A recent comment asked of my opinion on the “Marginalization of the Malays”. In this day of age, yeah it still exist and you’ll be a fool to think it doesn’t. Well does it bother me that much however?
Nahh, maybe just slightly. I’ve been marginalized and excluded based on my ethnicity before, who doesn’t. Yellow, Chindians, Melayus, Serani, Mixed, we all have.
Just because we Malays have a free education by the government, does that means it gives us the Malays an excuse and a mindset of a lazy proxy for disadvantage?
When more Malays are entering universities, the playing field is now level? .. haha, food for thought eh.
People have always been insecure, that’s why such those who is more prone to such insecurities tend to breed and perpetuate race ethnic subordination and the marginalization.
But does such marginalization represent the majority of the population in Singapore? … I don’t think so.
The young of today have very much been spared , born and grown up in an environment which is far more forgiving let’s say 50-100 years back when our colonial wars, first and second World War shaped racial and ethnic hierarchy back then.
Still life is not a bed of roses. The social development to counter marginalization of any race, I believe lies at a more fundamental level. To me it’s more important to ask what we as an individual can do in terms of economic, cultural and social conditions to promote solidarity.
All I can say, “If it is up to be, it is up to me”
Melayu Boleh!
mariginalization is inevitable. even when we thought that a degree and experience is already good enough to strike a home run, there will be,at least once,someone out there who will ask “Do you speak Mandarin?”
good point … if i were to asked that question, i’ll retort “Do you speak Malay”? See how they feel, but then again, by doing so, you’ll likely won’t get the job, haha. It might however score points in ‘feel-good’ factor
Race should never be a factor for improvement..
Anyhow I feel the Malay community has definitely leapt in bounds in terms of their capabilities and educational achievements..
Maybe the only damn reason they are not and might never be up there was simply because the opportunity was not given. Period.
In any case yes.. Melayu memang boleh! when given the opportunity..
let’s give it another 10-20 years down the road, to see the progress.
focus more on family, let the younger generation has a different mindset hopefully. its up to us to give them the headstart & opportunity that we didn’t have or worked harder than ‘others’
I do not think it’s just marginalization per se, it’s competition. Even if this whole place is made up of Malays, we’d still have to ‘find’ those opportunities. It doesn’t fall on a silver platter.
Christopher Gardner, in the movie ‘Pursuit of Happyness’ told this to his son :
“You got a dream, you gotta protect it. People can’t do something themselves, they wanna tell you that you can’t do it. You want something? Go get it. Period.”
(adapted from Protecting Dreams)
of course there’s competition, all up for grabs daily. i don’t want to sound sour but singapore is not all malays, marginalization still exist and happens. i’m all for any competition but it’s a loss cause if the end result, the client or boss still persist on the ‘other’ fella, even if you’ve done well beyond expectation. muz know your fight
True on the competition aspect..
But for discussion sake.. don’t you think at certain instances even when one sought the opportunities, there might be instances when the opportunities might be taken away from you with some reason that probably makes no sense but for the fact that it was dictated to be as such, you are then deprive of that opportunity.. even on a level playing field?
Of course one shouldn’t feel all is lost when that happens.. in an ideal world we’ll just get up and try harder the next time..
yeah Edroos, agreed, the world we live in is no fairy tale .. i wish it was, coz i wanna meet Cinderella lah, keke
What makes you arrive at the conclusion that Malays are marginalized? I do find this rather disconcerting to find such shallow perceptions allowed to prosper in our heads. Did the government manage to make your believe such nonsense? Or does sensitivity and serendipity
makes a sudden realization?
As it may, we far better off finding a way forward then sitting and complain where no one is bothered to hear. The time to act is now.
rightttttttt
yeah let’s act now … your masterplan pls. indulge me
Wow comments are so recent and i thought this topics has long been dead. I kind of bump into this blog when i was searching for Global Malays.
In NUS Malay Language and History dept do have such discussion about Malay Marginality. Anyway in any country or so, such things do happen to the minorities.
It happens to be the Chinese in Malaysia, but see what happens to them. Even being the minority there are the ones who runs the economy. I think without them Malaysia will still be a kampong country.
Anyway being Malay or not, everyone should have aims, aspirations and goals. When you hit a hurdle, be creative and work around that issues. Not just complain and complain. Whether we get the opportunities or not. The question is are we the one creating the opportunities ourselves – I guess this will sip in the concept of ENtrepreneurship.
The concept that we stand on should be how Singapore look at defense. “Never rely on others to defend us”. So us Malays should start building up our mindset and think this way that “We should never rely on someone else to feed us”.
Therefore we have to start building and creating our own resources and develop jobs for our people and not just work for others.
Comments?
can to shed some info on “NUS Malay Language and History” discussion on this
another keyword other than entrepreneurship is initiative
one must act, when one wants something. simple as that. maginalization may come into play but that can be resolved if we’re persistent and resourceful
i guess once more malays are into that kind of mindset i’ve and you mentioned, maybe lesser people will think likewise of the malays of old