The Politics of Race.
Posted by farhan on March 15, 2008
Assalamualaikum.
Just wanna share a quote from Tun Dr Mahathir’s The Way Forward. It’s the last paragraph from the second chapter of the book, ‘The Political Dimension’. Hopefully, Tun’s prediction in this paragraph will turn into a reality.
Sensitivity is necessary at all times and by everybody when dealing with relations and disparities. The day may come when such disparities have been well and truly eliminated, so much that everyone can feel confident of retaining and enhancing his share, whatever his race. When that day dawns, the fact of race will not be politically relevant any more. Then Malaysian politics may be blessed on class or ideology, regardless of race.
Alhamdulillah, I have finished reading the book amid hot debates and discussions among Malaysians after the abolishment of the NEP by Penang Chief Minister, Lim Guan Eng. The book which is written by the ultra-Malay nationalist and the champion of NEP gave me some insights on the problems faced by Malays that are used to rationalize the implementation of the NEP.
If we take a look on the situation during 70s, I do agree with the idea that Malays need helps offered by the NEP. But now, after 50 years of independence, do NEP still relevant for Malaysia when the world economy is much more different from what we had 40 years ago? Take your time and ponder about it for a while.
However, before making any conclusion about the NEP, I shall read another book that discusses this issue from another perspective. Blind Spot by YB Dr. Dzulkifli Ahmad from PAS Research Institute might help. If you have any other great books on the NEP or politics of race, fell free to recommend them for me and other visitors here. I guess both subjects are gonna be hotly debate this year as PAS, PKR and DAP form several new state governments and get ready to face race-based Barisan Nasional in Dewan Undangan Negeri sessions.
I end my short post with another qoute (in bahasa) from Bolehland’s latest article written by Hafiz Noor.
Setelah sekian lama berada bersama DEB, ramai yang sudah ketagih dengannya. Ramai lagi yang sedia mempertahankan dasar lapuk itu walaupun rekahan mula mengacam untuk merobohkan menara yang terbina, seolah-oleh DEB itulah segala-gala. Seolah-olah, DEB itulah kebenaran untuk sepanjang masa seperti konsep kewujudan ketuhanan tanpa permulaan dan pengakhiran
Wallahualam..
bangku said
Bakri Musa wrote on this topic. Also, you can look up more generalized studies on it under the topic of “affirmative action” or “positive discrimination”. Anyway, there’s two broad questions to debate that should not be mixed up — 1)Pro/cons of affirmative action, and 2) transparency of NEP’s implementation.
paan said
thanks bangku.
i guess nobody write on this topic yet at kakiblog.why don’t you write about it and then kakiblog’s visitors can have rigor discussion there.