Pandangan di bawah ini adalah daripada seorang warga Singapura yang menamakan dirinya Abdul Kareem yang disiarkan dalam Temasek Review, 22 Februari 2011. Tidak pasti adakah pandangan ini merupakan cerminan pandangan majoriti rakyat keturunan Melayu di pulau republik itu atau ia hanyalah pandangan segelintir orang yang mahu orang Melayu menumpukan perhatian kepada bidang pendidikan. Hal ini dianggap penting demi kelansungan hidup orang Melayu supaya umat Melayu tidak hilang di dunia. Benarkah?
Realitinya begitulah. Hari ini orang Melayu di seberang tambak ini dikatakan berada dalam keadaan kurang menentu tanpa pemimpin yang benar-benar boleh menyatukan kelompok etnisnya. Khabarnya parti orang Melayu yang satu ketika pernah disebut UMNO Singapura tidak memberi impak besar dalam kalangan komunitinya dan mereka rela mengelompok sebagai satu entiti atau kumpulan bebas. Ini bereri kelompok Melayu ini akan menjadi lalang ditiup angin, meliuk ke kiri dan meliuk ke kanan mengikut rentak dan tarian politik perdana .
Masihkan orang Melayu Singapura ingat akan komen Menteri Kanan Lee Kuan Yew pada tahun 1999: “If, for instance, you put in a Malay officer who’s very religious and who has family ties in Malaysia in charge of a machine gun unit, that’s a very tricky business. We’ve got to know his background… I’m saying these things because they are real, and if I don’t think that, and I think even if today the Prime Minister doesn’t think carefully about this, we could have a tragedy.” – Lee Kuan Yew, Straits Times, September 19, 1999.
Inilah yang menjadikan orang Melayu berada dalam dilema.Barangkali. Ditelan mati emak, tak ditelan mati bapak. Ada baiknya para intelek Melayu Singapura yang berpendidikan tinggi menulis sebuah buku yang dinamakan The Singapore Malay Dilemma. Bacalh selengkapnya komen Abd. Kareem di bawah ini:
"In each election over the last decade, PAP has been using a new strategy when fielding new Malay candidates. In the past it had field candidates who had a highest education level of O level or A level. However this is decreasingly the case over the last decade. Instead PAP has been bringing in candidates with impressive educational background such as Malay doctors(Dr.Fatimah Lateef) and academics like (Dr.Faishal Mohamed, Dr.Maliki Osman etc).
During each election when PAP introduce just one of such candidates, the Malay community gets overwhelmed with thrill and awe. They then rush to cast their votes in favor of PAP without reflecting their choice. When PAP announced that one of the reasons why they secured such high success in Sembawang GRC (close to 80% votes) which is a large GRC, they pointed out the high Malay support they have gained. This support was largely because of the Malay voters being overwhelmed by the prospect of a Malay professor (Dr.Maliki Osman) standing for election.
For the upcoming election, PAP has already started its strategy of poster Malay candidates. It has been parading a Malay doctor(Dr.Abdul Razakjr) and a professor (Dr Intan Mokhtar). The incumbents are likely to introduce a few more. In fact there is no limit to the number of top Malay achievers who are queuing up to stand as a PAP candidate to represent PAP policies even though they have been unfair towards the
Malay community. On the other side, the opposition parties have seen a large increase in Malay candidates stepping forward to join the parties but there is so far not a single Malay elite.
This is a poor reflection of the Malay community itself. When you look at the Chinese elites, there have been a few who have stepped onto the risky path of opposition politics such as Tony Tan and his wife. Similarly for Indian elites such as Dr.Vincent Wijayasingha and even Kenneth Jeyaretnam. However amongst the Malay elites,they are increasing offering themselves to the PAP which seem to be able to field every new Malay candiate who is an elite.
