Malaysians are inherently racists

Yeah, politics has been on the lips of so many Malaysians lately, looking at the number of scandals breaking out on the local political scene.

“Hey Zan. What do you think of the money controversies surrounding our Prime Minister?” she asked.

“It sucks. To think about how the people are struggling and then listening to how our leaders are presumably swimming in cash makes me feel lousy,” I replied.

“Do you think we need to change our Prime Minister?”

“I don’t know. It depends on the people,”

“The main thing is that the Prime Minister needs to be a Malay.”

“I don’t agree. I think he or she just needs to be a Malaysian.”

“Oh no! Then we Malays will be sidelined!”

“What are you talking about? A Prime Minister has a responsibility to all Malaysians.”

“Well, then the Prime Minister has to be a Muslim.” she persisted.

“I don’t agree either. He or she just needs to be honest, responsible and capable,” I concluded.

I find it very difficult to believe that in this day and age, people in Malaysia are still so racially inclined. Yet, it is also not very difficult to believe.

It seems everything in the country has been designed to be racially segregated and everyone has had racism ingrained into their minds from the get go.

Look at the recent Bersih 4 rally that took place in Kuala Lumpur over the weekend. It was reported that more than 100,000 people attended the rally.

Instead of discussions about more important aspects of the rally, many people were instead focused on the racial make up of the crowd. The main contention is that there was poor participation among Malays.

And this is even with former premier Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad making an appearance on both days of the rally (many people believe that he alone counts for at least 100 Malays)!

What I think is that all this is due to the racist mentality in all Malaysians, inherent in them because of the way our country is built.

Racism is the reason why the percentage of Malay participants of Bersih 4 was so glaringly small, and racism is the reason why we also immediately picked up on that issue.

Firstly, we have a political system that consists of race-based parties. Our former colonial masters had succeeded in pitting us against each other then, and it has carried on till today.

We Malaysians have become so insecure and scared that our own race will be oppressed that we feel the constant need to make sure that we as separate groups needs to be protected in the government.

Like I said previously, an elected leader has the responsibility for all Malaysians regardless of race, religion, gender and whatever else.

Well, actually that is the root of the problem - a political system that is so inherently racist that it bleeds into other policies and institutions that we have in the country.

Now if you think I’m saying that the component parties in the ruling coalition (Barisan Nasional) are racist and we need to get rid of them, then you are dead wrong.

The Opposition is not any better when it comes to this issue either. No one can deny that DAP is perceived to be a Chinese party, Pas is a Malay one, and PKR is a well… a problematic one!