1. “Dayakbaru.com” (http://dayakbaru.com)
Racial discrimination in Malaysia – What 1 Malaysia?, 3 November 2009
Taken from Australian Newspaper
This list is a common knowledge to a lot of Malaysians, especially those non-Malays (Chinese, Ibans, Kadazans, Orang Asli, Tamils, etc.) who have been racially discriminated against..
Dayakbaru: “Make a mental comparison of where standing could be in this list”.
Figures in this list are merely estimates, so please take it as a guide only.
The 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 covers a period of about 48 years since independence (1957).
List of racial discriminations ( Malaysia ):
(1) Of the five major banks, only one 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 of Bumis status.
(6) 0% of non-Malay staff are legally required in Malay companies. But there must be 30% Malay staffs in Chinese companies.
(7) 5% of all new intake for government police, nurses, army, are non-Malays.
(8) 2% is the present Chinese staff in Royal Malaysian Air Force (RMAF), a 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 entire government (in 2004); a 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. Taxi permits, Approved permits, etc.
(13) 80% of the Chinese rice millers in Kedah had to be sold to Malay controlled Bernas in 1980s. Otherwise, life is made 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. UTC, UMBC, MISC, Southern Bank etc..
(15) At least 10 Chinese owned bus companies (throughout Malaysia in the past 40 years) had to be sold to MARA or other Malay transport companies due to rejection by Malay authorities to Chinese applications for bus routes and rejection for their applications for new buses.
(16) Two Chinese taxi drivers were barred from driving in Johor Larkin bus station. There are about 30 taxi drivers and three were Chinese in Oct. 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 (Nov. 2004).
(18) 8000 billion ringgit is the total amount the government channeled to Malay pockets through ASB, ASN, MARA, privatization of government agencies, Tabung Haji etc, through NEP over a 34 years period.
(19) 48 Chinese primary schools closed down from 1968 – 2000.
(20) 144 Indian primary schools closed down from 1968 – 2000.
(21) 2637 Malay primary schools built from 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 textbook loan, a Malay parent with RM2000 salary is eligible.
(24) All 10 public university vice chancellors are Malays.
(25) 5% of the government universities’ lecturers are of non-Malay origins. This percentage has been reduced from about 70% in 1965 to only 5% in 2004.
(26) Only 5% has been given to non-Malays for government scholarships in over 40 years.
(27) 0 Chinese or Indians were sent to Japan and Korea under the ‘Look East Policy.’
(28) 128 STPM Chinese top students could not get into the course to which they aspired, i.e. Medicine (in 2004).
(29) 10% quotas are in place for non-Bumi students for MARA science schools beginning in 2003, but only 7% are filled. Before that it was 100% Malays.
(30) 50 cases in which Chinese and Indian Malaysians are beaten up in the National Service program in 2003.
(31) 25% of the Malaysian population was Chinese in 2004, a drop from 45% in 1957.
(32) 7% of the Malaysian population is Indian (2004), a drop from 12% in 1957.
(33) 2 million Chinese Malaysians have emigrated in the past 40 years.
(34) 0.5 million Indian Malaysians have emigrated overseas.
(35) 3 millions Indonesians have migrated to Malaysia and become Malaysian citizens with Bumis status.
(36) 600,000 Chinese and Indian Malaysians with red IC were rejected repeatedly when applying for citizenship in the past 40 years. Perhaps 60% of them had already passed away due to old age. This shows racism, based on how easily Indonesians got their citizenships compared with the Chinese and Indians.
(37) 5% – 15% discount for a Malay to buy a house, regardless whether the Malay is rich or poor.
(38) 2% is what new Chinese villages get, compared with 98% – what Malay villages got for rural development budget.
(41) 0 temples/churches 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 temples or churches are required to be built in housing estates.
(43) 1 Catholic church in Shah Alam took 20 years to apply to have a building constructed. But they were told by Malay authority that it must look like a factory and not like a church. As of 2004 the application still have not been approved.
(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 origin.
(46) 30 government produced TV dramas and films always showed that the bad guys had Chinese faces, and the good guys had Malay faces. You can check it out since 1970s. Recent years, this has become less of a tendency.
(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. These Chinese majority constituencies would be the last to be developed.
(49) 100 constituencies (parliaments and states) had been racially re-delineated so Chinese votes were diluted for Chinese candidates. This is one of the main reasons why DAP candidates have consistently lost in elections since the 1970s. (update to 2008 needed)
(50) Only 3 out of 12 human rights items are ratified by the Malaysian government since 1960.
