上个周末，因为要赶硕士论文，我选择性的出席花踪国际文艺营的一些讲座。
在姚拓自传《雪泥鸿爪》的推介礼过后，我们迎来了文艺营的第一场讲座－－中文报副刊与中文文学推广的紧密关联。
其中最让我感兴趣的是新加坡《联合早报》执行编辑兼副刊主任潘正镭的演讲内容。潘正镭并没有直接陈述中文报副刊如何带动新马文学的发展，反而是以咀嚼回忆的口吻，道出了在80年代初期冷战未过、中国民间文革惨痛经验依旧浓烈、台湾的党禁和报禁还未解严的年代，一份处于中华文化边缘地带的华文报，在地域、政治和意识形态的重重阻隔下，集结了17位来自中国两岸三地、新加坡、马来西亚、菲律宾、韩国以及欧美等地的中文作家。
1983年1月13日至1月19日，新加坡《星洲日报》与人民协会、写作人协会以及新加坡文艺研究会，联合主办了第一届国际华文文艺营，在那个中国刚刚试行改革开放、台湾文人学者依旧生活在戒严管制的恐惧当中、两岸离92共识对话窗口仍旧遥不可期的年代，把台湾海峡两岸三地被政治割裂的文人学者，串联在一起。
潘正镭回忆道，台湾作家洛夫在机场接受记者访问时，一开口就不断的强调他们此行只谈文化，不谈政治。当时两岸文人心中对政治的顾忌，可见一斑。
潘正镭表示，两岸文人在离别之际，仍不敢敞开胸怀直抒心中的不舍。感性的诗人含蓄的凭诗寄语对岸的文友们好好珍重。当主讲人提到郑愁予也写了一首诗赠予海峡另一端的文友时，我的精神为之一振！那是写《错误》的著名台湾早慧诗人。
潘正镭也展示了一张未曾公开，台湾作家三毛与一名年迈中国作家在国际文艺营结束后，即将离别时不舍拥抱的合照。在潘正镭的要求下，身旁的另一位主讲人起身将经过加大影印的黑白照片向左右来回展示。
那是一个时代的一个经典缩影，化做无数的烙印，坎在历经过悲情世代的人心。那是一个文学超越政治的年代，那是一个中文报超载政治的年代。 Category: 小品文（Familiar Essay）; 媒体(Media) ; 政治(Politic)
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It is true that there have been abuses under the name of malay special rights and it is the duty of the malays in particular, and all Malaysians in general, to stop it so that the rightful malays get their rights, and the non-malays get their rights as citizens of this country.
Ninety-six percent of the education budget was spent on national schools while the Chinese and Indians only got 2.44 percent and 1.56 percent respectively. But how much of that 96 percent was taken up by the elites?
Less than three percent of the national budget is spent on the maintenance of all the Chinese new villages in the country from which more than two million people's taxes come from. Indian settlements got even less.
The non-malays know for certain how their contributions are being employed to bail out elite cronies. The amount used to bail out Renong was sufficient to cover the cardiac by-pass operations of more than one million patients (the country only operates on less than 3000 cases a year).
To say that the second-class non-malays are richer than the first-class malays is utter rubbish.
These special privileges and rights were once a necessity for them to move forward. Today, after many decades, they find themselves still standing in the same place.
I will be leaving this country within the next one year.
If you must know, currently I am earning a five figure salary, living in a luxury condo in the heart of KL, own another landed property in Bangsar and have two kids who are three and five respectively. I also have a maid, who for a mere RM400 a month, helps my wife to look after the home and kids.
Yes, I will be migrating to the land of the white-man soon. And guess what, I don't even have a job to go to yet in this white-man's land. But you know something? It doesn't matter to me as I know that with my skills, I can get a job there if I look in the right places.
They do not ask me if I am Muslim or a bumiputera before giving me a job. All they look at is my CV which speaks for itself. And I don't need to be connected to a 'Dato'.
