Orang Cina Malaysia, apa lagi yang anda mahu? — Zaini Hassan

30 APRIL — Sudah banyak kali saya menulis mengenai sikap sahabat kita, orang Cina Malaysia terhadap kerajaan yang ada sekarang. Saya juga sering mengaitkan cita-cita DAP yang mahu “pulun” semua sekali pengaruh Cina di negara ini.

Seperti mana yang saya tulis sebelum ini, DAP sejak akhir-akhir ini sungguh senyap dalam pergerakannya. Di Selangor pun ia senyap, di Pulau Pinang pun ia mulai senyap, di Perak pun begitu. Senyap-senyap DAP sebenarnya diam-diam berisi.

Gerakan halus mereka bergerak kencang. Harus diingat arus bawah lebih bahaya berbanding ombak di atas. Tapi apakah BN sedar dengan strategi DAP itu. Jika kira-kira 30 tahun dulu, malah 20 tahun dulu, orang Melayu generasi saya amat cuak dengan DAP atas sikap cauvinisnya, kini generasi Melayu sekarang tidak tahu itu semua. Mereka sudah tidak peduli.

Mereka tidak membaca pun buku 13 Mei yang ditulis oleh Tunku Abdul Rahman dan mereka tidak pernah tahu pun wujudnya perarakan penyapu oleh DAP yang mahu menyapu orang Melayu pada masa itu.

Bukan tujuan saya mahu membangkitkan rasa benci kepada parti itu atau kepada sesiapa, tapi ia adalah sejarah yang semua orang anak-anak Melayu, Cina, India, Orang Asli malah sesiapa sahaja harus dan berhak tahu mengenainya.

Saya pernah menyarankan supaya buku 13 Mei itu dijadikan teks di sekolah. Matapelajaran sejarah yang sesetengah daripada orang Melayu sendiri amat membencinya, harus diperkuatkan semula. Aspek kenegaraan, soal-soal realiti kemalaysiaan harus diterapkan.

Masukkan juga satu subjek mengenai konsep 1 Malaysia yang sudah mulai disukai ramai itu. Sejarah silam dan aspek kontemporari harus disatukan menjadi satu subjek wajib, yang harus diikuti oleh semua pelajar, bukan sahaja pelajar Sastera, malah juga pelajar Sains.

Tujuan saya membangkitkan semula perkara ini bukanlah bermakna saya ini ultra-Melayu, tetapi untuk menyatakan mengenai realiti politik yang berlaku di sekeliling kita sekarang.

Pilihan raya kecil Hulu Selangor amat unik. Dalam sains politik, ia amat menarik untuk dikaji bagaimana orang Cina (bukan semua, tapi rata-rata) masih tidak mahu kembali kepada parti kerajaan.

Apa lagi yang mereka mahu? Apakah mereka masih merasakan merekalah penentu kepada sesuatu keputusan pilihan raya di negara ini?

Perlulah diingat pilihan raya umum 2008 bukanlah satu ujian sebenar bagi proses demokrasi di negara ini. Ia terlalu artifial. Tsunami yang berlaku adalah akibat kemarahan rakyat kepada kerajaan ketika itu dan kecelaruan fikiran orang Melayu ketika itu.

Akibatnya, DAP telah berjaya mencuri peluang itu. Orang Cina ramai-ramai memihak kepada mereka dan berlakulah tsunami politik yang tidak pernah berlaku dalam sejarah Malaysia.

Tapi jika diambil Hulu Selangor sebagai model pilihan raya umum ke-13 kelak, orang Cina bukanlah (lagi) penentu kepada keputusannya. Orang Melayu masih lagi menjadi faktor mutlak bagi menentukan kepada keputusan itu, dengan syarat — mereka bersatu.

Bersatupun, mereka haruslah secara majoriti menyokong kerajaan dan orang India pun turut serta memberi undi kepada parti kerajaan, maka ketika itu orang Cina bukanlah penentunya. Kecualilah jika orang India dan Cina solid lari daripada BN, maka BN akan tersungkur.

Namun, hakikatnya angka majoriti undi BN di Hulu Selangor bukan lagi satu gambaran kepada kemenangan sebenar. Itu pilihan raya kecil. Semua jentera tertumpu di sini. Dalam pilihan raya umum situasinya adalah jauh berbeza.

