi) Malaysia's corruption index is going south;

vii) the bottom 34 percent of the workforce continues to languish in poverty earning RM700 a month, while we see an IPP (independent power producer) is making RM400 million a year;

vii) read Barry Wain's (2009) book; and finally

viii) BN lost five state governments to Pakatan in the 2008 GE, and lost eight out of the 13 by-elections held so far. In sum, this regime could not have been the people's government. Am I right?

OneFair: We do not need the idea of ‘ketuanan' in Malaysia. Almost all Malaysians, except the Orang Asli, cannot claim to be natives of the soil. So why must such a concept as ‘ketuanan' still be claimed?

Let's carry on with the harmony so often practised during pre-Merdeka and early post-Merdeka days when all races mingled freely and no racial undertones were capitalised by any racial group.

The Number One servant of the country, PM Najib Razak, should show a good example, and issue severe reprimands against anyone uttering racial remarks.

He should also remove those racially-inclined civil servants, discipline them so that everybody will wake up to the true 1Malaysia concept. Can our PM start the ball rolling?

ISA@1penyu: Anwar, you are right. ‘Ketuanan Melayu' enriched people like you, your wife and Azmin Ali, not forgetting Zaid Ibrahim. When you have all the money, you can now say no to ‘ketuanan Melayu', because you have reaped from it. When you cannot reap anymore, the policies are not good. Typical hypocrites.

Rolls-Royce: To Umno, it is logical to hold on to ‘ketuanan Melayu' simply because the majority in this country are the Malays. Of course, how this ‘ketuanan' is used or abused is another issue altogether.

We shall see whether the majority of the Malays will continue to buy into the idea that they are the ‘tuan' in this country. If so, do they really get to enjoy the benefits of being a ‘tuan'? Or it is really just an "empty" ‘tuan' stolen and abused by the Umno ‘tuan'.

Looking at events unfolding, Umno really has nothing to hold on to except ‘ketuanan Melayu'. They screwed up the country big time - corruption is rampant, abuse of power is everywhere, cronyism is endemic, rent-seeking widespread, incompetence and laziness so evident. What else have they got other than appealing to Malays' insecurity and their ‘tuan'.

Anwar, I also know your past. But it is okay, for right now, we are inclined to believe that having gone through all the nonsense in the past decade, you are a changed man. We believe you will continue to fight for the Malays and champion their cause. I have no doubt about that, and I support you doing that.

But in my heart, I also bear hope that you will be fairer to the non-Malays and be more concerned with good governance and competency.

You see, if the country is better managed, surely we have more resources to give the poor Malays. You can't have cronyism and a welfare state on one hand, and incompetence and corruption on the other.

AkuMelayu: Datuk Seri ‘God-sent' Anwar, you've never failed to amuse me every time you've talked about ‘ketuanan Melayu'. It shows glaringly the chameleon in you. Every Malaysian remembered what you were before when you were in Umno, a DPM, to be precise. It's better to ‘bertuankan' the ‘raja-raja Melayu' than to be dictated by the DAP Lim Kit Siang dynasty.

Pietiring: The very moment when the migrated Chinese and Indian were bestowed with citizenship and consequently their offsprings becoming citizen through naturalisation, constitutionally every Malayan/Malaysian is equal under the law, irrespective of their ethnic background.

However, the constitutional drafters were wise enough to incorporate limited protection for certain basic rights of the native Malays, which otherwise would be lost gradually with time. I believe it is certainly very wrong to spin this little constitutional protection as a privileged passport coined as ‘ketuanan Melayu' This catch-phrase ‘ketuanan Melayu' is indeed cleverly devised to catch votes from the ignorant Malays.

By the same token, can we safely say that Anwar too had been in the same Umno boat, which he was co-steering for almost 10 to 12 years. Likewise Azmin and Zaid, who were also former skippers of the Umno boat. This is the dilemma of ‘ketuanan Melayu', which has become the passport of ‘tuan-tuan Melayu' rather than the ‘Melayu' at large.

Democrat: After ‘ketuanan Hindu', ‘ketuanan Islam', ‘ketuanan Portugis', ‘ketuanan Belanda', ‘ketuanan British', ‘ketuanan Jepun', and then again ‘ketuanan British', Malaysians don't want any more ‘ketuanan'.

Umno is using ‘ketuanan Melayu' as a cover to loot the Treasury and keep political power to themselves.

KSN: Correct me if I am wrong, and if my memory serves good, this phrase ‘ketuanan Melayu' or Malay supremacy was introduced and began to be used by the former vice-president of Umno and former menteri besar of Selangor Muhammad Muhd Taib, otherwise known as Mike Tyson.

The ultras thought it was a catchy phrase and started to use and abuse it, and different groups for different purposes projected themselves as champions of the Malay race.

This is similar to the abuse of Article 153 to justify and rationalise all the havoc that took place since Dr Mahathir Mohamad became PM. Nobody, definitely no non-Malay, has questioned or criticised the rights and privileges of the bumiputeras and the unique position of the Malay rulers as enshrined in our constitution.

It is the abuse and exploitation of the two subjects to the detriment of the poor bumiputeras and non-bumiputeras that is causing the doubts and suspicion.

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