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Tag: Malays

  • Elected Presidency Changes: Big Step Backwards For Malay community

    Elected Presidency Changes: Big Step Backwards For Malay community

    I worry about the unintended consequences of changes to the elected presidency, especially the move to reserve elections for minority candidates.

    I was brought up in an era where we Malays were told we had to fend for ourselves in school and in our careers, as Singaporeans of other races did. After initial trepidation, due in part to seeing how Malays in other countries in the region depended on race-based policies to help them advance, Malay Singaporeans grew out of their historical reliance on such crutches. And that has over time become a source of pride and motivation for the community.

    In my frequent travels to neighbouring countries and in the speeches I deliver there, I speak proudly of the significant progress the community has made as we proved we could stand on our own feet. That was thanks in no small part to the brave decision by our earlier leaders to take away our proverbial crutches and make us compete on a level playing field. Like everything else, healthy competition drives the community to a higher level.

    Now, I worry that all that is being undone. The announcement that next year’s presidential election will be reserved for Malay candidates strikes me as a major step backwards. Like it or not, it risks being read as a vote of no confidence in the community. It seems to suggest that we are still unable to compete on the same level with the rest of the population and that we remain a troubled community that requires – selectively – a big handicap. It makes me wonder what happened to our belief in boosting self-reliance and self-respect through doing away with affirmative action and race-based state aid in education and career progression.

    During the last three decades of minimal race-based policy assistance, Malays have worked hard to prove our self-worth with significant achievements in the education and professional arenas. Today, more private sector and business leaders are drawn from the community than ever before.

    There has been gradual but meaningful progress in all other statistics too, including education. The sense I get from my daily interactions with members of the community is that we are patient in waiting for further public sector achievements. I did not sense any clamour for the next president to be from the Malay community.

    America waited more than 230 years for a member of a minority race to be elected president. That did not make people from minority races there feel any less American. When the day finally arrived in November 2008 and Mr Barack Obama was elected America’s first black president, the outcome was greeted with great celebration not just within the country but in countries across the free democratic world, including those in Asia and Africa.

    Here in Singapore, the last time a president of a minority race was in the Istana was five years ago. The last time we had a Malay president was 46 years ago. I believe most Malays are willing to wait patiently for our next Malay president to be voted into office based on his own merit and in a contest against other capable Singaporeans of different races or creeds, however long it takes.

    I personally think that even without changes to the elected presidency, it will not take quite so long. After all, minority MPs have regularly won elections in single-seat constituencies while others have led teams in group representation constituencies – a scheme originally created to assist minority candidates to be elected into Parliament – instead of being pedestrian members of the GRCs.

    I would argue that more than a Malay president, what Singapore needs is policy consistency – we cannot afford policy twists and turns, especially on a selective basis, no matter how well intended.

    Still, if the chance to have a member of their community as president is offered on a platter, not many Malays will reject such a gift. That is human nature. But what would be even more satisfying is a hard-fought campaign leading to the election of a Malay president who deserves the position based on the famously Singaporean values of grit and merit.

    That is worth waiting for. The changes to the Constitution relating to the elected presidency may have inadvertently denied me and other members of Singapore’s minority communities the pleasure of seeing that happen.

     

    Source: The Straits Times

  • Ustaz Kazim Hanya Dapat Tidur Di R&R Kerana Alami Tekanan

    Ustaz Kazim Hanya Dapat Tidur Di R&R Kerana Alami Tekanan

    Pendakwah bebas terkenal Ustaz Mohd Kazim Elias mengakui tekanan melampau dialaminya menyebabkan beliau sukar untuk lena sehingga terpaksa tidur di kawasan Rehat dan Rawat (R&R) di tepi lebuh raya.

    Katanya ketika dimasukkan ke sebuah hospital swasta Sabtu lalu (5 Nov), pada waktu malam beliau akan meminta kebenaran doktor untuk keluar menaiki kereta bagi mengurangkan tekanan seterusnya melelapkan mata.

    “Lima doktor yang merawat saya memberitahu saya mengalami tekanan dan kurang rehat sehingga sukar untuk tidur termasuklah sebelum dimasukkan ke hospital.

