Doubling the Standard Or Double Standard?

Malaysians are very good at complaining. We complain about almost everything in our lives. We complain about people, their race, their existence...

When we complain, what is happening in our minds is that we think that we are right, and others are wrong. We are the knowledgeable and others are ignorant. We are good and others are bad. Never occurs to us that it could be the other way around. As we think of ourselves as perfect and others are not, we pick up the habits of looking at things in double standard.

“For the powerful, crimes are those that others commit.”
- Noam Chomsky, Imperial Ambitions: Conversations on the Post-9/11 World

“One person's 'barbarian' is another person's 'just doing what everybody else is doing.”
- Susan Sontag, Regarding the Pain of Others

“You cannot negotiate with people who say what's mine is mine and what's yours is negotiable.” - John F. Kennedy

The quotes above explain the meaning of ‘double standard’ well. In a much proper explaination, ‘double standard’ means application of different sets of principles for similar situations, or by two different people in the same situation.

Unfortunately, this, is always the case with the Malaysians especially, when it comes to politics. Politics to us is all about attacks and defense, about we being right and others being wrong. Therefore we always in the judging ‘mode’ even when there is nothing to judge about.

A light talk about the wet weather could be turned into an attack about the leaders not getting the blessings from God for the heavy rain that flooded the town.

You see, PAS can call UMNO ‘kafir’ because the government is still using the English Common Law which is secular and unIslamic, but PAS vows to uphold the same law if they ever rise to power with PR, and PAS will still be Islamic.

The Chinese can have their own schools and separate their kids from other races, but Malays cannot have UiTM exclusively for Malays because that would spell racism.

The Chinese can advertise job vacancies in their companies stating ‘Chinese Only’ or ‘Mandarin Speaking a Must’ because they pay taxes, but the government MUST open all posts in GLCs, especially the top posts for Chinese with no written or unwritten conditions, or the government will be condemned as ‘marginalizing the minorities’.

BN leaders cannot use jet-planes for travelling because that would mean a waste of tax-payers money, but the Opposition leaders can use jet-planes for election campaigns because that would mean ‘class’.

BN leaders cannot have luxurious cars because that would mean corruption, but Opposition leaders can have as many luxurious cars as they like because that is their rights.

BN cannot afford to allow the slightest weakness in the election process without being threatened by BERSIH who will march down the streets protesting an unfair election, but Oppositions can have their voters missing and untallied ballot papers or unreliable computer system to count the votes, and it will still be a fair party election.

Oppositions can have the water tariff in their ruling states raised up to 100% and still claim themselves to be a ‘concerned government’ but BN cannot raise any tariff without being called a tyrant.

The most recent development is even more interesting whereby the Oppositions just have their leaders salaries increased up to 373% that takes 66.2% of the Selangor state budget, but BN leaders cannot even have their wives buying new handbags.

I was expecting a cry of dissatisfaction or anger from the opposition supporters but I almost choked on my coffee this morning as I noticed how the Oppositions supporters and leaders’ social network are all switched into defense mode automatically as the new salaries were announced.

I mean, what the ....?

Why can’t we see things as it is or say things as it is? Wrong is wrong and it can never be right no matter who did it. Why must we gulp down all the nonsense when we know it doesn’t make sense?

Come on Malaysians! Raise your standard of thinking. Really, there is no ‘standard’ in looking at things in double standard.

DAP Will Help Sabah/Sarawak Bumis to Dream

I’ve wrote about DAP’s Malaysian Dream before, which, can also be called the Malaysians’ Nightmare. Since many Malaysians are still traumatized by it, we should warn our brothers and sisters down south that DAP is sending ‘agents’ to the rural areas in Sarawak and now, Sabah, to sell this dream - the Malaysian Dreams.

These agents are to promote ‘DAP’s concern’ towards their hardship, and help them to ‘imagine’ life with clean water supply, road-tracks and easy access to the modern-world. The agents are also said to be handing out aids and assistance to help ease things out as life goes by.

In the meantime, the agents are expected to tell the people how the federal government has marginalized them in all aspects of development and how the money that was meant for them, ended up in some BN leaders’ pockets.

But first, who are the people in the rural areas of Sabah and Sarawak? Yes, they are the bumiputeras.

Now, everybody knows that DAP hates the bumiputeras and it is their ultimate fight to abolish Bumiputera Rights. So, why would anybody believe that DAP is concern about the bumiputeras in Sabah and Sarawak?

DAP believes that the bumiputeras of Sabah and Sarawak will buy the dreams it sell because these people can’t be smarter than the bumiputeras in the Semenanjung, can they?

