RACE RIOTS - SHOCK OR 'SYOK'?

Race riot happens for a reason. When emotions flare and sanity goes out the window, anything can happen. History have seen several occassions of this human tragedy time and time again. It has happened in the past, it can happen in the present and it will probably happen again in the future.

America in the past and present has issues about race that turns to rioting at one point or another. France just had their share of race rioting. Australia Curnolla beach race riot is there for the world to see. Singapore has her history of race riots. And of course, Malaysia's infamous May 13 1969 race riots has its place in world history.

'Syok' is a colloquial Malay word for Joy, Happy or even 'Orgasm' depending on the context of its use. The question to ask is - if there were to be race riots in Malaysia now would that be a SHOCK or would it be a 'SYOK' to some people? To be honest, most Malaysian wouldn't call it shocking if it did happened though it wouldn't be welcomed - but it definitely wouldn't be categorised as shocking. Just as the World had its WW1 and WW2, a World War 3 as Mr.Bush cursorily warned, though most definitely not welcomed, shouldn't be much of a surprise or shocking!

But who in their right minds would call or consider race riots as 'SYOK'? Well, believe you me, quite a number of groups of people actually. Lets just go down the list:

i) People in power who have or nearly lost their grassroot support can now garner abosulte unquestionable support from their respective camps. By playing the 'Threat' card purportedly from the opposing camp their continued powerhold is virtually guaranteed.

ii) People who yearn for change or opportunity to make changes can now drum-up the urgency to make those changes

iii) Outside forces who may have hidden agendas would more than welcome chaos and dissent amongst the general public within a country so that they may plant or implement the necessary tools and instrument of control be it economic, social or even political.

iv) Bad hat elements in society who thrives on the misery and destitution of fellow man in general.




DETROIT 1943 - AMERICA



Maria Hertogh - SINGAPORE



AFTERMATH MAY 13 1969 - MALAYSIA



LA RIOT POLICE 1992 - AMERICA



CRONULLA BEACH RIOT 2005 - AUSTRALIA



RACE RIOTS 2005,2007 - FRANCE


Now, there's a rumour on the net-vines that there might be a race riot looming on the 16th December 2007 as an after taste of the HINDRAF petition gathering cum demonstration. Camps of opposing or rather non-aligned interest maybe 'urged' into confrontation because patience are running low and life may just seemed a little better if some steam are let-off. The irony of all this is that,if the tragedy does happen, the root cause would all have been lost amongst the dead and injured. Attention will shift from the original and similar grievences of the little people of different colors, race and creed to the pursuit, capture and punishment of the so-called 'ring-leaders' of such incidences.

Everyone will be reminded that they were in fact actually better off before the riot and they should be thankful they still have their lives after the riot. And so goes on the misery of the little people, as the debris are cleared, the dead buried, the 'criminals' punished and the politicians elected once again. Essential food items will creep up in prices all the same, petrol shall be available to those who have the money and Malaysia, the country will be back on track yet again. The poor remains poor or worse while the rich accumulate more for their treasure troves.

Those in power remains to continue their pursuit of eternal happiness all in the name of the people and at the expense of the people! LONG LIVE DEMOCRACY albeit ala Malaysia!


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Sailing 'Malaysia' in the dark

Malaysia now is like a ship sailing in the dark in unknown waters. Yes, there is a captain and all his crews and they think that Malaysia is 'unsinkable'. Just as the Titanic was thought to be unsinkable. In fact, similar 'boastful' talk had been made not too long ago when a politician (a party big-wig)was talking of the National Front (BN), a coalition of various ethnic-based political parties who have ruled Malaysia for 50 years.

The number of protest marches and demonstrations within a couple of weeks of each other and possibly more marches and demonstrations to come in the near future liken to the tip of the iceberg that jutted out in the path of the 'unsinkable' Titanic. To have said "Even God couldn't sink the Titanic" was actually tempting fate - we now know that such talk was disasterably shown to be untrue. Unfortunately, human being seems ready to forget such lessons from God. In a similarly arrogant tone, some politician did say that BN is strong and unbeatable ...always! ALWAYS? We wonder!



