Racial politics is a term used to describe politicians exploiting the issue of race for a personal agenda.
Racial politics in MalaysiaMalaysia is a country in Southeast Asia that consists of thirteen states and three Federal Territories, with a total landmass of . The capital city is Kuala Lumpur, while Putrajaya is the seat of the federal government. The population stands at over 28 million inhabitants...
Malaysian
politicianA politician or political leader is an individual who is involved in influencing public decision making. This includes people who hold decision-making positions in government, and people who seek those positions, whether by means of election, coup d'état, appointment, electoral fraud, conquest,...
Chang Ko Youn put forward "Malaysia has practised racial politics for 51 years and we know it is divisive as each party only talks on behalf of the racial group it represents... When all races are in a single party, no one person will try to be the champion of the party.... It is easy to be a Malay hero, a
Malaysian ChineseMalaysian Chinese is a Malaysian of Chinese origin. Most are descendants of Chinese who arrived between the fifteenth and the mid-twentieth centuries. Within Malaysia, they are usually simply referred to as "Chinese" in all languages...
hero or an
Malaysian IndianMalaysian Indians are a group of Malaysians largely descended from those who migrated from southern India during the British colonization of Malaya. Prior to British colonization, Tamils had been conspicuous in the archipelago much earlier, especially since the period of the powerful South India...
hero but it is difficult to be a
MalaysiaMalaysia is a country in Southeast Asia that consists of thirteen states and three Federal Territories, with a total landmass of . The capital city is Kuala Lumpur, while Putrajaya is the seat of the federal government. The population stands at over 28 million inhabitants...
n hero.... The country is facing economic problems now and it is important that the Government and political parties come up with a Malaysian agenda on how to unite the people and face these challenges..."
http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2008/8/11/nation/22053356&sec=nation
On August 13 2008, a letter was sent to the
thestar.com.my http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2008/8/13/focus/22052965&sec=focus with title "Why we can’t get our experts to return" saying:
Writer A. Asohan wrote: "...you started to grow up, and race increasingly became a factor. You became aware of
race politics here. Insidious people would hint that being friends with the "Other" made you a traitor to your own race. The racist rot seems to have intensified over the subsequent generations. The bigotry we learned as adults are now being picked up by our primary schoolkids. Our leaders may, in a fit of progressiveness (by their standards), talk about racial tolerance, but acceptance and appreciation for other races and cultures seem beyond their ken. Racial intolerance in the country is getting worse, we tell ourselves, looking back to a more idyllic past. Bah, what crock! We Malaysians have always been racists. Heck, the entire human race has always found some illusive basis for discrimination. Race, religion, colour, creed, whether you were born north or south of that artificial line called a border – we spend an inordinate amount of our time and resources on delineating our differences rather than celebrating our similarities. If you married someone from a different race in the old days, you faced severe social censure and were treated as an outcast. Parents wrung their hands and tore at their hair, wailing “What did we do wrong? Aiyoh, how can you do this to us?"
http://thestar.com.my/lifestyle/story.asp?file=/2008/6/1/lifefocus/21383981&sec=lifefocus
Marina MahathirMarina binti Mahathir is the daughter and eldest child of the 4th Prime Minister of Malaysia, Tun Mahathir Mohammad. She is well known as a leader in many non-governmental organizations such as the Malaysian AIDS Foundation and is currently an active socio-political blogger...
wrote: "...The same thing happened in our country. Unfortunately,
race politics has not really died down yet, and some people reacted as if ethnic cleansing had just taken place...."
http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2008/3/26/focus/20746652&sec=focus
Michelle Gunaselan wrote: "...I am often ashamed and angry about what has happened to the industry, to my view of what is an honourable profession. My friends who wrote powerful things – beyond our age, perhaps – about human rights abuses, race politics, and much more in our college newspapers, now sit back and allow their editors to change key facts in their stories. We now maintain “elegant silences” about each other’s choices. I don’t profess to be a model journalist, I think I could still do better, and I have a long way to go, but I do admire them for trying to work under these difficult circumstances. After all, I have, I suppose, taken the easy way out by writing for magazines (on political features) where I am not necessarily subjected to the same sorts of political influence and Government ownership and control issues as the mainstream media."
http://thestar.com.my/lifestyle/story.asp?file=/2008/6/22/lifefocus/21596324&sec=lifefocus
Politician Datuk
Ngeh Koo HamYang Berhormat Datuk Ngeh Koo Ham , born in 1961, is a native of Ayer Tawar, Perak, Malaysia. He is a member of the Democratic Action Party in Malaysia, which is a member of Socialist International...
when he was asked "What do you dislike most about Malaysians?", he replied:
Racial politics http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2008/5/1/myrepresentative/21085441&sec=myrepresentative
Chris Anthony wrote: "...After 50 years of living and working together side-by-side, the people have voted to do away with racial politics but unfortunately the politicians are far from showing signs of heeding their calls for multiracialism...."
http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2008/6/24/focus/21631182&sec=focus
Former
Prime ministerA prime minister is the most senior minister of cabinet in the executive branch of government in a parliamentary system. The position is usually held by, but need not always be held by, a politician. In many systems, the prime minister selects and can dismiss other members of the cabinet, and...
of Malaysia Mahathir bin Mohammad said
Samy VelluDatuk Seri Samy Vellu Sangalimuthu is a Malaysian politician. He is the longest serving President of the Malaysian Indian Congress , a component party of the Barisan Nasional coalition. He has held the position since 1979, for 11 consecutive terms...
is a racist in his own blog www.chedet.com "...They speak not just of Indians, but of Tamils as a separate race. They and their apologists are racist to the core....Seeing the death and destruction inflicted on Sri Lanka by the Tamil Tigers, they threaten to bring this kind of violent
racial politics to Malaysia..."
