Wednesday, July 17, 2013

Post-election payback time in Malaysia as racial tension mounts...

Last week, the Malaysian government announced its allocation of public university seats for the upcoming academic year. Only 19 percent of Chinese students got places, along with 4 percent of Indians despite the fact that the two together make up about 30 percent of the student population. Last year, Chinese students got 23 percent, in line with their proportion of the overall population.

That was the first tangible fallout from the 13th general election held on May 5, in which the Barisan Nasional, the ruling national coalition, won 133 of the 222 seats in the Dewan Rakyat, or Parliament, preserving its majority despite the fact that it only received 47.38 percent of the popular vote against 50.87 for the opposition Pakatan Rakyat coalition headed by Anwar Ibrahim.

The second came yesterday with the revelation of the award of a RM1 billion (US$314 million) commuter railway project in the massive government-backed Iskandar development in the southern state of Johor to Malaysian Steel Works Sdn Bhd through direct negotiations rather than open tender, in contravention of competitive bid regulations supposedly implemented by Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak as a part of his three year old Economic Transformation Program to loosen the state's reins on the economy.

(...)ts

In particular there are major concerns over Malaysia's always tense racial situation, which has grown more worrying in the face of expectations that tensions would abate following the election, in which Malay nationalists goaded on by Mahathir used ethnic concerns to charge that if the opposition won the election, the Chinese would dominate the political process as they have the country's economic landscape, leaving ethnic Malays behind.

 Since the election, however firebrands have continued to fan religious and ethnic flames. In particular, a bill suddenly appeared in the cabinet, allowing the consent of just one parent for the conversion of a child to Islam, a major concern for the mostly Chinese wives who have married ethnic Malay males. The bill was hastily withdrawn after a public storm. Full story...

Related posts:
  1. Ethnic Chinese losing faith in Malaysian govt, move to Singapore...
  2. Racial tension in Malaysia hinders economic growth...
  3. The price of Malaysia's racism...  
  4. The great Malaysian brain drain... 
  5. Sex, lies and videotape in Malaysia...
  6. Kick start, the story of a Malaysian Indian... 
  7. 40% of Malaysian emigrants end up in Singapore...

No comments:

Post a Comment