Salient. Victoria University Student Newspaper. Vol. 37, No. 19. July 31, 1974

The privileged class

The privileged class

Dear Editor,

R. Pui has made the right analysis of the Malaysian political situation. Amin, Annoyed Malaysian, A Group of Loyal Malaysians and True Malaysian reflect the typical irrational reaction to criticism

The "commie" spectre is raised again but this is unconvincing. The communists in Malaysia never really got off the ground with the previous colonial government making a lot of false promises to them and then letting them down when they gave Malaya independence by denying them legal recognition. A lot of the present Malaysian problems are attributable to this betrayal. The source of Malaysia's problems lies not in the insurgency problem but in the fact that it has never really been independent.

Malaysia is a neo-colony of foreign powers whose presence are so evident there, the plantations, tin mines, timber milling, manufacturing industries and ad nauseam. The government has continued the old British play in rule through dividing the people through the language, religions, special privilege issues. This is the core of the problem. It is easy for people to boil up just because these issues are mentioned. Some take it as an attack on their language, religion and specific privileges, hence are very sensitive to any talk about these topics.

These sensitive issues have created second class citizens out of more than half the citizens of Malaysia. Who can then be proud of being a Malaysian when he does not enjoy equal privileges no less with the privileged class? This is however a dream. We do not even enjoy the basic human rights.

Second-class Malaysian