Lee Kuan Yew's recent controversial remark has stirred a new round of sabre rattling between Malaysian and Singapore politicians. Does Lee understand Malaysia's situation well enough to make such a remark? Even if he does, what right does he have to criticise Malaysia? Aren't Malay Singaporeans marginalised too?
Malaysia's success in the international arena in both business and technology has no doubt become a threat to Singapore. By making such controversial remarks, is Lee hoping more Chinese Malaysians would hate their country and join Singapore? Don't forget that Singapore is facing problems with the lack of population growth.
Are Chinese being marginalised in Malaysia? This is not a new issue. No one in Malaysia has ever brought up the issue so prominently because it is a sensitive issue in this country. The Malays have been given bumiputera status in Malaysia, meaning that the 'sons of soil' should be given priority in terms of political and financial interests. Not to forget, Chinese are only immigrants.
With the help of the New Economy Policy in the past 35 years, I would say the Malays have slowly gained back something that has long belonged to them. What's wrong with this? I feel that the government should further restrict the economic interests of the Chinese because there are just not enough wealthy Malays in the country to bring about a balance in wealth distribution.
I am surprised that some Chinese Malaysians have publicly supported Lee's remarks despite that the MCA leader has rejected them. We can see that the MCA leader is not capable of "stopping" his own people.
If he cannot do that, he has no prospect of representing the Chinese. If the Chinese are able to have big houses and multiple cars, which most of the Malays do not have, why are they still not satisfied? What more do they want?
Recently, the MCA vice-president, who is also the higher education deputy minister, publicly pointed out possible corruption in the repair work of a Chinese school, which was handled by the Works Ministry. I hereby demand that this minister be sacked immediately.
First, no one should question the integrity of other cabinet ministers publicly. Second, by saying such things, the MCA minister did not care about the feelings of other ministers in the Education Ministry, who have approved the funding of the project.
No one should question how the project was awarded and how the funds were used as all these had already been endorsed by the ministers. The MCA minister has brought great damage to the current system by asking for transparency. The contractors who had been awarded government projects will not forgive this minister if they are being scrutinised stricter in future projects, especially when this result in them not being able to make profit out of the projects.
The MCA minister should mind his own business. Minding someone else's business means 'eating' in other people's territory. If this minister is not sacked, the works minister should write to the prime minister for his intervention. If not, this will set a detrimental precedent which forces a lot of Malays out of businesses as "we rather be mocked by others than have our stomach empty", to quote Umno Youth deputy chief Khairy Jamaluddin.
In short, Malaysia is a multi-racial society and only with the continuous strengthening of the Malay political and financial interests that it can be harmonious and prosperous country. Whether the Chinese are being marginalised or not is not important. The Chinese just have to accept the fact that living in Malaysia means they have to be subordinate to the 'sons of the soil'.