The Malay elites have attained their high educational success after enormous hard work and their climb to their career positions is not an easy one. They simply are afraid to take the major risks to join the opposition parties. Fundamentally the Malay elite’s aspirations for his/her community need to exceed aspirations that he/she has for
oneself before he/she will decide to join opposition parties. On the other hand, when it is otherwise, the lures of PAP’s promise of power and money is too sweet to shake off. Therefore one cannot expect more or equal number of Malay elites standing for opposition parties in the next election. Malay elites have not found that level of conviction yet.
However what remains to be seen is if Malay voters will yet again fall for poster Malay elites. Over this current parliamentary term, the Malay elites who were elected at the last election, have done practically nothing meaningful for the community. The political, social and economic outcomes remain dismal as ever, if not worse. It remains unclear if Malay voters will reflect on this reality or if they are going to be swayed by mere token representation.
In the issue of political progress of Malay community, the Malays have nobody else to blame except themselves. Even if Malay elites do not have the courage to join opposition parties, they need to remain dignified to remain independent and stand up to point out how unfair PAP policies are towards the community. They can do this by refusing to stand up for PAP. The Malay voters on the other hand have nobody else to blame as long as they continue to vote for politicians who do not put the community first and foremost before their own political and monetary gain." - Abdul Kareem.
Singapore
ReplyDeleteThis statistics from Wikipedia shows the population of Singapore on March 4th 2011, which is approximately 4,495,731. (Extrapolated from a population of 4,839,400 on January 26th 2009, 00:00:00 and a population of 4,553,009 on October 9th 2010.) 13.4% are Malays or about 603,000.
Well! What can they do but to ensure own survival.
Better to live like a Singapore Malay than a Malaysian Malay. You know why? Singapore Malays will never ask for subsidies unlike the Malaysian Malays who rely on subsidies all life long. Sorry to say but that is the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Do you agree with me?
ReplyDeleteDistortion of facts. I think Anonymous, whom I think is not a Malay, has never been to any state in Malaysia and he must be obsessed with LKY's thinking. Right?
ReplyDeleteHei kawan, semacam saja bunyinya komen kura-kura ini. Mahu kasi spin cerita ke atau mau kasi orang Melayu Singapura gaduh dengan orang Melayu Malaysia ke? Lu misti ingat banyak Melayu Singapura punya sudara di Malaysia.
ReplyDeleteI'm a Malay. Ori punya. I said the truth and there's nothing to hide. Accept the fact we Malays in Singapore are a hardworking lot.We work hard to earn our living and never ask for charity.
ReplyDeleteSaya ingin petik pandangan Gilbert Goh dalam The Temasek Review dari Singapura yang menulis tentang Orang Melayu, Singapura dan Lee Kuan Yew. Mungkin pandangan ini baik untuk direnungkan bersama sekadar memberi iktibar:
ReplyDelete"Almost one and a half month later, Minister Mentor Mr Lee Kuan Yew has finally apologized for the offensive remarks he made on the sensitive topic of social integration of Singaporean Muslims here.
He has commented that his controversial remarks were made two or three years ago during the book interview with a group of Straits Times interview and that things have generally improved over the years.
“Ministers and MPs, both Malay and non-Malay, have since told me that Singapore Malays have indeed make special efforts into integrate with the other communities, especially since 9/11 and that my call is out of date,” he said (Straits Times 9 Mar).
Many political critics have speculated that his unprecedented back down could be due to the fear that Muslim voters – largely unhappy with his remarks – may swing their votes to the opposition camp.
Over the years, Malay voters have largely voted for the opposition as they felt discriminated at the job front and also there were a lack of opportunities for the Malay race in general. Many also felt that the government did not do enough to prevent such race-bias discriminatory hiring practices, prevalent in the job market, from occurring.
The influx of Chinese-speaking foreigners did not help their employment situation one bit and many have lamented at the easy entry of so many Chinese and Indian immigrants in our midst. They also feared that with this huge influx, their racial representation within the population will be brought down. This will naturally bring about a sense of insecurity for those coming from the minoritites races.
