MALAYSIAKINI AND THE CHINESE BLOGGERS AND ALSO NEWSPAPER COLUMNISTS – AND THE FUTURE OF THE CHINESE AND INDIANS IN MALAYSIA…

By Mansor Puteh

It is ironic how they have managed to distract the Chinese and also Indians to look elsewhere while their communities continue to shrink, with the few Melayu ‘liberals’ acting as decoys to further lull them.

I will be surprised if this article is published in Malaysiakini, a portal which has never been a subject of any study, on what they are and mean to some.

There is no need for one to take a closer look at Malaysiakini to realize that it is an internet portal which actively and aggressively tries to promote views and news of a certain kind; and they are not just the off-beat types, but mostly the crass anti-establishment types although this may not be exactly what they want to admit or want the public to perceive.

This can and has caused many Chinese to be displaced and distracted from the everyday problems their community now faces; they who feel triumph at the space they have been offered in the columns and other spaces in the portal especially in the ‘letters’ section which is full of diatribes of the predictable types one could imagine.

Most, if not all of the Chinese and Indians who write are those with vernacular backgrounds; because their brethren who studied in the ‘sekolah kebangsaan’ are mostly those who are in tune with the situation they are in and who do not care for petty sentiments that distract those with vernacular backrounds.

They will regret it when it comes to the point when Chinese businesses in Kuala Lumpur and in the other major cities and towns have been taken over by the Melayu, while they are busy looking elsewhere at the power of their words.

I drove around out of Kuala Lumpur and noticed the encroachment of those areas which were once Chinese-dominated, but which are now not so; they which are now Melayu-dominated.

Even in Kuala Lumpur one can see it happening. Just drive from Zoo Negara to Dataran Merdeka passing through Setapak along Jalan Tuanku Abdul Rahman and one can see most of the shop lots along both sides of the roads are Melayu-owned or operated.

The Chow Kit was a Chinese-majority one; but today it is not anymore, with the Chinese being displaced.

The economic growth of the country is such that the Chinese are allowed or forced to congregate to the urban areas leaving the rural areas so that these rural areas could be overtaken by the Melayu again, like what it was before.

This can translate into the lesser number of parliamentary or state assembly areas with Chinese-majority in the near future, so in the end there will be infighting amongst the Chinese on who best to represent them for the few seats that they can share amongst themselves.

There won’t be any area with an Indian majority in a few years’ time.

Even Pulau Pinang is now a Melayu-majority state since 2010. So what moral standing does the Chinese-dominated parties such as DAP and MCA or Gerakan have to rule it?

The future of the Chinese in Pulau Pinang is indeed bleak.

Parti KeAdilan Rakyat (PKR), too, is a ploy to distract the Chinese and also Indians; because they are basically a Melayu party with non-Melayu members. And their Melayu leaders are also good actors as much as those in PAS.

And if the situation becomes worse, the problem could affect the stature of the vernacular Mandarin schools themselves.

Only a strong Chinese hold of the economy with a parallel economic system in the country can determine the continuance of such schools.

But when the situation changed to become Melayu-dominated, than what use is there for anyone to have vernacular Mandarin education?

Even now many Chinese with Mandarin education are finding themselves out of place in Malaysia, especially those who drop out of primary or early secondary schools, so that they are not able to find employment both in the private and public sectors.

They are forced to enter small trading business and to open stalls selling telecommunication equipment and gadgets mostly to the charitable Melayu mixing with the Melayu and depending on the Melayu more through the rest of their lives.

And it is no wonder how most, if not all of the illegal trading and activities in Malaysia are operated by the Chinese who have Mandarin school backgrounds.

Some Indians seem to think that they could get a ride on Malaysiakini and in the process create a semblance of acceptance for themselves in the running of the country – or to be exact, on the running down of the country, which mostly means to run down a Melayu-majority government.

And the fact that most of the Melayu do not care about this portal proves that it caters to a certain type of Malaysians, mostly Chinese and other Melayu who seem to sympathize with them and their plight.

The truth is Melayu-sympathizers may not get much space in Malaysiakini which is only devoting its space to those few Melayu who have a cause to side with the Chinese and Indians, in order to be heard.

These Melayu claim to be moderates, when they are no extremists than the other Melayu whom they charge to be so.

And the Chinese and Indian and other columnists, claim to sound to be victims of the system, when the Chinese especially are the ones who have benefited much more from it than the Melayu, who only have the Rulers and Constitution backing; for without which they would have been economically and politically marginalized even more.

The plight of the Chinese in Malaysia is one of despair, at being away from Mainland China.

The Chinese, who mostly suffer from a memory lapse and who have not shown any gratitude for having been saved by the charitable Melayu when their ancestors who first landed on the shore of Tanah Melayu who were given a place to stay and food to eat.

If the Melayu had wanted to be cruel, they would not have patronized their sundry shops and forced them to continue to become night-soil careers, because without the patronage and support from the Melayu majority, the Chinese small businesses and trading could not have grown to such an extent that they are able to dominate the economy of the country.

Even now the Melayu can be rude and crude to the Chinese.

But the Melayu are not about to wait for the Chinese to thank them, so they have started to retaliate by slowly distancing themselves from Chinese establishments so much so that there are now many Chinese stores and other shops which have closed down.

It won’t be long before Low Yat Plaza which has a majority Melayu support for the businesses they have in this premises, will go bankrupt.

And for the Indians, it is the despair at being too far away from Mother India.

The irony is that the more the television stations and print media over-publish stories, news and over-broadcast programs from Hong Kong, Taiwan and China, the more they are repelled by it, simply because they are being confronted with issues which they could not grapple with.

It is more ironic how this has been happening right before their very eyes, yet, no Chinese opinion or political leader and educationist had found out the ploy to make the Chinese and also Indians in Malaysia feel bored with China, Taiwan and Hong Kong and also India, by the overplay of those television programs and news from these countries.

So who are Malaysiakini and the Chinese bloggers really serving anyway? Do they know?