    “Semasa di hospital pada pukul 11.00 malam saya ke lebuh raya, saya tidur di kawasan Rehat dan Rawat Gopeng, Simpang Pulai serta Tapah dan balik semula ke hospital pada pukul 4.00 pagi.

    “Entah kenapa bila masuk dalam kereta belum sampai plaza tol atau lebuh raya saya dah tertidur, tapi kalau di rumah dan hospital memang sukar walaupun diberikan ubat tidur yang paling kuat,” katanya kepada para wartawan pada majlis Taklimat Umrah Bersama Datuk Ustaz Kazim Elias hari ini (13 Nov).

    Mengenai status kesihatannya, Ustaz Kazim yang dibenarkan keluar dari hospital Khamis lalu berkata doktor mengesahkan beliau mengalami ulser dan pendarahan pada usus.

    “Disebabkan ulser dan pendarahan usus, doktor menghentikan pengambilan ubat mencairkan darah selama empat hari, tetapi ia beri kesan pula kepada jantung sehinggalah sekarang,” katanya.

    Ustaz Kazim yang terkenal dengan ceramah bersahaja juga berkata masalah kesihatan dialaminya menyebabkan berat badan beliau susut daripada 69 kilogram (kg) tiga minggu lalu kepada 64.5kg semalam (12 Nov).

    Sehubungan itu, beliau merancang untuk mengurangkan aktiviti ceramah pada tahun depan selain mahu memberi tumpuan kepada program lawatan ilmiah ke luar negara.

    Pengasas serta Pengetua Pusat Pendidikan Al-Barakah di Manjoi itu berkata beliau akan melepaskan tanggungjawab tersebut yang digalasnya sejak 10 tahun lalu kepada pihak lain.

    “Tapi adakah pihak yang akan menggantikan saya nanti dapat mengajar dan memberi ceramah macam saya? memulangkan semula sagu hati (bayaran) yang diterima kepada pusat ini untuk pembangunannya?” soal Ustaz Kazim.

    Katanya tahun lalu, seramai 170,000 orang datang menziarah pusat pendidikan itu semata-mata untuk mendengar ceramah yang diadakan pada setiap Sabtu dan Ahad.

    Pada Februari lalu, Ustaz Kazim dimasukkan ke Hospital Universiti Sains Malaysia (HUSM), Kubang Kerian selepas mengadu penat dan sakit dada ketika sedang berceramah di perkarangan bangunan Pertubuhan Peladang Kawasan Sri Gunong, Bachok di Kelantan.

    Source: Berita MediaCorp

  • Dr Mahathir: Malays Lack Good Values, Lazy And Uncompetitive

    Dr Mahathir: Malays Lack Good Values, Lazy And Uncompetitive

    KUALA LUMPUR — Former Malaysian prime minister Mahathir Mohamad yesterday once again lashed out at the Malay community in his country, accusing them of lacking good values and being lazy.

    Dr Mahathir said the country’s ethnic majority was not hardworking enough and therefore uncompetitive, causing them to trail behind the other races economically.

    This also resulted in the Malays being driven out from the main cities to the rural interior.

    “Like Alor Setar (the capital of Kedah) and now there are no more Malays there when it was them that raised the city. This is because the Malays are poor and they have no money so they sell their land. So what happens is now they stay outside the city,” said the former leader at a book launch.

    Dr Mahathir, who served as prime minister for 22 years and is regarded as the country’s “Father of Modernisation”, admitted that he may have failed to transform the country’s ethnic majority so that they become more hardworking.

    Despite all the government had done to help them, Dr Mahathir said the Malays still expected things to come easily and refused to adopt working cultures of more successful races, such as those in Japan.

    Japan was an integral part of the Mahathir administration’s Look East Policy. The policy was to push Malaysia to follow the East Asians in becoming diligent, hardworking and loyal.

    “I have tried for 22 years to help the Malays. Maybe I have failed, although some may say that I did achieve some success,” said Dr Mahathir.

    “Values dictate if one race should succeed or not … Like the Japanese, they are ashamed if they fail. That is why they are afraid to fail … But the Malays, they lack shame.”

