DO WE HAVE A MALAY PROLETARIAT?

Do We Have a Malay Proletariat?\
Tuesday, 25 November 2008 22:15
Most of what I have written so far concerned “other places”. This time, I shall try to present my views of the situation in Malaysia. I do so with unease not only because the subject is bound to be controversial, but because it is actually a very difficult and complex one.
I begin at the time of the 1st elections in Malaya because it has direct and powerful consequences for the present. The country was under an Emergency. UMNO and MCA formed the Alliance and agreed to work together to form the future independent government (MIC joined a bit later). This was an alliance of the town and country. UMNO represented the aristocrat and landlord classes as well as civil servants. It was mainly based on land, status and position, while MCA comprised mainly of the merchant class as well as planters and miners.

As can be expected, things are never static. Although they formed an alliance there was also competition and mutual suspicions between the partners. UMNO which is rural and agriculture based cannot hope to overpower the town based mercantile and moneyed classes (in spite of the small numbers that these classes represent). From the start UMNO suffered insecurity and fear. 51 years of independence have not succeeded in removing this fear. The only way for UMNO to compete was to win the support of the masses of farmers, fishermen and agricultural labourers. This it did with spectacular success and UMNO has remained the dominant partner in government ever since even if it slips up and shows its true class character every now and then through arrogance, corruption and abuse of power.

In the meantime, the communists whose support came mainly from the urban labourers and students, transport, dock and mine workers as well as rural squatters (towns’ people displaced by the Japanese occupation) were being pushed back and isolated. The urban working masses came under an oppressive weight that they could only escape from by getting an education or starting small businesses of their own and as the country progressed and developed, their places were filled by agricultural labourers and displaced small farmers from the rural areas. This I believe is the Malay proletariat. The government succeeded in dispersing a large part of the urban labouring classes which were the main support of the communists, but have created in its place a Malay proletariat.

After 51 years of independence, the experiences and value systems of this working class is no longer strongly connected with rural conservative values. In addition, the education system is churning out thousands of young men and women who cannot find jobs. Most of these people now have some trouble going back to the rural areas and hang about the towns because they no longer fit into the rural areas. Of the few that do go back to their villages, they bring with them new values and experiences – experiences that teach them the brutal fact that they cannot depend on the patronage of feudal ties and that they have to fend for themselves like their working class cousins, who can be thrown onto the streets without jobs and without any back up at any time.

However in spite of their new “awakening”, these people have no organized structure and are subject to influence of the government mass media as well as conservative religious bodies linked to the government. Still, the 12th GE saw a swing of support against the government which I believe to be partly from this group, where we saw a very clear town – rural divide.

In desperation, UMNO is now re-visiting the old concepts of Ketuanan Melayu and NEP to re-capture the support of this group of people in the hope that hope itself and promises can turn the tables. It is also offering goodies such as subsidies and minimum pensions to sweeten the package. Not content with paltry actions, it tries to limit the damage by importing foreign labour in the hope that the size of this group will not grow to unmanageable proportions.

As far as Ketuanan Melayu and NEP are concerned, UMNO is playing with fire. There is a parallel in Cambodia that we could all learn from if we wish to be honest with ourselves. When the Khmer Rouge emptied Phnom Penh of its 1 million residents and 1 million refugees and sent them into the countryside to grow food, a phenomenon arose which I think was beyond their control and which they probably never bothered to control. The rest of the population of Cambodia (also about 2 million) who were from old Khmer Rouge bases in the rural areas started to differentiate and discriminate against the newcomers from the towns. They called themselves the “base” people (for people from the Khmer Rouge rural bases) and new arrivals from the towns were the “new” people.

In a situation where the civil war had seen burning of food stocks by the retreating Lon Nol troops as well as general carnage and destruction and where food was already scarce, where 2 million peasants had to feed themselves as well as additional 2 million city dwellers and refugees, where there was discrimination between “base” (rural) people and “new” (town) people, a tragedy of epic proportions was on the cards.

A second tragedy occurred about 3 years later, the events being shrouded in mystery and may have involved international intrigues. What is well known however is that there was a power struggle and Khmer Rouge bases in the east were suspected of siding with the Vietnamese. The population was shipped en masse from the conflict zone to other Khmer Rouge bases in the west. This time, however, the tragedy took on really sinister proportions. The people from the east as well as the west were both from Khmer Rouge bases, so they could no longer discriminate on the basis of “base” people and “new” people. What happened was the discrimination now centered on “loyalists” and “traitors”. This time round, the discrimination took on murderous overtones.

For us in Malaysia, the differentiation between “bumiputras” and “immigrants” as well as loyal Malaysians and Malaysians of questionable loyalty and where UMNO continues to be seized by insecurity and fear, fill me with utter dread. Granted, the situation is not as serious as in Cambodia, but no good comes out of a divided population based on race discrimination. I hope that the new Malay proletariat will find its feet and bring us out of a dangerous rut by doing away with absolute power and bringing about a balance of power. Such a proletariat will have big reservations about the merchant and moneyed classes but at the same time also strongly opposed to bureaucratic corruption and abuse of power. I think we have the beginnings of a Malay proletariat. Do we now have a Malaysian proletariat? After all if the moneyed classes cannot unite due to competition for property and status, the lower classes have a chance to unite based on common struggle against the excesses of the rich and powerful.

By batsman


Comments (5)
...written by Motherchell, November 25, 2008 22:43:07
Oh yes they do! --- what ever the Brits burnt and threw away they picked it up for future enclosed dominion. They had their trumps. They knew slavery of the sorts we find in Patail, and Musa --reinforced their believe with strength amalgamated from the Petronas wells ! or we would be like what we find in Congo or Burkina Faso urbanely .Though after 50 years we are so similar ! http://sjsandteam.wordpress.com
...written by Just Gan, November 25, 2008 23:08:16
'In an article in Utusan Malaysia on 20 Nov, former Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad called on the Malays to adopt a more proactive attitude in defending their rights. "Nowadays we only see the Malays defending instead of attacking," he said. "We need to defend our position, and like the English saying that the best defence is a good offence, we need to be on the offensive to defend ourselves," he said at a Perdana Leadership Foundation talk. Mahathir said instead of just defending their rights under the social contract, the Malays should start talking about the benefits enjoyed by the other races because of the social contract. Tunku Abdul Rahman Putra gave out one million citizenships to non-Malays without any question, he said. "If they want to revoke Malay rights, we too want to revoke the rights given to them," he said.' - extract from another article on MT. With his kind of lunacy being propagated by a despicable low down specimen calling itself a human being, all for the sake of ensuring a win for its imbecile offspring in the forthcoming UMNO election and ensuring the continuance of its tyranical legacy through that imbecile, what more can the Malays, in particular, and Malaysians, in general, be subjected to to quickly descend into calamity and disaster. There is no limit to what this thing will resort to fulfil its greed, selfishness and egotistical self-centered cowardly low-down behaviour. If only someone could shut this thing's orifice from spewing such venom .....
...written by Spear Bing, November 25, 2008 23:18:52
It's the UMNO proletariat who is suffering from siege mentality as a result of its perverted belief in the permanancy of UMNO's 51 year rule of the nation. But natural law dictates the rule of impermanence in this universe, of transient existence. There will be revolution as a concomitant consequence, but more significantly the forces of evolution will take their rightful place in bringing about transformative change in the political landscape of the nation. UMNO of UMNO this too shall come to pass.
...written by Spear Bing, November 25, 2008 23:36:24
Dear Just Gan, With 10 million hits registered so far on his cedet blogsite, TDM has issued his own injunction that he has earned the respect of the rakyat, and as such he has earned the right to lash out his verbal vitriol as he deems fit. Such is the enigma of a person who identifies himself with an egoic mindset, hallucinated by his conviction that the world or rather UMNO owes him a living. No amount of criticism will shun him from saying his piece and the one and only incident that will make cease his verbal diarrhea is when he forgets to breathe......... period. Salam.
...written by temenggong, November 26, 2008 00:22:29
This is a good and interesting comparative study, worthy of serious consideration. I would think that Hindraf, or rather the Indians are the new proletariat. There is some malay proletariat but it would be outside of urban Malaysia. Chinese and the urban malays are the bourgeoisie.

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Tale Of Karim's Caps And Monkey

