Ismail Sabri addressed the UN yesterday and devoted roughly three-and-a-half minutes of his speech to championing the plight of the Palestinians.
Harapan’s non Malays here at home rolled their eyes – see Malaysiakini tweet below – and bitched the same old, same old complaints they’ve been venting the past 50 years.
Standing virtually on the global platform in New York, Ismail Sabri had rebuked the Israelis for imposing “apartheid” on oppressed Palestinians.
Malaysiakini associate editor Martin Vengadesan opined in his column today that the PM should perhaps first look in our backyard before lecturing abroad about apartheid.
Martin’s readers, of course, could be relied upon to amplify the non-Malay grievance that the proverbial mote which is lodged in the eye (of the Jew) is seen as elephantine in size, but the beam in the eye of the Malay leadership is conveniently overlooked.
Or in BM, ‘kuman di seberang lautan tampak, gajah di pelupuk mata tiada tampak’.
Ismail Sabri has been PM for one month and five days.
Mahathir had been PM for 24 years — accounting for almost half the 50-year time span since the inception of NEP.
Hence the condition of our backyard has infinitely more to do with Mahathir’s stewardship than with Ismail Sabri’s.
So then, why have Harapan’s non-Malay supporters been canoodling with Mahathir in the said backyard?
Up till February 2020, certain popular DAP reps have been kissing Mahathir’s feet, licking his toes and sucking his other body parts. Some of them are still doing this.
Mahathir, needless to say, has been an ardent champion of the Palestinians and vociferous critic of the Jews on the world stage.
Now imagine if Martin’s article above – headlined ‘Why minorities did an eye-roll over Umno PM’s “apartheid” remark’ – had been published anytime between 2018 – 2020.
Back when Mahathir had been the Harapan PM, the echo chamber in Malaysiakini would likely been conspicuously silent on the matter of this apartheid in our own backyard.
Transitory: The Non Malays’ out migration
Mahathir’s views about the non Malays have remained consistent throughout his political career. For example, he griped about Chinese wealth 50 years ago and he’s still griping about the rich Chinese today.
Mahathir wrote in The Malay Dilemma:
“The coming of the Europeans greatly increased the influx of non-Malays, especially Chinese and Indians, into Malaya. The impermanent character of their stay in Malaya made them a people apart, never really coming in contact with the Malays. This lack of contact minimized conflict, although towards the later part of British rule the Malays became more and more conscious of the danger the Chinese and Indians posed to their political power in the country.”
Mahathir hypothesized that it is not in the nature of Indians and Chinese to stay permanently in Malaya.
The anecdote told by Martin Vengadesan lends credence to Mahathir’s view about the passage of the transient non Malays.
Recommended read:
‘2.3 million Chinese came to Malaya in the 1920s’ —read HERE
According to Martin, his great-grandfather came to Malaya in the 1890s.
His sisters however are currently living and working in London and Washington DC.
Martin added that “close to 80 percent” of his generation of family and friends have already emigrated from Malaysia.
Some non Malays have left the country; driven away by – to quote Martin – “our outdated racist systems”.
Some years back, the DAP’s (now) Segambut MP Hannah Yeoh advised young Malaysians — refer her tweet above:
“Just heard news another young lawyer friend will be migrating to Australia. Young people, don’t lose hope. Don’t change your country, change your government!”
And lo and behold!
DAP, with its 42 MPs, led the charge to change the gomen — successfully replacing Umno’s Najib with Bersatu’s Mahathir as the executive head of state.
Apartheid in our backyard, it would seem, is a ‘now you see it, now you don’t’ kinda thing with the always indignant non Malays.
The DAP voter base, evidently, had their eyeballs rolling too dizzily in their sockets to see any taint of apartheid on Beloved Atuk the Harapan chairman.
Helen Ang 
harapan staying quiet is harapan problem, nothing to do with minority claim the exist of structural racism and institutional racism. we choose to remain here or moving out is our choice, fact remain that many malay discriminate against chinese and indian. and chinese do discriminate against indian, but still nobody can denied that indian face discrimination from both private and public. so mahathir is right because malay have good enough reason and justification to discriminate against others?
Apartheid in Malaysia. This mantra had been repeated many times by DAP leaders .What else did they said…third class citizens..
I was asked about this by Mat Salleh friend. I told him come to Malaysia and see for yourself. Once he did landed in Kuala Lumpur , I brought him to see Bukit Bintang and we enjoyed eating durians in the midst of Chinese crowds . I told him the whole of Kuala Lumpur is a china town and in fact all towns in Malaysia you can consider as China town and may be one or two streets that perceived as Indian or Malay town. So how do you perceived a minority that lived under apartheid policy to control the economy of the country and they were very well off compared to the majority.