Abu Sida
3:06pm Thu Jan 30th, 2003

With regard to the letter by Hady Hud, I have to say I was disappointed and a little afraid. Not so much afraid of the threatening boisterous overtones of his letter, but more of the subtle implications it made. As a young Malaysian, I have to recognise the fact that these could be the people I went to school with, these could be the people I had lunch with, these could be the people I used to play games with.

Now, it seems that they have all grown up, gotten politically charged and swept up into the flow. I o­nce imagined that our generation would hold the hope for a change for the better. The innocence of youth, where we used to mingle freely without regard for 'special rights' or equality in the bureacratic sense, is gone. True equality that we enjoyed as children has been replaced by defensiveness and a desire for compensation for perceived inadequecies.

"Being a group of young Malay professionals, we are strongly opposed to any attempt to cause a rift between the races in Malaysia. We have always maintained strong cordial relations with our counterpart from other races and we continue to strengthen our relationship based o­n the principles of respect, tolerance and understanding."

To this statement from the group, I say: As long as you remain unfairly advantaged of course. As a young malay professional, do you find it necessary to have all those benefits in order to be competitive with the other races? Would you be as 'respectful' or 'tolerant' when brought down to an equal playing field? I believe the concept of racial superiority as a driving force for politics has been tried before in the global past with disastrous results. Are we that different?

"We urge the Home Ministry to consider acting immediately against malaysiakini with the objective of setting an example for others that anyone attempting to incite racial discord will be held accountable and will be dealt with swiftly and severely."

To this, I say: Unless of course they are statements made by people belonging to a certain group. I mean, 'they' are princes of the earth, 'their' rights to racial discrimination must be preserved, right? It's not enough that 'they' get all kinds of other benefits, 'they' must also reserve the right to threaten and heap scorn o­n the minorities just to keep them in their place. I would have thought we were beyond this point in our social evolution.

"Malaysians of different races share a strong bond that keep us all together as o­ne nation. We cannot tolerate anyone putting that bond in jeopardy."

One nation, but always apart. We share a strong bond, all right. More like shackles to a medieaval way of thought that prevents any true sense of integration. Of course we cannot tolerate the thought of ever being able to loosen these bonds - the alternative would be insanity. So much for tolerance and understanding.