    Dr Mahathir said the Malays are also bankrupt of honesty. He claimed of first-hand experience in the matter when his bakery company, The Loaf, tried in the past to sack several managers for stealing money from the restaurants.

    He said the establishment of his bakery was to help the Malays by giving them job opportunities but instead they stole his money.

    “That is the problem with the Malays. They don’t have honesty,” he added.

    Dr Mahathir is a staunch defender of race-based affirmative action policies as prescribed by the New Economic Policy, an economic model mooted in 1971 to close the socio-economic gap between the largely-urban Chinese and the rural Malays as well as other indigenous Bumiputera.

    Ironically, however, the former prime minister has admitted in the past that the programme has made the Malays more complacent, while noting that the system had been abused to enrich only a few elites who were close to the ruling party.

    But the former prime minister has continued to defend the policy, saying it was still needed to help the Malays compete and bridge the income disparity among the races.

    Dr Mahathir has also been at the forefront of criticism against Prime Minister Najib Razak and his administration for the past year. He has accused Mr Najib of corruption linked to state investment firm 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB), and has launched a new party, the Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (PBBM) that he said would ally with the opposition to ensure straight fights against the ruling Barisan Nasional coalition at the next General Election, which has to be called by 2018.

     

    Source: www.todayonline.com

  • Walid J. Abdullah: Is There A Need For A Malay President?

    Walid J. Abdullah: Is There A Need For A Malay President?

    Do we need to have a Malay president? I honestly believe this is a non-issue that has somehow become ‘important’.

    If the concern is about representation, then we already have GRCs (which i am in favour of, although i feel their sizes should be scaled down). In fact, having more Malays in senior cabinet positions, such as the Minister of Finance, Minister of Education, and Minister of Health would be far more meaningful (i am a realistic person: i know defence would be a long shot). And easier to implement. We do not need to amend the constitution for that; all we need is the PM to choose (qualified) Malays for those posts.

    Now, if someone were to turn around and say, ‘but we choose the best people for each post’, then i would say: why do we have different standards for the Presidency then? I for one do believe in affirmative action in some cases (as in the GRC system), so i do not oppose a rotating presidency out of reverence for the ‘meritocratic’ principle. Rather, my concern with the proposal is that it is distracting us from other ethnic issues that are more pressing, and unfortunately, may end up to be a token move.

    And, for those who believe affirmative action of some sort is needed to ensure a Malay President takes office, i would like to ask: would you then similarly consider affirmative action in the economic sphere (if there is also a lack of Malay representation)? If your support for positive discrimination only extends to the political sphere, but not others, may i ask why then? Is there some inconsistency in your outlook?

    Of course, there are those (who are eager to support any government proposal) saying: ‘if there’s no Malay President, people complain. If there are measures to guarantee a Malay President, people complain. The government cannot win! What do you expect them to do???’

    Well, as a start, try putting a Malay in charge of the Education Ministry. I’m sure no Malay would be complaining.

     

    Source: Walid J. Abdullah

  • Next Presidential Election To Be Reserved For Malay Candidates: PM Lee

    Next Presidential Election To Be Reserved For Malay Candidates: PM Lee

    The next Presidential Election due next year will be reserved for Malay candidates, based on the hiatus-triggered model, said Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong in Parliament on Tuesday (Nov 8).

    Mr Lee also said that as the Constitutional Amendment Bill states that the Government should legislate on when the racial provision should start, it intends to do so when amending the Presidential Elections Act in January next year. It will start counting from the first President who exercised the powers of the Elected Presidency, who was Dr Wee Kim Wee.

    He was speaking during the parliamentary debate on proposed changes to the Elected Presidency system, which started on Monday.

    So for the Presidential Election next year, if a qualified Malay candidate steps up to run, Singapore will have a Malay President again, the Prime Minister said.

    “As Minister Yaacob (Ibrahim) noted yesterday, this would be our first after more than 46 years, since our first President Encik Yusof Ishak,” Mr Lee said. “I look forward to this.”

    The hiatus-triggered model means that while presidential elections will generally be open to candidates of all races, but if there is not a President from a particular community for five consecutive terms, then the next term will be reserved for a President from that community. This means that in the course of six terms, there should be at least one President from the Chinese, Malay, Indian and other minority communities, provided qualified candidates appear, he explained.