Tale Of Karim's Caps And Monkey
Once upon a time there was a nice young man called Karim. He used to sell caps for a living, and roamed around several villages. One day he would be in Mughalsarai, the other day people would find him in Faizabad.It was an afternoon in the summer and he was traversing the vast plains when he felt tired and wanted to have a nap. He found a nice mango tree with lots of branches and cool shade, placed his bag of caps beside him and went to sleep. Tired as he was, he was quickly fast asleep. When he woke up after a refreshing little nap, he found that there weren't any caps in his bag!"Oh, Allah!", he said to himself, "Did the thieves have to find me of all people?" But then he noticed that the mango tree was full of cute monkeys wearing colorful caps!He yelled at the monkeys and they screamed back. He made faces at them and found the monkeys to be experts at that. He threw stones at them and they showered him with raw mangoes."Ya Allah, how do I get my caps back," he said.Frustrated, he took off his own cap and slammed it on the ground. And Lo, the stupid monkeys threw their caps too! Smart Karim didn't waste a second, collected the caps and was on his way.50 YEARS LATER....Young Abdul, grandson of famous topiwala Karim who was also working hard at making $$$ doing his family business, was going through the same jungle.After a long walk he was very tired and found a nice mango tree with lots of branches and cool shade. Abdul decided to rest a while and very soon was fast asleep. A few hours later, when Abdul woke up, he realized that all the caps from his bag were gone! Abdul started searching for the same and to his surprise found some monkeys sitting on the mango tree wearing his caps.Abdul was frustrated and didn't know what to do. And then he remembered a story his grandfather proudly used to tell him."Yes!!!! I can fool these monkeys!!!", said Abdul."I'll make them imitate me and very soon I'll get all my caps back!"Abdul waved at the monkeys -- the Monkeys waved at Abdul. Abdul blew his nose -- the Monkeys blew their noses. Abdul started dancing -- the Monkeys were also dancing. Abdul pulled his ears -- the Monkeys pulled their ears. Abdul raised his hands -- the Monkeys raised their hands.Abdul threw his cap on the ground ............ .... one of the monkeys jumped down from the tree, walked up to Abdul; slapped him and said, "Do you think ONLY YOU HAD A GRANDFATHER? ?***********************************************************************There was an old man sitting on a park bench > crying his eyes out. When a young jogger came by > and asked him what was the matter. > The old man says, 'I'm a multimillionare, I have > a great big house, the fastest car in the world > and i just married a beautiful blonde bombshell > who satisfies me every night in bed whether I > like it or not (sob)'.> The young jogger says, 'Man you have everything > i have ever dreamed for in my life. What could > be so wrong in your life that you are sitting > here in the park crying?' > The Old Man ' I can't remmber where I live.' ***********************************************************************> Two people are going to have sex and the girl says we can't go to my house > because my parents are home. The guy says come to my house only my lil > brother is home.>> So they go to the guy's house and the lil brother is on the bottom bed and > they are on the top bed. The girl says she will say tomato if she wants to > go faster and lettuce for slower.>> So they start, "Tomato, tomato, lettuce, lettuce, tomato," and then the > lil brother says, "Guys, can you stop making tomato and lettuce > sandwiches. The mayonnaise is getting all over me."

A brief socialist history of the automobile

A brief socialist history of the automobile
By Rob Rooke

No single commercial product in the history of capitalism has had a greater effect on the economy and politics than the automobile. No other product has been such a lever to increase consumption and increase markets in the developed world. It could be argued that the car, more than any other product, was at the very heart of the 20th century’s economic expansion. In US society, for over a century, the car has been raised on a cultural pedestal worshipping individuality and defining big business’ vision of freedom.
The car hastened the massive sprawl of suburbia and in itself shaped US urban planning like no other product. Today, in the United States, public transport plays a distant second fiddle to the car with nine out of ten workers using their cars to travel to work. In people’s everyday life, the car is now their second biggest household expense, next to housing. The car has reached its zenith.
This brief socialist history of the automobile will attempt to give some background and context to today’s car-dominated world. It will attempt to explain how the automobile and the mad chase for profits has shaped the world, and helped in turn lead humanity to its current fork, where one road indisputably will lead to global destruction.
This history is founded on Marxist materialism, which sets off from the idea that all social and cultural phenomena under capitalism are shaped by the continuous tug between the bosses and the working class. While this is not a history of autoworkers, it does attempt to show the role of working people’s struggles that have continuously been in the background to the birth and rise of the automobile.
One side of the auto industry that does not pervade its own advertising is the bloody road that brought it here. The industry itself has killed and maimed hundreds of thousands of workers as it arose and found its feet. This suffering was in turn surpassed by a century-long battle over resources to feed the car its oil; its rubber; its steel and glass. Many millions have been killed in many hundreds of wars and invasions by imperialism, some more directly connected to the automobile than others.
The place of petroleum in the current war in Iraq is self-evident. But it is not the first or last war for resources for the automobile. Over a hundred years ago US imperialism invaded Central America to establish its own rubber plantations for its booming auto industry; its brutality gave rise to Augusto Sandino, the grandfather of Nicaragua’s anti-imperialist resistance.
This article is dedicated to the thousands of workers who died fighting for auto unions and those millions who resisted the auto-industrial complex and were crushed in its wake.
A brief socialist history of the automobile
In 1799 Philippe Lebon registered his invention of a ``gas powered engine with internal combustion’’ with the new revolutionary government of France. The new engine would be light, independent and powerful. It would be a hundred years before the steam engine had exhausted itself and the gas engine replace it. Together with the discovery of new sources of oil and the explosion of industry, particularly in the US, all the parts were in place for the invention of the horseless carriage.
During the 1890s the motorised bicycle and the electric car were eventually sidelined for the more utilitarian and more profitable motor car. The car began its life as a toy for the wealthy and an object that polarised the classes. It was widely known that Cornelius Vanderbilt, the railroad baron, had a 100-car garage. In 1906 Woodrow Wilson, then president of Princeton University, argued that ``nothing has spread socialistic feeling in this country more than the use of automobiles…they are a picture of the arrogance of wealth’’. The Horseless Age magazine in 1904 documented widespread stone throwing at autos in working-class neighbourhoods of New York City.
The first cars were unaffordable to working people. The average annual income of a worker in 1900 was $450 and the average price of a car was $2000. Along with the price, the common notion was that horseless carriages were less pleasant and less reliable than the horse. Only 4192 cars were sold in 1900. But within 27 years the number of cars registered in the US ballooned to over 20 million. More than half of all US families either owned a new or used automobile.
Rise of the working class and the USA’s industrial impasse
By the end of the 19th century US capitalism was fighting off a mass movement for unionisation and socialism. American capitalism had won the civil war defeating the slave-owning class, which, along with wiping out the Native American peoples, enabled capitalism to complete its rule from coast to coast. The bosses had encouraged millions of immigrants to its shores in part to attempt to undermine rising wages, however this had not prevented the working class rising up and establishing skilled craft unions throughout many of the United States’ industries.
US manufacturers had begun to see a serious decline in its rate of profits. Employers had tried to lower wages and speed up production, but that had only provoked more strikes and more workers joining the new unions. Employers began to conclude that they needed to change the organisation of production to break the power of the craft unions.
At the turn of the century a massive wave of mergers had given more control of larger companies to the banks and financiers. The dominance of the banks enabled them to direct change in the productive process of manufacturing. Frederick Taylor’s ``scientific’’ management methods were increasingly adopted throughout industry. Centralised planning, detailed time study, division of labour and incentive pay were implemented in attempts to reverse the decline in capitalism’s rate of profit and at the same time break the power of the skilled craft unions.
The automobile leapt from the sidelines into the centre of capitalist life in the first two decades of the 20th century. Increased technological improvements were able to utilise the internal combustion engine into a producer of energy unlike any previous invention. One gallon of gasoline, transformed through this engine could produce the equivalent energy of one month of human labour. The oil industry, which had grown through the widespread use of the oil lamp, had already been developed and was constantly searching for new sources globally. Unlike British, German and French imperialism, US Imperialism had the advantage of its own domestic oil industry.
Fordism: industrial saviour
The emerging automobile industry grew out of the large horse carriage manufacturers and small auto shops. Henry Ford exploited the latest manufacturing technologies and with massive investment from the big banks, transformed the plaything of the rich into a mass consumer product. Ford’s massive investment in machinery created high-speed production aimed at de-skilling the labour involved in production and assembly. Fordism aimed to destroy the clout of the craft unions: breaking down the productive process to its lowest denominator: to the simplest, most repetitive tasks. Then, to increase line speed, the industry introduced production-based pay incentives.

