Response to Sunny Chong Aug 23

Submitted by m joseph (Singapore), Aug 28, 2005 at 13:21

Sorry, but you are wrong. not wholly, but partially. There is a two stage criteria that one must pass.

the chief criteria is whether one is moslem.
if one is, then one passes stage one.

stage two is that one must have at least one malay, indonesian or arab parent [note both parents cannot be indian or chinese even though they are muslims].

if one passes both these stages, then one is a bumiputra and then there is positive discrimination in favour of such a person. all the benefits that you mention accrue.

if one fails on either of those two criteria, then one is not a bumiputra and there are no benefits, etc.

therefore you may be racially chinese, convert to islam and if both your parents are chinese, then, despite this, you are not bumiputra. likewise with indian parents. [i know that you are thinking of dr. mahatir - from that which i know, his father was an indian muslim and his mother a 'malay' muslim. it was because that his mother was 'malay' that he was regarded as bumiputra]

but if your father is chinese muslim and mother malay [all malays are categorised as being 'moslem'], then you qualify - you are bumiputra from birth.

the same with indians. if my father is indian muslim [coming from india or anywhere else] and mother another indian muslim [from anywhere] that does not make me a bumiputra - and i have no automatic rights. why ? because one of them is not 'Malay'.

malaysia has never pretended to be a liberal meritocracy and i agree with you that what it practices is a sinister form of racism.

we live alas in a hypocritical world. south africa was tongue lashed for over fifty years by the UN for practising apartheid. malaysia has been practising it for for at least thirty odd years and not a whisper from the U.N. or the major international agencies. i have always wondered why

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