Malaysiakini :: Letters
Malaysiakini :: Letters |
| Additional ministerial post for MIC not appropriate Posted: 02 Aug 2011 02:05 AM PDT Giving an additional ministerial post to MIC as announced by Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak at the MIC AGM on July 30th is not appropriate and the timing is totally wrong. What the PM did was to please the MIC but did not take into the account the situation of the Indian community which is facing very serious challenges in areas like education, employment opportunities, contracts, housing, gangsterism etc. The BN government should come up with constructive policies and implement strategies to overcome the issues with definite timelines. This would have been a good selling point to the community. Giving a ministerial post to G Palanivel does not go down well because he has failed to win in the last general election and we should not reward candidates who are not winnable candidates. He needs to undergo rehabilitation to improve his interpersonal skills, spend more time with the voters to identify the needs, make innovative plans to improve performance and become a winnable candidate. The Indian community does not need two ministers but needs help from the government to address the challenges the Indians are facing. Their share in the economy, employment and educational opportunities are declining, thus forcing the Indians to vent their anger by supporting opposition candidates. Lastly, MIC should work for all Indians and should not confine themselves just to helping MIC members or focus on Tamil related problems. Full Feed Generated by Get Full RSS, sponsored by Used Car Search. |
| Patriots put country first and party politics last Posted: 01 Aug 2011 11:26 PM PDT There are some who insist that a segment of Malaysians are out to tear Malaysia apart. They insist that stunts like the Bersih march disrupts city life and disturbs the peace and tranquility of Malaysia. Worse, there are individuals who feel that the status quo of the country is for them to protect and so they make police reports of this supposedly dangerous elements who call for peaceful protests and who encourage their Twitter friends to attend the peaceful yellow rally. They see this segment of the public as troublemakers and perhaps unpatriotic Malaysians. In the 1950s, America had segregation laws in many southern states. This segregation laws made it illegal for black Americans to eat, walk or take public transport together with white Americans. There were white drinking fountains and black drinking fountains, there were tables only for white people in some restaurants and segregated seating for the coloreds. To many who grew up in the segregated America this was the norm. However there began a group of women in Montgomery who decided that this was wrong. Black people should not have to pay for their bus fares at the back of the bus and they did not have to give up their seat if a white American had no seat whether or not he was young or old. They began the Montgomery bus boycott which led to the arrests of Rosa Parks and other women which sparked the march of 250,000 people through the Washington Mall toward the Lincoln Memorial led by Martin Luther King, Jr. Were these Americans who marched through Washington DC unpatriotic subversive elements? A read of King's famous 'I have a Dream' speech would show him to be a true believer of the American dream and a patriot at heart. In his speech he said; "And so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream." Was it inconvenient and did it disrupt the peace of America in the summer of 1963? Of course it was, and it did. There were riots, there was police brutality and there were even some who made police reports about their fellow black brothers because they did not believe that this cause was worth fighting for. After all what's the big deal if they were treated as second class citizens? At least they still had jobs and peace and a government that worked. It was not worth protesting about and disrupting business. The truth is these men and women who bothered to stand up against the law of the land in the 1960s believed in their heart that this was an unjust and repressive law. Segregating citizens based on their skin colour was simply wrong even though it was the law of the land at that time. Where did they get this conviction that led to the famous Civil Rights movement that changed the shape of America forever? Believe it or not, it was a conviction based on the Bible that all man are created equal and that God shows no partiality. They acted on this believe and marched against segregation laws of their time. A Bible believing Christian always acts upon his or her Biblical conviction even if it goes against the laws of the land. Asking fellow Christians to join in a peaceful protest for what he or she believes is being true to her own convictions. My point is that criticising or marching against an unjust and repressive law is not unpatriotic at all. Simply put, patriotism is a love for the country and willingness to sacrifice for it. Those that decided to march on 9th of July for Free and Fair Elections were not unpatriotic. In fact they believed in the Malaysian dream set forth by our own founding fathers, heroes like Allahyarham Dato' Onn bin Jaafar, a man before his time; and Allahyarham Tunku Abdul Rahman Bapak Malaysia. If they did not believe in Malaysia, they would have long join the thousands of people who have fled our shores in search of a better future. The truth is these people love Malaysia as much as those who oppose Bersih and they should be given the right to express themselves through peaceful protest as much as the Ibrahim Alis and their venomous racism, or a Mahathir Mohammad who fights against anything that moves and breathes. We should protect the minority as much as we do the majority and their right to peaceful protest. Don't confuse the sovereign state of Malaysia for any political party. Malaysia as an entity is larger than that. She is made up of the millions of people with diverse religious, political and social beliefs with each to be respected and cherished. We must not let any political party hijack this Malaysian agenda for their own existence. The goal is building a better Malaysia and it means listening to every segment of society and protecting their rights to speak and express themselves. Peace may not always be achievable, but by pursuing justice for all, I believe peace is inevitable. |
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