Lets Get Angry!

Are the Chinese discriminated in Malaysia?

Published Sunday, September 24, 2006 by Singapore Election |

As we await Mr Lee Kuan Yew to rebut, read this.

By Dato' Rejal Arbee

Are the Chinese discriminated against in Malaysia? Looks like what is good for the goose is not good for the gender. This is in so far as Singapore’s long standing veteran leader and Minister Mentor, Lee Kuan Yew is concerned.

In a forum in Singapore in conjunction with the World Bank/IMF meeting there last Friday, he condescendingly accused Indonesia and Malaysia of marginalising the Chinese. To him both Indonesia and Malaysia are discriminating against the Chinese.

It looks as if he doesn’t know his facts (which is odd considering the worldwide accolade attributed to his legendary intellect) or if he does then he had purposely feigned ignorance. More of this later at least in so far as Malaysia is concerned.

It is also odd that the Minister Mentor deem it fit to derogatorily comment on a sensitive domestic issue of Malaysia. Singapore do not brook any nonsense over anything they deem to be interfering in their domestic affairs. But what is no go for others is OK for them? Isn’t Lee’s comments not interfering in our domestic affairs? Is it now open season for the Singapore leaders to pass negative remarks/judgements about its neighbours?

But woe betide a foreigner if he so much as hint negatively on a sensitive domestic issue of the island republic. The Singapore leadership is legendary in not allowing such things and will not rest until they can clean out anyone brave enough to make such remarks on its domestic issues through its courts.

A number of foreign newspapers and periodicals that have crossed such lines had the unpleasant task of meeting head-on with Lee and company resulting in them meekly becoming compliant to the dictates of the island state apart from suffering monetary losses.

But what exactly did the Minster Mentor said? The Singapore Straits Times Interactive quoted him thus: “My neighbours both have problems with their Chinese. They are successful, they're hard-working and therefore they are systematically marginalised, even in education. And they want Singapore, to put it simply, to be like their Chinese, compliant.” So said the great champion of the Nanyang Chinese.

In response to a question, Lee said it was important for Singapore to have a government that was 'really firm, stout-hearted, subtle and resolute', noting that the attitude of Malaysia and Indonesia towards the Republic was shaped by the way they treated their own ethnic Chinese minorities, according to Straits Times Interactive.

What does it mean when he said the Chinese here are being systematically marginalised? Don’t the Chinese have a share in governing the country? Isn’t there power sharing among the Malay, Chinese and Indian political parties? Do the Malaysian government though dominated by the majority Malays curtailed the Chinese from carrying out their various endeavours? Do they not have a share of the economic cake, in fact the major share?

Lee attributed the Chinese success to their being hard working and diligent. But this is only half the story. It is not as if they are not given any chance at all in getting government largesse. Most of the Chinese enterprises big and small continue to get government jobs and tenders? Even when a Malay/Bumiputera enterprise obtained government tenders, the Chinese businesses is still not left out. They continue to benefit from the Malay contractors and will still have a share the job in some instances even the majority share. But can the Malay contractor expect the same treatment from a Chinese enterprise/business? How many Malay contractors have won tenders from Chinese owned enterprises/conglomerates?

In any case a company 51 percent owned by the Malays, meaning 49 percent is owned by the non-Malays, is still deemed a Bumiputera company. So even if it gets a government job the Chinese still have a very substantial share. But can the same be said of a Chinese company? Invariably it would be 100 percent owned by the Chinese.

It is the Malays who often times get only the crumbs. Of course in some instances it is the Malays themselves who are to be blamed if and when they are only interested in becoming rent seekers.

Thus the country’s economy is still in the hands of the Chinese. For a Malay contractor who gets a tender to build a building, he will need various supplies and materials. Invariably these can only be obtained from a Chinese distributor or wholesaler. Even when they do the work themselves, they still need to get supplies from the Chinese merchants who continue to monopolise the wholesale and distribution businesses.