Henry Ford and the Model T
The mass investment into auto produced incredible results. In 1910, while a car in Europe took 3000 employee-days to produce, a Ford car was being produced in the US in 70 employee-days. In 1911 the Overland carriage company produced 20,000 cars. Their paint division employed 200 craftspeople and took two weeks to paint each vehicle. In 1915 with the introduction of spray painting and drying ovens this was reduced to three days per vehicle. The Ford Motor Company additionally stepped up production and cut costs by streamlining down to a single model. In 1914 it also discontinued all colours except black. The 1913 introduction of the conveyer belt reduced assembly of the Model T from 12.5 hours per vehicle to 1.5 hours, and by 1915, the number of skilled workers in the US automobile industry had fallen from 60% of the workforce to 15%.
One further advantage for US imperialism was that it had the world’s largest undivided potential market for any new product. In contrast, Europe was divided by dozens of national tariff walls. More than 100 million people lived within the US at this time and Ford’s River Rouge plant alone employed more than 100,000 workers. Ford developed and grew the market for the car by a combination of raising autoworkers’ wages and lowering automobile prices.
In 1913 Ford introduced the $5-a-day wage, when average daily pay in the US was under $2. In this way the Ford workforce became a part of the first mass market for cars. Ford also reduced the work-week to five days in his factories in 1926, helping raise his workers’ productivity.
By 1908 the Ford Model T was launched. It sold for $825, the cheapest car of its time. Ford had reduced costs by reducing his line to one basic affordable model. By 1925 regular price cuts had eventually brought the price of the Model T down to $260 per car, helping place an automobile outside the home of every second US family.
Over two decades the automobile had been transformed from an experimental plaything of the rich to a common, everyday product. The car no longer bore the stigma of being elitist. One of Ford’s followers was the rising star of German capitalism, Adolf Hitler. Hitler argued ``the motor car instead of being a class dividing element can be the instrument for uniting different classes, just as it has done in America, thanks to Mr. Ford’s genius’’. While the $5-a-day wage was not copied in Hitler’s Volkswagen factories, most of Ford’s authoritarian management methods were. Ford’s US factories were well known for their severe discipline and instant firings. No-one was allowed to talk on the production line: workers called it the ``Ford Silence’’. Ford’s fascist-style workplace regime was only broken by the victory of the United Auto Workers in organising Ford plants in 1941.
The booming ‘20s and the struggle for raw materials
The economic boom of the 1920s was led by the two newest and biggest consumer objects of 20th century US capitalism: the single family home and the automobile. The cinema, which replaced the saloon, became the lead advertising agent for the car. Radio advertising too promoted the new freedom of the road. The monotony and alienation of life in the workplace remained hidden in all but socialist literature. Capitalism offered increasingly meaningless jobs and an illusion of meaning off the clock: with the individualised car and picket fence.
The car and the airplane shortened distances, as did the telephone and the radio. The speed of life outside work increased, mirroring the increased speed at work. Sales promotion and marketing was born and boomed as capitalism frantically pushed to increase markets and feed its addiction to profits.
In France, the Citroen Corporation had 5000 travelling salespeople to promote the need for its car in every village and hamlet. Citroen paid for 150,000 road signs to be erected across France, where they previously hadn’t existed. The company also sold 400,000 toy cars to entice future buyers and beginning the long association of boys and cars. By 1927 the French automaker was producing 1000 cars a day in its French plants.
With the rise of the automobile, new sources of raw materials needed to be discovered and created. Capitalism can never stand still. As Karl Marx wrote in Capital, ``Accumulate! Accumulate! Accumulate! That is the Moses and the Prophets!`` Capitalism, by its inherent nature, can never stop, but is forced to continuously create bigger and bigger markets, and more and more consumption. This is all that stands between itself and an economic slump of overproduction.
Relatively sleepy Brazil was the exclusive producer of rubber at the end of the 19th century. Rubber trees grew wild, but production was costly, because of the Amazon’s isolation and scarcity of labour. Waterproofed products, capitalism’s initial use for rubber, was soon surpassed by rubber’s value as car tyres. Each car demanded 45lbs [20.4 kgs] of rubber, which sold on international markets for up to £900 per ton.
Brazil closely guarded its rubber monopoly until British imperialism broke into the industry by robbing a shipment of rubber tree seeds. Britain then raised seedlings in its Ceylon [Sri Lanka] colony and eventually began mass production of rubber in Malaysia. By the 1910s the Dutch and British colonies were producing hundreds of tons of rubber. In 1913 Malaysian and Indonesian production first surpassed Brazilian production. Two years later British Imperialism’s plantations doubled Brazilian rubber production and by 1919 they produced 10-fold more rubber than Brazil. The US recognised the problem of depending on British colonies for its tyre industry and invaded Central America to develop its own rubber industry. The US mirrored the brutal methods of the rubber plantations in Asia, where it was not uncommon for half of all workers to be dead by the end of the rubber season. US rubber plantation methods, nearing slavery, provoked one of the first mass rebellions against US imperialism, as it began its role of stalking the planet for resources.
In the mid 1920s the introduction of the inflatable tyre increased average tyre mileage from 8000 miles to 15,000 miles. The price of rubber then soon collapsed. Rubber, which peaked at £900 per ton in 1910, fell to £20 per ton by the 1930s.
In 1928 the owners of the world’s three biggest oil companies, Anglo-Persian Oil (later to become British Petroleum), Royal Dutch Shell and Standard Oil, sat down and worked out a deal to share out the world’s oil wealth between them. The Red Line Agreement signed a year later would help avert the suffering of a new world war to re-divide oil resources. Nonetheless, the working classes and poor of the oil-producing countries continued to die in poverty, alongside billions of barrels of black gold.
`Our big job is to hasten obsolescence’
The automobile helped lead the charge of the unprecedented boom of the 1920s. During this period the car market became saturated, and along with the growing sales of used cars, profits for the industry were falling. A shift in the industry was necessary and General Motors (GM) began to challenge Ford’s single model production.
As early as 1923 GM began selling cars with a similar basic frame, but with different bodies. In the boom of the 1920s GM designers argued that car sales had crossed a new threshold moving from the need for ``better quality to better looking’’. Here begins the divergence of the car from its simple utilitarian role into the realm of being an expression of social mobility and wealth. Here begins the massive diversification of models and the road that eventually leads to annual model changes. Capitalism loves all things new and seeks to see all things old thrown away. This moment is the beginning of the massive diversity of models of US cars and all that went with it.
With every model change comes the need for auto plants to produce new dies and reset presses. By the early 1940s GM alone was spending up to $35 million a year on model changes. While costly, routine model changes were beneficial to the narrow interests of the biggest automakers. GM, Ford and Chrysler drove out the remaining small producers who could not keep up with the massive investment required to change models frequently. This emergence of style or appearance as a competitive factor may have been initially stumbled upon, but it soon became a fundamental requirement in the industry. General Motors’ top designer during this period, Harley Earl, argued that ``our big job is to hasten obsolescence’’. He further argued that given the average new car ownership span in 1935 was five years and in 1955 it was reduced to two years, that ``when it is one year we will have the perfect score’’.
The Great Depression saw all auto companies radically cut back on spending and production. From a high of 5.6 million cars sold in 1929 auto sales collapsed by 75% to 1.4 million vehicles in 1932. Luxury vehicle sales fared worse: peaking in 1929 at 150,000 sold, sales then continued to fall through the 1930s. The rich understood the shift in consciousness of the period and that ostentatious displays of wealth could cost them their lives. By 1937 annual sales of luxury cars had slumped to 10,000.
In 1928 the Ford Motor Company had 128,000 workers on its payroll, by August 1931 only 37,000 workers still had jobs and most of them worked only three days per week. Ford’s $5-a-day wage had risen in the 1920s to $8 and $9 a day. The depression buried the high wage policy. In 1931 wages were cut by 20%. Some male employees were reduced to 10c an-hour and some women labourers’ wages were cut to 4 cents an hour in Ford plants.
In 1942 private auto production stopped altogether as the auto industry turned production into building war machines for US government contracts. War has always been good for business and especially for the ``auto-industrial complex’’. As far back as the outset of the US civil war oil was selling for 49c per barrel, but by the end of the World War II a barrel of oil was fetching $8. At the start of the Iraq war oil was $30 a barrel and has now risen to $110 a barrel. Similarly in World War I GM shares rocketed from 78c to $7.50. After World War II, as victor on the Western Front and in the Pacific, the US emerged as the dominant force for global capitalism. Its prestige and power was a crown shared with big auto, which set about building cars for the returning troops.
Post-war public spending for the car
The post-war revolutionary wave that swept the world was also seen in the US. The war’s hardships led to pent up anger and hope that exploded in the US workplace. The strike wave of 1946 was the widest industrial conflict in US history. More than 116 million person-days were lost in strike actions, more than four times the previous record of 1937. The strike issues were primarily for a shorter work-week, higher pay and to resist the loss of relative control over workplaces that were granted during wartime. The bosses conceded on the first two demands, adding also concessions for private insurance to undermine the global movement for nationalised healthcare. As for aspects of workplace control, once again, capitalism offered instead the myth of power and freedom of consumerism. Americans were offered the open road and a full tank of gas.
The US government, together with its close partners at the top of all the major industries began to take steps in shaping post-war USA more tightly in the interests of profit. Major support was given to promote private family home ownership in part through mortgage guarantees for returning troops. The federal government also subsidised the massive development of the suburbs. Between 1945 and 1960 some 30 million Americans moved to the suburbs, the growth of which was a huge boon to the auto industry.
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Where the railroads were built through private investment, the automobile roads were built for free though federal, state and local governments. Public and not auto industry money paid for the massive network of highways that were built and the roads were widened. Further billions in public money came in 1956 with the Interstate Highway Act providing a mass of freeways for automobiles across all states. The bill passed under the outrageous pretext that the US needed a freeway network in case of a possible invasion from the USSR.
No other industry in US history was so enormously subsidised as the auto industry. US governments, federal and local, essentially built the superstructure for the expansion of the car. The car became inseparable from almost every function of US life as a direct consequence of its partnership with the US political elite.
The `Auto-industrial complex’ conspiracy to destroy public transport
The booming post-war period saw the massive rise and peak of what US Marxist economist Paul Sweezy called the ``automobile-industrial complex’’ –- the car, oil, steel, glass, rubber, highway construction, trucking and real estate industries connected to urban sprawl. One consequence of this vested interest in cars was the systematic smashing of public transport operations. General Motors, Standard Oil of California (Chevron), Phillips Petroleum and Firestone Tires formed National City Lines, as a part of an organised campaign to buy up and destroy electric rail systems operating in US towns and cities. After buses replaced trams and trains, then the bus systems too were often wound down.

A National City Lines trolley bus
By the early 1950s the auto industry faced a crisis of falling unit demand, as most families now owned a car. At the same time working people’s discretionary spending was rising. Given these factors, the Big Three (GM, Ford and Crysler) moved to increase each car’s size and array of new gadgets, and at the same time increase the frequency of the introduction of new models.