Secara angka, Melayu Hulu Selangor pun masih tidak solid. Kita tidak pasti apa lagi yang mereka mahu. Semua yang mereka mahu sudah diberi. Umno pun sudah tunjuk perubahan. Seorang rakan memberitahu ''mungkin kita perlu pendekatan radikal untuk menyelesaikan masalah yang tenat."

Namun, keputusan Hulu Selangor amat disenangi oleh Lim Kit Siang. Beliau dalam ucapannya di rapat umum penutup selepas keputusan kekalahan mereka diumumkan, memberitahu para hadirian yang rata-rata terdiri daripada orang Melayu, keputusan itu sebenarnya ialah kejayaan kepada “rakyat” Hulu Selangor.

Tanpa mahu menyentuh perasaan orang Melayu di situ, beliau sebenarnya merujuk 'rakyat' itu sebagai orang Cina Hulu Selangor yang rata-rata tidak memberi undi kepada BN, tapi sebaliknya memihak kepada DAP.

Kit Siang ternyata amat gembira, sebaliknya Datuk Seri Dr Chua Soi Lek dan Tan Sri Dr Koh Tsu Koon yang gagal.

Ironisnya, apa pula maksud Soi Lek apabila beliau berkata '”MCA kena vokal”? Saya pun tak tau?

Orang Cina Malaysia, apa lagi yang anda mahu?Tajuk di atas penuh bermakna. Apa lagi yang orang Cina Malaysia mahukan? Kita tolak dulu sebab-musabab mereka tidak menyokong kerajaan yang ada sekarang. Kita kaji dulu apa lagi yang mereka mahu?

Ikut sejarahnya orang Cina berhijrah ke Tanah Melayu ini untuk mencari peluang. Mereka hidup susah di tanah besar China ratusan tahun dulu. Seperti mana orang putih berhijrah ke benua Amerika untuk mencari peluang, begitu jugalah orang Cina yang kini menghuni di negara bertuah Malaysia ini.

Ternyata, percaturan datuk moyang mereka dulu berbaloi. Mereka dapat apa yang mereka mahukan. Mereka hidup mewah di bumi bertuah Malaysia ini.

Malah, bukan Malaysia sahaja, Singapura pun mereka kuasai sepenuhnya. Singapura bukanlah negara asal mereka. Orang Cina Singapura pun asalnya adalah dari tongkang yang sama bersama-sama orang Cina Malaysia. Cuba bezanya, Singapura berjaya dikuasai sepenuhnya, dan Malaysia tidak.

Di Malaysia, orang Cina hidup aman damai bersama-sama orang Melayu, Pribumi dan India. Berbeza dengan di Singapura, di sana orang Cina yang menguasai politik dan sekaligus pemerintahan negara itu. Di Malaysia, politik dan kerajaannya masih lagi dikuasai oleh orang Melayu.

Sistem kedua-dua negara itu sama, cuma ia terbalik sahaja. Orang Melayu di sini, orang Cina di sebelah tambak itu.

Bezanya orang Melayu di Singapura dan orang Cina di Malaysia amat berlainan sekali. Orang Melayu di Singapura hidup biasa-biasa sahaja. Orang Cina di Malaysia hidup lebih daripada biasa-biasa.

Malah Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad pernah memberi gambaran sekiranya semua bangunan orang Cina di Kuala Lumpur diangkat dari peta, yang tinggal hanyalah Kampung Baru itu sahaja. Semua yang lain ialah kepunyaan orang Cina Malaysia.

Orang Cina Malaysia amat hebat. Kesemua pekan-pekan besar dan bandar-bandar di seluruh Semenanjung, Sabah dan Sarawak dikuasai mereka.

Mereka juga berjaya melahirkan para profesional yang paling ramai dan berjaya. Sistem sekolah Cina mereka adalah antara yang terbaik di mana-mana sahaja di dunia ini (jika ada).

Kebanyakan pelajar-pelajar di kolej-kolej swasta yang terbaik di Malaysia dipenuhi oleh pelajar-pelajar Cina. Orang Melayu hanya mampu ke kolej milik kerajaan dan yang tidak ternama. Pusat-pusat membeli belah di kompleks-kompleks ternama di Malaysia dipunyai oleh orang Cina.

Di organisasi korporat dan swasta, orang Cinalah yang menguasainya. Orang Melayu boleh di bilang jari dan pekerja bawahan. Malah, kini mahu mohon kerja di situ pun perlu faham cakap Mandarin, sebagai prasyaratnya.