And often times he is the one who gets discriminated against. A Chinese contractor is said to be able to purchase his supplies at a discounted rate which a Malay contractor do not enjoy. The Chinese contractor is also given longer credit terms sometimes up to six months whilst his Malay counterpart not only have to settle cash on delivery terms without the discount. And even if he can get credit it will be at a much shorter period of credit.

There are other cases of discrimination. Even in employment for example when for no valid reason a profiency in Mandarin is required even for a job as a salesgirl in a retail outlet at a shoping complex patronised by the Malays.

Yet the Malays continued to get the brickbats that the Chinese are discriminated against and the latest from the Nanyang Chinese champion himself.

One good criteria to measure whether the Chinese are discriminated against or not is the differentials in their per capita earnings. Latest figures supplied by the government say for every ringgit the Malay earns, the Chinese earns RM1.64. But no matter that this figure is disputed because prior to this the ratio had always show a widening gap from 1:1.6 some five or six years ago to 1:1.7 then 1:1.8 and even 1:2.04 a couple of years back. But suddenly the latest seem to show this ratio had improved to 1:1.64.

Even at this ratio, the target set by the government to get income parity between the Malays and Chinese by 2020 seems a tall order. Whether this is attainable is to be seen but what is certain it is a very difficult goal to reach.

In so far as Indonesia is concerned, suffice it to say that despite the Chinese accounting for only 5 percent of the population, they control nearly 90 percent of the Indonesia economy. If this is discrimination then I am sure the Pribumi Indonesian want to have that discrimination.

One thing that can be concluded from his statement, Lee Kuan Yew still has that fortress mentality – not surprisingly with all the Israeli advisors at his disposal.

So the island republic feels constricted by the larger neighbours which encircles it. Such inferiority complex has rendered the republic to its present stance pouring billions of dollars yearly into modern and sophisticated weaponry and war hardware and software including chemical and biological weapons capability thanks to the US and Israeli assistance. But this is a subject for another commentary.

19 Responses to “Are the Chinese discriminated in Malaysia?”

Nacht on 10:14 AM SGT

The last time someone in Singapore commented online about the status of malays and how they function in politics, he was jailed and branded as racist, seditious.

Who is gonna charge LKY now? If antyhing this stirs up regional anti-Singapore feelings, isnt that more seditious and racist?
Anonymous on 10:57 AM SGT

In singapore, the Lees are above the law.
jonathan on 3:20 PM SGT

as much as everyone here may disapprove of Lee-ism, we've got to admit what he said was true, no matter what his motive is for saying so. chinese and non-bumis in general are discriminated against blatantly.
lee on 3:45 PM SGT

must agree with jonathan.. chinese in malaysia are just second class citizens.
Anonymous on 4:21 PM SGT

Mahathir is ever eager to pounce on Singapore-bashing to divert attention from his own political troubles. He had done it umpteen times when he was PM and then carried out the same tactic when he first started to oppose the present PM Badawi.

I can't imagine anyone in Singapore silly enough to shoot off his mouth and give Mahathir another excuse to start Singapore bashing.

In fact, Singapore-bashing is the favourite of all the UMNO politicians. In the past month, when they had no chance to do this, they started the second best thing - Chinese bashing. Now that somebody stupid in Singapore opens his mouth, you just watch them happily switch to Singapore bashing, much safer for them than Chinese bashing.

Robert L
black feline on 6:56 PM SGT

busybody...nothing better to do! stirring hornet's nest...ask him go clear the shit!
Anonymous on 8:26 PM SGT

is senility setting in, or was it a flash of brilliance in agitating counterparties to get an upperhand in some negotiations? Can't see the rationalisation of the latter.

Discrimination - is apparent everywhere, especially if you are an other race in a host country. The question is whether that discrimination is systematic. Sg has no right to judge others on discrimination when there is discrimination on race and age right in its own backyard.
Nacht on 9:55 AM SGT

No one's denying that what LKY said was the truth. Chinese in those countries ARE marginalised.

