Thuan Chye Responds to "Orang Cina Malaysia, apa lagi yang anda mahu?"(Utusan Malaysia article)

Hi All,

This is a long but very good article.

Hope you will find it meaningful too.





Thuan Chye was a 5 star journalist during his time and his articles are worth reading over and over again.

Subject: Fw: Utusan Says "Chinese Malaysians Ask Far Too Much"... and Thuan Chye Responds

TC Replies to the article "Orang Cina Malaysia, apa lagi yang anda mahu?"


"Chinese Malaysians Asking Far Too Much"

By Zaini Hassan
Source - Straits Times, published Apr 30, 2010

WHAT else do Chinese Malaysians want? Let us put aside the reasons why they do not support the current government in Kuala Lumpur. Let us study first what else they want.

For that, we have to go back to history. The Chinese came to Malaya to seek opportunities. They had lived a hard life in mainland China for hundreds of years. Like the whites who migrated to the American continent because it was the land of opportunity, the Chinese migrated to Malaya to make their fortunes in this bountiful land.
The strategy of their forebears has borne fruit. The Chinese have attained what they wanted. They now live in the lap of luxury in this land of opportunity called Malaysia.
In fact, it is not only in Malaysia that they have attained what they wanted. They have even gained full control of Singapore. Singapore is not their original country. The Singapore Chinese and the Malaysian Chinese were originally boat people. The difference is that those who landed in Singapore managed to gain full control of Singapore, but those who landed in Malaysia did not manage to control Malaysia.
In Malaysia, the Chinese live in peace with the Malays, the indigenous people and the Indians. In comparison, in Singapore, the Chinese control politics and the Government. In Malaysia, the Malays still control politics and the government. The systems of both governments are the same, but it is vice versa: The Malays dominate in Malaysia while the Chinese dominate across the Causeway.
In contrast, the Malays in Singapore and the Chinese in Malaysia are very different. The Malays in Singapore lead ordinary lives while the Chinese in Malaysia lead lives that are 'more than ordinary'.
In fact, former Malaysian prime minister Mahathir Mohamad once stated that if all the Chinese-owned buildings in Kuala Lumpur were lifted from the map, only the buildings in Kampung Baru, a Malay area, would remain in the city.
All the other buildings are owned by Chinese Malaysians. The well-known shopping centres in Malaysia are owned by the Chinese.
The Chinese Malaysians are fantastic. They control all the cities and major towns in peninsular Malaysia, as well as Sabah and Sarawak. They produce the largest number of, and the most successful, professionals. The school system of the Chinese Malaysians is the best among similar school systems in the world.
The Chinese account for most of the students studying in the best private colleges in Malaysia. The Malays can gain admission into only government-owned colleges of ordinary reputation.
With regard to corporate and private organisations, it is the Chinese who dominate. The Malays number just a few; most of them are low-level employees. In fact, knowing Mandarin is a prerequisite for applying for jobs in these organisations.
Finally, an annual survey by the Malaysian Business magazine has found that eight of the 10 richest people in Malaysia are Chinese. The following is the list of the 10 richest people in Malaysia:


Mr Robert Kuok Hock Nien
Mr Tatparanandam Ananda Krishnan
Tan Sri Lee Shin Cheng
Tan Sri Teh Hong Piow
Tan Sri Lim Kok Thay


Tan Sri Quek Leng Chan
Tan Sri Syed Mokhtar Al-Bukhary
Puan Sri Lee Kim Hua
Tan Sri Tiong Hiew King
Tan Sri Vincent Tan Chee Yioun


This is the reality in Malaysia, my beloved country. Is the current government, which has been in power for 52 years, cruel and totalitarian? What else do the Chinese Malaysians want? I think I know, and I think you know too.