Logic has it that if Nik Aziz can fool any Muslim scholar and academician, then DAP can fool any Muslim any time. All DAP needed to do was fooled Nik Aziz first, and the rest of the Muslims will tag along – scholars, academicians, graduates, pasar-malam traders, anyone.

However, the bumiputeras of Sabah and Sarawak are no fools. They know for a fact that DAP, is all about the Chinese.

The Chinese have conquered the urban areas of Sabah and Sarawak and have been using and taking the bumiputeras for granted. The Chinese will never allow others to rise and compete with them in any aspects of life and that is a lesson well-learned by the bumiputeras of Sabah dan Sarawak; a lesson which is also slowly being learned by the Australians, Philippinos and many others, in other parts of the world.

DAP doesn’t dream for Sabah and Sarawak, but it dreams about them - about the soil and everything that comes with it, and within it. If DAP could take away the bumiputeras’ land by force in Penang, what would stop it from doing the same in Sabah and Sarawak should DAP one day becomes the ruler?

Just look at the widespread greenery across the two states. Imagine how many commercial centers can be built and how many acres of multimillion ringgit of houses can be offered to the rich Singaporeans and foreigners all over the world? Imagine the profits they could make with ready supply of low-paid bumiputera employees who are desperate for jobs as they are forced to embrace modernization when they can’t really afford any of it.

DAP will never allow such thing as ‘bumiputera rights’ or ‘helping the less fortunates’ because that would be against their ‘total equality’ principle. Therefore, the bumiputeras of Sabah and Sarawak, will be forced to struggle to catch-up with the Chinese on their own. And we know for a fact that they can never catch-up or be allowed to catch-up in a million years to come.

This is the Malaysian Dreams of DAP – whereby the Chinese are the Leaders, the Boss, the Owners, while the rest are just helpers, bartenders, cleaners, waitress or janitors who must ‘kow-tow’ to them. So much of a dream, eh?

Thank you Sir, Malaysians are Doing Well down here - in the well

Is Malaysia doing okay? Are we having problems? You see the global financial ratings and you listen to the budget report, you are sure that we are doing fine but then, you read the blogs and your blood pressure suddenly goes up.

If we summarized Malaysia’s problem in one sentence, it would have read:

“The Chinese don’t want to support government and hate the Malays because the government takes their money to do corrupted projects while pretending to help the Malays.”

Every Malaysian knows that this very sentence is the heart of all the problems in this country. It has since been so:

1. the Chinese arrogance,
2. the way the government spend the money, and
3. the Malays reckless struggle to keep pace with other races.

These are the real problems of the country - not Anwar Ibrahim. Not anymore. Anwar was once our biggest problem and that was in 1998/99. He ceased to be our biggest problem soon after the ‘99 election. His threat was short-lived and Malaysia was in the best shape in no time, regardless we were in the process of recovering from the asian economic recession at the time.

If only the leaders and the people of Malaysia can agree on this one thing that is ‘what are our actual problems, and what is no longer our problem’, then, we would be in a much steadier mode to achieve whatever we dream of achieving.

However, I see this as something as far as the sun, which is unreachable. Not with the way things are going. Not with the kind of leaders in the government or the in the opposition parties. How can these so-called ‘leaders’ solve the problems when they don’t even want to acknowledge the problems?

What is worse is that how do we expect them to acknowledge the problems when they are part of the problems, ie. leaders of DAP is the problem no. 1, and leaders in the government is the problem no. 2.

The DAP has been all out in making Malaysia looks like in deep ‘s**t’ – as if each and every particles in the Malaysian air is a problem. For DAP, Islam, the Sultans, the constitution are problems but DAP’s biggest problem is ‘the Malays’, simply because this race exists and happened to be the original settlers of the land.

The government, on the other hand, has been quite sure that there is no problem at all and that Malaysia is on the right track to Wonderland with everybody giggling and skipping happily.

Knowing my Chinese friends, I don’t think the Chinese (read: DAP) will ever changed. Arrogance and selfishness and racism, is in their blood, at least for the Chinese in Malaysia and Singapore. The Chinese don’t know any other way to live. You combine all these ‘traits’, and you get an irrational person where nothing you say can help them make sense of anything. All there is for a Chinese is money and profit. Humanity and compassion are just words in a dictionary from some land of make believe.

Therefore, hoping and telling the Chinese to change is like telling the dog to mew.

However, the Chinese arrogance has always been there just as long as the Malays’ existence. Only that their arrogance has never become so much of a problem until 1969. It was not a problem anymore later on, not even in 1998 when Anwar posted the biggest problem. The Chinese arrogance only started becoming a growing problem again in 2004.