But the blogger last year who got charged with sedition - all he said was that certain malay muslims choose to exploit Islam for political ends e.g terrorists and for that he was branded "racist" and thrown in jail. It is the bare truth, but seditious nonetheless. So who's gonna charge MM Lee now?

Typical government. One law applies to us citizens and another to the dictators.
Anonymous on 7:54 PM SGT

nacht said, "Typical government. One law applies to us citizens and another to the dictators."

That seems more like one law applies to us citizens and none to the dictators. ;-)

political ponerology
Anonymous on 9:05 PM SGT

typical PAP strategy to stir up controvesy elsewhere so that people forget what a failure and waste of tax payers money the IMF and WB meetings were.
Pro Reunification on 10:19 PM SGT

The good thing is, now that another Malay has won the Singapore Idol, M'sia cannot accuse us of marginalising the Malays.
prettyplace on 11:24 PM SGT

The well, planned move by LKY and PAP..... people....don't you all see it....

Takshin took his money and ran....while this was going on....

LKY stirs up, something else to make people preoccupied....deflection(xenoboy)

Please be prepared to pay 8% GST soon.....$3 billion down the drain more or else...when the AG guys come after Shin Corp...

Thai national assets, privatised during Thakshin's riegn...and bought over by his own family....wow...how wonderful....BUT....

That is Thailand....(i don't want to interfer in their politics)

now after the Singapore Investment.....we will still Pay n Pay...why.....

no point arguing about Malaysia and Indonesia.....and their Chinese.....Singapore Chinese is struggling.....economically.....

So I like to remind LKY....do something here and do it right...don't try to be too smart...or too senile.....

Malaysia's riches man is an Indian ...AK.....Indonesia's riches man is Liem....if they want...they can....so let's start looking at ourselves before we comment on other's....

I thought that was Asean's policy.....

bag full of tricks...man....
Anonymous on 3:53 PM SGT

Just to add on to what prettyplace said...Singapore's richest man is XXX...you know who...
human book on 8:33 PM SGT

List of racial discriminations in Malaysia, practiced by government as well as government agencies. This list is an open secret. Best verified by government itself because it got the statistics.

This list is not in the order of importance, that means the first one on the list is not the most important and the last one on the list does not mean least important.

This list is a common knowledge to a lot of Malaysians, especially those non-malays (Chinese, Ibans, Kadazans, Orang Asli, Tamils, etc) who were being racially discriminated.

Figures in this list are estimates only and please take it as a guide only. Government of Malaysia has the most correct figures. Is government of Malaysia too ashamed to publish their racist acts by publishing racial statistics?

This list cover a period of about 49 years since independence (1957).

List of racial discriminations (Malaysia):

(1) Out of all the 5 major banks, only one bank is multi-racial, the rest are controlled by malays

(2) 99% of Petronas directors are malays

(3) 3% of Petronas employees are Chinese

(4) 99% of 2000 Petronas gasoline stations are owned by malays

(5) 100% all contractors working under Petronas projects must be bumis status

(6) 0% of non-malay staffs is legally required in malay companies. But there must be 30% malay staffs in Chinese companies

(7) 5% of all new intake for government army, nurses, polices, is non-malays

(8) 2% is the present Chinese staff in Royal Malaysian Air Force (RMAF), drop from 40% in 1960

(9) 2% is the percentage of non-malay government servants in Putrajaya. But malays make up 98%

(10) 7% is the percentage of Chinese government servants in the whole government (in 2004), drop from 30% in 1960

(11) 95% of government contracts are given to malays

(12) 100% all business licensees are controlled by malay government e.g. Approved permits, Taxi permits, etc

(13) 80% of the Chinese rice millers in Kedah had to be sold to malay controlled Bernas in 1980s. Otherwise, life is make difficult for Chinese rice millers

