The Future: Bleak?

Met up with some buddies for lunch yesterday. One of the things we talked about was the future of Malaysia, of our people; they were comtemplating migration to Australia. The wife was worried about how her children and children's children would be treated

This seems to be something that comes up frequently amongst the minority races here. Of the state of affairs in this country and whether our children would have to face a tougher, more discriminatory and corrupt Malaysia and whether it would be better to just move elsewhere.

For those unfamiliar with the Malaysian system, there is an affirmative action policy (the New Economic Policy) in place that favors the indigenous race (mainly the Malays) over others (mainly Chinese and Indian) in almost all aspects of society: university acceptance, scholarships, special discounts for home purchase, business, banking. One reason for this is to appease the indigenous people (termed the Bumiputras) following the racial riots and massacre of Indian and Chinese people in 1969.

Affirmative action is used everywhere, not just in Malaysia, usually to equalize groups of different social or economic statures. However, Malaysia's NEP favors the majority over the minority races. The Malaysian Consitution gives the Malays 'special rights and privileges that cannot be questioned', and includes areas, that, in my humble opinion, should be free of favoritism. One of them being education. I remember my form 5 Malay language tuition teacher (a Malay lady, bless her heart, herself on the panel of examiners of the SPM exam) who told us: If you begin your essays with Muslim greetings and try to sound like you're Malay, you'll score better. And in application forms of any kind, after age and gender there is always a column for: Race.

Naturally, there is a festering sense of resentment amongst the minority races, while in the majority race there is a growing sense of entitlement, even in the post-independence, modern-day era Malaysia. Even the young are raised with an increasing sense of special privileges on the sole basis of race.

And with politicians constantly using the 'special rights issue' as electoral tool, subtly threatening a repeat of the racial riots if people tried to abolish the double-standard system of the country, many fear whether there would be increased suppression of the minority races.

For me, my reasons for choosing to remain in the US are:

1) Kristin

2) The NEP

It irks me to the deepest level, to have someone younger than me to tell me to my face that I should not complain about things being unfair, that I should simply be thankful that 'they' are 'allowing' me and my family to live here. Like we just got off the slow boat from China a month ago. Simply put, I think the thought that one group is superior to another on the basis of skin color belongs to the dark ages.

This, in a country that supposedly gained independence over 50 years ago. Never mind the fact that me, my father and his father, were born on this soil. This, simply because his forefather stepped on this soil before my forefather did. On a recent trip to the waterfalls with my family, I had a kid try to jostle us of the way stating that 'they Bumiputras' should have right of way and should be let through. I was too irritated and embarassed to tell my in-laws from the US what they said. But for a fleeting moment I would have traded my Xbox to see that tubby 15-year old slip and fall on his butt.

Think as you wish, but I'm a firm believer in Darwin's theories of evolution, that for a species to thrive there has to be competition and natural selection. And that you don't teach a person to walk by giving him a crutch; you merely make him dependent on it. And when you introduce discrimination and favoritism, you encourage inefficiency, corruption and laziness. We see this in biology- reason why our stroke patients develop muscle atrophy.

I see this the reason for an entire generation of good-for-nothing motorcycle bums that the government is trying now to control.

Malaysia makes for an interesting study- on one hand one groups claims supremacy and superiority and how it towers over others and is becoming increasingly globalized; on the other hand the same group yells and screams about how NEP needs to remain in place because they are still behind, and their rights need to be protected to prevent being left behind.

When we visited Singapore last week, despite Singapore's many flaws, I sadly thought how Malaysia and Singapore started at the same level, yet in a mere 4 decades Singapore has surpassed Malaysia in every respect and become a major world player, and how my home country could have been should there be more effective systems. A system that rewards merely on integrity and quality of work, not race, not gender, not who you know. It is noteworthy that when my patients hear I'm from Malaysia, after the 'Where is it?' inevitably comes the 'Oh, is it near Singapore?'

This trip back, more so than before, I notice the high number of people I know who have chosen to make elsewhere their home. So many friends, so many sons and daughters of Malaysia, so many professionals, who choose to leave, accelerating the brain drain.

For they probably share my experience- I feel more like a 2nd class citizen in my homeland, than I do half a world away in a foreign land.

And so I tell my friends at lunch, every country has her flaws, but perhaps emigration is not a bad idea.

I have made my choice. A difficult one, but necessary. Morbid, perhaps, for I am unsure of the future of my descendants here. While I anxiously await for the day when a Bangsa Malaysia (Malaysian race), free of discrimination, would truly exist, I am not sure if this would ever become reality.