How come? Simple:

In 1970 or 1988 or 1998 and up to 2003, the people have full trust and confidence and most importantly, respect towards the government. Now, even Malaysians who support the government are forced to question our trust, confidence and respect for the government. All because of money and the way it is spend. We see 1MDB, the consultants, the Khazanah office in Manhattan, the PEMANDUs and more consultants….and the list goes on and the spending is ongoing.

Yet, we don’t see new projects or vision to generate income except for digging it out from our pocket through taxes and cutting off subsidies.

Naturally, people start to get angry and lost respect towards the leaders. Thus, the enemies took advantage of the situation to provoke and challenge the government just to stir things up. This is where the ‘Allah’ issue and the COMANGO comes in.

The poor handling of the situation makes things worse.

Bottomline, it is money that is the root of all the problems. In this case, ‘where you spend it and how you are going to get it’. A right answer would earn the government the much needed trust and respect that eventually would push the problem of Chinese arrogance into the background where it has always been.

Unfortunately, trying to make the leaders admit that the way they handle things are the problems, is just as impossible as asking DAP not to be racist.

Today, we celebrate all the positive reports about Malaysia, but we go home to a negative bank account after deducting all the taxes. Malaysia seems to be doing well, but what are we doing in the well?

A More Islamic UMNO, A Less Islamic PAS

Malaysia is now officially divided into two – on one side the majority Malays and the other, the minority Chinese with the Indians as spectators and cheerleaders who are ever ready to jump into the winning side. The only problem is, there can never a winner in a country divided.

With PAS Muktamar resulted in the winning of pro-liberal or pro-Anwar/DAP candidate, Mat Sabu, who retained his position as Second in Command, I foresee Malaysia as becoming more divided than ever. The fact that the Chinese, Indians or more significantly, the Christians, seem to be celebrating his winning, confirms that Mat Sabu carries their hopes towards a less Islamic PAS.

The Sultan of Johor has just announced that the state will recognize Friday and Saturday as weekends and received an overwhelming compliment from the majority Muslims. Johor is an UMNO hard-core state and the announcement, though not a decision by the UMNO government is somehow taken as a sign of a more Islamic UMNO.

Politics shouldn’t be about race and religion. Politics comes with civilization where it spells the guidelines on life, economy, health, technology, education and peace. Sadly, Malaysian politics has dropped so low, almost at a third world country’s rock bottom low. Except from the lifeless objects in the parliament building that remind us that we are civilized people, there is nothing civilized about the MPs playing paper planes.

Malaysia has been governed by UMNO/BN all its life. Looking at where Malaysia is today, nobody has the right to deny that the party has done a really good job in taking care of the country and its people. This, puts UMNO/BN on the good side and the Oppositions on the bad side.

However, when life becomes so good, people tend to get bored with all the goodness. They started taking the good life for granted and even deny that their life is ever good. They believe that they could have a much better life. That’s how MCA and Gerakan get tempted with the Oppositions. Now that PAS is no longer as extreme as before, the Oppositions look even more seductive to these two Chinese parties.

The only reason MCA and Gerakan find the Oppositions seductive and tempting is because it is a Chinese dominated coalition. With the winning of Mat Sabu, it is almost a guarantee that PAS will soon do whatever the Chinese wants them to do.

All the talks about transparency and good governance are mere political mumblings that means nothing to the Chinese for they are the very race that ‘invented’ bribery.

I’ve lived through life under the rule of UMNO/BN, and the party has proven to be as un-racist as any political party in a multiracial democratic country could be. UMNO never stops me from doing anything just because I’m not a Malay. UMNO/BN could be anything from corrupt to dumb but racist is just not one of them.

Apart from that, UMNO has never been a religious extremist either and I don’t think it will ever be, unless the Chinese push it too far that the Malays began to retaliate, which I sense is happening now and I don’t like it one bit.

All the while, it was PAS who played the religious card but today, it is UMNO picking up the fight for Islam where PAS left off.

The Chinese has chosen to push UMNO away so hard that UMNO has no choice but to firm up its stand among the Muslims. Therefore, we now have a more Islamic UMNO and a less Islamic PAS as well as the forever racist Chinese.

Sitting on the bench are the Indians, not yet sure whose side to cheer for.

Whatever will happen next, one thing for sure is that should the Oppositions win the next election, it only wins in the name of Chinese racism in the fight against Malay racism.

Dude! Communists and Nazis are all about racism too, whether they admit it or not. And when the racists rule, there will be blood.

Now, It's Human Rights Against Religion?

