Chinese are Jews: A Malaysian syllogism for Ketuanan

[galvatron]

Chinese are Jews: A Malaysian syllogism for Ketuanan

Morality of this tale: You were right to emigrate; it’s still safer elsewhere. Ng Wei Aik (left) is state assemblyman and aide to Penang chief minister Lim Guan Eng. This fact is of no fundamental political consequence until, one day soon after Israel’s military operation against the Gaza flotilla, he saw that his party, the DAP, had beaten Najib Razak to the clock. The prime minister was being tardy, Ng complained. “He took 12 hours to register his anger,” a news portal quoted Ng on Najib’s remarks (the prime minister had twitted his response).
In another way of saying the same thing, the DAP was quicker on the draw. If Najib is slower, then by inference, his heart may not be with the Palestinians, that is, Muslims. If not with Muslims, who with? Conversely, DAP people like Ng cast the impression that they think of Muslims every moment of their waking hours. So touching….
Now it seems domestic politics is beginning to be measured in terms of hours taken to react and to issue a condemnation. And that over an ancient, Jewish-Muslim conflict nearly half a world away and reignited more than half a century ago, it having sparked when Malaysia was not even in existence.
Ng’s posturing is sign that the country is off on yet another trajectory in demonizing Chinese and in Sino-Malay relations. Anti-Chinese racism in Malaysia has this historic, lasting quality in varied forms: before, in stereotypical portrayal of Chinese as gangsters, prostitutes, towkays, usurious money-lenders (‘Ah Longs’); today, gamblers and Jews.
Most tellingly it is DAP’s scathing attacks on Israel that beat even the usual hate mongering coming from Umno and PAS/PKR.
This is to the credit of the Gaza flotilla, which offered a window of opportunity to propel Malaysia into arriving at the milestone in Chinese-Malay relations – a milestone reaffirmed on the streets earlier this month in demonstrations against Israel (against Jews really), and almost simultaneously in the Ketuanan Melayu propaganda papers: Jews equal Chinese.
He who started it
$this->handle_bbcode_img_match('http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_bWRrI-o16wY/Swd9wyZ5FnI/AAAAAAAAADQ/kY4J850Qrgo/S240/Ridhuan+Tee.jpg')Mahathir Mohamad has been one of the earliest to bed the Chinese and the Jewish diaspora – his two pet hate projects. His most recent rants against both Jews and Chinese are today preambled and chorused by other Malaysians, notably Mohd Ridhuan Tee Abdullah (left), and Muslims and Chinese Christians who are staunchly anti-Jew.
From a lone Mahathir project before, it’s gone truly Malaysian. DAP, PKR, Chinese, everybody appears to have unanimously jumped on the bandwagon, or should we say the flotilla?

Equating Jew and Chinese, Ridhuan Tee says upfront: “the Jews are already right in front of our eyes”. To rub it in for the Chinese, he praises Hilter and fascism.
Ng, of course, did not equate Jew and Chinese. In suggesting that Najib was slow on the Palestinian, Muslim side, he has to mean, equally, the man was hesitant to stand against the Israeli Jews (recall the Apco episode).
It isn’t just the religious undertone. More pertinently, Ng invokes the default moral position – Jews are oppressors, Muslims oppressed – that puts him, on parallel in point of principle to Ridhuan Tee: one side oppressors, the other side oppressed. This requires little imagination to name the two sides.
In consequence, Ng contributes to feather the very bed made by Mahathir – Jews equal Chinese – and which Ridhuan Tee now repeats to no end.
Drive Chinese into the sea?
The device Mahathir employs (and in whose hallowed footsteps Ridhuan follows) is a form of logic technically called syllogism, using two inter-related or parallel concepts, and tying them up to forge a third – the conclusion.
Because it is so easily mistaken as truth, syllogism is used everywhere in the English speaking world, as in Malaysia by individuals who otherwise cannot make a convincing case from empirical evidence.
From one of the latter editions of The Malay Dilemma, below is a sample of terms, all Mahathir’s, and note they are entirely of a subjective, adjectival kind because in syllogism no objective facts are required – just say it.
First Parallelism (P.1):

• Jews: hook-nosed, stinginess, financial wizardry, commercial control, understand money instinctively.
• Chinese: almond-eyed, unscrupulous, manipulative, monopoly wholesale trade, defer to riches.