I wouldn't even mind taking up a lower level job as long as I can look after my family and at the same time give my kids the option of a better and fairer future. There is no guarantee that my kids will become doctors or scientists. But merely knowing that they have a fair option is more then enough for my family to decide to take this giant step to uproot.
My lifestyle in this white-man's land will definitely be different. But just as I had strived for 10 years in Malaysia to create my wealth from nothing at all, what is there to stop me from doing it all over again? In fact with the same effort, I should be much better off.
To put it bluntly, I am prepared to take the risk of emigration at the age of 38 with my family 'on tow'. The question arises - why should a person in my capacity want to leave when I have all that a person can wish for?
should stop looking with malice at people like me who make a choice to migrate for the betterment of our family's future. He might want to do a proper study on how much Malaysia stands to lose from skilled people leaving this country simply because they have had enough of it.
Please crawl out of your tempurung and look around at the amount of money that is being wasted in this country to make the well-connected bumis rich. They have nothing to complain about as the government is prepared to give you anything even when in many cases you might not deserve it.
If you want to talk about fairness, then look at the titles that have been given to bumis who had not done much at all. The round-the-world sailor who had to be assisted by the Royal Malaysian Air Force with an expenditure of about a million ringgit and the swimmer whose feat is not accredited by organisations monitoring English Channel crossings.
What about the first Malaysians to make it up Mount Everest, where are their 'Dato' titles? Perhaps a title for the medical student who recently crossed the English channel in almost half the time of the former 'hero'?
I know of bumi students in Universiti Malaya. I know them well. You see, I didn't get the chance to do a proper science course locally and had to struggle to fund my overseas education by begging and borrowing.
You might also want to find out the real reason why the 128 students were not given medical seats in local universities even though they had very high scores. Are you saying that these students are inferior to the matriculation students?
Do you know the pains of studying in order to score excellent results in the STPM? Please, feel free to furnish me facts so that poor souls like me would be convinced that the policies of this country are just and fair.
If you have ever heard of the simple saying, "Give a man a fish, he eats for a day, teach him how to fish and he eats for a lifetime," you will realise that many non-bumis have learned how to fish but the government is still handing out fishes to the bumis. One day the fish will run out.
Better in making a fool of ourselves to the world - water talk, Proton car etc.
Better in illegal stuffs - pirated VCDs, DVDs.
We brag about Twin towers - (serves as a white elephant) - tendency rate is so low - it's losing $$$$$……….
Don't fool ourselves - go check on the Internet and see what other countries perceive us……..
Yes, nationalism and irrational pride have fool most people in Malaysia.
Petronas operations in exploiting the national treasure (oil and gas) are essentially run wholly by the highly paid experts.
My expert friend in Petronas told me that he does most of the works (analyze, study, writing reports and recommendations) and the local national managers take the credit. He has no quarrel with that as long as he get his good salary. (A typical Malaysian engineer earns RM5000 a month while he earns RM50000 a month.)
Petronas is producing 700000 barrels of oil per day (excluding natural gas). Assuming US$40 a barrel and a conversion rate of 1US$ = RM3.88 - the revenue per day is RM107100000…………I wonder where the money goes……
Proton car in the eyes of the experts is an imitators and the quality does not come close to that of Toyota, Honda, Ford etc.
The university is accepting unqualified students of a certain race and churn out graduates of useless academic degrees, the private sector is well aware of what these graduates skill sets and not hiring them.
If we don't recognize our shortcomings and start amending……….we will always be stagnant……….
Certainly, it is my belief that if I do not take my family out of this country, I will continue to subject my child, and her children after her, to the continuing injustice of this contract. I often thought the new administration under our new prime minister presents new hopes for fairer treatment.
Alas, just as the previous PM was an exciting breath of fresh air some 22 years ago but proved so putrid much later on, I feel I cannot subject my child and her children after her, to the same risk. That risk being that this PM too, may abandon fresh hopes for justice in exchange for immediate gains to himself, his family, his supporters and his race.
I had the chance of a quick brush with a young man, who represents the future of the ruling party.