Taking the iceberg as a simile of the rumblings of the Malaysian society, only the tip is currently seen floating out of the water. The tip of an iceberg by scientific measurement is only 10% of the whole mass of the iceberg. Some 90% of an iceberg is submerged under the sea. Similar parallels can be drawn for the anguish and dissatisfacion that may lie beneath the calm of the Malaysian public. We are not talking of people against people or race against race sort of grouses. We are saying that the Malaysian public may just had had enough of the present BS they are getting from the captain and his crew!

Malaysia is a rich country by all tokens of economic measurements and yet little by little and inch by inch the joys of living for the ordinary man and woman, old and young on the streets of Malaysia is eroding away. Things are getting expensive and yet wages have not move in tandem to this. One scandal follows another almost unabetted. Billions are lost by design or otherwise. Those in power do not seem to care to listen to the little people who elected them. Apparently, only the ballot box can be used to air any grievances. Other than that its water cannon and tear gas for those who dare to show dissent.

MALAYA the old name for Malaysia was quite a favorite reference for quite a number of things. There were ships name MALAYA, books written about MALAYA and even a hollywood movie entitled MALAYA.In those days, Malaya was a priced colony of the British empire, the land of rubber and tin.

The Sinking of HMS MALAYA









A merchant ship called MALAYA



Posters of the Movie 'MALAYA'






A dancer named MALAYA



Books about MALAYA








These books Moon Over Malaya, The Jungle Beat and War of the Running Dogs are available from Amazon.com:




Will Malaysia ever be as 'popular' as MALAYA? Or will it be sunk by the arrogance of some 'sponsors' who believe even God can't sink the BN coalition!

Multi Racial Politics - Scare mongering!

What is actually wrong with the Malaysian population of multi ethnic backgrounds and religious beliefs that will one day (maybe) blow-up in our faces? As far as I can tell, nothing much really. I'm not saying that everything is rosy and fine for where in the world is there complete euphoria of joy and nothing else?! No, I don't think the general public need worry too much about ordinary people turning against each other because their children failed to get into a University, or their loan application was turned down by one of the banks or that their employer has decided to move to China or India.



What's wrong the above picture? NOTHING!

There are 3 types of social layer in Malaysia - the haves, the have-nots and the sometimes have but mostly not! The ethnic diversity in Malaysia is really quite large but the main race groups are the Malays, Chinese and Indian - with the same order in the number of population. Amongst the 3 main races, all fall into either one of the 3 layer social strata. Realistically, the middle group (the mostly dont have group)has the largest number of population and by simple statistics comprise mainly of Malays. The number of have-nots are also shared by the 3 race groups. The haves comprises of all the races too, perhaps with the elite Chinese having more numbers because they have businesses of their own which with the big economic cake that Malaysia has, this is not unexpected. The elite Indians are expected to be lower in number than the elite Malays simple due to the differences in the total population of each race.

In any society it is the rich who dominate the poor and the middle class. In Malaysia the middle class actually refers to those who barely make a saving at the end of their pay check day. Most people would be paying all that they had owed for the previous month the moment the pay check is banked-in. There might be some who are upper middle-class i.e. they have some money left after paying all the bills. Some still need to borrow even after receiving their salary and these are the lower middle class.

The poor are actually really poor in all sense of the word. The Chinese poor fair slightly better than the Malay and Indian poor because they can still resort to their 'family association' if things get really bad. The Malay poor are rather disadvantage as Malays do not have 'family associations' and rely solely on government aid which are very meager. There should be a Islamic based welfare aid but those aren't really functioning as one would like them too. The Indians have a tough time because they are smaller in numbers and only recently beginning to develop 'family type associations' similar to the Chinese. Nonetheless, the unfortunate poor in Malaysia from whichever race is simple that - UNFORTUNATE!

Theoretically, given the wealth that God has bestowed upon Malaysia, the population in general should at least be in the middle class i.e. having no saving or little of it at the end of the month. A good government could have elevated everyone to the upper-middle class status. But that would be asking the government to be a socialist state which Malaysia is not. Malaysia is also not an Islamic state because little of the economic strength that should have accompanied the 'zakat' system ever percolated down to the truly poor, muslims or otherwise!

Malaysia is a true blue capitalist state that allows for free market and competition. Oh there are those that pretend it is a Malay Muslim dominant government when it is actually quite plural in the 'opportunities' for the elitist group of the population. If this wasn't so how can we even see or hear or read of multi-millionaires even billionaires of various races albeit more Chinese than Malays or Indians.

