Sin Chew tells Malays to be like Nazir and Azran

Here is an article in Sin Chew Daily today about the two new darlings of Pakatan. I interspersed the paragraphs with my comments.

Lupa kulit

Me: Yes, Sin Chew, you better lupakan your Chinese kulit (skin). Can?

By TAY TIAN YAN
Translated by DOMINIC LOH
Sin Chew Daily

Me: Tay Tian Yan is Sin Chew's deputy editor-in-chief, which therefore makes this article the voice of the newspaper.

I met a relatively open-minded senior leader from Umno during a dinner the other day.

Me : Must be one of those moderate Umno leaders who lost in the GE13 due to the Chinese tsunami like former Johor MB Datuk Abdul Ghani Othman.

He confessed that an undercurrent is currently brewing within Umno and the rightists are all out to exploit the general election results into racial issues in the run-up to the party elections.

Me: Not only the rightists are now calling for a more Malay-friendly stance of the Umno leadership, but also those from the Malay middle ground such as myself. People like me are tired of being conned by those who said that the Chinese will appreciate us for being moderate. 

Which is absolutely not a good thing for inter-community relationships while exerting pressure on the more moderate and open-minded factions within the party.

Me: Agree, it's not good for inter-community relationship, just like how the Chinese voted en-bloc for the Pakatan in GE13. What does  Sin Chew expect things to be in Umno after the almost total rejection of the Chinese towards DS Najib Razak's moderate and accommodating attitude towards them? Do they expect Umno to still bow down to the Chinese for support?

In the latest incident, Nazir Razak was slammed by right-wing NGOs and former information minister Zainuddin Maidin as kacang lupakan kulit.

A notable figure in the business world, Nazir is the CEO of CIMB and the younger sibling of the prime minister.

He has earlier commended AirAsia X chief executive Azran Osman Rani as a great leader. If we were not that forgetful, we should recall that this Azran was critical of Utusan Malaysia's headline story "Apa lagi Cina mahu?" for being racist.

So, these two Malay gentlemen have now become the kacang that lupakan kulit.

Me: Again, how does Sin Chew expect the Malays to react to people like Nazir and Azran afte almost all Chinese succumbed to DAP's racist campaigning which appeal to their Chinese interests in GE13? If Sin Chew and the other Chinese extremists had in the past savaged Chinese such as Ridhuan Tee Abdullah for criticizing them, doesn't that gives Utusan and the Malays the right to condemn people such as Nazir and Azran? Or does Sin Chiew expect Utusan to be a good boy while itself must have the license to whack anyone who appears threatening to Chinese interests?  

I discover that the reasoning behind these rightists is pretty straightforward. Anyone disagreeing with Malay supremacy is a pariah, and if the person is a Malay himself, then his crime is doubled, "kacang lupakan kulit" in more minor cases and "traitors" in more severe ones.

Me: Where did this Mr Tay actually discover the reasoning being straightforward? Or did he simply assumed that? Well, I used to be quite critical against these so called Malay rightists too but to say that they labelled anyone against "Malay supremacy" (Ketuanan Melayu) as pariah is not true. I am against the concept of Ketuanan Melayu till now but has yet being labelled as such by them. It's because despite not agreeing with them I do not condem them for trying to defend the rights of the Malay community the way Nazir and Azran did. I treated the Malay rightists, the same way as I treated the Chinese who are trying to defend the rights of the Chinese community.

After Azran hit out at Utusan and Perkasa, he immediately found himself constantly under assault, including a reminder that without the patronage of the government's racial policies, he would not have achieved this much today.

A successful Malay always has this burden laden upon his shoulders as if his accomplishment is attributed wholly to the government's policies.

Me: So, does Sin Chew want to tell Malays to be like Nazir and Azran who seem to forget that they are what they are because of the existing government policies which enabled this country to grow and giving them a chance to be successful? Is it not enough that Sin Chew along with the DAP and other Chinese chauvinist entities have been brainwashing the Chinese with the idea that their success and dominance of the country's economy was solely due to their own efforts and got nothing to do with the government's ability to create a conducive environment for them to achieve all that? Now they want to brainwash the Malays with that idea too, is it?

As a matter of fact, branding successful fellow Malays like Azran and Nazir as traitors is both unacceptable and disparaging.

Their achievements have been a result of their own capabilities and hard work, proving that Malays not necessarily need special privileges or patronage to excel.

Azran was made AirAsia X chief by virtue of his experience in a multinational consulting firm upon graduation from Stanford, all through his own hard work and wisdom, not the NEP.

In a similar manner, Nazir's achievement has been a result of his own effort, not because he is Najib's younger brother or Tun Razak's son.

Since he took over CIMB, Nazir has injected the meritocracy spirit into the group, put together multiracial teams, established regional and even global insights to make CIMB one of the top financial institutions in Malaysia with branches in several regional cities as well.

Me: Sin Chiew should not be too sure about its claim that Nazir and Azran achieved what they had achieved on their own. Do some background check first on the duo, such as who are their parents and how they came about being able to send their children to prestigious universities abroad. Also, check how they managed to get into top positions in the corporate sector, and see if the name of their family and connections got anything to do with it. 

Why is it that these duo, whose remarks appeared favorable to Pakatan, received praised from Sin Chew as Malays who become successful on their oiwn but other successful Malays such as Syed Mokhtar AlBukhari being labeled as Umno cronies even if they hardly made any remark supporting Umno or the government?  

Many Malay entrepreneurs and professionals that have become successful through their own effort hate being called beneficiaries of the government's special privileges, because they are well aware such privileges and government patronage will not last forever and are most definitely not anything they should take pride in.

So they oppose the NEP and racist policies as these will only debilitate the Malay race in the long run.

Me: The NEP which Sin Chew clearly described here as among the government's racist policies had managed to a large extent eradicated poverty which afflicted the Malays before its implementation in the early 1970s. My father, whose family was very poor managed to raised above the poverty level thanks to the NEP. No, my father's family didn't receive contracts and other direct handouts, but just better education assistance, job opportunity etc. Those were enough to make a lot of difference for them. Is it racist for the government to assist the Malays such as my father whose community, despite being the majority in the country was the poorest among the major races? But I guess, Sin Chew would not understand such a sentiment and will only praise someone like silver spooned Malays such as Nazir and Azran because they loathed a policy which had helped their own race.  

Nazir has been a chronic advocate of economic liberalisation and staunch critic of the NEP, supporting a new economic model irrespective of race.

He is much adored by the business circle and moderate Malays but is frowned upon by right-wing Malay chauvinists.

Malaysia needs more of capable, self-confident Malays so that the country can achieve broader national unity and modernisation and compete globally.

Me: Sin Chew actually has no business talking about Malaysia needing capable, self-confident Malays and achieving broader national unity after their contribution in fanning the Chinese racial sentiments which helped the DAP at GE13. 

They had stabbed the moderate Malays in the back at GE13 yet now are asking the Malays to use the likes of Nazir and Azran as role models.

APA SIN CHEW INGAT MELAYU TERSANGAT-SANGAT BODOH KE?