He was trying to explain what went wrong in respect of the many who could not be given places to study medicine in local universities, despite scoring top marks. He thought it had something to do with the fact that the assessment procedures were totally academic, and as academic capabilities of students reached a plateau where many scored top marks, another dimension needed to be introduced, to further differentiate these talents.
This was necessary as there were simply not enough places for medicine in local universities as more and more scored top marks. I kept very quiet as he did his quick discourse.
I thought it was painfully obvious the shortage of places came about principally because there was a backdoor through which many entered and took up seats. While many more scored top marks in STPM than before, many continue to gain entry without having to.
If a bright, very well-educated, articulate young man espoused thoughts which totally ignored the fundamental injustice of our system, what future does our country hold?
If this is future prime minister material, then I really feel people like noneedname and I are doing the right thing by taking our children out.
Bright people may not be just people. No matter how bright and well-educated our future leaders are, if they choose to continue to hold on to an obviously unjust system, we cannot subject our children's future to these leaders.
My father did not have the opportunity to leave. I now have to pay the price of starting anew - abandoning a secured and well-paid job - so that my child escapes the injustice.
Am I enjoying life here in KL? You bet. Like noneedname, my wife and I draw incomes for lifestyles too painful to sacrifice.
Yet, if we choose to be concerned only with our own job security and comfortable lifestyles, our child may one day be faced with the decision I now face.
What if she does not have the same opportunity to leave for another country? I feel I must leave now, while the window remains open.
Talking about mega buildings for mega people, I wonder why the government has not given serious consideration to the needs of lower to middle income groups for better public transportation infrastructure.
I have been a regular to KLCC, KLIA and Puduraya. It is sad to note the vast difference in facilities offered.
Just because Puduraya has not been an international entry to tourists does not mean that (the bus terminal) should be neglected. As a rule of thumb, an aggregate number of people flocking Puduraya every year is as significant as KLIA. But do we care?
Since Puduraya is the entry point of people from the kampung and small towns in Malaysia, it does not mean that they do not deserve to have a conducive environment upon arrival and during departure.
Are these people going to be neglected forever? Don't they deserve something better? Do we roll out the red carpet for foreigners and give Malaysians from the kampung a muddy welcome?
We have a public transport in Kuala Lumpur that equals any other third world country. Filthy buses, high costs, inefficiency and non-connecting bus to train services. The water in Kuala Lumpur was once potable out of the taps, today the colour looks like it came straight out of the Klang river.
Proton has burdened the nation and the country. The reason why Proton has survived until today is perhaps because of the New Economic Policy. Attempting to pick winners from the malay entrepreneur pool is truly the work of a feudalistic Umno which has every reason to protect the upper-class malays.
Entrepreneurs are not picked at random, they are self-made. And if politicians think that they possess the same skills as businessmen, then they should be in business, not in politics.
Former prime minister Dr Mahathir believes that Malaysians should be proud that their country could build their own car. But what is there to be proud about if it cannot compete on the world market?
Dr Mahathir also wondered how the Koreans were able to build cheap cars which had quality. It is because they have the determination and the will to succeed. They want to make their nation proud.
In a feudalistic society nothing is fair. When nothing is fair, the environment will not be conducive for the talented and the hardworking to produce results.
In the end, it is the ones who are closest to power - not necessarily the most qualified - who will be chosen to lead such complex organisations such a car-manufacturing outfit.
If politics were left out of decision-making when tenders are called and contracts awarded, I think the citizens will have better services and facilities. One day perhaps, when government is there to govern and not play politics, we shall see a reversal of all the injustices that goes on today.
If you take this fact into consideration, then you might come to the conclusion that the malays do not have a right to whatever they have claimed to be theirs "because of their original right".
They are not the original people, so the deserving people to receive the special privileges are the natives, including the natives from Sabah and Sarawak. It is a joke that these real people of the land have to apply for their 'bumis' rights whereas malays are born into it.
If you take this fact into account, it will change the history of Malaysia. For instance, Islam should no longer be considered the official religion because the malays are not the original people.
