With the cornucopia of blogs around enough to fuel our reading souls continuous needs , why the need of another grain to populate insignificantly the already abundant sand on the beach? We have otai experts in political analysis, they project strong influence and command faithful followings through powerful writings confronting issues with point of views sometimes more worthy to listen to than most of those of the politicians we hear on the mainstream channels.

This blog is not here to further crowd the popular political blog space. This blog was created with an intention in mind to develop values on the majority subset of the Malaysian society. I have no interest to debate whether Anwar did it with Saiful or not, or whether KJ would make a good Pemuda (although this fellow does not impress me and triggers an inexplicable nausea in my throat). Campaigning is not the objective. But positive criticism is. There could also be instances of criticism on personalities deemed detrimental to the good of the nation.

Most of us hope to live to see the utopia of a great Malaysia. Vision 2020 once enshrined the objectives to achieve this on all fronts. It would be the beginning of an era where racial friction need not exist as the balance in economic distribution among diverse ethnics has been achieved, civilization maturity particular to our multi-racial ambiance has been established, and excellence in knowledge is on track.

The journey towards a developed Malaysia was smooth sailing until the brief economic downturn that has sidetracked our growth figures from its annual targets.  But we pulled ourselves through without compromising our national assets and economical sovereignty with greedy outsider capitalists. Life for Malaysians was rosy again until the premiership changed in 2003.

Malaysia gradually became socio-politically fragile despite the branding that the 5th PM had wanted to promote himself as the being PM for all Malaysians. The misuse of the country’s resources was too evident that it was easily used against the administration by the opposition to drag the government which had ruled the country for more than 50 years down to its feet and this has unleashed all ugly sides of a multi-ethnic society. The BN government lost for the first time its two third majority in the parliament, and for the first time the opposition had never felt as strong on the political scene. The weak government has let loose antagonizing sentiments, on one side proclaiming freedom and equal rights, and on the other, historical rights and superiority protections.

The failed government has blew all effort made for the past 37 years to build a concrete nation. Instead of pursuing the development blueprints of the previous administration, it opted to scrap them for a new selfish direction. Never from the days of Tun Razak had the same BN government undo a feasible initiative for the sake of creating a new legacy for the new premiership. Such disruptive decisions were the beginning of an end of a stable power. In a lapse of 4 years, Vision 2020 seemed ever beyond reach for the myopic Malaysia. Realizing this, the 5th PM attempted to re-brand Vision 2020 with Vision 2050. Our aspiration has become a moving target.

UMNO has become today the punching bag for the oppositions, the minority extremists and their apologists, and the Malays perceived to be the spoiled ethnic majority, lazy and pampered under the  affirmative policy. After more than 37 years of NEP, the Malays have indeed improved in its ascension within the social hierarchy. The NEP has created a strong layer of middle class bumiputras who graduated from the local universities and abroad, we can trace a few gems on the blogosphere such as SATD, and WJK, who are specialist professionals in their own domains.

Despite such facts and the support structure in favour of the majority bumiputras, why are we still perceived laggards in this country? Why ~8M non-bumi ethnic groups dare today to be vocal on issues sensitive to the hearts of the ~13.7M Malays (excluding the ~2M non-Malay bumi) such as religion, language and ethnic position?  Would it be fair for the Malays who have endured 4 centuries under foreign colony to consider the demands of the non-malay extremists to strip down their ethnic trait dominance in Malaysia? After all, the Malaysian Chinese and the Indians have settled for decades on this land before the independence, and Malaysia is the only land they have to live on and prolong the family line.

The reason why we ever came to this situation today can be summarized as follow:
1) The Malays lost their sovereignty to the western colonialists back in the 15th century due to power struggles and inferior military strength (due to low knowledge culture).
2) Under the British rule, immigrant workers from China and India were brought into Malaya to support the tin and rubber industry (since the British did not regard the Malays as reliable workers)
3) The pre-independence demography in Malaya (55:45) creates more or less the modern day demography of Malaysia (60:40).
4) Due to the fact that 75% of the Malays were below the poverty line and were largely excluded from the modern economy in 1970 (post May 1969), the National Economic Policy (NEP), which puts in place an affirmative action policy for the Bumiputra, had to be introduced. Although it had helped many rural Malays to elevate their children into the middle class society, it may have less encouraged the majority to work as hard as the non-Malays. Many Malays used political means to exploit the NEP and become rich quick without gaining the necessary skills to remain competent.
5) After the disastrous reign under the 5th PM, the non-Malays became more vocal to question the privileges enjoyed by the Malays. The Chinese still commands the economy especially in the private sector.