Second Parallelism (P.2):

• Palestine: whole country was taken (sic!) and handed to the Jews
• Malaya: predatory immigrants, Sinocization (sic!) of the country

The examples above pile syllogism on syllogism. The conclusions in each of them automatically pull together to create a third: (P.1) Jews = Chinese; (P.2) Palestine = Malaya; therefore, (P.3) Chinese illegally occupied Malaya. Extrapolate P.3, hence, drive the Chinese into the South China Sea as Mahathir did to the Vietnamese boat people? (Arabs say the same of Israel’s Jews.)
These conclusions need not be made plain; they become intuitive just reading the stuff.
The Chinese profile being constructed for hate has evolved so far along these lines (and note the same syllogism at work):

• Chinese are Jews.
• Chinese are infidels and the heathen.
• Jews killed Jesus.
• Jews kill Palestinians.
• Therefore Chinese are anti-Palestinians
• Palestinians are Muslims.
• Malays are Muslims.
• Therefore Chinese oppress Muslims.
• Chinese won’t become Muslims or Christians (neither will Jews).
• Therefore Chinese are anti-Muslims and anti-Christians.

Taken far enough in this reconstructed profile of racial hate, as Mahathir did in the Dilemma, is a recipe for a future pogrom.
Adopting the Mahathiristic ‘logic’
Although a little tilted, but equally insidious, sinister and purposeful, the Anglophile Chinese, virtually all Christians – Goh Keat Peng, Josh Hong, Thomas Lee, KTemoc – feather the Mahathir racism and anti-Semitism along an angled plane. They don’t go after the Chinese directly but are equally nuanced, like it is with Mahathiristic logic.
For example, the Malay gangs who in the days of May 13 had killed Chinese are today made to look like victims of the Chinese instead. This seems to defy belief but, then, belief was never necessary to work a logical tool; only assertion is needed because syllogism requires no proof to buttress a claim. The conclusion is like the topping in the pudding – very enticing.
Hence, Thomas Lee [journalist] says Malays cannot be at fault for hacking to death hundreds of Chinese. Well, if there is ever another riot, it won’t be the children of the media and political elites who’ll be hacked with a parang but some poor sod of a noodle hawker riding his old sputtering Honda Cub to collect his daughter from school or a 18-year-old boy dashing off to a stand in Jalan Tuanku Abdul Rahman for a nasi lemak takeaway.
And KTemoc [blogger] says Jews are fascists for acting distinctive, different – and murderous in a sea of suffering (caused by Arabs to begin with) – and he said elsewhere the Chinese have the same insularity, therefore also acting distinct, refusing to be Malaysian. Josh Hong [columnist] labels outright the Chinese as racist. And Goh Keat Peng? This Christian missionary says of those who disagree with his pro-Palestinian views: “But your knowledge of the situation on the ground is appalling and so is your theology.”
The propaganda doesn’t stop there: praising the anti-Semitism, opposition politicians fawning after the Muslim vote are locked hand-in-hand with the Muslim fundamentalism they once denounced.
The greatest Malaysian achievement in the ‘Peace Flotilla’ to Gaza is, therefore, not concern for Palestinians. It is doesn’t even unify the local political divide, a cooperation that many online commentators have extolled as virtuous since domestic political enemies have gotten together to found a common offshore enemy.
More than all that, the Turkish flotilla electrifies a domestic, Malaysian, hate-Chinese project by transforming and giving it an international character, supported even by local Chinese, Lim Kit Siang et al.
From Mahathir, anti-Semitism as a way to drum up Chinese hatred is to be expected. But how could the opposition, one might ask, be so callous in their politics?



The Link
http://english.cpiasia.net/index.php...d=168#josc6972

[kidd]

Why does this article sound like a Babelfish translation?

Have to reread it again later to understand the whole article.

[Ian Liew]

It doesn't make much sense to me either, the two comparisons flip back and forth it's just .. off. There doesn't seem to be a link to the argument at all.

[kidd]

Although I don't understand what's the article is talking about, I do believe that a sizable number of 'children of the land' do akin Chinese to the Jews i.e. as economic rulers, especially those who read Utusan Malaysia (the most racist mainstream Malaysia newspaper). Utusan has a lot of penal writers that write articles such like the following (this article is from Straits Times, but, I've read several such articles in Utusan Malaysia).