Like most Malaysians, my friends are a mix of all races and beliefs. I respect them all although I found some beliefs are silly. To tell you frankly I even have all sorts of unanswered questions on Christianity but I do notice that Christianity, Islam and Judaism share the same history and values in one way or another. Therefore, there must be some truths in either of them.

My Malay friends are no doubt Muslims, but my Chinese and Indian friends are a different story. The Chinese could be Buddhist or Christians and the Indians could be Hindus or Christians. There was one time when we can tell their religion just by their name whereby the Christian Chinese or Indians would use ‘Mat Salleh’s’ name. However, today, many of them like to use Mat Salleh’s name anyway, regardless of their religion. I think they don’t like to be Chinese or Indian and they must have regretted to not be born as Mat Sallehs.

Therefore, despite all that is said about Malays being the most confused and left behind, I respect the Malays more in terms of standing for who they are and not trying to be somebody else – not all of them, though.

The confused Malays are divided into two categories: One, who try their very best to imitate the Arabs and two, who try their very best to fit into the world of the Chinese or Indians aka the ‘Mat Salleh-wannabes’. Together they unite in their quest to turn Malaysia into a Mat Salleh-like country. They believe that everything Mat Salleh is good, even the name, and everything not, is bad, even the religion.

I’m not trying to defend Islam but I think this group has gone too far that they refused to accept where they come from and who they are. Today, they marched up to the UN telling the UN that Malaysia is a bad country with oppressing laws and biased constitutions. They do this by registering as many NGO as they can with the same persons overlapping each of the NGOs in the positions they hold. Then, they combined them all and called themselves Coliation of Malaysians NGOs (COMANGO) and serve their agenda to the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) of the UN to change or abolish certain laws in order to be more Mat Salleh.

It is interesting to note that the laws that troubled them so much are the ones stating that sodomy is illegal and the use of Allah’s name in Christians printings and preaches. For them, this is oppression and injustice.

It may not be wrong to say that COMANGO wants Malaysia to be as free as Israel. I quote ‘Israel’ because apart from Israel, other Mat Salleh’s countries are not in unanimous agreement with the idea of total freedom. Still, not all Jews supports the idea as you can see from this picture:

For me, COMANGO is nothing more but misguided Christians (because most of the group leaders are Christians) who are misguiding others into believing that Christians support total freedom as promoted by Israel. Christians don’t support total freedom. Christians disapprove homosexuals and lesbians as much as the Muslims.

What is mind-boggling is why the hell do these people want to use the word ‘Allah’ to replace the word ‘Lord’ or ‘Father’? What significance does it make in their prayers? Why go all the way to the UN making all these deafening noise for something that will not affect the Christians community in any way, right now, right here or in the hereafter?

It seems like the group has make it their goal to change the country. I say, the people who represent COMANGO are no doubt rich, by looking at their favourite lepak place - Bangsar. Most of them stay in elite areas around KL. They go overseas for shopping and vacations. Therefore, I wonder why they don’t just stay overseas, or migrate to Israel in order to live the life that they see best.

Every country has its own identity and culture. Every race has its own tradition and beliefs. Every religion in this world tells us to do good. Every person has the right to choose.

On the other hand, every government in a democratic country has the right to rule as per the majority’s wish. And majority of Malaysians accepts Malaysia as it is – a Muslim country with its own laws. Should COMANGO uphold democracy and human rights as they say they do then they must respect the majority’s rights.

There is no perfect place in this world but each place is unique and different and that’s what makes the world so beautiful. COMANGO shouldn’t try to make it ugly.

Malaysian Dream?

“What is important is that Pakatan Rakyat parties must stay the political and electoral course until we succeed in bringing about political change for Malaysians, regardless of race, religion, region or class to achieve the common Malaysian Dream” – Lim Kit Siang

The Chinese guys calling for racial harmony on 13 May 1969.

“It’s very dangerous to allow political parties and professional organisations which are based on race or religion,” - Karpal Singh

The Malays and Chinese killed by a race-based party on 13 May 1969.

Oh yes, I know my country's history. I'm no fool.

Malaysia's Reversing Race towards a First World Country

I can’t help but noticed all these talks about becoming a high income nation and a first world country. And I can’t help being skeptical about whether our leaders even know what ‘first world’ is all about.

First world country isn’t about high income or the tax that we pay. It isn’t about abolishing subsidies and rising of prices. These are the effects that come along or after we have become a first world nation. It shouldn’t come before.

I don’t understand why the country is in such a hurry to sit on that first world bench. Surely such a high ambition deserves an applaud, but we must also remember that there is no short cut to anything except for the routes you take to the grocery store or to your friend’s house at the end of the front block.