Date: Sunday, 2 May, 2010, 10:16 PM



Here is Thuan Chye's response to Utusan Malaysia's article

Source: www.freemalaysiatoday.com

Thuan Chye Responds to "Orang Cina Malaysia, apa lagi yang anda mahu?"(Utusan Malaysia article)


By Kee Thuan Chye

Every time the Barisan Nasional gets less than the expected support from Chinese voters at an election, the question invariably pops up among the petty-minded: Why are the Chinese ungrateful?
So now, after the Hulu Selangor by-election, it's not surprising to read in Utusan Malaysia a piece that asks: "Orang Cina Malaysia, apa lagi yang anda mahu?" (trans. Chinese of Malaysia, what more do you want?)
Normally, something intentionally provocative and propagandistic as this doesn't deserve to be honoured with a reply. But even though I'm fed up with such disruptive and ethnocentric polemics, this time I feel obliged to reply - partly because the article has also been published, in an English translation, in the Straits Times of Singapore.
I wish to emphasise here that I am replying not as a Chinese Malaysian but, simply, as a Malaysian. Let me say at the outset that the Chinese have got nothing more than what any citizen should get. So to ask "what more" it is they want, is misguided. A correct question would be, "What do the Chinese want?"
All our lives, we Chinese have held to the belief that no one owes us a living. We have to work for it. Most of us have got where we are by the sweat of our brow, not by handouts or the policies of the government.
We have come to expect nothing - not awards, not accolades, not gifts from official sources. (Let's not lump in Datukships, that's a different ball game.) We know that no Chinese who writes in the Chinese language will ever be bestowed the title of Sasterawan Negara, unlike in Singapore where the literatures of all the main language streams are recognised and honoured with the Cultural Medallion, etc.
We have learned we can't expect the government to grant us scholarships. Some will get those, but countless others won't. We've learned to live with that and to work extra hard in order to support our children to attain higher education - because education is very important to us. We experience a lot of daily pressure to achieve that. Unfortunately, not many non-Chinese realise or understand that. In fact, many Chinese had no choice but to emigrate for the sake of their children's further education. Or to accept scholarships from abroad, many from Singapore, which has inevitably led to a brain drain.
The writer of the Utusan article says the Chinese "account for most of the students" enrolled in "the best private colleges in Malaysia". Even so, the Chinese still have to pay a lot of money to have their children study in these colleges. And to earn that money, the parents have to work very hard. The money does not fall from the sky.
The writer goes on to add: "The Malays can gain admission into only government-owned colleges of ordinary reputation." That is utter nonsense. Some of these colleges are meant for the cream of the Malay crop of students and are endowed with the best facilities. They are given elite treatment.
The writer also fails to acknowledge that the Chinese are barred from being admitted to some of these colleges. As a result, the Chinese are forced to pay more money to go to private colleges. Furthermore, the Malays are also welcome to enrol in the private colleges, and many of them do. It's, after all, a free enterprise.

Plain and simple reason
The writer claims that the Chinese live "in the lap of luxury" and lead lives that are "more than ordinary" whereas the Malays in Singapore, their minority-race counterparts there, lead "ordinary lives". Such sweeping statements sound inane especially when they are not backed up by definitions of "lap of luxury" and "ordinary lives". They sound hysterical, if not hilarious as well, when they are not backed up by evidence. It's surprising that a national daily like Utusan Malaysia would publish something as idiosyncratic as that. And the Straits Times too.
The writer quotes from a survey that said eight of the 10 richest people in Malaysia are Chinese. Well, if these people are where they are, it must have also come from hard work and prudent business sense. Is that something to be faulted?
If the writer had said that some of them achieved greater wealth through being given crony privileges and lucrative contracts by the government, there might be a point, but even then, it would still take hard work and business acumen to secure success. Certainly, Syed Mokhtar Al-Bukhary, who is one of the 10, would take exception if it were said that he has not worked hard and lacks business savvy.
Most important, it should be noted that the eight Chinese tycoons mentioned in the survey represent but a minuscule percentage of the wider Chinese Malaysian population. To extrapolate that because eight Chinese are filthy rich, the rest of the Chinese must therefore live in the lap of luxury and lead more than ordinary lives would be a mockery of the truth. The writer has obviously not met the vast numbers of very poor Chinese.
The crux of the writer's article is that the Chinese are not grateful to the government by not voting for Barisan Nasional at the Hulu Selangor by-election. But this demonstrates the thinking of either a simple mind or a closed one.
Why did the Chinese by and large not vote for BN? Because it's corrupt. Plain and simple. Let's call a spade a spade. And BN showed how corrupt it was during the campaign by throwing bribes to the electorate, including baiting a Chinese school in Rasa by promising RM3 million should it win the by-election.
The Chinese were not alone in seeing this corruption. The figures are unofficial but one could assume that at least 40 per cent of Malays and 45 per cent of Indians who voted against BN in that by-election also had their eyes open. So, what's wrong with not supporting a government that is corrupt? If the government is corrupt, do we continue to support it?
To answer the question then, what do the Chinese want?
They want a government.