(51) 0 – elimination of all forms of racial discrimination (UN Human Rights) has not been ratified by Malaysian government since 1960s.
(52) 20 reported cases whereby Malay ambulance attendances treated Chinese patients inhumanely, and Malay government hospital staffs purposely delayed attending to Chinese patients in 2003. Unreported cases may be 200.
(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 deposits are only about 3.5% per annum.
There are hundreds more examples of racial discrimination in Malaysia to add to this list of ‘colossal’ racism. It is hoped that the victims of racism will write in to help expose this situation.
The Malaysian government should publish statistics showing how much Malays had benefited from the ’special rights’ of Malays and at the same time release the statistics which show how minority races are being discriminated against.
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 Nazis, going on with the non-Malays of Malaysia .
Civilized nations, unlike the evil Nazis, must publish statistics to show its treatment of 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.
2. Council fo Churches of Malaysia (http://www.ccmalaysia.org)
For 1-Malaysia to Work, Remove Interfaith Barriers
Rev. Dr. Hermen Shastri, the General Secretary of the Council of Churches of Malaysia made a strong plea to “remove all political and social barriers for the various religions to intermingle with each other and cultivate respect for each other”.
He made this point, as he participated as a panel member of a day long forum on 26th October, with the theme “ Towards 1-Malaysia: 52 years of Nation Building, organized by ASLI and held at the Sunway University campus.
Over 200 people from a cross section of Malaysian society were present for the event.
The forum was opened by Tan Sri Koh Tsu Khoon, the Minister for National Unity and Performance Management in the Prime Minister’s Department.
The forum dealt with the following sub-themes:
Removing Impediments, Strengthening Unity, Education for Unity, Unity for the perspective of the young, and how religious values help build national unity.
A number of experts and policy- makers were invited to share in panel discussions to stimulate the participants to reflect more deeply on the various dimensions of the 1-Malaysia concept.
Rev. Dr. Shastri emphasized that in order for the 1- Malaysia concept to work, all the religious communities should be enlisted to play their part in helping the government achieve its aims.
He listed the following points as helpful measures to facilitate greater interfaith understanding and cooperation.
The dichotomized framework of one dominant religion relating with other minority religions should be transformed. In a plural society like that in Malaysia, all religions should be treated as equal and no one religion should consider itself as privileged above the others.
Other points he made was to promote the knowledge of all religions by providing for the teaching of religions in school curriculum and granting permits for setting-up of religious-based universities, besides the Islamic International University.
He also proposed the introduction of anti-discriminatory laws to check politicians and others from exploiting inter-religious sentiments. He advocated the setting-up of an interfaith commission to monitor the implementation of such laws.
Based on the understanding that all religions can cooperate for the common good of all, the cultivation and promotion of the true good of every individual, community and society, in every single dimension of human life, is a task shared by all religions.
He concluded his presentation by issuing a challenge: “Let all religions join hands together to dispel every darkness that hinders a true vision of co-existence, religious harmony and integral development for each and every person.”
The 1-Malaysia concept announced by the Prime Minister of Malaysia is a call to all Malaysians to accept nationhood as bearing a common conviction that “all Malaysians belong , in the fullest sense of the word, equally and without distinction, to one country.”
As the Prime Minister had maintained in the many speeches he has made;
“ That is why 1-Malaysia is about changing mindsets from mere tolerance to one of total acceptance of a plural society,” it is imperative that all religious groups feel confident, and without impediments, be able to contribute fully to the national project.
3. Malaysiakini.com (http://www.malaysiakini.com)
Test for 1M'sia: Revoke 'Allah' ban, 2 November 2009
Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak has been asked to urge the cabinet to revoke the decision to ban the use of the word 'Allah' for religions other than Islam.
According to DAP stalwart Lim Kit Siang, this would be a test on whether the premier's 1Malaysia slogan is to be taken seriously.
"Malaysia is again at the centre of adverse international publicity despite our tourist promotion of Malaysia as a harmonious and model multi-religious nation," he added in a statement.
Lim said in the past few days, international media like CNN have been giving high-profile coverage to the government's seizure of 15,000 Bibles in recent months because they refer to God as 'Allah'.
This, he alleged, is raising concerns and fears of religious intolerance in the country.
Last month, a consignment of 10,000 copies of the Indonesian-language Bibles which featured the disputed word 'Allah' was confiscated in Kuching, Sarawak, while another consignment of 5,100 Bibles was seized in March.
