My Feature Article

Here is my feature article on prejudice:

THE MALAY AUTHORITIAN

---

In Malaysia, the Malays are getting special benefits due to the law and policy. But do they really need it?
A gang of Malay students was reported bullying a Chinese student yesterday night in Kedah. They threatened him to give up all his belongings and valuables, and they even beat him up badly.
The victim, Tan Ah Seng, 14, said that what he had met with was “far more better” than what his juniors met. According to his oral account, there was this “welcoming ceremony” for Secondary 1 pupils who just got into the victim’s school. Random boys would be picked out by some Malay seniors, and they would take off their clothing and laugh at the poor students. The worst part was that some of the seniors were girls.

“Luckily on the day I entered school I was sick,” the student said, “else I could be also one of the victims involved.”

There were more crimes that the Malay gang in school had done, including theft and bullying, the gang also smoked openly in school compounds and some of them were rumoured to have indecent relations. When asked why were they nor dealt with by the school, Ah Seng only shook his head and said, “There is no use. The school does not believe what we say because they think we are jealous of the rights they get. I believe that the school knows about all these incidents, but they choose to ignore its existence.”

Ah Seng also said that many of the Indian and Chinese students wished they could have transferred to a better school, but they were all bound by a certain limitation or another. He also said that most of the students here could not get into the best universities in Malaysia due to the race quota put on the admissions of universities. He also said that that is the main reason why most non-Malay talents would go overseas to further their studies and not stay at home.

Looking into the society, the whole functioning of the society also contains a fatal flaw. All government organisations have prejudicial views and treat different races differently. In the police station, Malays get a higher priority and the police treat them more seriously. More jobs in government organisations are saved for Malays. However, the most important problem is back to the education system, where most of the subjects are taught in Malay. Although the government is introducing teaching Science and Maths through English, it has little effect on the students, who are unable to adapt to universities overseas.

It is true that some Malays do see this existing problem in the government’s policy, but the rest of the Malay community are extremists who think they should have their existing power.

The route taken by the Malaysian government is dangerous, as proved in the 2008 elections, when the Barisan Nasional only managed to grab 53% of the total election seats throughout Malaysia. Despite the effort done by the government to grab back more votes, the future voters are getting more and more determined to change the government. Looking back at the history of Malaysia, the first person who actually made Malaysia the country it is now was Parameswara, who founded Melaka. Since he was an Indian, shouldn’t policies instead focus on Indians?

I apologize for the lack of columns.