Orang Melayu selalu ditipu dengan dakwaan bahawa bangsa kita makin maju, makin kaya, makin ramai yang berada. Kalau dulu kita tinggal di rumah kampung, sekarang tinggal di rumah flat.
Kalau kampung, tanah kita, kalau flat, tanah HDB. Tapi takpelah kita percaya juga yang kita ni makin kaya.
Sekarang dah ada kereta, semua ada mobile phone, dah boleh melancung. Kan bagus tu.
Tapi kita perlu juga selidik jika orang Melayu makin “kaya” kerana memang benar kita ni kaya, kerana tidak ada diskriminasi, atau hanya kerana mengikut arus keberadaan.
Kalau kita ingin tahu jika orang Melayu makin kaya, makin mewah, kita perlu bandingkan dengan kaum bukan Melayu di Singapura. Dan bandingkan perluasan jurang kemewahan: bila ia berlaku? kenapa? siapa yang memerintah?
Adakah kemewahan ini melalui absolute gains (kerana dunia semakin mewah jadi kita pun mewah) atau melalui relative gains (jika dibandingkan dengan kaum lain, sebenarnya kita makin miskin).
Adakah Melayu semakin mewah? Apabila PAP memerintah, siapa yang lebih mendapat habuan? Sama rata ke? Atau ada kaum yang makin mewah? Dan kita sebenarnya makin miskin?
Menurut Lily Zubaidah Rahim, PAP tidak suka kita bandingkan kemewahan orang Melayu dengan bangsa lain kerana ia akan menunjukkan jurang yang makin meluas (23-24).
The economic gap between the Malay and Chinese communities grew since the PAP took over.
“the gap between Malays and Chinese in the two highest occupational categories was 2.3 in 1957, which increased to 4.1 per cent in 1970 and 9.6 per cent in 1980.
Whereas there was approximately the same proportion of Malays and Chinese in the lower manual category in 1957, by 1980 there were 10 per cent more Malays in this occupational grouping. In the 1980s, the Chinese community continued to enjoy greater occupational mobility relative to the Malay and Indian communities…
While there was a decrease of 25.3 per cent of Chinese male workers in the income category of less than $400 a month between 1975 and 1980, the proportion of Malays in that income category actually increased by 1.5 per cent in the same period.
Whereas there was an increase of 5.9 per cent of Chinese male workers in the income bracket of more than $1,000 per month between 1975 and 1980, the increase for Malays was only 1.9 per cent…
In 1980, the average Malay household income was 73.8 per cent of the average Chinese household income. By 1990, the income gap widened as the average Malay income dropped to 69.8 per cent of the average Chinese household income.” (20)
Rahim, Lily Zubaidah. The Singapore dilemma: The political and educational marginality of the Malay community. Oxford University Press, USA, 1998.
Source: Zulfikar Shariff