Lim said the decision taken by the cabinet to ban the use of the word 'Allah' for religions other than Islam is "most unreasonable, divisive and even unconstitutional decision."
He pointed out that the term 'Allah' was in use long before there was the religion of Islam in the world.
'Make a bold stand'
The opposition leader said Malaysia is probably the only nation where the use of the term 'Allah' by Christians to refer to their God is prohibited, whereas its use to refer to the Christian God has never been prohibited in many countries in the Middle-East and the Americas.
He said confiscation of the Bibles and the ban were "incongruous with and even inimical to Najib's 1Malaysia objective to give top priority to foster better inter-racial, inter-religious and inter-civilisational relations among Malaysians."
In view of this, the Ipoh Timor MP hoped that all cabinet ministers, particularly from MCA, Gerakan, MIC and the Sabah and Sarawak component parties of Barisan Nasional, would take a bold and united stand on this issue.
He reminded them that the issue affected the "very credibility and legitimacy" of Najib's 1Malaysia slogan and policy.
In January, the Home Ministry issued a blanket ban on the use of the word Allah by religions other than Islam.
The ban invoked under Section 9 of the Control and Restriction of the Propagation of Non-Islamic Religious State Enactment, made it an offence for Muslims and non-Muslims alike to publish or broadcast the word "Allah" in association with non-Islamic religions
This sparked a flurry of protest from Malaysia's Christian community and clergy which included legal action to set aside and declare the Home Ministry's decision as unconstitutional.
The issue was sparked by Christian newspaper Herald-The Catholic Weekly circulated among the country's 850,000 Catholics, when it used the disputed word in its Malay-language edition last year and nearly lost its publishing license.
(Comments)
•by Shankar
The problem with the majority of Malays in Malaysia is that they are highly insecure. They are unable to deal with even the slightest challenges that most people have to deal with everyday. (If you're challenged, you cannot rise above yourself!) This is further compounded by the fact that the government, which is terrified at the thought of openly discussing issues pertaining to Islam in public, feeds this idea that the Islamic faith cannot be discussed by non-Muslims. It has been proven time and again that the word "Allah" predates Islam, but that is not enough to convince the cabinet to change their stand. Why? Well we're back to my first point, INSECURITY and I might add, the lack of knowledge and conviction in making decisions.
•by John Smith
The Bible seizures must be seen in the context of previous bans on the Bible and Christian materials in Malay, actions which were not justified by the word 'Allah' but on grounds of 'sensitivity'. It is no more than an excuse to try to censor the truth.
•by Erica
I personally did not agree when they banning christian by using Allah. They used this word for century and why now have to speak up on this? Why? I believe that in Quran, didn't write anything to prevent Christian by using the word Allah. But i do really hope that this matter will be solve and no need to ban on anything as long as this is not a threat for us. We still can live happier even if Christian using that word of Allah.
•by Meterman
The word "Allah" is used and has been used by non-muslims with the utmost respect and reverance. If Muslims feel the word is their property than they should feel proud that Allah is recognised Globally by everyone. I am.
•by malay
pm talk ony .Certain things he act.He is tricky man.
•by Paul Warren
It is not so much about banning the use of Allah. It is a ruse to ban the Malay Bible itself. After all the Malay bible comes from Indonesia where Allah is for everyone!! Feel sorry for Allah. His people have decided that He is not for everyone here in Malaysia. Wonder if he is pissed off or gleefully happy!!
•by sabahan2011
Indeed. Come on Malaysia! There is no reason for the government to ban "Allah". If they still do it, definitely it is a sign that Christians in Malaysia are under suppression. For the sake of 1Malaysia, cast away the ban. God bless Malaysia!
•by TUK
why shld the govt feel threatened.. Isnt it better for their dakwah when others use allah. So, its a defensive action, rather than making most of the opportunity. YB Pairin, Maximus, Bernard, and co..shld do more in this issue
•by malaysianrights
All comments hmmmm... divide and rule. Since nothing left to devide, so this is an asset too. MR MP KPi whats your say, KPIed the stuff for next report lah....
•by Wali
The word Allah, Illahi and many other words are common to both Islam and Christianity. Probably they'd tell us very soon that we can't use Isa which is Jesus, or for that matter Mariam, which is Mary, or even Musa and Yaakob. Yes! this is the only Muslim nation to to do such a thing, why because they are afraid "the people will get confused, " even the "Tok Guru" has said Allah is for everyone. This confusion bit only goes to show the quality of our education system, and who else can be held responsible if it is not Krishamuddin the immediate past Minister of Education. With the likes of Hishamuddin one can't really expect to go too far.