a. that is not corrupt;

b. that can govern well and proves to have done so;

c. that tells the truth rather than lies;

d. that follows the rule of law;

e. that upholds rather than abuses the country's sacred institutions.

Because BN does not fit that description, the Chinese have learned not to vote for it. This is not what only the Chinese want. It is something every sensible Malaysian, regardless of race, wants. Is that something that is too difficult to understand?
Some people think that the government is to be equated with the country, and therefore if someone does not support the government, they are being disloyal to the country. This is a complete fallacy. BN is not Malaysia. It is merely a political coalition that is the government of the day. Rejecting BN is not rejecting the country.

A sense of belonging
Let's be clear about this important distinction. In America, the people sometimes vote for the Democrats and sometimes for the Republicans. Voting against the one that is in government at the time is not considered disloyalty to the country.
By the same token, voting against UMNO is also voting against a party, not against a race. And if the Chinese or whoever criticise UMNO, they are criticising the party; they are not criticising Malays. It just happens that UMNO's leaders are Malay.
It is time all Malaysians realised this so that we can once and for all dispel the confusion. Let us no longer confuse country with government. We can love our country and at the same time hate the government. It is perfectly all right.
I should add here what the Chinese don't want:

a. We don't want to be insulted,

b. We don't want to be called pendatang

c. We don't want to be told to be grateful for our citizenship.

We have been loyal citizens; we duly and dutifully pay taxes; we respect the country's constitution and its institutions. Our forefathers came to this country many generations ago and helped it to prosper. We are continuing to contribute to the country's growth and development.
Would anyone like to be disparaged, made to feel unwelcome or unwanted? For the benefit of the writer of the Utusan article, what MCA president Chua Soi Lek means when he says the MCA needs to be more vocal is that it needs to speak up whenever the Chinese community is disparaged. For too long, the MCA has not spoken up strongly enough when UMNO politicians and associates like Ahmad Ismail, Nasir Safar, Ahmad Noh and others before them insulted the Chinese and made them feel like they don't belong. That's why the Chinese have largely rejected the MCA.
You see, the Chinese, like all human beings, want self-respect. And a sense of belonging in this country they call home. That is all the Chinese want, and have always wanted. Nothing more.

The Utusan Malaysia article: Orang Cina Malaysia, apa lagi yang anda mahu?

Dramatist and journalist Kee Thuan Chye is the author of 'March 8: The Day Malaysia Woke Up'. He is a contributor to Free Malaysia Today.