"Chinese Malaysians Asking Far Too Much"/"Orang Cina Malaysia, apa lagi yang anda mahu?"

By Zaini Hassan
Source - Straits Times, published Apr 30, 2010

WHAT else do Chinese Malaysians want? Let us put aside the reasons why they do not support the current government in Kuala Lumpur. Let us study first what else they want.

For that, we have to go back to history. The Chinese came to Malaya to seek opportunities. They had lived a hard life in mainland China for hundreds of years. Like the whites who migrated to the American continent because it was the land of opportunity, the Chinese migrated to Malaya to make their fortunes in this bountiful land.

The strategy of their forebears has borne fruit. The Chinese have attained what they wanted. They now live in the lap of luxury in this land of opportunity called Malaysia.

In fact, it is not only in Malaysia that they have attained what they wanted. They have even gained full control of Singapore. Singapore is not their original country. The Singapore Chinese and the Malaysian Chinese were originally boat people. The difference is that those who landed in Singapore managed to gain full control of Singapore, but those who landed in Malaysia did not manage to control Malaysia.

In Malaysia, the Chinese live in peace with the Malays, the indigenous people and the Indians. In comparison, in Singapore, the Chinese control politics and the Government. In Malaysia, the Malays still control politics and the government. The systems of both governments are the same, but it is vice versa: The Malays dominate in Malaysia while the Chinese dominate across the Causeway.

In contrast, the Malays in Singapore and the Chinese in Malaysia are very different. The Malays in Singapore lead ordinary lives while the Chinese in Malaysia lead lives that are 'more than ordinary'.

In fact, former Malaysian prime minister Mahathir Mohamad once stated that if all the Chinese-owned buildings in Kuala Lumpur were lifted from the map, only the buildings in Kampung Baru, a Malay area, would remain in the city.
All the other buildings are owned by Chinese Malaysians. The well-known shopping centres in Malaysia are owned by the Chinese.
The Chinese Malaysians are fantastic. They control all the cities and major towns in peninsular Malaysia, as well as Sabah and Sarawak. They produce the largest number of, and the most successful, professionals. The school system of the Chinese Malaysians is the best among similar school systems in the world.
The Chinese account for most of the students studying in the best private colleges in Malaysia. The Malays can gain admission into only government-owned colleges of ordinary reputation.
With regard to corporate and private organisations, it is the Chinese who dominate. The Malays number just a few; most of them are low-level employees. In fact, knowing Mandarin is a prerequisite for applying for jobs in these organisations.
Finally, an annual survey by the Malaysian Business magazine has found that eight of the 10 richest people in Malaysia are Chinese. The following is the list of the 10 richest people in Malaysia:

Mr Robert Kuok Hock Nien
Mr Tatparanandam Ananda Krishnan
Tan Sri Lee Shin Cheng
Tan Sri Teh Hong Piow
Tan Sri Lim Kok Thay
Tan Sri Quek Leng Chan
Tan Sri Syed Mokhtar Al-Bukhary
Puan Sri Lee Kim Hua
Tan Sri Tiong Hiew King
Tan Sri Vincent Tan Chee Yioun

This is the reality in Malaysia, my beloved country. Is the current government, which has been in power for 52 years, cruel and totalitarian? What else do the Chinese Malaysians want? I think I know, and I think you know too.

The private colleges issue, the guy most probably got from Dr.M who also used the same argument when he accepted an interview on a foreign show and the host asked him why the countries affirmative action is do for the majority race instead of the minority race like other countries. Dr. M used the exact argument. Chinese are rich, can afford to sent their children to private colleges.

Reading the above article and similar ones can really make you burst a blood vein.

Hello? Chinese have to go to private colleges because they can't get into a good course (if they can get in at all) in the local university despite having enough qualifications because of the quota system. Chinese parents work hard (some even work as illegal labour in other countries) to be able to send their children to these expensive colleges. There are also poor chinese who earn only measly RM200 per month income.
'Lap of luxury'? Haha. I wish. The majority Malaysia chinese just live like the Singapore Malays i.e. an ordinary life, not lap of luxury.