When you do things in such a hurry, you will most probably end-up doing it wrongly. Building a country and turning it into an advanced nation is definitely something that has no shortcuts. America becomes the America that we know today, in hundreds of years. Japan turned into what it is today in decades, not overnight or in one or two electoral terms.

And the journey of becoming a first world country started off with one thing – the people. You can have the most advance mechanism to come out with good products BUT first, you have to have people who can build the mechanism and people who are able to handle it.

It is sad to say that Malaysia doesn’t have ‘the people’ that fits the picture of a first world country. We don’t have inventors, scientists that can build or discover new things.

We cannot master the technology because we have yet to master the language of technology. We are far from having our own technological or scientific terms because we are not the ones who invented it or discovered it.

I mean, for God’s sake, we are still struggling with language and self identity…!

We may have more and more ‘successful’ people who travel around the world but they are only there to shop not to discover things or learn something. This is because we are not explorers as Malaysians are just not keen about knowledge. The whole country seems to be working only for money, not knowledge.

You see, we don’t have the basic ingredient of becoming an advanced nation. It’s like baking a cake with no flour, butter an egg but expecting the cake to be ready and perfectly moistly just because we have a highly sophisticated oven.

Do you notice that Malaysian kids don’t have the right amount of curiosity or passion, which is what is required in people of a first world nation? So face it, we are nowhere near that ‘first world’ destination.

The only way to get there is to put all the efforts and resources into creating the ‘first nation people’ rather than spending it on the foreign experts to help create good publicity for ‘feel-good’ sake whenever the subsidies are cut.

Get experts to train school-teachers and everybody that involves in the country’s education system, including the Ministry. We need to boost the childrens’ curiosity and make them want to be explorers and inventors. Make them hunger for knowledge not money.

Therefore, we need more teachers who are inspired, so they can inspire the students. We need more teachers who can think outside the box and know how to make lessons interesting. We need teachers who can identify special gifts and talents in children and grow them or groom them accordingly. We need teachers who read…

In the meantime, we also need an education ministry who can come up with good, interesting syllabus and guidelines for the teachers to teach.

All these may seem easy when put in words, but it is an impossible thing to do when nobody really understands what it means. Therefore, I foresee Malaysia as the same messed-up and confused country in a long-long time.

Malaysia: The Hypocritical Land

Malaysia is basically made of three main races – Malays, Chinese and Indian and to be none of either, makes me somewhat unique. The fact that these three races could build a country together, puts the country at a class of its own.

Malaysia may not be the most advanced and modern country in the world, but you bet that it has almost all the facilities and services that any first world country tourist would need while visiting.

However, just be prepared that the facilities and services might be provided at a third world class. Living together with different races and beliefs takes a lot of effort. The hardest part would be to tolerate the most irritable things pertaining to one’s custom or religion. This, includes the things that are as petty as the stinking smoke of Chinese and Indian incense sticks, or the Muslim’s calling for prayer (azan) in the morning, to the ugly sight of little prayer house built by Indians at every most convenient trees or space possible around the country.

There are also parades on Thaipusam and Prophet Muhammad’s birthday to tolerate with and oh yes, there is also the noisy Chinese funerals. No one could deny that Malaysians are the most tolerant people on earth.

However, like every good thing, there is always the bad side of it: Behind all the beautiful smiles of tolerance, lies only the ugliest hypocrisy.

Malaysians have been living a lie all their lives in order to maintain harmony. The hypocritical level that Malaysians are have reached the point of no return, whereby the truth is simply ‘not-approved’.

You can’t tell the Chinese neighbour to not blow his nose so grossly hard that the whole neighbourhood could hear it because that might create an unwanted tension. You just have to bear with the Malay next door who gives you a look like you just emerged from hell when you came back late after a happy hour in the club. Still you greet your Chinese neighbours cheerfully and received the same cheerful greetings from the Malays next door, each and every morning.

All prejudice and disapprovals are suppressed in order to create this harmonious country. Everybody lives according to what is expected from them. From small, Malaysians are taught to say only things that others want to hear and not what is the truth.

‘Pretend’ is the way of life.

As a result, it is just natural for young Malaysians to not be able to describe the person that they are because they just don’t know who they are. In fact, they have never thought about it.

The hypocrisy, (not tolerance), has obviously helped create a comfortable place to live in, but it doesn’t help create great people. It only creates small people with small hearts and tiny brains.

After years of having lived here, I conclude that Malaysia is a very beautiful country, with very messed-up people. Nevertheless, it is my beautiful messy home.