废言

1.
最體面的理由
："Saya takut la cikgu! Terlalu handsome, manyak perempuan tengok saya"
2.
最實事求是的理由
："Cikgu terlalu hodoh! Saya tak tahan tengok!"
3.
最拍馬屁的理由
："Cikgu terlalu cantik~~~ Saya takut saya tak boleh tahan juga..."
4.
最無聊的理由
："Kawan sebelah maja tak mau cakap dengan saya"
5.
最是理由的理由
："Kawan saya belanja makan...Bayar hutang..Cikgu mau saya pinjam kasi u?"
6.
最Cheap的理由
："Saya tolong nenek saya pindah rumah"
7.
最蠻橫的理由
："Tak syok! Tarak feel!"
8.
最無奈的理由
："Stokin saya baru cuci semalam..belum kering..tak pakai pigi sekolah tak boleh....."
9.
最丟面子的理由
："Tadi nampak leng lui di atas jalan...Tak nampak jalan dan jatuh dalam longkang....."
10.
最受挫折的理由
："Girlfren tak mau saya.... Cikgu....!! saya manyak sakit hati!!!" （抱着老师狂哭，老师呆着）
11.
最胡說八道的理由
："Ayah mau kahwin dengan emak sekali lagi..."
12.
最侮辱教育部的理由
："Kerusi di sekolah sangat cheap! Saya tak boleh tidur dengan baik! "
13.
最進步的理由
："Saya terkutip 1 ringgit..cari satu hari baru nampak seorang polis..."
14。
最令人同情的理由
："Saya sesat jalan...kemudian kena rompak...kena hantam cukup cukup...kemudian seorang kata dia Gay...."
15.
最病態的理由
："Saya tak boleh keluar rumah pada 1,13,21, dan 28 setiap bulan.."
16.
最挨不著邊的理由
："Aunti sebelah rumah pigi hospital lahir anak.."
17.
最變態的理由
："aiyoo Cikgu,...saya setiap bulan 'itu' pun datang sekali lla malunye....hehe..cikgu jahat oo~" (狂抛眉眼，老师呕！）
18.
最抽象的理由
："saya nampak seekor harimau sedang main chess dengan Mike Tyson, jadi saya pun tengok tengok tengok...."
19.
最幸福的理由
："tadi datang sekolah manyak leng lui kacau saya "
20.
最可恥的理由
："Breakfes makan terlalu banyak! Tak boleh jalan.."
21.
最遭罪的理由
："Tadi pigi tandas tak ada toilet paper, tunggu dalam sana sehingga Emak balik.."
22.
最天真的理由
："Semalam saya kira bintang ....""
23.
最關心自己的理由
："Semalam saya tidur sangat lewat, takut tak cukup rehat, jadi saya tidur banyak sikit hari ini"

Oops! I did it again...

It's not just us regular folks who end up saying something embarrassing. Famous, powerful and talented people around the world Frequently end their feet in their mouth too;and of course, their gaffes are often remembered and talked about for years.
The next time you see a celebrity's silly mistake or statements splashed all over the internet, thank your lucky stars that no one is around to record your "talk before you think " moments. Here are a few famous folks and their not-so-proud moments.



Pop star Britney Spears obviously didn't pay attention during geography. She once famously asked,"Where is Australia anyway?"



Singer/actress Jessica Simpson finds her food a tad mystifying: "Is this chicken,(what I'm having), or is this fish? I know it's tuna, but it says "Chicken of the Sea".



Heartthrob singer Joe Jonas of the Jonas Brothers was left blushing when an over-excited fan threw a bra at him during a concert. Confused, he actually picked it up before throwing it on the ground again for one of the security people to collect.



Songstress Kelly Clarkson proved that even celebs get starstruck; when she met her idol Mariah Carey, Clarkson blurted out, "I think I'm gonna puke!"



Actress Drew Barrymore probably didn't realize that this sounded a little creepy: "If I die before my cat, I want a little of my ashes put in his food so i can live inside him."



Former US president George W. Bush confused everyone (including himself) with this cryptic statement: "I want to be a war president. No president wants to be a war president."



R&B diva Beyonce Knowles learnt the hard way that high heels and staircases don't always mix when her stylish walk onstage during a concert in Orlando, the United States, was disrupted by her tripping and falling headlong down the stairs. Within minutes, the video was all over the internet.



The King of Rock & Roll, Elvis Presley, didn't win many fans when he said," I don't know anything about music. In my line you don't have to."

W.I.T.C.H.!!!!!!!! XD

Music saves my soul when it's UPSR...

~Roanne~

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Roanne (Rouana in Arpitan) is a commune in the Loire department in central France.

It is located 90 km (56 mi) northwest of Lyon on the Loire River.

