By Zaid Ibrahim; former de facto Law Minister.
I find that this article is so well written and truly articulate the real scene of the Malaysian landscape of today.
In Malaysia, Malays of my generation and those who are older are generally more open-minded than the present crop. This is partly because our educational approach was more focused on building skills such as reading, writing and thinking.
Science and the arts were subjects that have no socio-political dimension. They were studied properly to understand the physical world, culture and human nature.
Interpersonal relations were measured according to how we dealt with others as human beings, rather than which race we belonged to.
Success was measured by the level of skills we attained after years of schooling and by the job skills we required to feed our families upon graduation. Back then nothing more than a bit of fun here and there got into our bloodstream.
Open-mindedness started to disappear from the scene when we began to have indoctrination in our schools and universities. In other words, when politics and religion got into the classrooms and lecture halls.
Education now includes courses on political awareness and a heavy dose of religious instructions. If teachers and educationist do not exhibit some form of conforming identity or partnership to political and religious needs, then they might not go far in their respective fields.
My concern in all of this is that the attributes these Malays/Muslims are exhibiting, besides being dangerous to the country’s peace and stability, are actually detrimental to their own well-being.
Their enemies – such as Chinese, Jews and the West in general – will continue with their ways and not be bothered with the tantrums by these Malays.
They will continue with their educational and economic dominance. They will continue to make inroads in science and technology. They will continue to produce Nobel Prize winners.
What will become of these Malays? They will continue to be fascinated with ideas of violence and destruction, like the Islamic State teachings.
They will continue to adopt a rigid mindset which will make living in a multicultural 21st century setting more difficult. They can continue to listen to preachers and motivational speakers about how to defend their rights; but they will continue to be irrelevant because they will not be successful or dominant over things that matter.
They will not be able to truly develop the country and exploit its resources because they will lack the necessary know-how.
I am concerned that their frustrations over their own irrelevance will push them closer to those militants who blow themselves up. After all, suicide bombers are usually driven by their sense of helplessness, despair and alienation.
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