Sunday, March 27, 2005
winds of change

Why isit hard to argue on the topic of uni quotas, which Aduh, has totally disagree with me! Frankly, i think your point is rather vague and it doesnt potray a sense of competitveness in yourself. You explicitly states that realistically the quotas would definitely prove to be a gift to the Malays considering the fact that the Malay occupants in other institutions like ITE and Polytechnics have increased and flourished over this past years. Thus, your simplistic conclusion boils down on the idea of a lesser number of Malays in Jcs whose places in local Unis are rather specially reserved because we dont have to compete with the Chinese to get into the local Unis, but instead, itz a competition amongst the Malays which will eventually filled up the places in the reserved uni quotas.

In any case, when there's competition and based on the grounds of supply and demand, in this case local unis, you should verily aware that there is only 3 Unis which is well-recognised, sterotyped as the elite instituions in this island. Almost every JC student begged to have a place in there, which simply sums up their decision to take the route of the JC education. Its impossible for NUS, NTU and SMU to house each every A level candidate, the 10% from polytechnics and the others who would love to further their studies in this 3 well established Unis. THe point here im making is that the government needs to strike a balance in this plural society of Singapore which inevitably led to the creation of quotas. Like housing under the management of HDB, there are quotas set for a flat. For instance, it is prohibited for a flat to house all chinese or all Malays in its parameters. Tatz racist i gez! We need to set limits in a country where plural society have existed even before the arrival of Raffles on the shores of our island.

An intirguing assesment of Singapore's history would reveal verily that the Malays had once enjoyed free education till University. It was certainly welcoming for the Malay society at that point in time. Yet, considering the fact that even though this cluster group of people enjoyed certain privilages and itz language was made National besides having a Malay national anthem and a Malay Head Of State( Yussof Ishak), such privelages come at an expense. For instance, the Malays had to shift from their conventional kampong houses to a rather filthy and gross newly bulit HDB flats. The point is this. Im not trying to undermine the efforts taken by the government to rebulid Singapore starting from scratch, but it seems a near impossible task for the Malays to keep and preserve their heritage, culture and tradition. THe usual bonds created in kampong houses or villages are nearly destroyed as a result. The lifestyle of the Malays are drastically redefined, which the goverment unfairly overlooked! I dont want to drift myself too far, bt the point im making here is that the free university education are dropped and its implications are horrendous to the Malay society. Frankly, i view such policies was to keep the number of Malays in local unis as low as possible.

I think i shall create a conspiracy theory here. The Chinese are in fact intimidated, jealous of the Malays that have been filling up places in the Unis. What if the Malay undergraduates from NUS were to be more succesful than their own race, controlling their bussiness, politics and economics! Because everyone believes the notion of knoweledge is power and power is something u need in this competitive world. Its not actually the power to rule, but instead the power to control and to overlook matters and have every right to make the final decison when passing laws, creating policies. (well this is politics). Filthy army man assumed that power is measured through ranks. That is absoulutely snobbish, desperate and obnoxious! It is important to note that one that studies in a Malay school in post war period only diminished his/her chances to get a job considering the fact that the economic language by this point in time had shifted from Malay to English as a result of a drastic transformation of the mechanisms of economics in Singapore, from butter trade to heavy intensive industries! Hence, unlike Chinese schools, Malay schools are gradually closed down as more and more Malays had to register their child to English schools in a hope of a prosperous future! This is the hidden agenda by our government, in the sense that they took calculated acts to oboselete the Malays in every aspect of their lives.

Viewed from purely military perspective, the first few intakes of NS men were made up of Chinese, Indians and other miniorities in its entirety. The absence of Malays was an eye oponer to the educated class of the Malays. It occured to them that it would be a great disadvantage if Malays were militarily handicapped, and would look upon as the weaker race in Singapore as they were incapable of protecting Singapore.Moreover, the law that had been passed assumed that any 18-year old able-bodied man have to go through NS. Yet, when no Malays were seen in training fields, doubs and questions were raised. This simply sums up why some of our fathers did not have to go through the rigours and training of NS. It was only when Mansor Sukaimi, a great personal ive met a few times, fought against the government which forces them to shift to new policies. By this time, some Malays were handpicked to go through NS and gradually almost all of the Malays had to go through NS. The point is to further justify the fear and intimidation by the Chinese to prevent Singapore being ruled and controlled by the Malays. Yet, this point is paradox in fact. hahahaz..i dont want to go to tekong menjerit. Why must the policy change! sheesh! Bukannya ada civilisation kat sana! Moreover, to justify my point further, whilst Malays are recruited in the NS only after a few years after its launch, the top notch military sections such as commnados and airforce are almost being monopolised by "them" and "them" alone. So, whilst the "others' enjoyed top military training and nuturing, the Malays were miserably occupying the bottom half, the discriminated side of the army hierachy!

To HUda, im sorry i have to digress myself to such extensive lengths. The uni quotas in fact was juz one of the few hidden discrimination aspects the Malays have to face. Yet, i dont want you to take for granted the fact that since the Malays are reserved this number of places in Unis, we thus have to compete amongst ourselves and not with other group of people. Fact is, i have always been competing with the top 5 JCs since they are the ones that set the standards, the bench markers in other words. In this way, you might just realise that we are juz a tiny fish in a huge ocean. Although my results is by far not the best, i really hope that you will do much better than me. Its not impossible, you just have to believe. =)





To gloria arroyo please claim tekong as part of your borneo territory.
To Yudhyono, please claim tekong as part of your lost "Mollucas" island
To Pak Lah, please claim tekong as part your old temenggong Johore-Riau Empire.

Please do sthg! fight tekong at the Hague and seize all military operations at once!