Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Tale Of Two Princes

Hantu Laut

In Malaysia the changing political landscape has brought, out of the wood works, an assortment of political wannabes.If Charles Dickens had his 'Tale Of Two Cities', we have our 'Tale Of Two Princes'

From ex-politicians,ex-prisoners to vengeful bloggers, happy gays,politico whores and lately crown princes, all dishing out samplings of their political thoughts, some with disastrous results.

Sometimes, you can see where good and bad genes will take you to.

The Perak Crown Prince Raja Nazrin in his keynote address at "Prospects and Challenges for Nation-building" conference in April 2007 said all Malaysians are equal under the law and stressed the importance of defending the integrity of the Federal Constitution.

“Malaysians of all races, religions, and geographic locations need to believe beyond a shadow of a doubt that they have a place under the Malaysian sun. Only when each citizen believes that he or she has a common home and is working towards a common destiny, will he or she make the sacrifices needed for the long haul.”- Raja Nazrin

This voice of moderation and reasonableness can only be appreciated by those who stand for equality and freedom.

The latest addition to the long list of political wannabes is the Kelantan Crown Prince who made a dreadful speech and a battle cry for the preservation of ketuanan Melayu and Malay rights and privileges.

Tengku Faris who apparently is still living in the past and share the same wavelength as those in UMNO said the recent elections results shows that the Malays are being challenged and non-Malays should not question Malay rights.

He said “Therefore, the rakyat must unite and never raise issues regarding Malay rights and special privileges because it is a quid pro quo in gratitude for the giving in of citizenship (beri-paksa kerakyatan) to 2.7 million non-Malays into the Tanah Melayu federation.Thus, it is not appropriate for these other ethnic groups to have citizenship, only (later) to seek equality and privileges,”

My goodness where have this guy been all these years.Didn't he know it was not only the non-Malays that wanted change, a big segment of educated and sensible Malays wanted similar change to escape from the corrupt and feudalistic UMNO regime.The ordinary Malays know ketuanan Melayu, the NEP and the Malay special rights (whatever it was)are the preserves of the top echelon in UMNO and their cronies.The Malays in the streets, if they are lucky, will only get the crumbs.

Should the prince adds insult to injury by reminding the non-Malays that they don't belong here in the first place and should be grateful that the Malays had benevolently given them citizenship.

As much as the Indians and Chinese were migrants,so were many Malays.Just take a good look at most of the leaders in UMNO, which one of them you can deservedly called true Malays.Those with ancestry from Indonesia would probably came closest to being called Malays.One that crosses my mind would be Khir Toyo, because of his Javanese ancestry.What about people like Mahathir,Abdullah Badawi,Syed Hamid Albar,Hishammudin Hussin Onn,Mohd Nor Yaakub and thousands if not millions like them in this country with mixed parentage.Mahathir is not even a Malay name, translated in Urdu or Hindi it would mean "Great Arrow". Badawi and Albar are Arabic names.

What about people like Raja Petra Kamaruddin,Karim Raslan,Kam Raslan,Diana Yusof,Maya Karin and the likes of them who by conventional definition would normally be categorised as Eurasians but would also be Malays by definitions in the Constitutions.Are they less privileged than the Malays.

At least Raja Petra didn't hide his true roots and had openly declared his mixed ancestry.Unfortunately, not all so-called Malays are proud of their mixed parentage and tried to hide it due to insecurity.Why should the Malays be more privileged than others?

The prince and the perpetrators in UMNO forgot that this is no more Tanah Melayu, this is now a nation called Malaysia.It is a federation of states, including Sabah and Sarawak and belong to Malaysian of every race, colour and creed.

If there is such thing as ketuanaan Melayu, what are the status of the people of Sabah and Sarawak, are they reduced to being colonies? The two states joined Malaysia as part of a sovereign nation and share the same status as any other state in the Peninsula.

The BN suffered badly at the polls due to the same reasons, ketuanaan Melayu,special rights and privileges for the Malay and discrimination and marginalisation of the other races.Harping on the same issues would drag UMNO deeper into the quagmire.

If Ghandi,Martin Luther King and Nelson Mendela didn't fight tooth and nail to bring changes to their people, do you think those in power would willingly give them the freedom ?

When the British gave independence to Malaya it was on conditions that the other races be made citizens and to be given equal rights as the Malays with the exceptions of certain protection accorded to the sultans and certain privileges for the Malays.When Sabah and Sarawak joined Malaysia the same conditions apply.Walloping a big slice of the economic cake for few individuals wasn't one of them.

Now, the smart prince is helping to rub salt into the wound.

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

HL,

Sometimes I wonder, is it all worth it? How can people be so stupid? But then again, with people like HRH Raja Nazrin around, there is hope!
God help us.

Anonymous said...

