Pluralism?

[Developereo]

The british brought chinese and indians to malaya, because the malays were considered too lazy and untrustworthy.. the chinese and indians were used to work in the mines and plantations. The malays were the royals, there are still 7 sultans in malaysia ruling various provinces and one of them becomes the head of state of malaysia in rotation every 5yrs. The malays own most of the land and are mostly into farming. The chinese have no land and they have no choice than to become enterprising. They have prospered over generations through sheer hard work and their business acumen. Now the malay muslims want to grab this wealth from the chinese..

The foreigners were the administrative class. They were the ones who were educated and trained by the British and they always held themselves aloof from the native masses. Because of this historical advantage, and rampant ethnic nepotism, they own a disproportionate share of businesses and wealth.

Your point about hard work is true, but there is also rampant ethnic nepotism amongst the Indian and the Chinese elite classes. This is true in SouthEast Asia, where the Chinese minority dominates over the natives, and in Africa where the Indians dominate. In both regions. the elite, aloof minority which were imported and imposed by the British, is resented by the majority natives.

P.S. Anyway, this is tangential to the topic. My main point is that the Malaysian situation is not really pertinent to the discussion of pluralism in this context. Rather, it is similar to the situation in US/Canada/Australia which provide special privileges to the natives peoples, in recognition of the historic wrongs. The only difference is that, in Malaysia, the natives weren't decimated and are now in charge.

 

[shuntmaster]

The foreigners were the administrative class. They were the ones who were educated and trained by the British and they always held themselves aloof from the native masses. Because of this historical advantage, and rampant ethnic nepotism, they own a disproportionate share of businesses and wealth.

Your point about hard work is true, but there is also rampant ethnic nepotism amongst the Indian and the Chinese elite classes. This is true in SouthEast Asia, where the Chinese minority dominates over the natives, and in Africa where the Indians dominate. In both regions. the elite, aloof minority which were imported and imposed by the British, is resented by the majority natives.

P.S. Anyway, this is tangential to the topic. My main point is that the Malaysian situation is not really pertinent to the discussion of pluralism in this context. Rather, it is similar to the situation in US/Canada/Australia which provide special privileges to the natives peoples, in recognition of the historic wrongs. The only difference is that, in Malaysia, the natives weren't decimated and are now in charge.

Factually not true. The Chinese and Indians were brought in by British as labor to work in rubber and palm oil plantation, tin mines and ports. There were some managers amongst them to supervise the imported laborers. Today the Chinese and Indians, though making up more than a third of the Malaysian population, are woefully under-represented in the government, civil services, military, police and any other government institution in Malaysia..

 

[Sam1980]

Well Obama should be willing to listen,lets hope it gets better then.

Obama may be willing to listen, but Congress is under the influence of foreign lobbies!