Indonesia-Malaysia
Najib plays the race card
Implication worries at least one Malaysian. Sangkanchil letter.
Nov 16, 2005

Bilateral ties
ravi mailagam
Nov 13, 2005

It is indeed unfortunate that Najib should say this of Indonesia.... "Since we come from the same race and the same blood flows in our veins, it is imperative for us to find common ground to resolve all our differences,"

Malaysians of all ethnic backgrounds have relatives in Singapore and frequent exchange visits between them is a feature common to our cultures while Indonesia is alien in these matters.

Again, some of the top technocrats in Singapore were originally from Malaysia. Dr. Sheong a PhD in Mathematics and a former CEO of SIA was a Malaysian.

So was John Pillay, a 1st Class, Electrical Engineering, Imperial College, London. The demographic features of Singapore clearly resemble those of Malaysia.

Ask any Malaysian and he will tell you quite plainly that excepting the work ethic and the clockwork efficiency, Singapore is like Malaysia in all respects, but that the culture and set up of Indonesia is bewilderingly strange to him.

To modify a Malay saying: How is that you cannot see the elephant before your eyes but can see clearly the skunk across the ocean, one which almost destroyed you with "Konfrontas?"

(What Najib said: "We must not allow any issue, big or small, to come between us," he said but added that problems between the two close neighbours were bound to crop up from time to time.
"Since we come from the same race and the same blood flows in our veins, it is imperative for us to find common ground to resolve all our differences."
He said this in his keynote address at the opening of the 7th Bugis Merchants Meet in Makassar, Indonesia.)

Ravi adds:

Since ASEAN is a grouping of sovereign nations with diverse ethnic populations, Najib should have known better than to play the race card and sow discord.

He said that Malaysia and Indonesia together are the backbone of ASEAN (sic) Corruption and nepotism in Indonesia is worse than in Malaysia.

The chaotic public administration there is as bad as that of the Congo.

And Indonesia is politically unstable, a collection of disparate islands without a focused leadership, and an economic basket case as well.

How then can she form the backbone of ASEAN? Can two blind ladies show the way to a sighted person?

Okay, I grant that she must have a role to play. If the Arabian Nights magic carpet is available and if she can be transported to Ali Baba's cave.... well she could then be a dacoit queen.

What would the reaction be if Ong Ka Ting (MCA president) went to China and hammered out an agreement with President Hu Jintao for the protection of the Malaysian Chinese - here since the time of Adm Cheng Ho - and got an ironclad assurance from him that the Peoples Liberation Army would help our armed forces and police overcome any threat to them.

Najib's racist speech makes nonsense of the The Khidmat Negara programme which is managed by his ministry and which is ostensibly designed to promote national integration.

We do not expect a statesman of the 21st century to have the mindset of the madman Hitler.
sangkanchil