The politics of race is actually just that POLITICS! People with personal agendas come together to form various political factions of the society and then deal amongst themselves to share the produce of the nations at the expense of the majority of each of their own race. Propagating the 'race divide' serves well for them, their families and friends. Those who happened to be out of that elite circle can wait till the Moon turns red before they can get a bite of the economic cake!

Malaysia is doing very well in the race relations sector and has been doing so for the past 50 years. You see, the poor Malays, Chinese and Indians appreciate each other's malady and are quite friendly with one another. You don't see the poor Malays or Chinese or Indians fighting in the rural villages. They are all struggling to survive. The middle class Malays, Chinese and Indians are quite chummy with the urbanised living they have. And of course, the elite Malays, Chinese and Indians are very proud of their associations with each other.

The only problem is, those racial friendliness do not transcend across the different social strata and one should not expect it to be so really. This is because the rich would not find themselves immersed in the difficulties of the poor nor would the poor be allowed room to mingle with the rich. The middle class group are the ones that are easily fooled into believing that the 'status quo' must remain. Scaring the middle class Malaysian in believing that changing the current arrangements will bring racial chaos and disharmony is like telling children ghost stories! They believe it will happen tonight!

The fact is, the only thing that might blow-up is the anger of the suppressed against the suppressors whichever race those are. The Malaysian government hire some 1 Million civil servants of which about 80-90% of them are Malays. This means that there are some 11 Million Malays, 8 Million Chinese and 2 Million Indians (adults and their dependents) who do not earn wages from the government.

Whoever gets to govern must therefore ensure justice is served and fairness prevails. Opportunities, whether business or education; gains, whether material or spiritual; growth, whether personal or community-wide must no longer be monopolized by the few forsaking the many. Only then, can Malaysia be like it was in the early days of Merdeka - ever ready to develop, sincere and without pretension!

We are all Malaysian after all!

I have to admit I was wrong early this morning when I predicted that the HINDRAF massing will get safe passage to the British High Commission. I really thought that Malaysian Police will refrain from reacting to the HINDRAF gathering. I must say that the Police showed that they have no favorites nor do they have qualms against certain races. Clearly, today's events have shown that we are all truly Malaysian - therefore subject to the same chemical laced water-cannon, tear gas and baton charge!

The Hindus/Indians in Malaysian today are just as Malaysian as the Malays in getting a a wallop from the riot police. The Chinese though have so far been spared the high -speed free-bath sessions. If I am not mistaken, the pig farmers gathering to prevent their farm from being demolished did not get the 'bathing' they rightly deserved as Malaysian. Either the police considers the pig farmers not yet Malaysians so as to deserve their 'drenching' or some 'triad' chief have already secured the safety of those farmers.

Anyway, today once again we see the little people making their say. And if the people upstairs be they Malay, Chinese or Indian leaders say that the little people are wrong then they will see more and more of these street protests. Maybe the tourism minister is thinking of making these demonstrations as the 'new attraction' for foreign visitors particularly those who are just starting out in the journalism arena. After all, where else in the world can you get soaked in chemical water and tear gas then gladly run up your 5 star hotels to deliver your 'real-life' drama yet non-life threatening situation across the globe?

Heck, if the government play their cards right, it can even negotiate with various political and NGO organisations to 'hire' them to provide 'street protest' at predetermined time and location! You see, when people in power think very lowly of th little people's grouses and pains they are but calling for confrontation that they would never believe possible. Little people when massed in numbers will eventually become strong - maybe not physically because no one can stand unmoved by the pressures of water cannon or a speeding bullet for that matter - but strong in their aspiration to want changes. And if the government is adamant that there is nothing wrong with the rising cost of living, cut in subsidies and rampant crimes and expecting the 'rakyat' to swallow every 'good' news that the government tells them, then we are in for a long weekend every weekend from now till election day. What good is it for the people if the country's is a net exporter or that the foreign reserves have double or Petronas can sell their oil at USD100 per barrel when all the people get is a lecture on how to spend less and be thrifty when what they now have is already insufficient!





The coming General Election will be something different I believe because previously it was always the opposition pitted against the government. This time it will be between those who wants to stay in power and those who want changes in the country. The reality is that the little people - Malays, Indian, Chinese and Orang Asli - no longer wish to be hoodwinked by politicians who have only themselves at heart.