Ford Edsel
Between 1946 and 1959 the cheapest Chevrolet sedan grew 13 inches [33 cms] in length, 7 inches [17.8 cms] in width and was over 400 lbs [181 kgs] heavier. The Ford Edsel, launched in 1957, was an incredible 18 feet [5.5 metres] long. Horsepower for the average model in 1946 was around 110, by 1956 it was grown to 180. Exhaust emissions, fuel efficiency and vehicle safety were placed a distant second to the need to continuously increase profits.
By 1950 the Big Three offered their customers 243 different new car models. During this period new model changes were brought forward from three years per model to two years. With a major body change costing upwards of $200 million, by 1955 the Big Three controlled 94% of the entire US market. They were no longer under any pressure to reduce prices and in the decade of the 1950s prices rose an unprecedented 36% to an average car price of $1822.
Patriotism has always been utilised by business for selling its products. With the Cold War in full swing the US auto industry and its representatives in government increasingly identified consumer choice with capitalism (so-called ``democracy’’) and the lack of consumer choice with communism. In 1955 Chevrolet advertised its cars as ``empowerment and escape’’ feeding on previous associations of the car and a very narrow concept of freedom.
The Cold War, the retreat from militancy of the labour leaders and the monopoly of big business’ two political parties, gave a green light to the bosses to gouge their customers, the working class. While average manufacturing profits between 1946 and 1967 rose a dramatic 9% per year, GM’s return on its investments were a stunning average of 21% per year over the same period.
The 1964 Senate hearings on auto safety marked the beginning of the end of the blank cheque for big auto. A GM spokesperson admitted that the company only spent $1.25 million on safety research and safety changes for its cars in 1963. When GM executives were then asked about their profit levels, they admitted they had hit $1.7 billion in the same year.
There was also a small backlash within the trend to super-sized cars. In 1955 only 60,000 European cars, which tended to be significantly smaller than their US counterparts, were sold in the US. By 1960 imports rose to 700,000 cars, slightly more than 10% of the market. The arrogance of the auto bosses towards the compact car and towards public pressure was best expressed by Henry Ford III who opposed making smaller models with his position that ``mini-cars make mini-profits’’. Comments such as these increasingly irritated working people, leading the Wall Street Journal in the early 1970s to comment on ``the growing rebellion against cars’’. The rebellion was as much against the car business as the product itself.
As pressure on the wages of working people increased, more women were returning to the work place. Given the deliberately weak public transportation sector, more families were forced to buy more than one car. In 1950 only 7% of households owned more than one car, by 1970 29% of all US families owned more than one car.
Beginning of the decline of the car
The massive proliferation of models exploded in the sixties. By 1970 the Big Three offered 370 different models each year a 55% increase in the number of models over 1960. Their obsession with perpetuating the myth of choice was beginning to undermine their own profits. In the early days of auto production, from 1919 through 1930, worker productivity increased on average 8.6% per year. Productivity gains collapsed in the 1960s to an average of 3% per year. The fall in productivity was in large part because of the vast multitude of models each of the three big automakers were producing and the massive investment this demanded.
The profit and productivity impasse of the early 1970s increased class tensions within the auto plants. As the corporations sought to further automate and increase line speed they faced the resistance of the rank and file. The bosses responded with harsh disciplinary measures and penalties against individuals. It was this offensive that created a rebellion among young UAW rank and file such as at Lordstown, Ohio. At Lordstown autoworkers were producing one car every 36 seconds. It was the fastest assembly line in the world.
In 1972 Lordstown GM workers walked out over the barrage of disciplinary actions by management. After the 22-day strike a vast majority of workers were reinstated and charges against most workers dropped. However, the fear of the rank and file and increasingly aggressive bosses helped push the UAW bureaucracy in the direction of its current class collaborationist policy of team work. Through the Team Concept the bosses were able to win increased cooperation from their workforce, which in turn increased job speed and alienation on the job.
The long lines outside gas stations during the 1973 oil crisis shifted working-class opinion further against the auto industry. This in turn led to increased regulations on cars, particularly for fuel efficiency. The phrase, ``gas guzzler`` was born. As the auto corporations were increasingly perceived as socially irresponsible, they were forced to decrease the size of their monster cars. Detroit was forced to make a large foray into the compact car market. The industry then waited in the wings for the environmentalism and oil fears of the 1970s to die down.
The coming of the SUV
The economic boom of the 1980s, politically expressed through the election and re-election of US President Ronald Reagan, took the heat off corporations and the demand for government regulation. The Vietnam era was to be buried and an escapism not seen since the 1920s ensued. This was the background to the emergence of the world’s all time most wasteful and unsafe version of the motor car: the sports utility vehicle (SUV).
Once an obscure model, the SUV with its passenger car body and truck frame came into the mainstream, albeit the high end of the mainstream. The SUV became the savior for the Big Three. The vast majority of US auto profits in the 1990s were from their light truck and SUV models. Sports utility vehicles have increasingly come to symbolise all that is wrong and wasteful about the current economy. Like the boom of the 1950s the auto-industrial complex exploited the rise in disposable incomes that the housing equity boom created to sell more cars to each person. An average sedan in the last 10 years would typically weigh about 3000lbs [1360 kg]. The average SUV often weighs over 6000lbs [2700 kg]. The ``green`` capitalists at Toyota sell hundreds of thousands of their Sequoia SUV, which weighs in at 6500lbs [2948 kgs].
The home equity crash has essentially ended the heyday of SUV sales. It is no coincidence that capitalism’s two most important consumer commodities: the privately owned house and the private car are going into a crisis at the same time. Both products represent a way of life that is individualised and wasteful and a social construct that cannot be sustained by the planet Earth.
When the Model T was launched 100 years ago, it could travel 20-22 miles per gallon [approx 9.3 km/litre]. Over a century of automaking later, the most popular car models were less fuel efficient. Hummers and Escalades of recent years have city gas mileage of around 10 miles per gallon [4.25 km/litre]. The waste of fuel energy and the pumping of polluting and global-warming emissions into the air would have been negligible at the turn of the last century when there were 8000 registered cars in the US. Today there are 231 million registered cars in the US. China has now surpassed Japan as the number two consumer of automobiles and there may be 100 million cars on China’s roads before the decade is out. Thirty-eight million cars were sold globally in 1995. Last year that increased to 49 million cars.
US automobiles are second only in carbon dioxide production to coal-burning power plants. US cars currently account for 1.5 billion tons of carbon dioxide emissions a year. No carbon-offsetting can remove this level of pollution. The US would have to plant 55 billion trees every year to undo this level of emissions. And with China attempting to mirror the road of US capitalism, tomorrow’s world resources will be stretched to unmanageable levels.
At the turn of the previous century the electric car was essentially abandoned because of its 50-mile [80-kilometre] limit on one charge, today it is making a small comeback. The rise in sales of electric cars and the more popular petrol-electric hybrids will certainly slow down the rate of damage to the planet. These sales still represent a negligible percentage of the car market. Any car, petrol or electric is still essentially about 3000lbs [1360 kgs] of automobile being moved around for often only one human being.
The hoopla around hybrid cars is a part of a wider increase in products of green capitalism. They are linked with the notion that individuals can opt out of a huge mass polluting system and that the huge consumption of the past can continue in an environmentally sustainable way. In this world, big capitalism continues to makes its profits, markets continue to expand and people feel better about the environment. Yet the pace of global warming is unimpeded.
In the last analysis, any mass-produced ``green’’ car still stands in opposition to public transport and the fundamental social changes necessary to save the planet.
The car’s nemesis: public transportation
Aside from the social and environmental factors, there have been few products that have in themselves been more lethal than the automobile. While studies have proven that bus travel is 170 times safer than car travel, some 120 people a day in the US continue to die from traffic accidents involving private cars. The auto industry has continued to try and sell more safety to wealthier car buyers, but human error with 231 million individual drivers is impossible to remove.
The rise of the automobile was accompanied by the collapse of public transport. Public transport did not shrink because of its inability to economically compete with the car. There was a campaign by the auto-industrial complex to defeat and bury public transportation.
With the growth of industry and jobs, public transport in the United States increased alongside the increase in cars. Public transport peaked with an average of 166 passenger rides per year per head of population. By 1956, with compliant support of capitalist politicians, the number of riders was halved. Neighbourhoods were developed that had no public transport access, forcing more people to buy cars. By 1973 US public transport ridership hit its post-war low of 31 rides per year per person. Today that figure has only slightly recovered to about 35 rides per person per year.
At the beginning of the 1920s, 90% of travel was by rail, chiefly electric rail. Only one in 10 Americans owned a car. Virtually every city and town in the US with more than 2500 people had its own electric rail system. General Motors used its massive profits over a 30-year period to kill these light rail systems. GM bought up rail companies and ran them into the ground. They also introduced bus lines that would follow the same route as trains and trams, offering lower fares. The extensive light rail systems of New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington DC, St Louis, Salt Lake City, Sacramento, San Diego and Oakland were all smashed by GM money.
A Los Angeles Railway streetcar
Los Angeles, as the youngest of the US mega cities, may have fared the worst of all. The Los Angeles Railway operated the majority of the city’s 1500 streetcars. In May 1945, GM’s front organisation, American City Lines, bought 59% of LA Railway’s stock. In the same month LA Railway announced its plan to scrap most of its streetcar lines.
The destruction of public transport, particularly electric rail systems, was not only a massive waste of resources, but perhaps the biggest single contribution to increasing pollution and climate change in global history. General Motors, as the world’s biggest corporation, made the decision for this process, privately, on its board of directors. There was no popular vote for this policy. It was capitalist ``democracy’’ in action. The reverberations from the destruction of public transport are many sided. The shrinking of public transport also contributed to the racially segregated poverty of urban areas. Professor Evelyn Blumenburg’s UCLA study of jobs and public transit in Los Angeles in the last decade shows that residents of Watts who have access to a private car are 59 times more likely to get a job than those dependent on public transport.
The future
Capitalism and its blind gallop for profits has brought the planet to where it is today. The private automobile was one of its greatest vehicles for profit. The current and future inhabitants have to deal with the world as it has been inherited. The past will continue on if it is not contested. Democrat and Republican politicians pay lip service to the environment, but being bought and paid for by big business they only offer small measures that will not save the planet.
The world is currently run by the wolves in the coop. The General Motors, the Chevrons, the Citibanks still continue to make the real decisions about world’s future. These companies will not put humanity or the planet ahead of the race for profits. To remove this obstacle to a sustainable future a social and political revolution is necessary. Working-class people need to take the wheel and re-organise society in the interests of the great majority.
A future of massive light rail expansion is one alternative. Every city, every region and nationally, travel by light electric rail would dramatically curb auto emissions. However, if this led to bigger and bigger coal-fired electricity power stations, then the gains for the environment could all be lost.
Some argue that nuclear power may need to be re-examined. In France, 75% of its electricity comes from nuclear power. This raises two issues: operational safety and waste storage. The Cherynobl nuclear disaster released an equivalent toxicity into the air of 200 Hiroshima bombs. And there still appears to be no long-term solutions to storing nuclear waste.
The big auto-industrial corporations along with the big banks need to be brought under public ownership. The industrial resources and productive capacity of big auto should be converted into socially useful production as a part of a democratic plan that working-class people should generate.
In the 13th century Roger Bacon, the social philosopher, predicted that ``Man will we able to build a carriage that moves at miraculous speed without horses or other draft animals’’. Human society has moved past that stage now and should move forward toward its only possible future: a collective one, with a collective-oriented transport system.
[Rob Rooke, former recording secretary, Carpenters Local 713, Oakland, California. Written on March 29, 2008. Rooke is a member of Labor’s Militant Voice (http://www.laborsmilitantvoice.com//).]
Sources:
Ilya Ehrenburg, The Life of the Automobile (1929)
David Gartman, Auto Opium: A Social History of American Automobile Design
Roger Keeran, The Communist Party and the Auto Workers’ Unions
Historical Statistics of the United States, US Department of Commerce
Bradford Snell, How General Motors Deliberately Destroyed Public Transit
Appendix
Labor’s Militant Voice Environmental Platform
A planned socialist economy based on immediate human needs rather than the senseless drive for profits, would solve many of today’s key environmental problems according to the following platform.
1. Mass integrated transit systems. A mass integrated public transit system linking urban, suburban and rural areas together through energy efficient and affordable transportation. [With such] an integrated transportation system, controlled by working people today, market pressures would be eliminated in order to provide safe and efficient travel for the inhabitants of the region. In times of natural disaster and emergency, such a transit system would respond more effectively and responsively to human needs, as during a major earthquake or tsunami.
2. Energy. A program to develop and further investigate renewable and alternative energy sources. Research into technologies which promote hydrogen, solar, wind and hyrdo-electric power sources. A rational plan of energy use and production would call for an overall decrease in the use of stored energy of any kind to meet the general needs of society. The generation of energy for public consumption by industrial plants under private ownership, which today contribute greatly to carbon emissions, as well as airborne, water and soil toxicity, would be eliminated and replaced with power generation facilities under community control. In order to further reduce public energy consumption and waste, a program of socialised domestic food production, and sanitation could be implemented through organisations of community control.
3. Agriculture and food production. Growing food crops and cattle raising without the use of induced pesticides, artificial hormones or genetically modified organisms foreign to a particular environment. The natural fertility of the soil and ground water could be sustained through methods of crop rotation and stepped irrigation, as practiced in agricultural societies for thousands of years. Modern-day methods of geological survey and research, now largely in the service of private corporations, could be used to more efficiently and rationally plan usage of natural resources. The necessity of chemical preservatives to keep food fresh for transport and storage, would be eliminated by having food produced locally and according to the immediate needs of the population.
4. Housing and urban development. Population centres which are appropriate to the needs and resources of the human inhabitants could be democratically planned along with transportation, energy and food production. Development of new housing would be according to the immediate circumstances of society, and not on market speculation. The necessity of long-distance travel, and traffic between home and work, would be eliminated through the conversion of available materials and building construction into a program of affordable housing for all workers and their families.

