'ketuanan melayu' goes w/o saying even w/o dolah kok lanas or anyone else coining the term.
when the rulers nearly sign this away by way of the malayan union some of the more aware n assertive natives who hv grown weary of being 'nature's weaklings'* fight against it. the british does not force the issue n the malayan union aborted. that's ketuanan melayu in action n acknowledged, got nothing to do with the british sense of fair play or sportmanship.
*swettenham i think made a smug remark about our disposition, smthing about us being nature's gentlemen, he's being diplomatic, i think nature's weakling is more of what he had in mind, him looking at the ease the british imposed themselves here.
the british in their 'sun going to set on the british empire' wisdom know that every dog has its day n they had theirs. its around the time when tuan from far flung places of natives land everywhere r being bundled out n the scene in some cases can b pretty ugly.
they hv lost their sahib title in india primarily due to a weakling of a man, gandhi. their partner in crime the dutch r bundled out gutted wth 'buluh runcing', its been their good fortune that when they divvy up the nusantara spoils with the dutch they choose malaya n north borneo.
they seen that there's a lot of buluh here n how these seemingly docile, nature's weaklings can suddenly go into a murderous frenzy the like of which nothing in the english language can describe, that they adopt the word 'amok'. having their days numbered, baggages to lose - the immigrants, biz interest to protect, they r not going to tempt their fate n make a mess of things. they rather use the time to set the stage for a peaceful, respectable exit.
malayan union was their plan A, their preferred option for exit, the plan had no consideration for the malays whose land n resources they hv plundered. success of the plan rely primarily on their investments in mckk, the eaton of the east, primary objective of which was to whip offsprings of rulers n selected natives into shape, in their mould - an educated, fit n proper gentlemen, set in the british ways n sympathetic to the british cause. brilliant! these r the lot that will b future rulers n those who they will recruit n finally will make up the top echelon of the malayan civil service (mcs). that the natives received a first class education is secondary n a collateral benefit. oo ya..! they know what they r doing, they nearly succeeded, the old boys rulers nearly sign our birth right away.
having aborted plan A, the british go for plan B. now that they have to consider the malays which earlier had slipped their mind, they r not going to talk to any buluh runcing inclined party such as the KMM (kesatuan melayu muda), etc, thus set the stage for, formation of perikatan, merdeka negotiations, the constitution n merdeka, i.e. the birth of malaysia. ketuanan melayu is implicit to the spirit of this birth in the unwritten 'social contract' n explicitly expressed in the constitution in the clauses related to the special rights n priviledges of the malays, thus merdeka becomes a reality. exclusion of these expressions of ketuanan melayu is the failure of malayan union.
a ketuanan melayu that was previously a given, goes without saying, vague, that doesn't do much good to the malays anyway, w/o any clear articulation of what it entails, probably bcoz there's no issue of competing with immigrants with the sophistication accorded by 10,000 yrs of recorded history between them, now hv become a 'constitutional ketuanan melayu' via relevant clauses in the constitution n further elaborated in terms of the discretionary power the malay leaders hv to implement suitable affirmative action policies to improve the malay lot to b on par with the immigrants while at the same time fair to the immigrants, in the social contract. it is a dynamic ketuanan melayu that strives to b a good balance between the extremes of a 'feudal ketuanan melayu' n a malayan union without ketuanan melayu.
ketuanan melayu is a sensitive issue. it is an issue that is rooted deep in the malay psyche (jatidiri). that the seemingly docile malays get together to stand up against the british n malayan union is a testament to this sentiment. in the current volatile political climate, those who make 'ketuanan melayu' an issue will b making it at everyone's risk, as such must be stopped.
in the yrs after merdeka when our first generation of leaders probably due to inertia having been set in the british way, grown elitist and detached, paid scan attention to improving the malay lot, got beaten badly in the general election. it just takes someone from the opposition gloating at their success to utter smthing that remotely touch the ketuanan melayu, like.. melayu balik kampong tanam kacang.. to start the festivities of may 69.
may 69 hangover gone, affirmative action policies such as DEB n institutions to get the malays up to speed were immediately set up, british clone type leaders gone, things were honky dory for a while, the country helm by able even a world class leaders, that run rings round currency speculators ears n taught the world a thing or two about economics. it was not before long incompetent, greedy leaders makes an appearance, making the country their private fiefdom, outsourcing running the country to kin n friends still wet behind the ears, plundering the treasury at will abusing affirmative action policies to enrich their families n coterie of hangers-on, leaving the rakyat peanuts, similarly they grown elitist n detach n they too got beaten badly in the last general election.
lets be clear what is at issue is in the implementation of the social contract - as to the extend of affirmative action needed n the abuses in executing affirmative action policies, not the social contract itself, n definitely not ketuanan melayu.
to contending malays on the other side of the political divide, who hv scores to settle with the current custodian of the ketuanan melayu, the bn, for all its excesses n abuses, like most of us rakyat do, they got a good walloping in the general election didn't they? or rather, god forbid for being left out of their fair share of the excesses and abuses. lets be clear of the issues, don't cheapen the ketuanan, don't burn the mosquito net bcoz u r angry with the mosquito.
to the chua soi leks of the world u r playing with fire!
it seems like de ja vu, the bn/perikatan got beaten, ppl questioning the social contract n ketuanan melayu, dr m out of umno calling for reigning pm to step down, the only thing that hvnt happen is the festivities itself. send chills up the spine..
n in the current edition.., hindraf, 'ketuanan india'?? what gives? may 89 festival anyonne?
we r living in dangerous time folks.. lets everyone sober up!
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