The string of milestones in the history of Malaysia suggests:

> The Malays let themselves colonized by their weaknesses.
> Being perceived as laid-back, the Malays indirectly encouraged the influx of hard-working immigrants.
> The Malays are complacent with the support structure provided by the NEP and failed to develop competitiveness. Successful Malays who benefited from the NEP do not always help the less fortunate ones to excel, therefore the still large number of Malay poverty as of today.

Malaysia is what it is today. The Malays can no longer claim total ownership of the country as the Chinese and the Indians are already part of the nation’s history. Malaya has lost its chance to be a single ethnic country like the Korea, China, India or Japan, and the Malays have their own selves to blame. The only way to move forward is to swallow the fact and build this nation together. The constitution has already preserved Islam as the nation’s official religion, Malay as the official language, recognized the Bumiputra status within the federation and made the Yang di-Pertuan Agong as the highest ruler. This is what left of the Malays that once characterized the Malay-ruled states in Tanah Melayu. Also necessary to highlight that Sarawak and Sabah are also part of the Malaysian equation.

Malaysia shall forever be socially unstable and economically moderate if the Malays remain in their backwardness. The non-Malays will always shout for the demolishment of the Malay privileges. How long can Malaysia stick to this fragile balance of conflicting ethnic priorities?

The solution that would make Malaysia a strong nation is the same as promulgated in 1971, but it has to be formulated from a different perspective. We have to develop the Malays (in general, the Bumiputra) to be instinctively competitive so that they can earn the piece of the economic pie that is proportionate with their numbers. Their competitiveness must also jive with integrity, dignified with the qualities promoted by the religion, so that corruption within the society, politics and the administration can be eliminated. The majority has to be strengthened so that they can bypass the NEP support structure. When the majority Malays are independently strong and are able to participate with significance in the national and global economy, the need for ‘economic rights and social privileges’ would then become irrelevant.

Back to the purpose of this blogging avenue. It intends to fill in the niche of motivation blogs skewed for the specific Malays, and for Malaysians in general. This blog seeks to contribute in bringing sub-conscious awareness to the majority ethnic in Malaysia . That is the mission. The dream is to achieve the Malaysia we all can agree to.

Note: Malaysian History written by the perfect example of a V2020 model Malaysian citizen.

The article was written by Dr. Farrukh Saleem, an Islamabad-based freelance columnist. It has also been recently re-produced by another Malaysian blogger here. (It is interesting to note that this non-Muslim Malaysian blogger finds interest in discussions regarding the dilemma of the Muslim world. It may reflect the invisible bonding that has actually developed within many citizens in denial of this country. We can hate each other or hold each other’s hands. It is up to us whether to take it constructively or vice versa.)

I implore my primarily targeted audience for this segment, to read this article until the end. Once you finish reading it, sit back and allow yourself to engage sincerely with your conscious. I believe if you manage to get here, you would most probably belong to the intelligent middle-class and upper layer who have already indulge in a decent professional or political life. Take a minute to look at your sleeping children and ponder in what kind of environment will they be when they reach your age in 20 years time. Imagine an alternate universe where the horrible genocide in Gaza takes place on this land once known as Tanah Melayu, where the majority Malays, weakened by their past political leaders who preferred bickering over power and ideology, by their lag in education and economy, get trampled helplessly as they see their land being taken inch by inch by the mightier forces. God won’t help us if we wouldn’t put an effort to help ourselves. Encourage your children and reachable young relatives from your rural hometown to embrace the love for knowledge. We need doctors, capable engineers and researchers. We don’t need hundreds of singing and dancing artists. The long queue of hopeful youths at the AF audition shows that something is wrong with our upbringing environment.

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Why are Jews so powerful?

There are only 14 million Jews in the world; seven million in the Americas, five million in Asia, two million in Europe and 100,000 in Africa . For every single Jew in the world there are 100 Muslims. Yet, Jews are more than a hundred times more powerful than all the Muslims put together. Ever wondered why? Jesus of Nazareth was Jewish. Albert Einstein, the most influential scientist of all time and TIME magazine’s ‘Person of the Century’, was a Jew. Sigmund Freud — id, ego, and superego — the father of psychoanalysis Was a Jew. So were Karl Marx, Paul Samuelson and Milton Friedman. Here are a few other Jews whose intellectual output has Enriched the whole humanity:

Benjamin Rubin gave humanity the vaccinating needle.

Jonas Salk developed the first polio vaccine.

Alert Sabin developed the improved live polio vaccine.

Gertrude Elion gave us a leukaemia fighting drug.

Baruch Blumberg developed the vaccination for Hepatitis B.