Philip Bowring of
International Herald TribuneThe International Herald Tribune is a widely read English-language international newspaper. It combines the resources of its own correspondents with those of The New York Times and is printed at 35 sites throughout the world, for sale in more than 180 countries...
wrote that the political organization of Malaysia has long been largely on racial lines,
IslamIslam Islam Islam ( al-’islām,
[There are ten pronunciations of Islam in English, differing in whether the first or second syllable has the stress, whether the s is or , and whether the a is pronounced as in father, as in cat, or (when the stress is on the i) as in the a of sofa...]
has at times become a device for use in
racial politics, a yardstick for measuring the commitment of competing parties to Malay racial advancement.
http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/08/29/opinion/edbowring.php
The cause of Racial politics
One of Malaysia's Racial politics started in the early 70s when the government discovered that the
Muslim-MalaysIn Malaysia, the Malay population is defined by Article 160 of the Malaysian Constitution as someone born to a Malaysian citizen who professes to be a Muslim, habitually speaks the Malay language, adheres to Malay customs, and is domiciled in Malaysia or Singapore...
were too poor yet overly incompetent compared to the economy advanced Chinese. As a result, the government of Malaysia launched a program called NEP (
Malaysian New Economic PolicyThe Malaysian New Economic Policy , is an ambitious and controversial socio-economic restructuring affirmative action program launched by the Malaysian government in 1971 under the then Prime Minister Tun Abdul Razak. The NEP ended in 1990, and was succeeded by the National Development Policy in...
) giving government preferences in hiring and education to the Malay group to uplift the economy status of the poor muslim-Malays, hoping to balance up the income of the poor with the rich.
However, after 30 years of NEP,
income disparityIn the context of economic inequality, gender gap generally refers to the differences in the wages of men and women. There is a debate to what extent this is the result of gender differences, lifestyle choices , or because of discrimination.-Statistics:A United Nations report found that women...
in Malaysia has not improved. According to the UNDP 1997 Human Development Report
Asian Analysis 1998 by Asean Focus Group and the 2004
United NationsThe United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and the achieving of world peace...
Human DevelopmentIn the scope of humanity, human development is an international and economic development paradigm.-Scope of human development:Human development is a development paradigm that is about much more than the rise or fall of national incomes...
(UNHDP) report
http://www.dapmalaysia.org/english/2005/july05/lge/lge149.htm,
MalaysiaMalaysia is a country in Southeast Asia that consists of thirteen states and three Federal Territories, with a total landmass of . The capital city is Kuala Lumpur, while Putrajaya is the seat of the federal government. The population stands at over 28 million inhabitants...
has the highest income disparity between the rich and poor in
Southeast AsiaManila
Bangkok
Ho Chi Minh City
Kuala Lumpur
Singapore
Yangon
Bandung
Hanoi
Surabaya
Taichung
Kaohsiung
Medan|-|}...
, greater than that of
PhilippinesThe Philippines officially known as the Republic of the Philippines, is a country in Southeast Asia with Manila as its capital city. It comprises 7,107 islands in the western Pacific Ocean....
,
ThailandThe Kingdom of Thailand is an independent country that lies in the heart of Southeast Asia.It is bordered to the north by Laos and Burma, to the east by Laos and Cambodia, to the south by the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia, and to the west by the Andaman Sea and Burma...
,
SingaporeSingapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is an island city-state located at the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, lying north of the equator, south of the Malaysian state of Johor and north of Indonesia's Riau Islands. At , Singapore is a microstate and the smallest nation in Southeast...
,
VietnamVietnam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam , is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea to the east...
and
IndonesiaThe Republic of Indonesia is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia comprises 17,508 islands. With an estimated population of around 237 million people, it is the world's fourth most populous country, with the world's largest population of Muslims.Indonesia is a republic, with an...
. The UNHDP Report shows that the richest 10% in Malaysia control 38.4% of the economic income as compared to the poorest 10% who control only 1.7%.
Kuala LumpurKuala Lumpur , is the capital and largest city of Malaysia. The city proper, making up an area of , has an estimated population of 1.6 million in 2006. Greater Kuala Lumpur, also known as the Klang Valley, is an urban agglomeration of 7.2 million...
as the capital of Malaysia has an increasing number of squatters, shanty towns and slums, and is also seeing an increase in criminal acts such as
snatch theftIn Malaysia and Southeast Asia in general, snatch theft is a criminal act of forcefully stealing from a pedestrian's person while employing rob-and-run tactics. It is typical for two thieves to work together and ride a moped to make theft and escape easier. A person steers the vehicle while another...