(14) 100 big companies set up, owned and managed by Chinese Malaysians were taken over by government, and later managed by malays since 1970s e.g. MISC, UMBC, UTC, etc

(15) At least 10 Chinese owned bus companies (throughout Malaysia, throughout 40 years) had to be sold to MARA or other malay transport companies due to rejection by malay authority to Chinese application for bus routes and rejection for their application for new buses

(16) 2 Chinese taxi drivers were barred from driving in Johor Larkin bus station. There are about 30 taxi drivers and 3 are Chinese in October 2004. Spoiling taxi club properties was the reason given

(17) 0 non-malays are allowed to get shop lots in the new Muar bus station (November 2004)

(18) 8000 billion ringgit is the total amount the government channeled to malay pockets through ASB, ASN, MARA, privatisation of government agencies, Tabung Haji etc, through NEP over 34 years period

(19) 48 Chinese primary schools closed down since 1968 - 2000

(20) 144 Indian primary schools closed down since 1968 - 2000

(21) 2637 malay primary schools built since 1968 - 2000

(22) 2.5% is government budget for Chinese primary schools. Indian schools got only 1%, malay schools got 96.5%

(23) While a Chinese parent with RM1000 salary (monthly) cannot get school-text-book-loan, a malay parent with RM2000 salary is eligible

(24) 10 all public universities vice chancellors are malays

(25) 5% - the government universities lecturers of non-malay origins had been reduced from about 70% in 1965 to only 5% in 2004

(26) Only 5% is given to non-malays for government scholarships over 40 years

(27) 0 Chinese or Indians were sent to Japan and Korea under "Look East Policy"

(28) 128 STPM Chinese top students could not get into the course that they aspired e.g. Medicine (in 2004)

(29) 10% place for non-bumi students for MARA science schools beginning from year 2003, but only 7% are filled. Before that it was 100% malays

(30) 50 cases whereby Chinese and Indian Malaysians, are beaten up in the National Service program in 2003

(31) 25% is Malaysian Chinese population in 2004, drop from 45% in 1957

(32) 7% is the present Malaysian Indians population (2004), a drop from 12% in 1957

(33) 2 million Chinese Malaysians had emigrated to overseas since 40 years ago

(34) 0.5 million Indian Malaysians had emigrated to overseas

(35) 3 million Indonesians had migrated into Malaysia and became Malaysian citizens with bumis status

(36) 600000 are the Chinese and Indian Malaysians with red IC and were rejected repeatedly when applying for citizenship for 40 years. Perhaps 60% of them had already passed away due to old age. This shows racism of how easily Indonesians got their citizenships compare with the Chinese and Indians

(37) 5% - 15% discount for a malay to buy a house, regardless whether the malay is poor or rich

(38) 2% is what Chinese new villages get compare with 98% of what malay villages got for rural development budget

(39) 50 road names (at least) had been changed from Chinese names to other names

(40) 1 Dewan Gan Boon Leong (in Malacca) was altered to other name (e.g. Dewan Serbaguna or sort) when it was being officially used for a few days. Government try to shun Chinese names. This racism happened in around year 2000 or sort

(41) 0 churches/temples were built for each housing estate. But every housing estate got at least one mosque/surau built

(42) 3000 mosques/surau were built in all housing estates throughout Malaysia since 1970. No churches, no temples are required to be built in housing estates

(43) 1 Catholic church in Shah Alam took 20 years to apply to be constructed. But told by malay authority that it must look like a factory and not look like a church. Still not yet approved in 2004

(44) 1 publishing of Bible in Iban language banned (in 2002)

(45) 0 of the government TV stations (RTM1, RTM2, TV3) are directors of non-malay origins

(46) 30 government produced TV dramas and films always showed that the bad guys had Chinese face, and the good guys had malay face. You can check it out since 1970s. Recent years, this tendency becomes less