Akhir sekali, orang paling terkaya di Malaysia yang banciannya dijalankan saban tahun oleh sebuah majalah busines di Malaysia mendapati lapan orang Cina yang berada di 10 ke atas. Berikut adalah senarai 10 orang terkaya di Malaysia.

1.Robert Kuok Hock Nien

2.Tatparanandam Ananda Krishnan

3. Tan Sri Lee Shin Cheng

4. Tan Sri Teh Hong Piow

5. Tan Sri Lim Kok Thay

6. Tan Sri Quek Leng Chan

7. Tan Sri Syed Mokhtar Albukhry

8. Puan Seri Lee Kim Hua

9. Tan Sri Tiong Hiew King

10. Tan Sri Vincent Tan Chee Yioun. (Sumber: Malaysian Business, Feb 2010)

Itulah hakikatnya Malaysia tanah airku yang tercinta ini. Apakah kerajaan sekarang yang sudah memerintah 52 tahun ini terlalu zalim, kejam dan kuku besi?

Apa lagi yang orang Cina Malaysia mahukan? Tapi saya tahu, anda tahu jawapannya. — Utusan Malaysia

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Chinese poor and lower class in M’sia: How well off are they?

CPI Writings

WRITTEN BY DR LIM TECK GHEE

FRIDAY, 16 APRIL 2010 12:40

“What Chinese poor?” Soon after I returned to Malaysia in late 2005, I met with a former president of the country’s major Chinese party in his office. During the discussion which covered a range of issues, I expressed my concern at the failure of the Chinese political leadership to deal effectively with the socio-economic problems and challenges that the community was facing. I had known the leader since the 1970s but especially in the late 80s and early 1990s when I was a panellist in the 150-member National Economic Consultative Council (NECC) which had been set up by the then Prime Minister, Dr Mahathir Mohamad, to come up with a post-1990 economic policy to replace the New Economic Policy (NEP). The response of the former president to my concern shocked me. Besides defending his party and his leadership, he declared that the Chinese were very lucky to be able to live in Malaysia. “Where else in the world can you find a simple char koay teow seller become so rich and drive a Mercedes!” was his rejoinder. This view that the Chinese have done very well for themselves – and by extension, do not require assistance from the Government – is not uncommon. However, it is a gross generalization and erroneous on several counts. Taken to its logical end and juxtaposed with the fact that many of the country’s richest individuals are Chinese, such a simplistic view has provided the underpinnings for the racially biased public policies pursued in a wide range of sectors and over such a long period of time in the country. Off the public radar Let us consider some of these facts and figures of the Chinese poor, disadvantaged and marginalized. Firstly, many of these Chinese individuals and households do not appear on the government’s listing of poor Malaysians because the Government has used an unrealistically low poverty line income to decide who comprise the poor. Should there be a readjustment of the poverty line to a more realistic figure, it is likely that several hundred thousand Chinese households (as well as a larger number of Bumiputera and Indian households) will fall into the ‘poverty’ category. Secondly, income distribution within the Chinese community is worsening. In fact the gap between the Chinese poor and well-to-do has increased in the last two decades, for which data is available. According to the Gini coefficient of income inequality, income inequality within the Chinese community has increased from .423 in 1990 to .434 in 1999 and .446 in 2004. Incidentally, this is the same for all the communities, including the Malays. The worsening income inequality points to an entrenched and worsening poverty problem within the Chinese community that is not discernible if we simply rely on the conventional statistical indicators used by Government. Excluded from NEP Why is Chinese poverty so entrenched and intractable? The answer is that, for the most part, the Chinese poor and lower classes have not benefitted from the NEP and other national policies in the way that the Chinese elites or even upper middle class have. Consider the following 1. They have not been targeted by any of the government’s anti-poverty programmes. 2. They have been disadvantaged by lack of mastery of English and Malay. 3. They have educated their children in Chinese schools which have been the victims of unequal treatment. More than a quarter of Chinese school kids drop out before the age of 17 with many coming from the poorer achieving and less endowed Chinese medium schools which we seldom hear or read about. 