The true meaning of Bumiputra

Updating new posting on Infernal Ramblings.

The author, John Lee, have a large number of articles on Malaysian politics which I find quite insightful. In particular, I liked The Death of Malaysia.

In that article, the author detailed his disappointment with both the BN government, as well as the opposition in Malaysia. In a way, I feel that his criticisms on the opposition could very well be translated verbatim upon the opposition here in Singapore.

Anyway my earlier post turned out to be a mistake - it was sent out instead as an email to John, who used it to write an article titled : "Will There Ever Be A Chinese Prime Minister?"


My comments in that thread :


I mailed John Lee as AC, mistaking the ‘mail the author’ option as message posting.

My original words was meant for Kufar - specifically on his views that he will be embraced as a full Bumiputra without any discrimination whatsoever simply because he fully embraced Islam.

I think the Kufar is mistaken and misguided in this assumption. The political elite is clearly reserved for both Malay and Muslim. Muslim without the Malay won't quite cut it.

Yup, forgot about Tan Siew Sin. But let us recap some facts about him - he came from a very influential background - he was the only son of MCA founder Tan Cheng Lock, and he subsequently became the president of MCA as well. Possible reasons on why he was holding such an important position could be due to his political clout with the Chinese, the infancy of the NEP/Bumputra policy which was newly started then, and that wealth in Malaysia then was mostly controlled by the Chinese.

So yes, Tan Siew Sin was exceptional, and possibly the exception. Unless I was gravely mistaken, he did not convert to Islam.

The point I was making was that capable Chinese or Indians are systematically discriminated against in the government, and prevented from holding real and significant power because they were first and foremost not Malay, and not quite because they were not Muslims.