YOURSAY 'To princelings like Rowena Razak, fair play and rule of law are unimportant, especially if it undermines their special privileges.'

Razak Baginda's daughter spars with NGO over race

TehTarik: Nothing surprising here. The ruling elite and their children will do everything to protect their wealth and power.

To princelings like Rowena Razak, fair play and rule of law are unimportant, especially if it undermines their special privileges.

I have been disillusioned after speaking to many highly educated Malay elites and professionals who seem to share the same ideology - the need to protect the New Economic Policy (NEP) and Malay supremacy.

While the ruling elite and their children continue to accumulate wealth the disparity between the rich and poor Malays continues to grow.

I fear that the final game will be a clash between the small band of the ruling elite and the majority population of socio-economically deprived Malays.

The latter is currently kept happy by the billions of ringgit in entitlements. But the increasing fiscal deficits and household debt indicates that the party is soon coming to an end.

Mahashitla: The majority Malays in Malaysia are well-protected by the constitution and the monarchy, which consists of the Malay sultans and Agong.

Not only has Umno, which is 100 percent bumiputeras, failed to treat the non-Malays fairly but the elites have enriched themselves so prohibitively that the majority of the Malays are living below the poverty line.

Rowena, my advice to the ordinary Malays is to beware of Malays like your father, Abdul Razak Baginda and your mother, Mazlinda Makhzan, who owned companies involved in the RM500 million Scorpene commission.

Altantuya Shaariibuu, your father's ex-lover, who came for her share of the commission was blown to pieces. They now have to be wary of you, too.

Adam Adil: Rowena, a product of the ‘bumi first' policy, is trying to defend the indefensible.

Firstly, the majority is supposed to look after the minority who are normally suppressed and oppressed in many ways.

The minority Sunni group in Bahrain and Alawite group in Syria persecute and/or oppress the other majority religious group through the power of the gun and rule by their laws instead of through democratic means.

As in Malaysia, we now have a minority government which is trying to suppress the majority (of all races and religions) who voted for change.

Tindak Malaysia has done an excellent job in educating Malaysians of their responsibility to volunteer in the election process and to ensure free and fair elections.

What has Rowena or her dad contributed to Malaysia except scandals of corruption and murder?

Ferdtan: Knowing the psyche of typical desperate Umno Malay who had been ostracised or rather excommunicated from their mainstream community, they often use another minority race (Chinese) as bogeyman to win back support and ‘respect' from the Umno public.

In this case, Rowena, daughter of the trial-freed suspect of a murder most foul, was probably and deliberately is making use of the Bar Council forum and the NGO, Tindak Malaysia, using race as bait, to announce her presence to the Malaysian public.

For so many years since the murder trial, there was no news of her or her involvement in public issues. Nothing was known of her stand on such issues like racial politics.

So why did she suddenly pop in her first public appearance with a rather naïve and controversial statement?

Although we cannot blame her for her father's sins; but if she wants to remain true to herself and have a life of her own, she has to start with a clean slate. Don't play dirty politics in the bid to rid of your father's sin and baggage. It won't work.

You can have your life back if you follow your true calling - speak your own mind. Marina Mahathir, no doubt many had rejected her due to the father she has, can still manage to strive out on her own, giving her opinions completely different from her father.

Rowena, before you do another shocking stunt like that, please grow up first.

PS: I agree, leave her father out of the discussion. Rowena made a point in a forum and she deserves a decent answer. Attack her point not her personal affiliations or relationship. Give her a good rebuttal.

I believe Tindak Malaysia's objective was to bring greater awareness to Malaysians on issues of political-social-economic nature. I do not understand her rant on the racial composition of the NGO.

I am sure it's a voluntary organisation with a constitution that does not stipulate any membership quota along racial lines, thus her question on this point is not quite right.

However, her points regarding the minority ruling over the majority and voting along racial lines are valid and deserves a hearing from readers.

In essence, if we take away the racial element in GE13, we should be wary of how a minority government rules over the majority Pakatan voters.

Odin: First, do forgive me if I am not as intelligent as this woman. Without the benefit of hearing what was said at the forum, my take is that she questioned why Tindak Malaysia chief Wong Piang Yow did not mention race in his presentation.

But, first, the forum discussed electoral reforms; therefore, why must race come into it? Second, two things the body avoids discussing are race and religion matters. Therefore, it should be obvious that Wong should not have touched on the matter of race.

As to her assertion that Malaysians still voted along racial lines, I am lost, too. Surely many people of a particular race have voted for candidates of another one.

Then we learn of her taking Bahrain as an example to prove her contention that the minority could not protect the rights of the majority. Did Wong say that the minority could do that?

In any case, this example, to me, isn't quite appropriate, as the Shiites and Sunnis have always been at loggerheads, and therefore, why would the Sunnis there be bothered too much about the Shiites?

I also completely fail to see what the percentage of Malays in Tindak Malaysia has got to do with the body's mission. Since she was concerned about the element, and as it is in her view lacking, why has she declined to join the body to help boost the Malay presence in it?

The proper thing for her to do is to quickly gather all her Malay friends of her level of intelligence to join the body and show the "incompetent" members like Wong how to do things right.

Absalom: Rowena, there are so many things wrong with your argument that you might have been better off asking about the chicken. By your reasoning, Barack Obama should not be president of the United States.

It is not the minority protecting the majority that we ought to be worried about. It is about the lot of us Malaysians being protected from a mentality like yours.

Anonymous #19895825: I am Malaysian. I am a minority. I do not need the protection of the majority. I need equality.

Perhaps tell Razak Baginda to return the loot first

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