The Injustice of Affirmative Action
THE INJUSTICE OF AFFIRMATIVE ACTION
The Downfall for those Who Have Them
Across the globe, affirmative action is becoming a phenomenon, even in the United States. In Malaysia, the case has always been so since 1957. I am not questioning our special rights per se, but merely highlighting the effects on the Malays and the Natives of Sabah and Sarawak. Although my name sounds non-Malay, I enjoy these special rights as well. I am studying in University Teknologi MARA, remember? In my view, the affirmative action has brought more harm than good on the mentality side of our community.
Article 153 of the Federal Constitution, among others, touches the surface of the special rights of the Malays and, after September 16th, 1963, the Natives of Sabah and Sarawak (Federal Constitution). Scores of provisions in the Federal Constitution contains safeguards for this group of races. The main idea was to redistribute wealth among the people of then Malaya. During the British era, the so-called divide et impera policy - divide-and-rule - caused economic & political gaps in Malaya between the local Malays and immigrant Chinese and Indians (Chin Ung Ho, 2000). The special rights was intended to remedy the situation of imbalanced distribution of wealth. As the days progress, the question now is asked: these special rights were granted at what cost?
Affirmative action have made the Malays and Natives of Sabah and Sarawak too dependant of the Governments, both State and Federal. The Government is responsible to help the citizens but not to the point that they depend entirely on the government. The enterprising spirits of these various races and ethnic groups have slowly diminished. The people rely heavily on government subsidies and grants. They don’t go out and look for other means and methods to improve their situation. The problem is the Government does not have all the money in the world to help them. There are times when projects are abandoned and communities neglected; in Economics this is called “Opportunity Cost”. Sacrificing most for the best due to limited resources. Take a look at the Federal Budget Chart as supplied by the Ministry of Finance and interpret it. Subsidies, regardless of the name, are still subsidies.
Next, affirmative action costs us our mentality. Just because it is law that we enjoy special privileges, we take it for granted. We think that UiTM and MARA will always be there for us. We assume that the government will always “protect and preserve” our rights. We loose touch with reality. As a student in UiTM, I miss the competitions which I had with my non-Malay friends and classmates, especially the Chinese. Being born and raised in Sarawak, the Indian population is relatively low. The Chinese evidently does not enjoy the special rights; how is it that 25 out of Malaysia’s 40 Richest are Chinese? (Forbes, 2006) Rhetoric is not enough; instead of just cursing and defaming others, why don’t we learn from and try to emulate their success stories. That’s just the richest. We’re yet to start on the smartest, most adaptable etc.
For affirmative action, we lost our competitive edge. Stemming from the above reasons. Our community oppose the Government’s move to take us out of our comfort zone. We blame the government for every unfortunate event. Instead of trying to be competitive and adaptable, we remain stubborn, arrogant and ignorant. We constantly blame others for our own weaknesses. My Muslim colleagues complain of the Jews and how God condemns them to the end of time. Yet they acknowledge the Jews control today’s world. It is typical for them to reminisce and be proud of the days of the Caliphs and Golden Age of the Islamic Civilisation - and that’s where their efforts would stop. I’m not defaming anyone; try going to their forums etc. It will always be “in the time of the Caliphs” or “in the time of the Prophet”, which will always be followed by “we should follow them”. That’s the most that a majority of them ever did. As for us Natives, we would recall the time of our great ancestors, how heroic and brave they were. We merely remember, never try to relive them.
This “short” article took me about 2 hours to write. I tried looking for sources. This is some of my opinion on the matter. There are others which have been formulated and more while will be formulated with the passing of time. Affirmative action has done us more harm subconsciously than good. We don’t utilise the opportunities served to us in gold platter; we take them for granted. 50 years have passed since Malaya and 44 years since Malaysia, how far have we come?
I agree totally. In fact I have also discuss with my friend (He is also a Malay studying in Japan) about this.
Affirmative action, where ever and when ever it is practised, does more harm then good because rather then empower those that it is intended to help to reach their goals, it artificially lowers the barriers towards those goals rendering it “easier” to achieve them. Also since the lowering of those barriers are but artificial, they cannot survive forever. Furthermore with globalisation and our quest to be competative on the world stage, subsidies will become harder to maintain (not to mention with the rising cost of essential goods as the result of wars promulgated by certian irresponsible quarters out there, more expensive)
The fact that affirmative action is a failure has been so well established it might even be taken as given. The fact remains however that as of yet there are still many Bumiputras that remain unable to cope with today’s challenges (a fact made worse with affirmative action). So instead of affirmative action, what approach can we take instead to solve this problem? One way is to introduce joku schools (after school hours “schools”) as practised in Japan, Korea and Taiwan, especially for those weak in their studies. My friend who I had talked to commended this idea and added that educationists and specialists, and NOT politicians, should supervise them. With this approach, instead of artificially lowering barriers, we can push them from behind instead. Surely when one climbs a mountain, one deserves to get all the assistance he/she needs to get to the top, but never to the extend of having the mountain itself demolished for him/her.
Ferman
2 Mar 07 at 5:35 pm
“Surely when one climbs a mountain, one deserves to get all the assistance he/she needs to get to the top, but never to the extend of having the mountain itself demolished for him/her.”
I like that line. Might I add that if the mountain is demolished, the beauty of the mountain, the challenges and the fulfillment would never be the same nor anything close.
Aldric
5 Mar 07 at 12:33 am