Anwar’s Ketuanan Melayu - Not all Malays are equal

Murray Hunter : Ketuanan Melayu or Malay supremacy has been an unwritten component of government policy for the last 50 years. Many had hoped that Ketuanan Melayu would be pronounced ‘dead and buried’, when Anwar Ibrahim became prime minister.

Anwar’s cry over the years was Ketuanan Malaysian. However, his launching of Malaysia Madani indicated otherwise. The semantics of Madani sounded good – sustainability, prosperity, innovation, respect, trust, and compassion – but the actions have resembled a continuance of Ketaunan Melayu, hidden behind the Madani branding.

With the reintroduction of the 1970s vintage 3Rs (Race, Royalty, and Religion), any effective discussion about Ketuanan Melayu has been suppressed. Mainstream portals are now reluctant to carry OpEds on the subject, and any blogger who does could be blocked by the MCMC.

Twelve months down the track, non-Malays are experiencing a sense of disenfranchisement they haven’t felt for years. This was symbolised by Anwar’s answer to a student who asked him about the quota system in education. The prime minister personally made her feel she had encroached upon taboo, citing the long forgotten ‘social contract’, another term from the seventies.

Enhancing Malay-centric government

Anwar has reaffirmed the 1.7 million people civil service doesn’t need any reform, even when it is bloated and inefficient. There are no moves to widen the ethnic diversity of the civil service inline with ethnic demographics that exist in Malaysia today.

RM 1.9 billion has been allocated to the Islamic Development Department of Malaysia (JAKIM) and its responsibilities widened to include responsibilities for policing censorship on the web, and playing a role in economic planning. This has ensured a ‘Malay-centric’ mindset is further embedded into the civil service and government.

Apathy towards non-Malays

Read it all here...