This is the reality, ok? Every race have poor and rich people. Not all bumis get the privileges of handouts and not all chinese are filthy rich. I think the most disadvantaged race in the Indians and the indigenous group. They have a lot of poor people too, but, no NEP to help them.

[kidd]

Here's good retort to such articles.

Kee Thuan Chye's response to the Utusan Malaysia's article.

Source: www.freemalaysiatoday.com

Thuan Chye Responds to "Orang Cina Malaysia, apa lagi yang anda mahu?"(Utusan Malaysia article)

By Kee Thuan Chye

Every time the Barisan Nasional gets less than the expected support from Chinese voters at an election, the question invariably pops up among the petty-minded: Why are the Chinese ungrateful?

So now, after the Hulu Selangor by-election, it's not surprising to read in Utusan Malaysia a piece that asks: "Orang Cina Malaysia, apa lagi yang anda mahu?" (trans. Chinese of Malaysia, what more do you want?)
Normally, something intentionally provocative and propagandistic as this doesn't deserve to be honoured with a reply. But even though I'm fed up with such disruptive and ethnocentric polemics, this time I feel obliged to reply - partly because the article has also been published, in an English translation, in the Straits Times of Singapore.
I wish to emphasise here that I am replying not as a Chinese Malaysian but, simply, as a Malaysian. Let me say at the outset that the Chinese have got nothing more than what any citizen should get. So to ask "what more" it is they want, is misguided. A correct question would be, "What do the Chinese want?"

All our lives, we Chinese have held to the belief that no one owes us a living. We have to work for it. Most of us have got where we are by the sweat of our brow, not by handouts or the policies of the government.
We have come to expect nothing - not awards, not accolades, not gifts from official sources. (Let's not lump in Datukships, that's a different ball game.) We know that no Chinese who writes in the Chinese language will ever be bestowed the title of Sasterawan Negara, unlike in Singapore where the literatures of all the main language streams are recognised and honoured with the Cultural Medallion, etc.

We have learned we can't expect the government to grant us scholarships. Some will get those, but countless others won't. We've learned to live with that and to work extra hard in order to support our children to attain higher education - because education is very important to us. We experience a lot of daily pressure to achieve that. Unfortunately, not many non-Chinese realise or understand that. In fact, many Chinese had no choice but to emigrate for the sake of their children's further education. Or to accept scholarships from abroad, many from Singapore, which has inevitably led to a brain drain.

The writer of the Utusan article says the Chinese "account for most of the students" enrolled in "the best private colleges in Malaysia". Even so, the Chinese still have to pay a lot of money to have their children study in these colleges. And to earn that money, the parents have to work very hard. The money does not fall from the sky.
The writer goes on to add: "The Malays can gain admission into only government-owned colleges of ordinary reputation." That is utter nonsense. Some of these colleges are meant for the cream of the Malay crop of students and are endowed with the best facilities. They are given elite treatment.
The writer also fails to acknowledge that the Chinese are barred from being admitted to some of these colleges. As a result, the Chinese are forced to pay more money to go to private colleges. Furthermore, the Malays are also welcome to enrol in the private colleges, and many of them do. It's, after all, a free enterprise.

Plain and simple reason
The writer claims that the Chinese live "in the lap of luxury" and lead lives that are "more than ordinary" whereas the Malays in Singapore, their minority-race counterparts there, lead "ordinary lives". Such sweeping statements sound inane especially when they are not backed up by definitions of "lap of luxury" and "ordinary lives". They sound hysterical, if not hilarious as well, when they are not backed up by evidence. It's surprising that a national daily like Utusan Malaysia would publish something as idiosyncratic as that. And the Straits Times too.
The writer quotes from a survey that said eight of the 10 richest people in Malaysia are Chinese. Well, if these people are where they are, it must have also come from hard work and prudent business sense. Is that something to be faulted?

If the writer had said that some of them achieved greater wealth through being given crony privileges and lucrative contracts by the government, there might be a point, but even then, it would still take hard work and business acumen to secure success. Certainly, Syed Mokhtar Al-Bukhary, who is one of the 10, would take exception if it were said that he has not worked hard and lacks business savvy.
Most important, it should be noted that the eight Chinese tycoons mentioned in the survey represent but a minuscule percentage of the wider Chinese Malaysian population. To extrapolate that because eight Chinese are filthy rich, the rest of the Chinese must therefore live in the lap of luxury and lead more than ordinary lives would be a mockery of the truth. The writer has obviously not met the vast numbers of very poor Chinese.