    ENSURING MINORITY REPRESENTATION ‘MOST DIFFICULT QUESTION’

    Mr Lee also noted that amongst all the proposed changes in this complicated Bill, the one hardest thought about and where the most is at stake is the question of ensuring multiracial representation in the Elected Presidency.

    He said as the Head of State for Singapore, the candidate must represent all Singaporeans and the office must be multiracial. If the President always comes from the same race, not only will the President cease to be a credible symbol of our nation, the very multiracial character of the nation will come into question, the Prime Minister said.

    “Every citizen, Chinese, Malay, Indian or some other race, should know that someone of his community can become President, and in fact from time to time, does become President,” Mr Lee said.
    He pointed out that Singapore is building a “radically different society”: Multiracial, equal and harmonious, gradually enlarging the shared Singaporean identity while celebrating different cultures and faiths. It is also allowing minority communities ample space to live their own ways of life, and not forcing everybody to conform to a single norm set by a single majority group.

    “We have to work consciously and systematically at this,” Mr Lee explained. “It will not happen by itself, nor will we get there if we blithely assume that we have already arrived.”

    ELECTED PRESIDENT AN ‘IMPORTANT STABILISER’ 

    The Prime Minister reiterated why the Elected President is an important stabiliser for Singapore, noting that founding Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew proposed the idea of the office because he was worried that there would be a freak election result one day, and the nest egg of reserves would be “squandered by a profligate Government”.

    He added that Singapore’s system is unique and “very difficult to get right because the balance is a delicate one”. This is because the President is a symbolic Head of State but elected through a national ballot, and as such has a popular mandate but not a mandate to govern. The President can also use his mandate to say no in certain specified areas, but not push for policies or to initiate action.

    The Prime Minister also argued against vesting the powers of safeguarding Singapore’s reserves in the Parliament instead of a separate institution. He said that while it may help, the pressure in Parliament is to do more rather than spend less. Making everything depend on just one institution – the Parliament – “creates a single point of failure”, he added.

    Doing so will mean everything hinges on the outcome of a single general election, and on the Government elected into Parliament with that one vote every five years, he said.

    Mr Lee said the Presidential Election itself presents difficulties, particularly in a fiercely contested campaign where “emotions and sentiments can build up and issues that have nothing to do with the role of the President can become hot”.

    He cited the 2011 Presidential Election, when one candidate championed a S$60 billion economic plan supposedly to create jobs and enterprise, while another made proposals such as better recognition for national servicemen and more help for the poor and unemployed.
    These, Mr Lee noted, are the Government’s responsibility, and for the Prime Minister and Cabinet to decide. “But in 2011, some candidates’ attitude was: Never mind, just say it. Get elected first, worry about the Constitution later on.”

    The Prime Minister referenced the US presidential election, saying that while the two candidates – Mr Donald Trump and Mrs Hillary Clinton – represent radically different world views, people can take some comfort in the strong checks and balances in the US political system.

    He cited James Madison, one of the country’s founding fathers, who wrote in the Federalist Papers: “If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary.

    “A dependence on the people is no doubt the primary control on the government; but experience has taught mankind the necessity of auxiliary precautions.”

    “That is wisdom,” noted Mr Lee, adding that while a system like the US one cannot work for Singapore, the city-state needs some stabiliser besides the primary control of the Government, and that is the Elected President.

    CHANGES ARE ‘MY RESPONSIBILITY’: PM

    As for the timing of the changes, the Prime Minister reiterated that he has been involved with the Elected Presidency almost from the beginning and knows the system – from the intent and design to how conditions have changed and ideas evolved.

    “These changes are my responsibility,” he said, “I am doing it now because it would be irresponsible of me to kick this can down the road and leave the problem to my successors.

    “They have not had this long experience with the system, and will find it much harder to deal with.”

    In an exclusive interview with Mediacorp in September, Mr Lee said he believed this is something which needs to be done, and if it is not done, this would mean trouble for Singapore – “not today, not tomorrow, but 10 to 15 years’, 20 years’ time definitely”.

     

    Source: ChannelNewsAsia