Paul Ehrlich discovered a treatment for syphilis (a sexually transmitted disease).

Elie Metchnikoff won a Nobel Prize in infectious diseases.

Bernard Katz won a Nobel Prize in neuromuscular transmission.

Andrew Schally won a Nobel in endocrinology (disorders of the endocrine system; diabetes, hyperthyroidism) Aaron Beck founded Cognitive Therapy (psychotherapy to treat mental disorders, depression and phobias).

Gregory Pincus developed the first oral contraceptive pill.

George Wald won a Nobel for furthering our understanding of the human eye. Stanley Cohen won a Nobel in embryology (study of embryos and their development).

Willem Kolff came up with the kidney dialysis machine.

Over the past 105 years, 14 million Jews have won 15-dozen Nobel Prizes while only three Nobel Prizes have been won by 1.4 billion Muslims (other than Peace Prizes). Why are Jews so powerful?

Stanley Mezor invented the first micro-processing chip.

Leo Szilard developed the first nuclear chain reactor.

Peter Schultz, optical fibre cable; Charles Adler, traffic lights; Benno Strauss, Stainless steel; Isador Kisee sound movies; Emile Berliner, telephone microphone and Charles Ginsburg, videotape recorder. Famous financiers in the business world who belong to Jewish faith include: Ralph Lauren (Polo), Levis Strauss (Levi’s Jeans), HowardSchultz (Starbuck’s), Sergey Brin (Google), Michael Dell (Dell Computers), Larry Ellison (Oracle), Donna Karan (DKNY), I rv Robbins (Baskin & Robbins) and Bill Rosenberg (Dunkin Donuts). Richard Levin, President of Yale University, is a Jew. So are Henry Kissinger (American secretary of state), Alan Greenspan (fed chairman under Reagan, Bush, Clinton and Bush), Joseph Lieberman, Madeleine Albright (American secretary of state), Maxim Litvinov ( USSR foreign Minister), David Marshal ( Singapore ’s first chief minister), Isaac Isaacs (governor-general of Australia ), Benjamin Disraeli (British statesman and author), Yevgeny Primakov (Russian PM), Jorge Sampaio (president of Portugal), Herb Gray (Canadian deputy PM), Pierre Mendes (French PM), Michael Howard (British home secretary), Bruno Kreisky (chancellor of Austria) and Robert Rubin (former American secretary of treasury). In the media, famous Jews include: Wolf Blitzer (CNN), Barbara Walters (ABC News), Eugene Meyer ( Washington Post), Henry Grunwald (editor-in-chief Time), Katherine Graham (publisher of The Washington Post), Joseph Lelyyeld (Executive editor, The New York Times), and MaxFrankel (New York Times)..

Can you name the most beneficent philanthropist in the history of the world? The name is George Soros, a Jew, who has so far donated a colossal $4 billion most of which has gone as aid to scientists and universities around the world. Second to George Soros is Walter Annenberg, another Jew, who has built a hundred libraries by donating an estimated $2 billion.

At the Olympics: Mark Spitz set a record of sorts by winning seven gold medals. Lenny Krayzelburg is a three-time Olympic gold medallist. Spitz, Krayzelburg and Boris Becker are all Jewish.

Did you know that Harrison Ford, George Burns, Tony Curtis, Charles Bronson, Sandra Bullock, Billy Crystal, Woody Allen, Paul Newman, Peter Sellers, Dustin Hoffman, Michael Douglas, Ben Kingsley, Kirk Douglas, William Shatner, Jerry Lewis and Peter Falk are all Jewish? As a matter of fact, Hollywood itself was founded by a Jew. Among directors and producers: Steven Spielberg, Mel Brooks, Oliver Stone, Aaron Spelling (Beverly Hills 90210), Neil Simon (The Odd Couple), Andrew Vaina (Rambo 1/2/3), Michael Man (Starsky and Hutch), Milos Forman (One flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest), Douglas Fairbanks (The thief of Baghdad ) and Ivan Reitman (Ghostbusters) are all Jewish.

To be certain, Washington is the capital that matters and in Washington the lobby that matters is The American Israel Public Affairs Committee, or AIPAC. Washington knows that if PM Ehud Olmert were to discover that the earth is flat, AIPAC will make the 109th Congress pass a resolution congratulating Olmert on his discovery. William James Sidis, with an IQ of 250-300, is the brightest human who ever existed. Guess what faith did he belong to?

So, why are Jews so powerful? Answer: Education.

Why are Muslims so powerless?

