If this was Semenanjung Tanah Cina, how do you think the Chinese will treat immigrants?

There’s this controversial book called The Chinese Dilemma by Ye Lin-Sheng published in 2003.

The Yahudi Yeohs have most predictably spewed their characteristic venom at the author – such as that he is an abject apologist lah, a race traitor lah and what not (I’m only mentioning here the printable labels; even nastier – unprintable – descriptions abound).

If you’re curious as to what he wrote that caused the YYs to throw a hissy fit, please do read on.

Victim or bully?

Firstly Ye Lin-Sheng reveals that in writing the book, he runs the risk of being condemned as a traitor because he dares question the long-held beliefs of the Malaysian Chinese about ourselves. The awkwardness that comes with probing the Chinese community’s cherished and sacred cows – like for instance, our self-professed victimhood – is “a feeling akin to betrayal”, he admits.

Ye Lin-Sheng states that if he has any purpose, “it is to encourage debate and reflection, which in turn would help us Chinese to see our way forward in Malaysia more clearly”.

Not that it’s possible for Ye or anybody to bring the local Chinese community to their senses, whatever the price of martyrdom that he pays in speaking Truth to them. That’s because the Chinese in Malaysia are an overly “aggrieved” lot who are “resentful” about the decades-long preferential policies for the Malays.

But being a diligent and resourceful people, the Chinese have managed to be competitive in spite of the NEP, and this survival-of-the-fittest DNA (or evolution) has led them to possess a superiority complex.

Methinks the nose-in-the-air look is ably demonstrated by the woman pictured below

Chinese refuse to give credit to the Malays

Ye Lin-Sheng wrote on pp.112-113:

“They consistently underestimate Malay capability, in spite of such evidence to the contrary as the increasing number of academically excellent Malay students. They are reluctant to concede that the Malay leadership has been very skilled and competent in its political, economic and social management of the country. Indeed it can be argued that since Independence Malaysia has been managed better than Britain, our one-time colonial master.

“Yet it is seldom to the Malays that Chinese or Indians attribute Malaysia’s success. They would rather seek an explanation in the administrative foundations laid by the British or in the fact that until recently there were still a number of non-Malays among the top civil servants. Standards have been falling, they can’t resist adding, just wait for the collapse! Such is their prejudice that if things went wrong, these non-Malays would say ‘What can you expect, with Malays in charge?’ But when things go right, it is invariably for reasons other than good Malay management. The Chinese tendency to belittle Malay capability and achievement has manifested itself in ludicrous ways.”

BELOW: Example of how the tendency to belittle has manifested itself in ludicrous ways

Ooooh Perkasa, I do believe Hannah is pointing her finger at you …

Most ridiculous, indeed …

Umno’s noblesse oblige dynasties

I would add that the Chinese tendency to belittle Malay capability and achievement extends to small heartedness, i.e. a patent unwillingness to give the Malay-led BN government its due credit for keeping the country peaceful and stable. That we’ve not had any major outbreak of communal violence since the last race riot in 1969 can be considered a form of success.

And it surely is a testament to the high breeding of our top echelon Malay leadership when we have a bangsawan like Najib Razak who is blessed with such preternatural patience. A gracious man still wearing kid gloves when dealing with streetfighter Dapster opponents that use knuckle dusters.

Kagum, kan? Sabarnya … our Prime Minister yet remains unruffled in the face of inhuman provocation by the beruk-beruk.

BAWAH: Kemenangan pembangkang dalam PRU12 & 13 adalah ibarat kera mendapat bunga

Ye Lin-Sheng: “If I were Malay, I would not have allowed …”

On pp.37-38 of The Chinese Dilemma, Ye Lin-Sheng wrote:

“We [Chinese] came in such large numbers that it is no wonder the word ‘annexation’ has been used of us. Indeed, it could be said that the Malays allowed us to pitch a tent and we ended up taking possession of their land. Still, if we had ended up as coolies, I don’t think we would have had any ‘Malay dilemma.’ But instead we prospered and came to dominate the mainstream of Malaysian life — in business, in the professions, in the universities — and we occupied all the major towns. If I were Malay, I would not have allowed such a state of affairs to go unchallenged: my sense of pride and honour would not allow it. Malay self-esteem would require that, having rid themselves of the colonial master, they wrested economic power from the Chinese.

“This is how the Malays have felt and will continue to feel.”

Ye Lin-Sheng recounted that he had often asked his non-Malay friends, ‘If the Malays had come to occupy India and China in a similar manner, how do you think the Indians and Chinese would feel? How would they have responded to these intruders? What would they have done’?”

Good question.

CAUGHT IN THE MIDDLE … BUDU SANDWICH !!

Carte politique et ethnographique de l’Asie par MMrs. Drioux et Ch. Leroy ; gravé par Jenotte (Paris : Librairie classique d’Eugène Belin)

Will Indians and Chinese welcome Malays with open arms?

The Malay archipelago lies in the crossroad between India and China. During the boom years of rubber and tin, Indian and Chinese immigrants flowed into the Malay peninsula.

