Interesting for all Malaysians to reflect on this news report...
Personally, I believe government should still practice positive discrimination in favour of the poor - not on based on any particular ethnic, religious or cultural basis.
We need to seriously evaluate who the 'special status' policy really benefited over the years? The rich few, or the poor - given the fact that many Malay households remain poor till today.
Shameful for Malays to still depend on crutches, says Rafidah
BY JENNIFER GOMEZ
Published: 30 January 2016 2:32 PM
Tan
Sri Rafidah Aziz (right) with author and social critic Dr M. Bakri Musa
at the launch of his book in Shah Alam, today. Rafidah says it is time
Malays stop thinking they are 'special' and must continue getting help
from government policies. – The Malaysian Insider pic by Kamal Ariffin,
January 30, 2016.
Malays are still imprisoned by the
thinking that they are "special" and deserving of certain privileges,
says former minister Tan Sri Rafidah Aziz.
Speaking at the launch of a book titled "Liberating The Malay Mind"
by author Dr M. Bakri Musa, the former Wanita Umno chief said it was
shameful that after all these years, the community still wanted to
depend on their "special status".
She added that such dependency detracted from the spirit of the New
Economic Policy, which was a social engineering of society to help those
who had fallen behind in terms of economy and education.
"That was why the government undertook the restructuring, because
the Malays were very underprivileged, not because you deserved it
because you are Malay.
"You deserved it at that time because you were so far behind, you
needed the scholarships, you needed the MRSM (Mara Junior Science
College), and so on.
"But today, we still want tongkat (crutches) when our legs are okay,
and want to depend on the special status as Malays, so shameful," she
said.
Rafidah said she was concerned that Malays were not ready for the
future, and stressed the need to nurture the young with good universal
values such as integrity, trustworthiness, responsibility,
accountability and respect for others.
"We have to nurture these values among Malays, otherwise, we will be stuck in a time warp and will not move.
"We have to liberate young minds from all that is negative," she added.
Rafidah also spoke of the need to nurture leadership values and qualities in the younger generation.
"They must have global minds and earn respect not because they are
Malays, but because they are Malaysians and the country can be proud of
them," she added. – January 30, 2016.
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