, robberies, and
rapeRape, also referred to as sexual assault, is an assault by a person involving sexual intercourse with or without sexual penetration of another person without that person's consent....
.
Racial politics and the rich
In the year 2006, Datuk Seri
Anwar IbrahimDato' Seri Anwar bin Ibrahim is a Malaysian politician who served as Malaysian Deputy Prime Minister from 1993 to 1998. Early in his career, he became a protégé of the Prime Minister Mahathir bin Mohamad, but subsequently emerged as the most prominent critic of Mahathir's administration.In 1999,...
on his release from 6 years of prison said in a number of interviews that the NEP should be abolished and that all races should be given equal opportunities
http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2006/11/15/nation/16026587&sec=nation and also that the NEP was bad because only the cronies of UMNO party became rich from it, however
Khairy JamaluddinKhairy Jamaluddin Abu Bakar is a Malaysian politician, and the son-in-law of former Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi. Since 2008, Khairy has been a member of the Malaysian Parliament representing the constituency of Rembau...
from UMNO party hit out at him (Anwar Ibrahim) for saying that. Khairy said: "What cheek he has to speak" and also said that Anwar Ibrahim was the greatest UMNO party member of all and a very rich one too.
Racial politics in United States history
One of the Racial politics in United States is to describe racially charged political actions by Abigail Thernstrom, the vice-chairman of the U.S. commission on civil rights. The practice has been a major part of American government since its creation, and often divides the Republican and Democratic parties.
The United States Government has since the time of its creation been divided, and in many ways developed based upon issues of race. In 1861 the
Civil WarThe American Civil War , also known as the War Between the States and several other names, was a civil war in the United States of America. Eleven Southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America...
between the Northern and Southern states of the nation was fought partially over the abolition of slavery. Furthermore the tension between the Northern Democrats and Southern Republicans continued for many years after as the South created
Jim Crow lawsThe Jim Crow laws were state and local laws in the United States enacted between 1876 and 1965. They mandated de jure segregation in all public facilities, with a supposedly "separate but equal" status for black Americans...
and continued the segregation of individuals of color. The Northern Republicans realized that the South would not simply erase the strong racial divide that existed despite the abolition of slavery , and so in hopes of having a functioning Government allowed for such restrictions to exist.
In 1896, the Supreme Court of the United States determined that the, "separate but equal", doctrine was constitutional in the case
Plessy v. FergusonPlessy v. Ferguson, 163 U.S. 537 , is a landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision in the jurisprudence of the United States, upholding the constitutionality of racial segregation even in public accommodations , under the doctrine of "separate but equal".The decision was handed down by a vote of 7 to 1...
. This doctrine suggested that segregation was legal as long as facilities provided to both whites and blacks remained equal. In retrospect, the entire case was driven by racial politics, as Homer Plessy, a man who was only 1/8 black, was persuaded by rights activists in New Orleans to test a new law that required separate accommodations for blacks and whites on railroads.
In 1954, the ruling of Plessy v. Ferguson was overturned in the Supreme Court case
Brown v. Board of EducationBrown v. Board of Education of Topeka, 347 U.S. 483 , was a landmark decision of the United States Supreme Court, which overturned earlier rulings going back to Plessy v. Ferguson in 1896, by declaring that state laws that established separate public schools for black and white students denied...
. The Supreme Court determined that the establishment of separate schools for whites and blacks inherently unequal, and as a result unconstitutional. This was a major step for civil rights activists of the Democratic Party.
Racial politics in the current day United States
Perhaps the most glaring aspect of racial politics today is the re-drawing and shaping of district lines to seclude minorities in certain areas. In doing this, Republicans and Democrats alike ensure certain trends in voting patterns and constituent concerns, as they place a high concentration of minorities within a voting district. This is a crucial aspect of modern day politics and is often a major factor in elections.
See: GerrymanderingGerrymandering is a form of boundary delimitation in which electoral district or constituency boundaries are deliberately modified for electoral purposes, thereby producing a contorted or unusual shape...
See also
- Diaspora politics
Diaspora politics is the study of the political behavior of transnational ethnic diasporas, their relationship with their ethnic homelands and their host states, as well as their prominent role in ethnic conflicts...
- Human rights
Human rights refer to the "basic rights and freedoms to which all humans are entitled." Examples of rights and freedoms which have come to be commonly thought of as human rights include civil and political rights, such as the right to life and liberty, freedom of expression, and equality before the...
- Separatism
Separatism is the advocacy of a state of cultural, ethnic, tribal, religious, racial, governmental or gender separation from the larger group, often with demands for greater political autonomy and even for full political secession and the formation of a new state...
- Identity politics
Identity politics refers to political arguments that focus upon the self interest and perspectives of social minorities, or self-identified social interest groups. Not all members of any given group are necessarily involved in identity politics....
- Conviction politics
Conviction politics refers to the practice of campaigning based on a politicians' own fundamental values or ideas, rather than attempting to represent an existing consensus or simply take positions that are popular in polls....