The only way to develop a great nation is one that's based on merits. Any other way is degrading and disappointing to the people involved. Until Malaysia is able to solve this problem, we will continue to suffer from brain drain, which in my opinion is definitely the deserving result. If your country cannot protect and nurture you, why should you slog and slave after your country?
I am Malaysian, still work and live in Malaysia. I however, am self-employed and my personal stance is that I will not work for the government nor offer my knowledge to the government. I work with children in the private sector.
The day our politics mature is the day when:
1. We scrap away political parties based on races and racial interest. In its place, we have parties and manifestos that outline what they will do for the people based on good conduct and good achievements.
2. We do away with forms which require us to fill "Chinese", "Indian", "Malay", or "others". Instead we will fill in forms stating that we are Malaysians.
We cannot blame the malay politicians for everything. (I respect our current prime minister and I believe that he can bring the nation a step forward.) It is well acknowledged that the Chinese are great businessmen and the one thing that malays excel in is politics. Which explains why the Chinese are financially rich but poor in human rights. The Chinese (and the other Malaysian races) did not fight for their rights. They spend their lives and energy gathering earthly possessions.
The malays, on the other hand, while not financially superior, have done all they could to secure their rights and for what they believed in. One has to praise and applaud the malays for that. And so while in the pass, the malays started out as poor, they are now prospering.
What is important now is to educate them that these rights are not forever and after sometime, they will have to stop depending on the government for aid and help. And they will have to fight on equal ground as everyone, or they will never have the respect of people of the world.
My suggestion is that the malay rights be withdrawn at Malaysia's 50th Merdeka celebration. The nation has given the malays 50 years to catch up and be on equal ground as the rest of the races. It equals to 2 generations of 25 year olds and in my opinion, is more than sufficient time for anyone to learn grow strong.
I would like to point out that the Americans took less than 20 years (if I am not mistaken) to develop technology to take the human race to the moon. They went to the moon in less than 20 years, starting from scratch.
50 years of malay rights and quota is more than sufficient.
From that point, the right is no longer a right. It will be history. In its place, we will have a system that awards intelligence, hard work and good work. We will help the poor and award scholarships to children of all races, who deserve it because they worked hard and strived hard.
That is the only way Malaysia can grow. To continue to keep the companies, products, students and nation in a cocoon nest of comfort and false security will be fatal for Malaysia in the long run.
Malaysia has so much to offer in diversity of the land, people and resources. Maybe it is time for us to jump out of the nest and learn to fly.
In other words, Malaysians have to be reminded that if they grow up under too many education systems within the national education policy, they shall end up being further polarised among ourselves.
No matter what the government does to bring about national unity in the country, it would only remain superficial and be a mere lip service if our children are still made to feel that they are being alienated by race, religion or origin.
Unfortunately, not many entrusted to ensure an impartial education policy to all Malaysians realise this fact. Some are too zealous and nationalistic in feelings that they only feel for their own kind and that only their group of people should be made to progress better in life at the expense of all other Malaysians.
As a result of this divisiveness in our education system, a case in point that has again cropped up is the university entrance debacle. Firstly, students are made to go through two examinations - matriculation and the STPM - in order to seek entrance into local universities.
Secondly, these two university entrance programmes are unequal in terms of duration and the level of difficulty. In other words, there cannot be genuine meritocracy if two benchmarks are used to gauge students' performance - no matter what explanations and reasons the authorities come up with to justify their claims that there is meritocracy in the system.
Hence, this has caused a lot of dissatisfaction among students and parents. Some feel that they are discriminated against just because they do not belong to a certain privileged class of people.
In the long run, therefore, how are these students going to feel about themselves in relation to the others who are more privileged within the nation? There is bound to be perpetual disunity in society.
All students have to go through the same entrance examination and all should have access to any of the institutions found in the country irrespective of race, religion or origin.
Thus, the education system we are practising now, in many aspects has failed to make the people feel that they are all Malaysians - aggravating further the process of national unity……...