Economy

Roanne is known for gastronomy (largely because of the famous Troisgros family), textiles, agriculture and manufacturing tanks.

Gastronomy

The Ecole des Trois Ponts, headed by Rene' Dorel, is situated in the Villa Beaulieu in the neighboring community of Riorges, welcoming 200 to 300 foreign guests each year desiring to perfect their culinary talents and practice their French language skills.

History

The toponomy is Gaulish, Rod-Onna ("flowing water") which became Rodumna, then Rouhanne and Roanne. The town was sited at a strategic point, the head of navigation on the Loire, below its narrow gorges. As a trans-shipping point, its importance declined with the collapse of long-distance trade after the fourth century. In the twelfth century, the site passed to the comte du Forez, under whose care it began to recover. An overland route led to Lyon and the Rhône, thus Roanne developed as a transshipping point between Paris and the Mediterranean in early modern France, when waterways were at least as important as roads.

The renewed navigation on the Loire encouraged the export of local products— wines, including casks of Beaujolais that had been shipped overland, ceramics, textiles—and after 1785, coal from Saint-Étienne, which had formerly been onloaded upstream at Saint-Rambert, since river improvements at the beginning of the century. Sturdy goods were rafted downriver on sapinières that were dismantled after use. Half the population of seventeenth and eighteenth-century Roanne depended in some way on this transportation economy: merchants and factors, carriers, carpenters and coopers, master-boatmen and their journeymen and oarsmen, and waterfront laborers (Braudel p360f).

Roanne was one of the first towns served by railroad, with the opening, 15 March 1833, of the terminal on the right bank at the port of Varennes of the third line, from Andrézieux. Following came the opening of the canal from Roanne to Digoin (1838), which placed the city in the forefront of the French Industrial Revolution.

In 1917 the arsenal was established at Roanne, and from 1940 a new industry developed, producing rayon and other new fibers. In the post-industrial phase that set in during the 1970s, Roanne struggled to find new industry and attract tourism.

Roanne: Cool, huh? I was bored and when to google to search my name and... (^-^)

Why Chinese shouldn't have Christian names=]

Confusing Chinese Names

Caller : Hello, can I speak to Annie Wan?


Operator : Yes, you can speak to me.


Caller : No, I want to speak to Annie Wan!


Operator : You are talking to me! Who is this?


Caller : I'm Sam Wan. And I need to talk to Annie Wan! It's urgent.


Operator : I know you are someone and you want to talk to anyone! But what's this urgent matter about?


Caller : Well... just tell my sister Annie Wan that our brother Noel Wan has involved in an accident. Noel Wan got injured and is being sent to the hospital. Right now, Avery Wan is on his way to the hospital.


Operator : Look if no one was injured and no one was sent to the hospital, then the accident isn't an urgen t matter! You may find this hilarious but I don't have time for this!


Caller : You are so rude! Who are you?


Operator : I'm Saw Lee.


Caller : Yes! You should be sorry. Now give me your name!!!





===========================================================================================================


This is hilarious ...

Why Chinese shouldn't have Christian names:

Anne Chang => Dirty (Mandarin)
Anne Chin => Keep Quiet (Mandarin)
Faye Chen => Dusty (Mandarin)
Carl Cheng => Buttock (Hokkien)
Monica Cheng => Touching your buttocks (Hokkien)
Lucy Leow => You are dead (Hokkien)
Jane Tan => Frying eggs (Mandarin)
Suzie Leow => Lose till death (Hokkien)
Henry Mah => Hate your mum (Mandarin)
Corrine Tai => Poor fellow (Hokkien)
Paul Chan => Bankrupt (Mandarin)
Nelson Tan => Bird laying eggs (Mandarin)
Leslie Tong => Rubbish Bin (Mandarin)
Carmen Teng => Leg hair long (Hokkien)
Connie Mah => Call your mother (Cantonese)
Danny See => Squeeze you to death (Hokkien)
Rosie Teng => Screws and nails (Hokkien)
Pete Tsai => Nose droppings (Hokkien)
Macy Koh => Never die before (Cantonese)