I agree, but I am not sure that UMNO politicians can accept your position. Their party is the lead member and captain of Barisan Nasional. I do not speak for them. Thanks.

“Brilliant”? Bro your clever Tun scrapped through with a 3rd class at the Bar Finals. So much for your standard of brilliance..

LJ

Well, here are my thoughts:
1) I agree that rural areas need to be developed. I have seen rural areas in US, Switzerland and UK. Such a difference! Whatever programs are developed make it inclusive. So if there is a comprehensive rural development program say to bring up rural areas at least all in rural areas will benefit.

2) Ask for input from all Malaysians and get all Malaysians involved so it doesn’t promote an us vs them mentality. Malay development programs now are developed exclusively by UMNO so much so that many Malays think that non-Malays are unwilling to help. But that’s not true.

Good Luck!

2)

in any organisation if there is certain amount of discrimination, will you join that organisation if you have a choice when you will be discriminated?In our civil service there is lots of discrimination.Look at all the snafus, cos they don’t get the right person regardless of race. Look at Singapore, the chinese are in the army etc. so are the indians and the malays. Yes there was an issue with the malay pilots. But there are significant indians there in the civil service as an example since the chinese are majority there. why was chinese and indians in the armed forces here etc in signifcant numbers before the 1980s? and there is a lot of lucrative deals in the army and police and some are below the table and some like it that way.

and look at urban Malays, are they joining the army in droves? Income has got a thing to do with it. air force, well you need skills to be a pilot and there you can be to biased on selection process

BTW you don’t need to die for you country just by being in the army. If a war does take place, rakyat has to play a role like they did in WWII or Darurat. Will the indonesians do it, especially if the opponent is Indonesia??

Back to subject, I do think Tun Razak is a great man and I’m glad we had him as a leader. Hope Najib is half the person his dad was.

It’s nice to know that you’re “kira orang kampunglah”! I didn’t have the opportunity to study in Clifford. After my primary, I was “sent” by my late father to continue my secondary in another part of Malaysia. But I’m very much a Benta boy myself!

Cycling from Kuala Lipis to Benta is no small feat. That’s about 25 miles? But those days, boys and girls did many weird things, unimaginable by the present generation. Clifford was such a great school before, producing many great people like Siti Norhaliza. Is it still today?

I like the ambience of the train station, especially at late afternoon. I hope the authority is doing a good job in taking care of such an interesting place.

Now whenever I make a visit to Kuala Lipis, I cant help saying to myself that the town and the surrounding kampungs have really progressed as compared to those days.

You are in Penang!! Do you still throw oranges near Gurney Drive or the Esplanade during Chap Goh Meh? During my time, young Chinese maidens were hoping to get good and rich hubbies and in exchange, they offered oranges. Not a bad deal. That was quite a traditional thing to do.

I remember being in the sea (in my swimming trunks, of course, as to do otherwise I would have been caught and hauled by our moral policemen), waiting to collect those oranges for resale and personal consumption. Those were the days of 1950s, the times of Pat Boone, Elvis Presley, Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra, Nat King Cole, Ricky Nelson, Johnny Mathis, and the great P. Ramlee, Jimmy Boyle, and Ahmad Daud. Doris Day, Patti Page and Lulu, too!!

I have nothing really extra to add to Dr. Bakri’s article on the late Tun Razak. Hence my silence. I admired the late Tun. He was one of the heroes of the time of my youth. Apart from Tun Dr. Mahathir, I think the late Tun Razak was a great Malaysian Prime Minister who tried hard to develop the Malays.

The late Tun also had a very progressive and enlightened Foreign Policy. He negotiated the end of the Indonesian Confrontation with Tun Adam Malik who was General Soeharto’s Foreign Minister, opened the Gates of China, and started our engagement with non-Aligned Third World Movement. He was one of the architects of ASEAN. Unfortunately, he died young and because of that, we will never know what his true legacy is. He is, however, being remembered as “Bapak Pembangunan” today, that is when we do not engage in selective amnesia.

The early years of Malaysian Independence (1960s) were difficult and trying times. The Tunku thought those times were “happy times”. But not Tun Razak and his trusted lieutenant, the tough and principled Tun Dr. Ismail, and their team of excellent Civil Servants. They had to deal with the Emergency, problems of integrating Singapore into new Federation while restructuring the economy (NEP), Sukarno’s Crush Malaysia campaign, and the consequences of America’s massive military intervention in Vietnam. The whole region was unstable since Communism was gaining ground. The Cold War was on with ferocious intensity.

At the risk of exaggeration, I would say that project Malaysia was at risk with simmering domestic racial tensions which eventually led to the May 13, 1969 riots. The late Tun Razak was our man of the moment, ever reliable, steadfast and reassuring.

Both the late Tun Razak and our former Prime Minister Tun Dr. Mahathir worked hard for the economic advancement and intellectual development of the Malays. They were decision makers, not procrastinators. Whose fault was it, if most Malays chose the easy route of relying on a paternalistic Big Brother for everything?

Times have changed, and we are now in the 2ist century. A paradigm shift in the way we approach Malay economic and intellectual development is badly needed. I, therefore, find the discussions on this webblog to be a means of identifying alternative approaches, although some of your comments are nothing but emotional outbursts (of therapeutic value perhaps?).

I have always maintained that the Malays need help, especially the rural Malays, but the question is how do we deliver that help in the most effective and beneficial way, one that strengthens and promotes Malay self-reliance rather one which weakens the Malays. As a conservative economist, I believe in incentive and performance based approaches, and active self-help by the Malay community itself with enabling Government policies and support.

Thanks.

I believe the Malays dont like the NEP either! For them, NEP will not exist if this country is not multi-racials! But that’s history! Going forward, all Malaysians should be more concerned on the implementation rather than questioning the spirit of the NEP itself, as envisioned by Tun Razak.

There’s some truth in what bintang said. Btw what’s your problem?

the truth is the chinese every where (not just in a country like malaysia with its racist policies etc) are known to look upon professions like the armed forces and the police with disdain.

the air force seems to be the exception - for obvious reasons. its members are well paid. it offers them an opportunity to make the transition to commercial pilots - yet another lucrative profession.