Mardupi Ismail
3:06pm Tue Jan 28th, 2003

In the light of the recent hullabaloo over a letter published in malaysiakini, I thought it would be timely to highlight a letter by Singapore member of Parliament (1976-1984) Mansor Haji Sukaimi in Singapore's Today newspaper.

I quote from his letter:

"I am all for affirmative action, but it must not be at a loss to o­ne and an unfair gain by another.

"It must not be an unearned, irrational privilege.

"The Malays have benefited tremendously from living with other races and competing with them, especially the Chinese.

"This is the real-life test of the strength of the Malay culture and their endearing religion, Islam.

"I ask, therefore, that whatever affirmative action that may come out from the proposed ideas, it must enhance the Malay reliance and not cripple them with facilities that erode their esteem or self-respect.

"The best thrust is meritocracy and this must be our joint commitment.

"I do not worry about meritocracy (or absence of it) in private Chinese companies. They invest their money and it is their right to choose whoever they want.

"In the government, statutory boards, government-linked companies and, to some, extent, multi-national companies, the principles of meritocracy must never be compromised.

"Surely, the Malays have to do their bit.

"However, the 'affirmation' in a society such as Singapore cannot be realised by just the self-correction of the Malays themselves.

"The dominance of Chinese - not just in numbers, but in positions of influence, control of trade, strength of investment finance and sheer drive to win - makes 'affirmation' totally dependent upon Chinese magnanimity.

"My prayers are that we still have enough Chinese at anchor positions who are steeped with the principles of meritocracy, refined with this deep magnanimity."

Mansor, in his letter, also quotes his daughter as having said about 15 years ago, in a debate about whether it was fair for the then Singapore government to terminate free university education for Malay Singaporeans, "But Daddy, I have many good Chinese friends and they are from poor families. But I, from a quite well-to-do family and my father a member of Parliament, get a free university education. It is just not right!"

Hopefully, we in Malaysia can articulate our ideas as simply and as passionately in the ongoing debate over affirmative action and the related issues.