Now let’s just imagine – like Ye Lin-Sheng suggests – a reversed situation where it is instead the Malays who had gone to occupy India and China in a similar manner.

BELOW: The Chinese Yeoh matriarchs who wore tudung as an item of their going-to-work apparel

1952 and 1957 liberalization of citizenship laws

My blog has previously discussed the one million Merdeka en masse citizenships which was granted by Persekutuan Tanah Melayu to the non-Malays between 1957 and 1960.

But did you know that in 1952, there was a separate exercise where the qualification for citizenship was liberalized and thus enabling 1.2 million Chinese and 180,000 Indians to become Malayan nationals?

When the citizenship law was relaxed in 1952, the ratio was 6.67 Chinese to one Indian who got to be citizens. If we followed roughly the same ratio, the the figure would be an estimated 846,600 Chinese who were beneficiaries of the Merdeka citizenship.

Hence in less than a decade (1952-1960), something like a total of over two million Chinese were given citizenship in Tanah Melayu.

ABOVE: More Chinese Yeoh matriarchs who wore tudung as part of their working clothes

Chinese believe in racial diversity

In 1960, the entire population of Tanah Melayu was less than seven million. This works out to Chinese immigrants crafting themselves a 30 percent chunk of the Malayan population through the two citizenship liberalization laws taking effect in 1952 and 1957 alone.

Now that we’ve got the math sorted, let’s revert to Ye Lin-Sheng’s scenario building.

Guangzhou is a city in the southern China province of Guangdong. It has a population of 12.8 million.

Do please remember that in less than 10 years, some two million Chinese were given citizenship in Tanah Melayu. Projecting an identical scenario onto Guangzhou, it would be equivalent to the Chinese city granting citizenship to 3.65 million foreign workers – we’re replicating the ratio for Chinese absorption by Malaya (1952-1960) – and all in the span of under a decade.

Would the Chinese city give 3.65 million citizenships overnight to, say, Nigerian guest workers en masse like what the Raja-Raja Melayu (persuaded by the PPTA) did for Chinese in Tanah Melayu?

You think?

Chinese cities most cosmopolitan in the world

Let’s do the scenario another way.

Say that our peninsula is Semenanjung Tanah Cina, and it is the Chinese who rule the land.

Supposing the Indians, following the same historical timeline, migrated here from Tamil Nadu and worked as rubber tappers, railroad builders, etc, and they later appealed to the Chinese rulers to give them citizenship after having decided to stay.

Do you reckon that if it were the Chinese in control of the country, they would share their Little Middle Kingdom (Peninsula) with the Indians and give the Indians equal political power?

Or let’s conduct the scenario-building along more contemporary times. We’ll just say that immigration is a state matter in Penang just like it is in Sabah and Sarawak.

Do you think that the government of Lim Guan Eng is willing to grant Penang citizenship to the Burmese, Nepalese and Bangladeshi transient labour currently working in the state?

Our contributions to the country

We, the Chinese, will never cease to amaze you.

We can tell you that Bak Kut Teh is actually chicken or organic vegetarian and invite you to buka puasa with the dish. “Wangi, enak dan menyelerakan!”

We can claim that our Chinese grandmothers wore tudung too. It is a headdress that is as much a part of our sartorial tradition as it is yours.

BELOW: Selangor’s Puan Speaker should certainly wear tudung to the office too and not just when visiting the mosques

For this reason and since it is customary for our forefathers (foremothers?) to wear tudung when they went to work in the rubber estates, tin mines and construction sites, we – the modern Chinese ladies – insist that it is our right to also wear tudung as part of our traditional dress.

And did you also know that if an opposition talent was chief of the Air Force and Navy, we would surely have located the missing MH370?

DAP Christian Member of Parliament, YB Lim Lip Eng confidently said this, as reported by the Malay Mail in its 28 March 2014 article headlined ‘MP: Pakatan would find MH370 if given control of air force, navy‘.

BELOW:  Mrs Ng Wei Aik thinks Malaysia is a rotten country

Unity and oneness, caring and sharing

Yuki Tan, who is wife to DAP Tanjong MP Ng Wei Aik (Guan Eng’s former pol-sec), wrote – “What kind of rotten country is this place!” – in her Facebook in mid-July this year. After a public outcry, she backtracked and said, oops, sorry! Let’s pray for MH17!

Some Chinese think that Malaysia is a rotten country.

Some Chinese think that Malays are pendatang too. These Chinese are curious to know why Malays want to datang to a rotten country. It would be better for the Malay emigrants to have sailed to Papua New Guinea.

Some Chinese Christians have integrated so well that they speak bahasa Melayu at home and use the language in their prayers. It is for this reason that they think the Malays’ Allah is their Allah too, one and the same.

What is yours is ours and what is ours is yours. We share and share the bad …  烂 国家 (“rotten country”) … and the good kalimah Allah alike.

Power to the Malay-sian people!

Hidup rakyat! Hidup rakyat! Hidup rakyat!