The Malay Dilemma - Mahathir Mohamad
Usually this help took the form of large contracts negotiated not officially but over whiskies in the various exclusive clubs in the country.
One of the results of the independent Government’s policy is the appoinment of Malays as directors in large non-Malay companies.
Everyone knows that more often than not these Malay directors have neither a single cent invested, nor probably have they the personal capacity to contribute to all-important job of making profits for the company. Everyone knows that some of these Malays are merely selling their names and taking advantage of the policies of a government which wants to see a more equitable distribution of wealth. Everyon knows that this is not really what the Malays or anyone else want.
It would seem that the efforts of the poor Malays have gone to enrich a select few of their own people. The poor Malays themselves have not gained one iota.
The Malay directors have thus performed a function which is nationally important and of some value to the economic position of the Malays. The criticism against them in the absense of any alternative solution is, therefore, unjustified.
The Chinese will not suffer the presence of anyone not of his own race in his business unless it is absolutely unavoidable.
Malays are ever ready to use new products and the new skills of others but not to learn to acquire new skills themselves.
An extreme lassitude has descended on the Malays which seems to indicate that they are just not good enough for anything.
Malay leaders have been known to say that Malays are not suited for business or skilled work. They are agriculturists. Money does not mean the same thing to them as it does to the Chinese. They do not have the wish or the capacity for hard work. And above all they cannot change.
Them motive behind prefernetial treatment is not to put the Malays in a superior position but to bring them up to the level of the non-Malays.
With the unequal educational background of the different communities, it is not suprising that higher education should further emphasize and perpetuate racial inequality.
If the general standard of education in a new nation is low, then its national university will amdit anyone able to make the grade. But if the standard is high then making the grade is not good enough.
And so education, instead of being an intrument for acheiving racial equality, perpetuates, and even accentuates racial inequality.
Religion is another established force with the Malays. No change, no plan and no ideology which runs counter to the religion of the Malays can succeed. Islam must hterefore be left alone in the quest for Malay progress. In fact, Islam must be upheld and even further propagated if success is to be assured.
Malay women are more diligent and shrewd than Malay men. Malay women have a greater tendency to save than men.
One of the things which illustrate how unadjusted the Malay mind is, is the frequent complaint against non-Malay employers.
They do not try to ingratiate themselves with their superiors. They do not try to outshine the possible non-Malay competitors. They do not try to make themselves indispensable to their bosses. The result is that they invariably lose favour and their positions become untenable.
It is, therefore, fallacious to accept the Malay at face value. It is far beter if his politeness and his abhorrence of unpleasantness are understood for what they really are. The conflict within him is potentially dangerous. It is perpetually seeking expression.
The British assumed control of the Malay Peninsula imperceptibly, with the seeming cooperation of the Malays, from the sultans down to the humblest villager.
But as Americans, they all speak English and do not try to seek recognition of their own language and culture as the language and culture of the United States.
They then become more American than Americans and they jealously guard the laws of immigration, the educational policy and other paraphernalia of government to preserve the accepted concept of an American.
The Chinese must have been longer in Vietnam than anywhere else in Southeast Asia.
But the Vietnamese insist that they and they alone own Vietnam, and they decide who and what is Vietnamese.
The burden of my argument is that the Malays are the rightful owner of Malaya, and that if citizenship is conferred on races other than the Malays, it is because the Malays consent to this. That consent is conditional.
Malay tolerance of mass immigration cannot be considered an unimportant factor. If the Malays had objected at first, there would have been no immigrants to develop Malaya.
I contend that the Malays are the original or indigenous people of Malaya, and the only people who can claim Malaya as their one and only country. In accordance with practice all over the world, this confers on the Malays certain inalienable rights over the forms and obligations of citizenship whichs over the forms and obligations of citzenship which can be imposed on citizens of non-indigenous origin.
But the Malays with their usual tolerance have not insisted on true exclusiveness for the national language, which in other countries is taken as a matter of course. The continued usage and growth of other immigrant languages is not only permitted but is acutally guaranteed in the Constitution. The harsh suppression of immigrant languages common in other Southeast Asian countries, and the more effective but less obvious control in Australia and America are not insisted on in Malaya.
As citizenship is a form of recognition, immigrant all over the world are found to be particular about copying and displaying the distinctive characteristics of the definite people.
Indeed, immigrant citizens in Southeast Asian countries often appear harsher than original citizens towards new immigrants. New citizens feel that unless complete indentification is emphasized, they are supsect and therefore they tend to want to prove their absolute rejection of their foreign origin.
Finally, there is the fatalism which characterizes the Malay attitude to life. This fatalism is very much in evidence everywhere and greatly affects the whole Malay value concept. It makes acceptance of everything, whether good or bad, possible with unprotesting tolerance and resignation. It does not encourage any great effort to change.
The Malay is never commited to anyting. There is always a loophole somewhere for his escape.
The result of this dedication to the hereafter is that the Malays can convince themselves that they are not missing anything in life if they do not have worldly goods. Life is temporary while the hereafter will be permanent. If life is temporary and a better life awaits a man, then too much determination to live is neither worthwhile nor becoming.
When there is no awareness of time, there can be no planning and work is never reliable.
There is no doubt that the Malay failure to value time is one of the most important handicaps to their progress.
This inability to understand to the potential capacity of money is what makes the Malays poor businessmen. Beyond selling what they produce in work or in kind, the Malays appear unable to devise ways of acquiring money.