The crux of the writer's article is that the Chinese are not grateful to the government by not voting for Barisan Nasional at the Hulu Selangor by-election. But this demonstrates the thinking of either a simple mind or a closed one.
Why did the Chinese by and large not vote for BN? Because it's corrupt. Plain and simple. Let's call a spade a spade. And BN showed how corrupt it was during the campaign by throwing bribes to the electorate, including baiting a Chinese school in Rasa by promising RM3 million should it win the by-election.
The Chinese were not alone in seeing this corruption. The figures are unofficial but one could assume that at least 40 per cent of Malays and 45 per cent of Indians who voted against BN in that by-election also had their eyes open. So, what's wrong with not supporting a government that is corrupt? If the government is corrupt, do we continue to support it?
To answer the question then, what do the Chinese want?
They want a government...

a. that is not corrupt;

b. that can govern well and proves to have done so;

c. that tells the truth rather than lies;

d. that follows the rule of law;

e. that upholds rather than abuses the country's sacred institutions.

Because BN does not fit that description, the Chinese have learned not to vote for it. This is not what only the Chinese want. It is something every sensible Malaysian, regardless of race, wants. Is that something that is too difficult to understand?
Some people think that the government is to be equated with the country, and therefore if someone does not support the government, they are being disloyal to the country. This is a complete fallacy. BN is not Malaysia. It is merely a political coalition that is the government of the day. Rejecting BN is not rejecting the country.

A sense of belonging
Let's be clear about this important distinction. In America, the people sometimes vote for the Democrats and sometimes for the Republicans. Voting against the one that is in government at the time is not considered disloyalty to the country.
By the same token, voting against UMNO is also voting against a party, not against a race. And if the Chinese or whoever criticise UMNO, they are criticising the party; they are not criticising Malays. It just happens that UMNO's leaders are Malay.
It is time all Malaysians realised this so that we can once and for all dispel the confusion. Let us no longer confuse country with government. We can love our country and at the same time hate the government. It is perfectly all right.

I should add here what the Chinese don't want:

a. We don't want to be insulted,

b. We don't want to be called pendatang

c. We don't want to be told to be grateful for our citizenship.

We have been loyal citizens; we duly and dutifully pay taxes; we respect the country's constitution and its institutions. Our forefathers came to this country many generations ago and helped it to prosper. We are continuing to contribute to the country's growth and development.

Would anyone like to be disparaged, made to feel unwelcome or unwanted? For the benefit of the writer of the Utusan article, what MCA president Chua Soi Lek means when he says the MCA needs to be more vocal is that it needs to speak up whenever the Chinese community is disparaged. For too long, the MCA has not spoken up strongly enough when UMNO politicians and associates like Ahmad Ismail, Nasir Safar, Ahmad Noh and others before them insulted the Chinese and made them feel like they don't belong. That's why the Chinese have largely rejected the MCA.
You see, the Chinese, like all human beings, want self-respect. And a sense of belonging in this country they call home. That is all the Chinese want, and have always wanted. Nothing more.

The Utusan Malaysia article: Orang Cina Malaysia, apa lagi yang anda mahu?

Dramatist and journalist Kee Thuan Chye is the author of 'March 8: The Day Malaysia Woke Up'. He is a contributor to Free Malaysia Today.

[Dragon Heiress]

I can't understand the meaning of this article (partially because I'm in comprehensive-zero mode today). What does this have to do with Chinese = Jews?