•by Paul Warren
My Palestinian Christian friend is coming to Malaysia and he travels with his Arabic Bible. It has Allah written all over it. In Arabic script of course. He is worried. I thought for a while. then i told him not to worry. Our customs guys may be able to read Arabic. But chances are they won't understand what they read. Also, as it is the ban would seem to apply only to Allah written in Roman alphabet which the local Malay Muslims will be able to read and because their understanding of their religion is so weak and are easily confused by Bibles carrying the word Allah, they are the ones subject to the ban. As more and more Malays study Chinese and their faith too is vulnerable soon you'd expect them banning the Chinese Bible too.
•by Henry Basil a/l S Joseph Xavier
All this is possible because the Christian Barisan National Politicians refuse to stand up for Christianity.These are the idiots who must be removed at all cost.Imagine these politicians i.e. Piarin and co, condoning the confiscation of the Bibles.The Bahasa Indonesia version is widely used in Sabah and Sarawak.The time is right for the priest and pastors in these two states to be vocal and ridicule the hypocrisy practised by the christian state assemblymen/parlimentarians.These individuals should be asked to stay at home and banned from places of worship.The Priest/Pastors must defend the faith and in particular the use of the Bible failing which they might just as well become politicians serving satan(BN).
•by Doc
I'm getting confused here. Is UMNO trying to say that Allah and Tuan are not the same person thus Christians can't use Allah. Is it true that Islam, Christianity and the Jewish faith share same roots. Looks to me, UMNO is saying that although these three faiths share common roots but "God" is different.
•by Ahdoi
When a child says "Papa" only his father will respond and nobody else, though other fathers are called "Papa" by their children also. Just as no one can have a monopoly on the use of the word "Papa" for father, no one can have a monopoly on the use of the word "Allah" for God. If a Muslim can be confused by other religion calling their God "Allah", then he does not know what his religion is all about. If he does not know, then he is at fault, not others. It is high time the govt promote love and unity, and do away with policies that can cause bitterness and hatred among the people of various religions. Doing otherwise will surely endanger the well being of this country, if not now then in the future. Surely we don't want our children to have bitterness and hatred against each other as they take their place as adult citizens.
•by ALIEN
Maybe the words Papa and Mama should be banned in languages used by people of lesser God, since supreme people with supreme God are also using them .
•by AMT
GOD CALLED BY ANY OTHER NAME IS ALWAYS "GOD". COME ON YOUR RELIGIOUS BIGOTS...GET OFF THIS PLANET...
•by Nedunchelian Vengu
What happened to our non-Muslim ministers in the cabinet. It is time for you guys to speak. Otherwise resign!!!
•by Loyal Malaysian
Yes, Mr PM show you really mean something with all your 1Malaysia shouting!! This is a concrete step which if you dare to take will show to us cynics, that perhaps, you really intend to do something to realise our common Malaysian destiny.
•by mamboking
Maybe the Catholics should ban the Muslims from using the word 'Allah' after all they used THE word first, way before Islam came into the world? How bout that? The govt is afraid that the the muslims will get confused and convert after reading the Malay Bible with THE word? Come on.. with years of Islamic teaching from pre kindy to Secondary school, with prayers 5 times a day and yet this can happen? hmmm something to ponder on.
•by malaysianrights
C'mon, God is simple meaning, straight forward for those who cant understand. Its something like your mum(MOther) , you can call any mother in their language that they can understand or not, but with sincere towards respect of the highest like Amma,maa, Ibu, emak, mak, mum, mother,ma, Shàngdì, kadavul, theivam, rabb, vāhigurū, mumy etc etc that any body can continue..... Its still the same meaning and ist not going to hijacke somebodys mother by respecting such a word. This persons couldbe, either dont know history in religion or not exposed to accessed which is the true god, or religion in hold of fear of something. Sorry if it hurts anybody by using these words above if found to be wrong or in accurate. Deeply I respect even in the name of god in any langgauge as my mum or anybodies mum. Thank You...
•by Hovid
Allah is the standard Arabic word for God. Arabic-speakers of all Abrahamic faiths, including Christians and Jews, use the word "Allah" to mean "God". The Christian Arabs of today have no other word for 'God' than 'Allah'. (Even the Arabic-descended Maltese language of Malta, whose population is almost entirely Roman Catholic, uses Alla for 'God'.)
(End)