(47) 10 times, at least, malays (especially Umno) had threatened to massacre the Chinese Malaysians using May 13 since 1969

(48) 20 constituencies won by DAP would not get funds from the government to develop. Or these Chinese majority constituencies would be the last to be developed

(49) 100 constituencies (parliaments and states) had been racistly re-delineated so Chinese voters were diluted that Chinese candidates, particularly DAP candidates lost in election since 1970s

(50) Only 3 out of 12 human rights items are ratified by Malaysia government since 1960

(51) 0 - elimination of all forms of racial discrimination (UN Human Rights) is not ratified by Malaysia government since 1960s

(52) 20 reported cases whereby malay ambulance attendances treated Chinese patients inhumanely, and malay government hospital staffs purposely delay attending to Chinese patients in 2003. Unreported cases may be 200

(53) 50 cases each year whereby Chinese, especially Chinese youths being beaten up by malay youths in public places. We may check at police reports provided the police took the report, otherwise there will be no record

(54) 20 cases every year whereby Chinese drivers who accidentally knocked down malays were seriously assaulted or killed by malays

(55) 12% is what ASB/ASN got per annum while banks fixed deposit is only about 3.5% per annum

There are hundreds more racial discriminations in Malaysia to add to this list of "colossal" racism. It is hope that the victims of racism will write in to expose racism.

Malaysia government should publish statistics showing how much malays had benefited from the "special rights" of malays and at the same time tell the statistics of how much other minority races are being discriminated.

Hence, the responsibility lies in the Malaysia government itself to publish unadulterated statistics of racial discrimination.

If the Malaysia government hides the statistics above, then there must be some evil doings, immoral doings, shameful doings and sinful doings, like the Nazi, going on onto the non-malays of Malaysia.

Civilized nation, unlike evil Nazi, must publish statistics to show its treatment on its minority races. This is what Malaysia must publish……….

We are asking for the publication of the statistics showing how "implementation of special rights of malays" had inflicted colossal racial discrimination onto non-malays.
Anonymous on 5:57 PM SGT

The issue here is not whether whatever that has been spoken is factual or not, but whether with our backyard still scattered with shits, are we qualified to complain about the condition of our neighbour's house. "You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye.(Matt 7:5)
Anonymous on 9:29 PM SGT

above anon is spot on.

Papist is very quick to defend the emperor.
Anonymous on 3:24 PM SGT

Ohh Singapore, Singapore....

Pity all the singaporean... There is no place, no land they can call home....

If they think that they are so smart to bring their country forward...why in the 1998 they want to joint back as part of malaysia....mmmmmmm

Im comfused...
Anonymous on 8:02 PM SGT

Aiya ... all you fellows. Just hear this IT IS OFFICIAL IN THE SCHEME OF MALAYSIAN POLITICS TO PRACTICE LEGALISED RACIST DISCRIMINATION AGAINST ALL NON-MALAYS. THEY HAVE A TERM FOR IT "BUMI-FUCKING-PUTRAS".
Anonymous on 11:32 PM SGT

essentially MALAYsia, being a MALAY country opened it's doors to the british who brought the chinese and indians and arabs etc. malay land. they keep it that way. you may live, prosper, grow and die on the land but you still only rent it. there on the whims of the malays and their permission.

singapore on the other hand started out the same but somewhere along the way the chinese coolie decided he liked the malay land he was on. the white british bought it off the malays and the chinese bought it off them.

land. my family's estate states that as of the early 1900s, my great-grandad owned roughly 4% of singapore. the chinese government got nervous with arabs holding so much land. the land-acquisition act came to pass. no one needs to speak malay in singapore anymore. it used to be the national language. they took away free education to the malays. even in australia, the aboriginals get welfare and they now have perth returned to them.

it's all in the land, and the powers that be trying to make us forget who truly owns it. i'm a renter. always on lease

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