There are an estimated 1,476,233,470 Muslims on the face of the planet: one billion in Asia, 400 million in Africa, 44 million in Europe and six million in the Americas . Every fifth human being is a Muslim; for every single Hindu there are two Muslims, for every Buddhist there are two Muslims and for every Jew there are one hundred Muslims. Ever wondered why Muslims are so powerless? Here is why:

There are 57 member-countries of the Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC), and all of them put together have around 500 universities; one university for every three million Muslims.

The United States has 5,758 universities and India has 8,407. In 2004, Shanghai Jiao Tong University compiled an ‘Academic Ranking of World Universities’, and intriguingly, not one university from Muslim-majority states was in the top-500.

As per data collected by the UNDP, literacy in the Christian world stands at nearly 90 per cent and 15 Christian-majority states have a literacy rate of 100 per cent. A Muslim-majority state, as a sharp contrast, has an average literacy rate of around 40 per cent and there is no Muslim-majority state with a literacy rate of 100 per cent. Some 98 per cent of the ‘literates’ in the Christian world had completed primary school, while less than 50 per cent of the ‘literates’ in the Muslim world did the same.. Around 40 per cent of the ‘literates’ in the Christian world attended university while no more than two per cent of the ‘literate s’ in the Muslim world did the same.

Muslim-majority countries have 230 scientists per one million Muslims. The US has 4,000 scientists per million and Japan has 5,000 per million. In the entire Arab world, the total number of full-time researchers is 35,000 and there are only 50 technicians per one million Arabs (in the Christian world there are up to 1,000 technicians per one million). Furthermore, the Muslim world spends 0.2 per cent of its GDP on research and development, while the Christian world spends around five per cent of its GDP. Conclusion: The Muslim world lacks the capacity to produce knowledge.

Daily newspapers per 1,000 people and number of book titles per million are two indicators of whether knowledge is being diffused in a society. In Pakistan , there are 23 daily newspapers per 1,000 Pakistanis while the same ratio in Singapore is 360. In the UK , the number of book titles per million stands at 2,000 while the same in Egypt is 20. Conclusion: The Muslim world is failing to diffuse knowledge. Exports of high technology products as a percentage of total exports are an important indicator of knowledge application. Pakistan ’s exports of high technology products as a percentage of total exports stands at one per cent. The same for Saudi Arabia is 0.3 per cent; Kuwait , Morocco , and Algeria are all at 0.3 per cent while Singapore is at 58 percent. Conclusion: The Muslim world is failing to apply knowledge.

Why are Muslims powerless? Because we aren’t producing knowledge.

Why are Muslims powerless? Because we aren’t diffusing knowledge.

Why are Muslims powerless? Because we aren’t applying knowledge.

And, the future belongs to knowledge-based societies. Interestingly, the combined annual GDP of 57 OIC-countries is under $2 trillion. America , just by herself, produces goods and services worth $12 trillion. China $8 trillion, Japan $3.8 trillion and Germany $2.4 trillion (purchasing power parity basis). Oil rich Saudi Arabia , UAE, Kuwait and Qatar collectively produce goods and services (mostly oil) worth $500 billion. Spain alone produces goods and services worth over $1 trillion, Catholic Poland $489 billion and Buddhist Thailand $545 billion (Muslim GDP as a percentage of world GDP is fast declining).

So, why are Muslims so powerless?

Answer: Lack of education!

End of article. >

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In a nutshell>

Knowledge is power. Education breeds knowledge. Knowledge is useless when its not applied. The importance of diffusing knowledge in a society. The importance of enticing the society to embrace the love for knowledge.

if you stumbled upon here for no reason, this is just a test page. But i am leaving it as it is. I think this will be the only fun page you will ever get to see on this blog. For serious stuff, please explore my other articles that follow.

testing inserting pictures:

This was my guitar. I used to write personal, non-communicated songs (a.k.a syok sendiri) during my bewildered youth to express perceptions on the world developed from my oscillating emotions. In the end, i managed to produce a scrapbook containing word rhymes correlated with alphabets indicating acoustic guitar riffs.

Now that I know I am destined to be a corporate knowledge worker, I’ll store those creative notes in my attic. But ever since I got submerged into reading diverse opinions of local bloggers written with bombastic vocab (i must admit i had to look up a few in my dictionary when reading comments by certain obscure personalities like ‘the Apocryphalist’), I discovered the same sensation that triggered when I first plucked my guitar guru’s guitar.

So here is the avenue where i can channel again the energy from my reflections and allow it to dissipate for a good cause. The law of physics states that there should be a cause to all effects, and so does this blog. Please read my motivations in my upcoming article: a dream, a non-committal mission.

- River