4. A large number of them live in New Villages or in geographically remote rural areas which have been cut off from the enclave of affluence located in the main cities and in the Klang Valley area. 5. Many come from the agricultural sector and are vegetable gardeners, fruit farmers or fishermen or engage in agricultural services. Unlike their Malay counterpart rural poor, they have had limited access to Felda, Felcra, IADPs and other federal and state schemes that have reduced landlessness and indebtedness and provided access to housing, infrastructure, utilities as well as enhanced incomes substantially. Even worse, they have been denied their legitimate land rights so that many remain squatters or operate on TOLs or short-term leases. The recent report that the new MCA president, Chua Soi Lek, intends to meet with the Perak Menteri Besar, Dr Zambry Abdul Kadir to discuss matters pertaining to squatters, land premiums and discounts to new villagers and the issue of limited allocations shows how ‘lucky’ the Perak Chinese are to be able to live in the state and the ‘tremendous’ advances they have made after 50 years of Barisan rule. 6. In the discussions on the country’s brain drain and loss of talent, much has been made about the out-migration of Chinese educated and professionals. In fact, if the proper surveys are ever carried out on out-migration from the country (according to the Deputy Foreign Minister in Parliament recently, 304,358 Malaysians migrated to other countries from March 2008 till August 2009 compared with a out-migration figure of 139,696 in 2007), I will not be surprised if just as many less educated poor and lower middle-class Chinese are found to have left the country because of poverty and lack of opportunities for themselves and their children. Chinese SMEs and other towkays Much has also been made of the prosperity of the Chinese that comes from their domination of the small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the country. However, not all SMEs are prosperous or can provide the secure and sustainable livelihood and incomes that others who are ignorant of the real conditions of these enterprises seem to imagine is the case with every SME. Most Chinese SMEs are family-run businesses that are barely able to scrape a decent living through heavy self-exploitation of family member and extended family labour. Often working in dangerous and appalling conditions, they are ill-equipped to compete in an increasingly competitive and globalized environment. The reality is that besides continuous harassment from government officials and politicians bent on extracting coffee money and beating them down for non-compliance with various local council rules and regulations, many SMEs are trapped in low productivity operations and lack access to technological know-how, larger markets and R&D capacity. In the near term as regional and international competition heats up, many SMEs face a bleak future and are likely to go bust. These small fry ‘towkays’ of micro-SMEs (over 90% of the SMEs in the country belong to this group) and their poorly paid employees, eking out a modest living in the country’s workshops and squatter areas, however, have never been on the government’s radar screen, except perhaps for taxation purposes. How much (or rather little) budgetary support and other assistance has actually reached the SMEs – directly and not through proxies or parasitic agencies – in the last few Malaysia Plans would be an important question for the government to respond to. Members of the National Economic Advisory Council (NEAC)will find that there is a whole generation of bad policy planning and implementation that needs to be undone with regard to the SMEs if they are serious about the objective of revitalizing this sector in the 10th Malaysia Plan and the New Economic Model. No social safety net There is one more important consideration that is seldom discussed when the issue of Chinese socio-economic well-being is raised. This is that arising from their self employment or work as employees in SMEs and the informal sector, only a small proportion of Chinese households are covered by the social safety net for health, insurance and old age that comes with employment either in the public sector or with formal private sector employment. This absence of participation in a social safety net will increasingly make itself felt on the future well being of the Chinese as the community ages rapidly and with the loss of traditional safety nets provided by the extended and large nuclear family. The trend of Chinese vulnerable elderly who are either abandoned in old folk homes or live in miserable conditions on their own is already gaining speed. This trend is unstoppable without major changes taking place within the community and at the macro level where the state is the key player. Malaysia’s present, future and past Will the ‘1Malaysia’ concept and New Economic Model remove the blinkers that stand in the way of assistance and resources being provided to the Chinese disadvantaged? Will the Prime Minister’s promise of raising income levels of all disadvantaged and marginalized groups be kept? Will we see merit-based, transparent and needs-based policies targeting the bottom 40% of the country’s income strata, irrespective of race and region, implemented? We will have the opportunity to assess if this new vision of development for the country is more political rhetoric or a genuine path-breaking initiative soon. As for me personally, I am not so sanguine. I was a member of the five- person team that finalized the NECC report which was presented to the government after more than two years of acrimonious debate. The major recommendations of the NECC to dismantle the NEP were never implemented. The NEP remained in force for another 20 years after it was supposed to have ended in 1990. Will history now repeat itself again? This is an amended version of an article which first appeared in the Chinese daily Red Tomato.

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