KELANTAN MB AGAINST 'NOTION OF MALAY SUPREMACY'

Kelantan MB against 'notion of Malay Supremacy'

Posted by St Low
Monday, 17 November 2008 20:07
KOTA BARU: Kelantan Mentri Besar Datuk Nik Abdul Aziz Nik Mat said he disagreed with the notion of Ketuanan Melayu (Malay Supremacy) because there are no race considerations in Islam.
He said it was important for all Muslims to be firm believers and practise the true teachings of Islam and not distorted versions, adding that Muslims who placed nationalism and race ahead of religion were “disillusioned followers.”
Islam is for Muslims regardless whether they are Malays, Chinese or Indians, he said.
“It is a religion above race. We cannot quantify race with Islam, such as Malays with Islam. There are also Chinese and Indian Muslims,” said the PAS spiritual adviser.
“Those who place race above religion are being brainwashed by western culture,” he said after launching the inaugural London Fish Tales fast-food outlet at the Tesco hypermarket here on Monday.
He also said that actions by certain Muslims who do not practise Islam faithfully were the root cause why the religion was not widely respected.
Before criticising non-followers, Muslims should first return to the true path of Islam as it would allow them to gain the respect of non-Muslims, besides upholding Islam’s true virtues.
Nik Abdul Aziz also said that both Muslims and non-Muslims should respect and follow the decrees (fatwas) issued by the National Fatwa Council as they represent the rulings of Allah.
“Allah’s decrees and decisions are final,” he said, adding that non-Muslim NGOs must refrain from criticising decisions made by the National Fatwa Council.
The Council has come under heavy criticism when it said it was studying whether to issue a fatwa against Muslims practising yoga.
- The Star

‘Who’ll lead the country with the PM and DPM away?’

The absence of both Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi and his deputy Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak for two days this week has raised questions about who will lead the country in their absence.
Published: Monday November 17, 2008 MYT 1:01:00 PMUpdated: Monday November 17, 2008 MYT 8:00:17 PM
‘Who’ll lead the country with the PM and DPM away?’
By ROYCE CHEAH

KUALA LUMPUR: The absence of both Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi and his deputy Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak for two days this week has raised questions about who will lead the country in their absence.
Ipoh Timur MP and DAP adviser, Lim Kit Siang, said for as long as he could remember, such a situation had never occurred.
"It has been 30 years or longer since both the Prime Minister and deputy have been out of the country."
In a press conference at the Parliament lobby on Monday, Lim said Abdullah was in Uzbekistan for a four-day official visit accompanied by his wife and Cabinet ministers.
"On Tuesday, Najib will leave with another team of Cabinet ministers for the 16th Apec Economic Leaders Meeting in Lima, Peru."
Lim said Abdullah would only return on Friday while Najib is expected to continue to New York after Peru and will only return early next month.
"This would mean that for at least two days, both leaders will be out of the country. Why has this standing rule been broken?"
Lim asked who would be the acting Prime Minister as even Umno vice-president Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin and Home Minister Datuk Seri Syed Hamid Albar would be with Najib in Peru.
"Can it be the most senior minister in the Prime Minister's Department, Tan Sri Bernard Dompok or the newly elected MCA president, Datuk Seri Ong Tee Keat?"
Lim said he would also like the Prime Minister's Office to disclose the number of times in the past 30 years when both the prime minister and his deputy had been out of the country.

Angkasawan admits accepting contributions, denies demanding payment

Monday November 17, 2008
Angkasawan admits accepting contributions, denies demanding payment

KUALA LUMPUR: Angkasawan Datuk Dr Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor Sheikh Mustapha has admitted to accepting contributions when giving talks.
However, he denied that he had received, among others, RM8,000 an hour for giving talks.
He said it was the norm for him to give talks in schools for free.
A news portal recently alleged that Dr Sheikh Muszaphar could have earned up to RM1.2mil, as he had charged RM8,000 for one-hour talks to 150 corporate companies.
“I hope we can resolve this unfortunate incident (allegations) because its negative impact would affect my ability to continue giving talks to schools in the country,” he said.
“I have spoken to Science, Technology and Innovation Deputy Minister Fadilah Yusof and given a detailed explanation, and he was happy and satisfied with my explanation,” he told reporters after flagging off and taking part in the Sixth Batik Fun Walk 2008 here yesterday.
Meanwhile, Penyayang chairman Nori Abdullah, who organised the walk, was satisfied with the number of participants, especially since some of the proceeds would be donated to the Penyayang Pesakit Kanser charity.
“I am happy with the number of participants taking part this year, which is about 1,200. This is double the number we had last year.
“It is also heartening to know that these participants will help make life a little easier for cancer patients,” she said.
Her husband, Rembau MP Khairy Jamaluddin, was also a participant in the event. — Bernama

The Malays needed to identify their political and economic weaknesses and overcome them by doing soul-searching

Khir: I’m not into money politics

Posted by Super Admin
Sunday, 16 November 2008 10:07
People should learn to differentiate between “political money” and “money politics”. In politics, we need to spend money for various expenses, especially for logistics.
By SA’ODAH ELIAS, THE STAR

