The Feisty Minority

Why Malays Mustn’t Cry Racism.

The topic of skin discrimination has reared its hideous face once again in Singapore. Like a whack-a-mole machine at the amusement arcade, talks of racism can never seem to disappear totally – even after 30 years of pounding away to achieve national harmony.

This time it started when I.T. firm Frontline Technologies took out job ads with a local recruitment website some weeks back. The ad came with a grotesque reminder that “non-Indians” are preferred for the post. The fiasco sparked off pockets of angry commentaries in the local press, some of which have spun off into even deeper accounts of racism experienced by other minorities. Inadvertently, some of these accounts have crept their way onto our local blogs and Internet forums.

But what amuses me is the fact that the one minority that seems to be more affected than the Indians themselves are the Malays. Not long after the spate of racist stories, several blogs and Internet forums are seen peppered with complaints and stories by our Malay workers about how they’ve been “shunned” by companies at job interviews, recruitment fairs and during their actual job itself. Many claim that they cannot advance further within their respective companies because of their “skin color”. On the ewadah.com forum, one particularly unhappy worker was lamenting the fact that it’s really pointless for Malays to upgrade themselves when companies only seem to promote “Mandarin-speaking” workers and that the nation itself is advocating speak Mandarin campaigns year after year.

If the Internet is a true measure of ground sentiments away from our sanitized press, then there is a whole bunch of unhappy Malay workers out there whose voices are yet to be heard. And most of these voices are crying “racism”.

My word to fellow Malays of the country is to stop whining about racial discrimination – even if it really does exist. Accusations of racism are not only dangerous in the context of a multi-racial society like ours, but more importantly it’s frivolous. In fact, I’m beginning to think it’s rather wimpy.

The fact of the matter is this - over the course of mankind’s existence, there has always been groups of people faced with some form of discrimination or the other. It’s something that no civilization can ever escape from. Not even we, whose existence have been bolstered by the utopian dreams of a multi-racial society that is Singapore. No point denying that shimmers of these discriminations may just exist in this peaceful island we call home.

But what is more important to note is that oppressed minority groups over the course of history have done either one of two things when they are faced with racism. They either whine, or they shine. To which group do we Malays want to align ourselves to?

Good examples of a minority group that shine instead of whine are the Jews all over the world. From the Ottoman Turks in Arabia to Nazi Germany who ruled much of Europe in the 1940s, Jews are minorities who have faced every possible form of discrimination known to mankind – some even became the cause of their deaths. Till today, wisps of hatred still exist towards the Jewish race, even in a “democratic” country like the United States. As actor Mel Gibson demonstrated very well not so long ago albeit a drunken stupor, Jews in the country are still dogmatized with ancient prejudices.

But instead of whining about it and demanding that they be treated fairly like the Caucasians, they chose to show the world how a minority race can shine. And shining they are indeed. Consider this: Jews make up only 2% of the population in the USA but they are the wealthiest ethnic race by far and control much the economy. Steven Spielberg, Ralph Lauren, Michael Dell are just some of the more contemporary Jewish figures who have a made a name for themselves in the American economy – instead of making excuses.

Meanwhile, in the list of American Nobel prize winners, 40% of the laureates are Jewish. Academically they also make up 30% of the population in America’s elite universities – by far a very disproportionate representation. (All statistics from The Jewish Phenomenon, a book by Steven Silbiger)

Many more statistical data exist that will demonstrate very well how a tiny minority has rose to the occasion and exerted so much influence in the world’s largest economy. But one does not have to peer very far for another example of a minority that shines instead of whines. Just look across the causeway.

It is a well known fact the Chinese population in Malaysia does not receive the same types of privileges that ethnic Malays do. From university scholarships to educational grants, the Chinese population has been systematically marginalized since time can remember. Quite a while ago, there was a newspaper report about how a Chinese student scored straight ‘A’s for his STPM examinations but could still not secure a place in a local university due to the ethnic quotas imposed by the institution.

Similar discrimination exists on the economic front too. Non-Malay businessmen are not allowed to tender for government contracts and Chinese businesses are usually hard pressed for government assistance who understandably prefer to only help their “own kind”.

But do we see them complaining? They most definitely do not. Instead they put the majority race there into an existence of shame. Despite the blatant racism, the Chinese have risen to become an economic and business powerhouse in the land. In Forbes Malaysia’s list of 10 richest people, 8 of them are Chinese. These include hotel moguls, estate developers and bankers who have made it to where they are without the favorable conditions that the Malays there enjoy. This tremendous creation of wealth has inadvertently elevated the socio-economic status of the Chinese community in Malaysia-in sharp contrast to that of the Malays who continue live in perpetual mediocrity. Will the Malays there ever wake up?

When Singapore Malays complain about racism, they are no different from their brethrens up north who keep blaming their surroundings for the state they are in. Singapore as a society has worked very hard to eradicate racism. Our society is a plural one that rewards and recognizes solely based on meritocracy. Whether you sink or swim is really up to your efforts, instead of the ethnic group that you belong in. You have to admit it that the conditions our minorities face here a just so much better than what the Jews or Malaysian Chinese faced when they were just starting out.

If however you are in the unlikely situation of finding yourself working in a racist company that has yet to be enlightened by our national policies, just remember one important point : Racism, like any other obstacle in life, can either work against you or in your favor. What does not kill you will make you stronger. The Jews and the Malaysian Chinese have recognized these very well and have worked it towards their advantage by shining instead of whining. Will Singapore Malays do the same?