[Guo Xiang]

In fact, former Malaysian prime minister Mahathir Mohamad once stated that if all the Chinese-owned buildings in Kuala Lumpur were lifted from the map, only the buildings in Kampung Baru, a Malay area, would remain in the city.
All the other buildings are owned by Chinese Malaysians. The well-known shopping centres in Malaysia are owned by the Chinese.
The Chinese Malaysians are fantastic. They control all the cities and major towns in peninsular Malaysia, as well as Sabah and Sarawak. They produce the largest number of, and the most successful, professionals. The school system of the Chinese Malaysians is the best among similar school systems in the world.
The Chinese account for most of the students studying in the best private colleges in Malaysia. The Malays can gain admission into only government-owned colleges of ordinary reputation.
With regard to corporate and private organisations, it is the Chinese who dominate. The Malays number just a few; most of them are low-level employees. In fact, knowing Mandarin is a prerequisite for applying for jobs in these organisations.
Finally, an annual survey by the Malaysian Business magazine has found that eight of the 10 richest people in Malaysia are Chinese. The following is the list of the 10 richest people in Malaysia:

Mr Robert Kuok Hock Nien
Mr Tatparanandam Ananda Krishnan
Tan Sri Lee Shin Cheng
Tan Sri Teh Hong Piow
Tan Sri Lim Kok Thay
Tan Sri Quek Leng Chan
Tan Sri Syed Mokhtar Al-Bukhary
Puan Sri Lee Kim Hua
Tan Sri Tiong Hiew King
Tan Sri Vincent Tan Chee Yioun

This is the reality in Malaysia, my beloved country. Is the current government, which has been in power for 52 years, cruel and totalitarian? What else do the Chinese Malaysians want? I think I know, and I think you know too.

Seriously? Come on, if the Malays in Malaysia are that incompetent then they had it coming. If they had that ability those buildings would be owned by them, and that list would be filled with Malay names.

If only they can stop feeling so much self-pity and are so blatantly racist that they have to cheat to get the better deal on the expense on the other races, then they would have improved, and won't suffer a massive braindrain.

[kidd]

The Chinese account for most of the students studying in the best private colleges in Malaysia. The Malays can gain admission into only government-owned colleges of ordinary reputation.

This writer really tried to make it seem like the Malays get the short end of the stick and is so disadvantaged. 'government owned colleges of ordinary reputation'? University Malaya has been ranked in the top 200 universities of the world with long history. It's reputation has only gone down a bit when it became less stringent lately but has gone back up the rank.

And like this person said

"Do you seriously believe that we Chinese would pay for it if we can get it for free ?
The BIGGEST issue here is admission my dear Malaysian Zaini "

The strategy of their forebears has borne fruit. The Chinese have attained what they wanted. They now live in the lap of luxury in this land of opportunity called Malaysia.

In contrast, the Malays in Singapore and the Chinese in Malaysia are very different. The Malays in Singapore lead ordinary lives while the Chinese in Malaysia lead lives that are 'more than ordinary'.
Tell this 2 the chinese old ladies who get only RM200 per month income, the many chinese factory workers, car mechanic apprentices, hawkers, dishwashers and those that have to work as foreign workers to bring money home etc. Tell them they live in 'lap of luxury' and a 'more than ordinary' and see their reaction. If the chinese live in lap of luxury, there won't be so many chinese frequenters of morning and night market buying cheap stuff.

This is the reality in Malaysia, my beloved country. Is the current government, which has been in power for 52 years, cruel and totalitarian? What else do the Chinese Malaysians want? I think I know, and I think you know too.

This is totally fanning hatred. This is the kind of people that is ruining the harmony of my beloved country.

[Dimeron]

I can definitely see the Chinese = Jew connection, especially after the anti-Chinese article that is filled with racism and obvious Jealousy towards the apparently richer Chinese.

Very similar to how Jews were (and in some areas, still are) treated in the West, a small, hardworking, and successful minority, forming a tight knit community. The appearance of wealth invokes jealousy and racism, and in a lot of cases, good political tool as the scapegoat.

[kidd]

I can definitely see the Chinese = Jew connection, especially after the anti-Chinese article that is filled with racism and obvious Jealousy towards the apparently richer Chinese.

Very similar to how Jews were (and in some areas, still are) treated in the West, a small, hardworking, and successful minority, forming a tight knit community. The appearance of wealth invokes jealousy and racism, and in a lot of cases, good political tool as the scapegoat.

Yes, the connection is money. Both minority groups are seen as controlling the economy of their respective countries and owning the bulk of the riches of the country.

[Dimeron]

Yes, the connection is money. Both minority groups are seen as controlling the economy of their respective countries and owning the bulk of the riches of the country.

Well, its more than just money, the wealth and success is what makes them stand out.

A large part is how they are treated as well, both by the common people and institution/politicians.