CALLING himself a dark horse, Datuk Seri Dr Khir Toyo tells those who have accused him of indulging in political bribery to get their facts right and not to confuse political money (wang politik) with money politics (politik wang).
"When I was mentri besar, I received only my salary and nothing else. The Selangor state government dealings during my time were always transparent" - Datuk Seri Dr Khir Toyo
Q: Do you think that the extended campaign period of five months will be an advantage to you?
A: Of course. This will give me enough time not only to campaign but also gauge the ability of other Umno Youth leaders who can be appointed to head the bureaus if I win.
The much-longer campaign period will allow me to meet delegates to explain my stand on various issues, particularly those affecting the party.
Q: You have not been spared the allegation of money politics. It is said that among the three candidates, you have spent the most during the divisional meetings as you are an ex-mentri besar of the richest state in the country. Is it true?
A: That’s total rubbish. When I was mentri besar, I received only my salary and nothing else.
The Selangor state government dealings during my time were always transparent. I do not believe in money politics or other types of political bribery.
Please do not insult the delegates’ intelligence. They vote based on ability and leadership qualities, and not because of money.
People should learn to differentiate between “political money” and “money politics”. In politics, we need to spend money for various expenses, especially for logistics.
In the United States, political parties will ask for political donations from companies and individuals to finance their campaign activities. This is not bribery. Bribery is when you give in cash or in kind, like promises of datukships or positions, in return for support.
Q: Why did you choose to go for Umno Youth chief’s post and not the vice-president’s post, especially since you are already in the supreme council and received the highest votes in 2004?
A: A vice-president cannot make changes. By being Umno Youth chief, I feel I will be in a better position to introduce changes. So, I feel I can do a much better job.
Q: Datuk Mukhriz Mahathir has the influence of his father to help him secure votes while Khairy Jamaluddin has a serving prime minister as a father-in-law to lend him support. What edge do you have against them?
A: What I have is very vast and diverse experience which I can use to help the party in the long run.
I have held the most menial of posts in Umno to one of the most important as a state liaison committee chairman. My work experience is equally vast.
I believe it is not a family tree that will decide which candidate will win the trust of the delegates but his ability, credibility and his attitude.
Q: Among the three candidates, you are seen as the least liberal. Among the non-Malays, you are even seen as an ultra-Malay. Is that an image that you have deliberately cultivated to gain support or is it more than mere image?
A: I believe Umno must stay true to its ideology if it wants to regain lost ground. That means, it cannot run away from race-based politics.
This must not be mistaken for racist politics. In fact, only through race-based politics can Umno be strong again.
Please do not misunderstand my stand as I am also wholly supportive of the need for other race-based component parties like the MCA and MIC to continue with their race-based agenda.
So long as we understand what our rights are, and go back to Barisan Nasional’s mechanism to resolve disputes, race-based parties will stay.
I do not understand why Umno leaders nowadays are too apologetic when it comes to racial issues. Where is our priority, to not hurt the feeling of the non-Malays or to uphold the rights of the Malays?
Q: What do you think is the best solution to address problems currently affecting Umno?
A: Umno must go back to its original form. It must not be shy to fight for Islam and for the Malays.
If it is not seen to be doing that, the Malays who are inclined towards religion will opt for PAS while liberal Malays will join Parti Keadilan Rakyat.
Do we want Umno to remain just a shell without strength and influence? Only when Umno is strong can it earn the respect of others and only then can we lead Barisan better.

Malay Politics Needs Strengthening Through Numbers - Rais

Posted by kasee
Sunday, 16 November 2008 22:04
(Bernama) Umno Supreme Council member Datuk Seri Dr Rais Yatim has called for the strengthening of Malay politics through numbers so that other races will stop denigrating and ridiculing the Malays.
He said that of late, too many sneers were aimed at disgracing the Malays as though the race had lost dignity and direction."Many Malays feel offended with such scornful remarks but there are also many who do not care and let the indigenous polemics be mocked in their own political platforms," he said.Rais, who is also foreign minister, said this in a keynote address at a forum on legal issues and indigenous rights in the constitution at the Tun Hussein Onn Memorial here Sunday.He said the Malays should know their history which could serve as a guide in their political struggle."History can be deemed a major factor which strengthens the argument that the Malays or Malay stock were the first to reside in the Malay States which the world knew as Malaya or Land of the Malays," added Rais.He said, what was perceived as Malay supremacy, was actually the sovereignity and privileges of the Malay Rulers."This is because the monarchy institution or Malay Sultanates are closely linked to the Malay psyche," he said.The Malays needed to identify their political and economic weaknesses and overcome them by doing soul-searching.He said, remarks on Malay Supremacy cannot be made without substance or ego politics because the privilege had to be backed by continuous capacity and knowledge skills. When we are strong, then only we can say we are masters.This has to be fine-tuned and a Malay leader has to show the capability and strength in politics."But if there are Malay leaders still buying votes to climb up, we will never be strong and respected as masters on our own soil," he said.Rais said that in this regard, Umno, as a party for the Malays, had to be reshuffled and Article 3 of the party's Constitution on the premises and objectives had to be embraced because it contained the real Malay agenda."In the constitution, the meaning of Malay itself has three basic conditions. Firstly, the individual has to be Muslim, secondly speak Malay and thirdly, follow the Malay custom," he said.In terms of Bumiputera share in national wealth, Rais said the Malays had to reject the "at least 30 per cent ratio" and replace it with "the highest ratio possible".Besides, he said, all policies affecting the Malays and indigenous people and Islam had to go through political vetting first before the government made decisions.Besides, Rais said, the Malays must stay away from elements that could weaken their image.He said that behind the current polemic, one positive aspect that had arisen was the move of the Malay Rulers who came forward to lend assistance when needed."Perhaps, the Malay Rulers felt the calling to do so and we appreciate it. It seems, politicians in the country also welcome the move of the Malay Rulers," he added.Rais also called for a law enforcement system and policy which prevented certain quarters from continuing to dispute the rights and privileges of the Malays.

