Chicken or Egg?

"So if the people themselves can’t even bother to change their racist ways, then would the government, being their representatives, change as well?"
~ Hafiz Baharom, "For Rent With Racist Prejudice"

In his article (linked above), Hafiz laments the presence of advertisements specifying racial/cultural/religious preferences for tenants. He also implies that the government will not change unless "we" change first.

It is, I think, a very wrong way of looking at things - firstly because he has not even scratched the surface of the reasons for this racism he deplores. Of course those living a swanky lifestyles who have not had to face the discrimination, would possibly say that "it is all in the mind"- that things can change in an instant we so wish it.

Of course, it is indeed a sad state of affairs - and I myself dislike the ads he mentioned - more so because I too am discriminated against. The blatant racism in Malaysia is a result of 50yrs of racist indoctrination by racist political parties which practice "socio-economic apartheid" - call it fancy "positive discrimination" or "separate development" if you must (as the Pietr Botha/ de Clerk regime of SA) - or even the noble NEP, for that matter. The effects are further augmented by the racism practiced in state sponsored public education - and even the presence of vernacular education which are unwitting fortresses for racism & cultural/religious bigotry.

While it may be right for one to question the right of the people to demand eradication of racism in institutions, while practicing it - did Hafiz even wonder if these racism could possibly have been ingrained by these very racist institutions via generations of indoctrination?
How do you get rid of this indoctrination then? Miraculously transform spiritually & be born again while keeping these racist institutions?

I may be racist, simply because the system doesn't allow otherwise.
I may be racist because of the discrimination which I have suffered.
Thus my prejudice may be shaped by the environment that I am forced to live in.
Get this right Hafiz - not many can avoid being shaped by the prejudices/discrimination environment they live in.
"I" may be racist simply because society demands that of me, and yet hate it.
Therefore, I have every right to demand that the institutions of racism be demolished before I myself can change.

Muhyiddin Blabbers Again!!

Muhyiddin is among the most unqualified persons in the Najib Cabinet to talk about the doctrine of separation of powers « Lim Kit Siang

I never thought that a day would come when Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin could prate about the doctrine of separation of powers.

Who is he to suggest that I am confused and do not understand separation of powers for asking for an emergency Parliamentary meeting on Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s Sodomy2 charges.

This is because Muhyiddin is among the most unqualified persons in the Najib Cabinet to talk about the doctrine of separation of powers.

The doctrine of separation of powers among the Executive, Legislature and the Judiciary suffered the worst erosion and emasculation, subversion and sabotage since the “mother of all judicial crisis” in 1988 when the then Lord President Tun Salleh Abas and Supreme Court judges were sacked for not complying with the whims and fancies of the then Prime Minister Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad.

If Muhyiddin had any doubts about the perversion and subversion of the doctrine of separation of powers in the past two decades, he need only ask his Cabinet colleague, Datuk Dr. Rais Yatim who had written a doctoral thesis on the subject – although Rais had recanted his views to get back to the Cabinet.

Did Muhyiddin, who was already occupying high government and political office in 1988, ever spoken up or lifted a finger against the subversion and sabotage of the doctrine of separation of powers in the past two decades – when the judiciary fell from its high international fame and standing before 1988 to the lowest depths of world-wide notoriety equivalent to a “rogue judiciary”?

If not, what right has he now to feign or claim concern about separation of powers?

It is precisely because the doctrine of separation of powers had been so battered and subverted, with the Malaysian judiciary fighting a losing battle to regain national and international confidence in its independence, impartiality and integrity seven years after the end of Mahathir premiership, that the dropping of Anwar’s Sodomy2 charges is generally regarded as an important step to re-establish the doctrine of separation of powers in Malaysia.

Hence, the relevance and importance of the call for an emergency meeting of Parliament on Anwar’s Sodomy2 charges.