Their troubled family environment – as a result of the high number of dysfunctional families – also fuelled the massive social discontentment as many struggle to meet the high demands of our meritocratic system.
Left all alone mostly to fend for themselves, many teens could not really cope well with our high-achievement system, fell into bad company and some even have occasional brushes with the law.
Many Malays and Indians are also over represented at the prison cells fuelling the suspicion that indeed the minority races have difficulty integrating with the main stream society here.
A lot of our Malay counterparts are sandwiched at the lower middle income and low income category. As our renowed meritocratic system hinges a lot on educational prowess and achievement, the rot will start once a person fails academically and there are few opportunities for a rebound unless the person is very innovative and creative.
I have seen some lowly educated Malays took up catering successfully and some have even created a massive business empire out of their food ventures. However, such success stories remain far and few for the minorities races further confirming that social integration – at least on the materialistic side – is really not happening yet." Read more in the Temasek Review, 23 March 2011 by Gilbert Goh in Opinion Column
Melayu Singapura memang bangsa minoriti. Tetapi Singapura negara bernasib baik kerana atas usaha gigih pemimpinnya Singapura maju bukan kerana nasib. Harap-harap kedua-dua rakyat bersebelahan tambak akan bersikap lebih rasional untuk menjalin hubungan berbaik-baik. Semuanya adalah untuk kebaikan dan keuntungan bersama.
ReplyDeleteNamun seperti yang pernah disarankan seorang penulis yang juga bekas wartawan pulau republik itu bertepuk sebelah tangan takkan berbunyi. Atau mengikut kata mat saleh it takes two to tango. Dalam hal ini Singapura nampaknya pantang sahaja mendengar ianya dibuli oleh rakan-rakan negaranya yang lebih besar yang mengelilinginya. Ia terus sahaja melatah.
Singapra hendaklah mengawal emosinya supaya tidak cepat melatah dan belajar hidup berjiran kerana Singapura turut mempunyai penduduk yang majmuk. Dan salah satu peraturan untuk hidup berjiran ialah tidak melempar batu sembunyi tangan kepada orang lain.
Mungkin inilah yang sukar dilakukan Singapura.Lebih menyukarkan lagi apabila kelemahan sikap dn tangkahlaku seumpama ini masih dimiliki oleh pemimpin yang dianggap rakyat Singapura sebagai "their founding fathers."
Satu saja nasihat saya kepada Melayu Singapura: Jangan nak sombong sangat, konon tak hendak subsidi. Yang saya dengar baru-baru ini kerajaan hendak bagi lebih 3 juta dollar Singapura nak majukan bahasa Melayu itu bukan subsidi. Cakap tak serupa bikin. Dan beritahu kami mana ada rakyat dalam dunia ini yang tak hendak subsidi? Cakap biarlah berlapik, jangan nak mengada sangat! Rakyat Amerika pun hendak subsidi untuk tampung skim kesihatannya. Syok sendiri nampak!
ReplyDeleteWaris keturunan Sultan Hussein Shah, Sultan Singapura, di manakah mereka sekarang? Sesekali ingin juga nak tahu keadaan mereka, terutama setelah diarah berpindah dari istana Sri Gelam.
ReplyDeleteSetiap kali melintas di Arab Street kenangan kembali mengingat detik sejarah Sultan Melayu Singapura yang kini hanya tinggal kenangan.
Mungkin ahli-ahli waris diraja itu sudah bertaburan di rumah-rumah pangsa, apartmen atau rumah teres di serata pulau itu. Dan mungkin juga ada yang pindah ke Johor Bahru, beli rumah kat sana. Lebih aman dan hidup sentosa.
ReplyDeleteHarap masih belum terlambat nak buat komen. Orang Melayu yang kat Singapra itu eloklah berpakat. Nampaknya dah ramai cerdik pandai. Bersatu dan jangan jadi seperti enau dalam belukar melepaskan pucuk masing-masing. Jumlah anda tak ramai lebih sedikt 600 ribu. Fikir-fikirkanlah?
ReplyDelete