i think rais is trying to stir some shiat. i think most of us (incl malays) are denigrating the umno fellas...and so happened u r one of them.
Rai, you had only said one thing right, we are not disparaging the big number of Malays, good Malays like Datuk Zaid and many! We may scorn at you Umno who have herds of pea brains and nerds! We are not talking about number to show our respect, we are talking about brain and good brains, fair-minded brain like you are lacking of are those we will respect! Race or right minded Malays are not in our category of denigrate and despised! ....For you and your breed, you deserve our salivas and our middle fingers! Narrrrr!
Another 'cow dung' so afraid of his special rights being questioned. When his UMNO goon questioned the citizenship of the squatter chinese, he seem at ease with those remarks but now want the police to prevent ceratin quarters from continuing to dispute the special rights of the Malays. May I tell you Rais, the Malays are also immigrants and not the original bumiputras (original land owners). If anything, the original land owners do require a helping hand economically but now it seems the special rights equate to across the board Malays being spoon fed like babies. I question this kind of racist policies and like minded Malays too will feel offended if we think the only way they can be successful in Malaysia is for government assistance. It would seem that those hardcore poor Malays are not benefiting from this special rights racist policy. The proof is out there and everyone knows it including Rais.
Now this reminds me of something someone once said..... "The white men were roused by a mere instinct of self-preservation..... until at last there had sprung into existence a great Ku Klux Klan, a veritable empire of the South, to protect the Southern country." - Woodrow Wilson God bless Malaysia, my home sweet home.
When people whack UMNO, it is whacking UMNO as a corrupt political party, not the race. Such difference ought to have been obvious to Rais even if it is not obvious to many other UMNO leaders. Rais' implied call to add numbers to UMNO is the same like any other UMNO leaders bankrupt of ideas. Malays are not a monopoly for UMNO. Corruption drives away members. And to say that "sneers" are aimed at denegrading the Malays are the most dangerous and untrue thing that any UMNO upper rung leader has said so far - because it sounds like he's trying to establish provocation, and hence further usage of Sedition Act and ISA. It's a crying shame that Rais has decided to stoop so low into the politics of race to win his Vice Presidency.
It is an open secret that the malays have lost their dignity in the eyes of the non malays, even a subject of ridicule. This is not new but has been so since the 60s. It just got worse lately after the Moorthy case. But its just that the non malays, born of giving face, do not have the gumption in them to tell it outright. They expect malays like YOU Rais to tell the malays so. But you're still playing the numbers and history game instead of principles. See how low you have gone Rais! you don't gave the guts to tell malays that they cannot fall back on history. But at least you got one thing right in stating that 'Malay supremacy is actually the sovereignity and privileges of the Malay Rulers'.
Here we go. Malays are not sitting back and letting things rot. Umno is also trying to get back what it lost. Numbers make the difference indeed and it is such numbers that Anwar could not get on Sept 16 (discussed in story above) that would make or break the PR in the near future! Ohlala!
Umno Supreme Council member Datuk Seri Dr Rais Yatim has called for the strengthening of Malay politics through numbers so that other races will stop denigrating and ridiculing the Malays.
No it is not te Malay. It is directed to the UMNO leeches and it is not coming only from non-Malay but other Malay as well. You racist please refer to all these good people that there to challenge you as Malaysian. Please return all the ill gotten money to us.
“Umno Supreme Council member Datuk Seri Dr Rais Yatim has called for the strengthening of Malay politics through numbers so that other races will stop denigrating and ridiculing the Malays”. What a joke. The “other races” aren’t denigrating and ridiculing the Malays. If they did, they’d be hitting Keadilan and PAS as well. But they aren’t. The other races are for the first time in their lives, actually speaking up following decades of suppression under UMNO supremacist policies. What the other races have essentially done is to put a mirror up to UMNOputeras, so that they can see what they have become. Sadly, instead of trying to improve, they are in denial, and are becoming worse than ever. So now you want numbers. What do you propose? A captive breeding program for would-be, racist, keris-waving, UMNOputeras? Zoo Negara can help in this endeavor.
The malays or the general population have given UMNO/BN more than 50 yrs to manage the country. What have U guys done? Well, to fool everyone especially the malays by malay leaders. Looks like it is a question of not enough $$$ in the bank. UMNO leadership is like a dynasty, taking turns to rip off the rakyat. Now tell me how our PM kids can get so rich via govt contracts, 30% equity affirmative policies. What happen to the mass malay/bumiputra population? Come mon Rais, U are not that stupid, U are just an old fox that still wants to rely on old tricks to fool the malays. It is the malay leadership that is corrupt that has stiffle malays progress & U are part of it. Which malay minister(except Zaid) dare to question the manner things are done? Don't blame the malays for not supporting. Rightly the malays have send a strong message, do U guys care to clean up. NOO. Guess what we even have a chap being arrested by Australian authorities & made a minister. What a joke a big slap to the malays integrity. Malays are not simple minded people but guys like U with such mentality, I would vote for the opposition.
Mr. Rice anak Yatim, You're finished as a politician! Is this all you have to provide a leadership for the Malaysians? Just becos you're in the twilight of your career, you don't have to whip up racist sentiments. Nobody denigrated or insulted Malays - only Umno and their racist/fascist ideas bent on plunder, in the name of "Ketuanan Melayu"! The poor Malays have been hoodwinked for fifty years - and many still don't realize what they have lost, by giving up their rights, conscience, culture & humanity. You guys have perverted the course of democracy & justice by rendering the constitution a worthless piece of paper. You have belittled the parliament by having all mighty governments and closed door meetings between your allies. Now you have the cheek to tell Malays that they are being insulted by others? Get out of your denial Syndrome and face facts Rais - you guys are such shameless losers!! You say, "the Malays must stay away from elements that could weaken their image". I agree - they should abandon Umno, just as Umno has abandoned them for money!
Rais is afraid that a lot of malays are beginning to see that the umnoputras are making use of them instead of helping them. Therefore more and more are going to Pas and PR.
Rais, you are just a piece of Racist Shit. Shame on you !!!!
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Err ... Why wont the non malays look down at DUMNO malays , even there are malays out there who also looks down on the DUMNO malays. Sick and unfit goons who runs this beautiful nation aiming for disaster. This bigot Rias seems more interested to increase the quantities of cows and buffalos in DUMNO and not its quality to be fair to serve the people and the nation irregardless of race and ethnic towards Bangsa Malaysia. Another imbecile.
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Rais the biggest racist martha farker. Rais, nobody is questioning your Malay rights. It is UMNO who is ridiculing themselves. You stupid Rais. You think you are intellectually strong. Fark you.
This Rias is another idiot who has the kampong mentality that the malays must have the numbers.Numbers for what? The people is agianst umno and its crooks not all the malays!For a Minister he ought to know better then to play this racial card but as one recently written blog this lap dog would bow so low to kiss the hand of the bodoh pm.This guy realy needed a job that's all.Another mother#@%$ of umno driving a wedge against the non malays by letting his interlectual shits out of his mouth.
UM-No is the hypocrite king! You guys started the racial issue in this country and yet you morons blaming other races ridiculing the Malays. We the rakyat has waken up and the day Um-No falls six feet under ground we will start laughing until our teeth falls off.
The Malays lost dignity and direction because of UMNO. The new breed of Malays should realised that by now and pull out from UMNO before its too late.
This guy is scrambling for attention as the UMNO election is drawing near. Afraid to lose, uh? Playing the same old, stinky racial trick again. Any fool (we are not fools) can tell.
Rias, another UMNO Malay, has purposely misinterpreted the political situation to give further false hopes to UMNO members. Only UMNO especially UMNOputras are scorned by others. They deserve to be scorned by one and all for the misdeeds on the population and blatant corruption running wild in the country. Making up the Malay numbers? Don't think too much about it. PKR and PAS are not not with UMNO on this. Both parties only know to well what UMNO stands for - A Big Bully! Rias, you can hope but don't be too blur, blur by publicly speaking out of line!
Give back your PhD to the issuing university and go write a new book on "how I survive in UMNO by playing the race card."
'Quantity, not quality", says the genius! And we end up with millions of unskilled Indons, Banglas, Pakis, Afghans, *****s, Burmese, Nepalese, Africans etc...
I think Rais mistaken something. Malay have dignity, but Umno Malay don't. Get that right.
Rais, you don't sound malaysian anymore..hmmm
Sad, sad. Another rodent from UMNO who don't have the mental capacity to differentiate between Malays and Umnoputras! Hopefully he will grow up to know whats a bad apple having ate them all these years. He had a Phd.on "Umno vote buying"?
You are right Yatim oi ! You need numbers to stay in power and to plunder this nation's wealth.Why don't you register ants,snakes,cockroaches and fish as UMNO members so that you and your UMNO will forever be the government.
Encik Rais Yatim, Kamu menakut-takutkan orang Melayu supaya orang Melayu menyokongkan kamu and UMNO. Kamu berusaha kuat memisahkan suatu puak daripada puak lain, and kemudian memerintah negara ini, iaitu "divide and rule". Adakah itu tahap kepimpinan yang kamu berdaya? Kamu sangat mengecilkan daya fikiran orang-orang Melayu apabila kamu menganggap bahawa orang-orang Melayu tidak menyedarkan taktikmu yang kotor. Janganlah gunakan pangkat PhD itu sebagai alasan untuk mengecil-kecilkan daya fikiran orang-orang Melayu and Malaysia. Perbuatan kamu sebagai menteri luar negeri sangatlah memalukan. Kalau tak percaya, cubalah gantikan perkataan Melayu dalam berita atas dengan "White", dan bayangkanlah kamu sendiri sebagai pemimpin Ku Klux Klan.
(Bernama) Umno Supreme Council member Datuk Seri Dr Rais Yatim has called for the strengthening of Malay politics through numbers so that other races will stop denigrating and ridiculing the Malays. BORNEOMAN is calling for the strengthening of NATIVES politics through numbers so that other races will stop denigrating,ridiculing,bullying,dominating,abusing colonizing the NATIVES OF SARAWAK. WHAT SAY YOU NOW rais yatim the malaya malay???
Rais Anak Yatim, you (UMNO) had your numbers during Mahatiu's Project Blue i/c to Indon and Flipino Muslim Immigrants in Sabah and some parts of Peninsula. If this numbers are not enough, then go to 4D, TOTO and 3 1 there are more numbers for UMNO Malays to try their luck!
Rais Yatim, With your words spoken in this article, whatever little last shred of respect I had in you has definitely now been thrown out of the window. You have now officially joined the league of Najis, Khir Moron, Ahmad Ismail; you have reached the river of no return.
Rais the Frozen Rat, this Rat had been frozen by AMNO for quite sometimes, and having chewing cheese for numerous year in the fridge, he was assigned to chew cheese in overseas, he got different tastes, and talk differently when coming back from overseas,he is not a malay anymore, he is AMNO Malay waiting to be discard by his own party!!!
without the votes from sarawak : bn would be NOTHING, umno would be NOTHING, abdullah badawi would be NOTHING, and you,rais yatim would be NOTHING, melayu umno would be NOTHING. YOU SHOULD BE THINKING ON HOW TO HELP US SARAWAKIAN WHO PUT YOU THERE TO BE IN POWER AND NOT YOUR RACIST MELAYU UMNO A.K.A.UNITED MELAYU NUTS ORGANISATION. !!!!

Permission to speak, sir?

