Who Is The Racist?

During his 22-year tenure, former Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad has without a shadow of doubt transformed this country embracing development and bringing the nation out of the "woods". He had also put Malaysia in the world map through his views, which championed causes of the developing and under developed countries. We hail him for all the good deeds he has done. It would be hard for the nation to get another Prime Minister like him.
However, not all his deeds brought good. He had his follies. For me one of his greatest failure was to equally distribute the nation's wealth and opportunites among the various races, which share this nation, during his term as PM.
On this score, he stood, and still stands, for Malay supremacy. He believed that the Malays (not the bumiptera, which includes the natives of Sabah and Sarawak) should be the dominant force and "others" who asked for anything extra were told to consider themselves lucky for living in this nation. He was overzealous in his "I am more Malay than the Malays themselves" attitude.
This single policy, which he carried dearly, caused the Indians to become victims, losing out on opportunities to develop in tandem with the nation. As a result of this policy, Indians remained backward economically. He was laid back in initiating actions to solve problems that beseiged Indians. The Malays then had Mahathir, the Chinese economic wealth and we Indians suffered and still are suffering!
Yesterday, Tun Mahathir said MIC's stand for the Hindraf Five to be freed was racism. He called Samy Vellu a racist. Fine, and well I admit, the MIC president has his drawbacks but calling him a racist is totally out of line. All Dr Mahathir had to do was to find how many mosques and suraus Samy Vellu help build. Check Sungai Siput Tun, and you would find that this man you called racist in fact has helped more Muslims directly than any other non-Muslim leader of the nation.
The Hindraf movement was not formed overnight. It was your own doing Tun. Everytime we Indians had a problem and came to you, you brushed us aside. You did not give us what we wanted. You caused Indians to boil and boil over they did. If the Hindraf movement had began during his tenure, most probably more than five leaders would be languishing in Kamunting by now.
"In sympathising with Hindraf, Samy exposes his deep racist sentiments" said Tun Mahathir in his blog.
The Hindraf Five are also Malaysians. What they did wrong was to fight for the rights of the commununity using the wrong channels. They did what MIC could not, as the political party was a Barisan Nasional component member. Yes, we want them out of Kamunting as soon as possible. Is that wrong? Does that make us a racist?
Even Tun Mahathir supports the Palestinian cause. Does that make him a terrorist? If the same yardstick was used, then Tun Mahathir is a terrorist as he supports the Palestinian cause.
Tun Mahathir always emphasised that it was important to get to the root cause of a problem, in order to solve it. In the case of Hindraf, the policies of Tun Mahathir was the root cause for the birth of the movement!
Please sir, stop making sweeping statements as it does not help anyone but make you a champion of one race. We want you to be the champion of all Malaysians not just Malays.

p/s: A few commentators of this blog are surprised that the posting on the qualities of a MIC president has drawn very few comments. I wish to state here that I did not reject any comment. There is a possiblity that most of the comments on the post was streamed to another post. I publish all comment, except those which call me names, threaten me (oh yes, trust me people use this blog to even do that) and use vulgar words. Your views and comments are very useful. I want people to read these comments. The more ideas thrown, the better.
Some commentators have also asked me to pen my thoughts instead of plucking news pieces and pasting it on the blog. Thank you. I have form time to time done just that. I would from now pay special attention to this request. Thank you and God Bless.
Euro scores: Portugal 2 Germany 3 (Wish Portugal had won. They play entertaining football and are a delight to watch)

SAPP To Move Vote of No Confidence Against PM

Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP) has announced that it would move a no-confidence motion against Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi when Parliament resumes on Monday.
It is the first time in the history of the nation that a vote of no-confidence is to be moved against a Prime Minister.
"In the coming sitting of the Parliament session starting Monday, June 23, our MPs will support a vote of no confidence on the PM.
"Whether the motion will be tabled by our party MP or another MP will be decided in due course," said a press statement released today.
SAPP has two parliamentarians - Dr Chua Soon Bui (Tawau) and Eric Enchin Majimbun (Sepanggar) - and four state assemblypersons.

Prof Ramasamy -- Changing Mindset or Running Away From Issues?

I read an interesting article in the NST this morning and wanted to share it. On page 13 of the paper, Penang Deputy Chief Minister Prof Dr P. Ramasamy was quoted as saying that he wanted to change the mindset of Penangites.

"I have been trying hard to change the mindset of not only Indians, but also other races. We have adopted a multiracial approach to handling issues. I am an Indian, but I don't hold an Indian affairs portfolio.

"Many Indians still come and see me because of their mindset that Ramasamy is an Indian and he must be in charge of Indian affairs. I tell them look, the state government represents all communities and if they have problems involving local government issues, they should have to see the executive council member in charge of that," he said.

Let me at the onset state that I am not against Prof Ramasamy. What irks me is that he must remember he became the Deputy Chief Minister by virtue of being an Indian. If you don't handle Indian problems, who will? Is there an Indian affairs portfolio in the state taking into account the various problems and issues faced by Indians in the country generally?

Although he is from the opposition, which claim not to be race based, he should look after his own kind first before leaping to help "others". For me Prof Ramasamy is disowning responsiblities.

Only a fellow Indian understands the problems faced by another Indian.

Another pertinent point here is that although opposition leaders and political pundits had come to the conclusion that race based political parties were facing their doom, aftermath of the General Election, how come the rakyat are going to their own kind to solve problems.

If the conclusion had been correct, then the people of Penang, irrespective of race, should be flocking their own elected representatives may he be a Malay, Chinese or Indian.

Why do they look for Prof Ramasamy to solve Indian woes and Lim Guan Eng to ease Chinese based problems. In this case, actions of the people speak louder than words of politicians!



p/s Euro scores: Poland 0 Croatia 1, Germany 1 Austria 0.

Wanted

Could not blog yesterday due to commitments. Got this interesting topic that, I feel, should be discussed may it be by Indians or even non-Indians. Read on...

We are looking for a person who has MIC and Malaysian Indians interest at heart. He or she must have earned the trust and respect of party members. He or she must also display leadership qualities and be people-oriented. Other qualities needed : close to the people, communicate with them, know and resolve their problems and have the people's interests in his or her heart.
These are the criteries lined by the MIC president that should be in his successor.
The president has also revealed that he would not limit the party president's tenure to three terms or in other words nine years.
"If you set a specific time frame, the president may not want to do more or have a long term plan. He or she may feel what should they think about the party's future since they will only serve for a short period.
"No matter what, the president will still have to be elected every three years. If the members feel the president has not performed well, they can boot him or her out," Samy Vellu was quoted by Bernama, yesterday.

Now it is your call. What qualities should the MIC president have? You tell me...

p/s Euro scores: Switzerland 2 Portugal 0 (I don't know why the score just isn't right), Turkey 3 Czech 2.