Sabah and Sarawak are never the same as Peninsula. The opinions of the Crown Prince of Kelantan is one matter, but the attempt to bring Sabah and Sarawak into the fold is pure evil.
People know what UMNO is up to. The juara kampung mentality does not work in the international stage. How long can they hide in their cave?
Do these perpetrators really think they can get away with what they had done?
Had they heard of crimes that were committed centuries ago?
People do not forget easily.
Although slightly out of context, please read: When States Prefer Non-Citizens Over Citizens: Conflict Over Illegal Immigration. into Malaysia. K. AMAL. S. ADIQ. University of California–Irvine

www.cri.uci.edu/pdf/ISQ2005FinalCopy.pdf

gram.kong said...

sm,
You probably noticed that more and more members of the royal families have come out making political related statements.

After what happened in Perlis and Trengganu they think they can now get involved in politics.

Not a healthy trend.

gram.kong said...

Supa,
The government should work towards Malaysians' Malaysia not segregation of the races.

TY said...

There are always good and bad apples in a cart. Some are worst - they are rotten oranges that disguised as apples. I would give the prince a benefit of doubt. Some people said that the speech he delivered was pre-prepared by a certain racist group. What he did was just read it. I was also told that in some occasions wrong speeches were used for wrong occasions. May be this particular speech was meant for Khairy for his come back speech, but was wrongly given to the prince. To me it was unlike his father the HRH Sultan of Kelantan. The HRH Sultan delivered a good speech at his birthday function.

Anonymous said...

emm.....

nothing wrong if the royal family started voicing out their opinion in public. But when it comes to touch race issues, then it turn out to be irritated to me. I think the Kelantan Prince is a product of UMNO education and mentality. Narrow-minded.

Why can he become more like Raja Nazrin. Such an intellectual opinion.

Anonymous said...

I jz wonder why there are kings like Raja Nazrin is so good but Tengku Faris is so bloody idiot....maybe he shld be assasinated to live with his ancestors in the past......and learn from TAR about independence issue that he even could not understand what he is talking cock licking UMNO balls about.....or maybe he should not born as a prince but a laymen......then he knows what it feels like giving such a comments.......Hope god will punish Tengku faris for his speech in front of UMNO like licking UMNO balls.....What a torture!!!!Ahyo ama!!!!!!!

Anonymous said...

Hantu Laut,

Malaysian Royalty has been on the sidelines for quite a while, enjoying privileges with no responsibilities. However, when the country is facing inevitable transformation, they are assuming their role of rulers and most of them properly - Agong, Sultan Selangor, Sultan Azlan and Raja Nazrin, Sultan Perlis, Sultan Kedah... However, this idiot who spoke some ridiculous rethoric in some ridiculous gathering DOES NOT at all represent Malaysia's rulers... In his state PAS is so dominant that he will be irrelevant even when (and if) he becomes the Sultan...

Anonymous said...

This Malay unity assembly is a common sight in this country. It was not the first one, nor will it be the last. Each time UMNO gets a trouncing from the people in a GE, there are many many scambags in the party who feel that the channels which enable them to line up their pockets is going to be taken away. The unity call is just a ruse to cover up thier fears of losing the channels. They feel threatened because they cannot stand on their own feet and have to live like parasites using UMNO as their means of existence. It is sheer paranoia to think that any other race in this world can and will want to threaten the existence the Malay race. Fortunately we still have many poeple like HRH Raja Nazrin in the Malay race who are able to stand tall and earn the respect of others.

Anonymous said...

The funny thing is that this prince maybe a nobody today if Kelantan was not 'given' by Siam to British.

When we achieve independence, everybody became Malayan ( later Malaysian) regardless their religion, creed, race or even keturunan. He should be grateful that he is still considered a royalty today who gets free monthly income from my income tax returns.

HRH Raja Nazrin deserves the 'daulat taunku". If this half blood prince reads blog and understand how general public feels about his speech, then there is still hope.:)

Vernon Kedit said...

"The two states joined Malaysia as part of a sovereign nation and share the same status as any other state in the Peninsula."

Sabah and Sarawak did not JOIN Malaysia because Malaysia DID NOT exist.

Sabah and Sarawak together with Malaya, FORMED Malaysia.

salmon said...

Ketuanan Melayu is translated as The Lord of the Malays. I don't think a Malay would like it too. It also sounds like we owe them rent. To me cut the crabs and lets live as Raja Nasrin put it.

gram.kong said...

Come on guys....All comments are appreciated but, please, refrain from using racial slurs and obscenities.
You can still convey the message by not using them.

I understand from Haris Ibrahim's blog that the prince didn't deliver the speech as reported.Apparently someone give the press a different prepared speech from the one he delivered.

It's difficult to confirm which is the correct report,Malaysiakini or Haris Ibrahim.