Posted by kasee
Saturday, 15 November 2008 08:41
John Lee, The Malaysian Insider
The Malaysian authorities have done it again. A year ago, they took it upon themselves to violently disperse Malaysians calling for free and fair elections; earlier this week, they manhandled and arrested a few dozen Malaysians, including elected representatives, who were calling for an end to one of the most plainly unjust laws in Malaysia — right while they were in the middle of singing the national anthem, to boot. I for one don't know how we can call ourselves a democracy when our elected Members of Parliament can be arrested one evening for voicing their views, and appear in Parliament the next morning on bail to make a speech.
There are many unconscionable things in this world. The struggle against domestic violence has been going on for decades throughout the developing world. Cruelty to animals is a cause that touches the hearts of many. Others wage a sometimes seemingly futile campaign against war, calling for a perpetual peace between nations. But whatever cause you take up, they all have one thing in common: they require freedom of conscience and freedom of speech.
To be human is to have beliefs; to be human is to speak. Our ability to think abstractly, and to express those thoughts, is what set us apart from the rest of the animal kingdom. When we prevent people from speaking their mind, we essentially dehumanise them — and that is exactly what repressive laws like the Internal Security Act do.
Nobody really buys this nonsense about the ISA protecting us from ethnic unrest. Polls indicate that well over a majority of Malaysians want this law abolished. Do you know why the government implemented it in the first place? Because the communists were abusing their liberty to launch terrorist attacks on innocent Malaysians. And when did the communists stop being a threat to us? Oh, I don't know — at least 20 years ago, if you want to be really conservative and date the end of the fight against the communists to the official ceasefire treaty.
Now, you might say that the ISA still has a use for detaining radical Islamic terrorists and people who try to stir up violence. But that's not what the law is for. The ISA is not for locking up people you don't like. Our first two Prime Ministers promised in no uncertain terms that the ISA would be repealed the moment the communist threat came to an end. That promise has been broken by each and every one of their successors.
And it's not just the ISA that is the problem; it is the idea that stands behind it and the host of repressive laws that have seen countless innocent Malaysians thrown into jail and violently abused by the authorities. This idea that somehow it is perfectly fine to dehumanise Malaysians and tell them their opinions don't matter. The greatest irony this week was how poignantly the authorities underscored the complete ridiculousness behind the ISA and other laws which muzzle Malaysians.
After all, what logic is there in arresting an MP if he gets out on bail the next day and goes straight to Parliament for his scheduled speech? There is zero sense whatsoever in this. Why should it be fine for Tony Pua the parliamentarian to speak against the ISA in one setting, and completely wrong for him to do it in another place? Why are we sending people to the lock-up or prison for saying what they think?
The official reason is that they need a permit to say what they think. But what right does the government have to dictate to any Malaysian what they can and cannot say? The only people who can judge our ideas are our fellow Malaysians. And let's be realistic: the only reason speaking your mind is a threat to public disorder is because the authorities are still pushing this nonsensical story about Malaysians being too immature to handle freedom of speech.
The problem with people abusing liberty is hardly new; virtually every democracy has had to deal with people pushing too far. But there's a clear and simple answer if you are afraid of someone stirring up violence and hatred: if someone is telling people to commit a crime, then arrest them for incitement. There's no need to muzzle everyone because of one or two stupid jackasses who make ill-informed comments about racial or religious issues; as long as law enforcement personnel do their job, and monitor public gatherings for outbreaks of violence, those who cause trouble can be nipped in the bud, and those who just want to air their views peacefully can do so.
Freedom of speech is not something difficult to protect; it is a fundamental human right that cuts to the core of what it means to be a human being. And the fact is, most Malaysians want an end to the oppression that has kept so many of us living in fear for so long of letting our voices be heard. John F. Kennedy once said that those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable. If the government wants to preserve the peaceful democracy our founding fathers bequeathed us, they would do well to heed Kennedy's words. If you prevent us, the Malaysian people, from talking about the issues that concern us, you only undermine that democracy you so self-righteously claim to defend. Freedom of speech and freedom from fear are basic rights each and every one of us is entitled to; it is time that the government recognised this, and put an end to the abomination that is the Internal Security Act.
John Lee is tired of a government that thinks he is too irresponsible to think for himself. He writes at http://www.infernalramblings.com
Malaysia is far off from being democratic, I could only term it as dictator state with single party UMNO above of everything right from judiciary to management system. ISA will sink UMNO eventually as time will tell. If najis the PM in waiting is not able to do anything for the remaining 4 years, PRU 13 will see the evaporation of BN. Just a reminder to PAS in PR, work hard and speak less. Freeze the ketuanan islam and throw it away. Malaysian in majority do not want another ketuanan, we are just one Malaysian. I love Malaysia but not the fcuking politics.
All rakyat will have their mouth gagged with silicone tape by Najis when he takes over as PM.Kick him out before he shut your mouth.
"If the government wants to preserve the peaceful democracy our founding fathers bequeathed us,.." this is the big IF that worries me. To the UMNOputras it is their very survival which is at stake, amd I have no doubt they will resort of all sorts of underhanded tactics to maintain their grip on power. Which is why we see the terror tactics employed by the police on innocent unarmed anti ISA vigil gathering members. Let's hope the peaceful revolution will succeed.
Ask and you shall be given, seek and you will find. In Malaysia, ask and your request will be thrown out without reason or cause. Seek for justice and you will find a screwed up judiciary system who pledges its loyalty to the warlords. Our government had made a mockery of our so called democratic country; in fact it exists in a demoncratic state while the Umnoputras continue to wield their evil all across our beloved land.
Send this article to eveyone on your email list. I did. ======================================================= ==== An irrationaly controlling government who controls the mind of Malaysians. Most government servants do not have the capacity to think for themselves. They eat,drink and dress as the government wishes.Anyone who tries to be different is totally crucified by the whole clan of government servants who actually act like little Napoleons most of the time. Sick of the government
Irrational does not begin to describe this Govt. we have today, Alice. A more apt description would be a Dictatorial Govt. bent on going its Despotic ways to ensure its Grip on power by using Draconian and Undemocratic Laws to Muzzle the Rakyat of which the ISA tops the list, along with the OSA, PPPA, Illegal Assemblies Act (which is unConstitutional). If the ISA is an ABOMINATION, then the perpetrators of the ISA and all such Acts which serve to MUZZLE the Rakyat and keep these despots in power, should be an UNSPEAKABLE ABOMINATION ! Why do we tolerate their ruling this country any more ?? Why have we not risen up and overthrown this ABOMINATION of a Govt. and install one that we can trust and perform better ... at least it can't be worse than this ... Kick out Barisan Najis ! Vote in Pakatan Rakyat ! This is our only hope at the moment !
I believe all right thinking people understands the motive and purpose of the Govt. ala UMNO. They have not a single shred of conscience, as all done will be for the benefit of the warlords. The other UMNO fellows are just following instructions, supposedly 'berjuang' for the Malay race. However, we understands what our 'struggles' are, and we just have to stand up to whatever they dish out. In the hope that our Malay brethrens will wise up in time to really understand what we are doing. Having 'candle light vigils', calling for accountability, transparency and meritocracy is part of our struggle to earn our right to be a decent human being. It's about giving our children, grand children am opportunity to grow and to be able to compete in a level playing field. All playing a part in our nation building.
... and of course nobody would believe me if I suggested that this "Malaysian" attitude of repression and refusal to allow questioning has its roots in Islam, the religion which wont tolerate difference
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Votes: +1
...written by asguard, November 15, 2008 20:16:20
The Police are not really doing their job... like crack down on illegals immigrants whom seems to flout the law, some of them even came down here not to work about be thieves, causing a lot of problems... its better to caught them then own people or cizitiens of this country....
kepolisan Malaysia kini berada ditahap rasuah yang paling kritikal dan telah memusnahkan perlembagaan negara dalam agenda keselamatan dalam negeri. kepolisan Malaysia kini bagaikan satu kumpulan maksiat yang halal di bawah kerjasama umno. kepolisan Malaysia telah mengawal segala pembicaraan kes-kes melibatkan umno serta Kesultanan Melayu yang akhirnya memberi kepolisan kuasa besar untuk menentukan siapa yang boleh 'dilepaskan' selepas membuat bayaran ataupun dihukum kerana merbahayakan kedudukan sekutu mereka. Kini , rakyat sahaja yang boleh menentukan arah tuju negara tercinta dan memberi kuasa semula kepada Kesultanan Melayu untuk berkuasa.
Malaysians wl decide on the abolishment of the ISA - what we want is what we get. We want the ISA done away with permanently. This final decision will be made by the citizens or the voters, and not by these corrupt govt. Either the ISA goes, or this govt goes. Someday, in the not too distant future, we would like to see the new govt put those ex-Ministers on trial for abuse of power for detaining so many citizens under ISA. This country must get rid of this corrupt govt forever. Never to return to the corridors of power.

For our kids’ sake, check the slide OF ENGLISH!

Sunday November 16, 2008
For our kids’ sake, check the slide
On The BeatBy WONG CHUN WAI

Our students score As in English at PMR or SPM levels but when it comes to college entrance examinations for UK and US, many of them fare badly.
THERE was a time when being a top public scorer meant getting 5As in the Lower Certificate of Examination (LCE) in Form Three and failing was not an option – it means dropping out of school at 15 years old or entering a private school to re-sit the examination.
Private schools were not elitist, unlike now, as they were perceived to be a place for failures, second-raters or students with disciplinary problems.
The LCE also required a candidate to pass Bahasa Malaysia and English as they were compulsory subjects. A distinction then really meant a distinction.
Then, there was the Malaysian Certificate of Examination (MCE) where a top student was equivalent to someone who scored 9As or 10As.
These were the students who eventually got scholarships to study in Harvard, Cam­bridge or Oxford, and their achievements would be published in the newspapers.
Before this, there were the Queen’s Scholars who were sent by the British to be educated in the United Kingdom.
We could recognise the best of the best. It was much simpler then trying to gauge the scholastic achievements of our students.
Now, we read of students in the UPSR for Year Six getting 7As while at the PMR level for Form Three students, they can get up to 9As. In the SPM, there are even those with 16As or more.
It’s good that the choice of exam papers has become wider and candidates have the options of taking their pick. But some principals also impose a restriction on the number of papers a candidate can sit for while some insist on their students taking specific subjects.
But there is a nagging feeling that the standards have dropped. Parents and students get a sense of unrealistic expectations when they get these result slips with straight distinctions.
Students who have slogged hard, particularly with moral support from their parents, deserve the results they get, no doubt, but they should also be a little guarded.
Our students who scored As in English at PMR or SPM levels may think they are tops and are able to browse through works of Shakespeare with ease.
But the reality is that at college entrance examinations for UK and US colleges, many of them have fared badly.
At job interviews, employers are shocked to find that these A scorers can’t even string a sentence in English correctly and many cannot communicate in the language well.
Parents who have the means to send their children to international or private schools after PMR have found their children being rejected by these schools because tutors found these A scorers not as proficient in the language as their test results suggest.
Many also take a highly sceptical view of the Mathematics and Additional Mathematics results at SPM level because the perception is grading has been lowered.
In short, it is easy to score distinctions because the bell curve is adjusted to reduce the number of failures.
The point is this – we have compromised the quality of our education. We have refused to admit it, preferring to live with the delusion that all is well. Worse, our politicians get carried away sometimes with their rhetoric of “world class education” when they should worry more about the basics of the education system.
We have so many students with so many As who think they deserve to be in medical schools now and get JPA scholarships. It is a bottleneck created by the administration and it doesn’t help that every year, there is a feeling of unfairness in the awarding of these scholarships.
There are now over 60,000 unemployed graduates simply because they are not marketable or they are ill prepared for the job market because of poor linguistic and social skills.
Many are unable to express themselves because of poor communication skills, thus limiting their job options.
We will continue with our euphoria of top scorers, three times a year, and newspapers carry the same stories of such top scorers.
We also know we are not attracting dedicated fresh teachers in schools because we are not paying as much as they deserve.
We know that the level of English among our students are at ICU level, to borrow a hospital term, but we are unlikely to do anything because we lack the political will to face the narrow-minded nationalists, many of whom benefited from the English medium schools of yesteryear or they just lack proficiency in English themselves.
To cover up their inadequacies, they use race and nationalism to stop the advance of English, not realising that those who suffer the most would be the young Malaysians, regardless of their race.
The rich would not be affected because they would be sending their kids overseas but the rest would have to cope with the system.
This is the reality – in 2006, the number of college students who spoke and could write English in India was reportedly 100% while in 10 years, it has been estimated that China would have the largest number of English speakers. As they say, who would have expected this 60 years ago?
English is the language of commerce and science and now, the Internet. Don’t let the slide continue; our children deserve better.