Dr. Mahathir says it again [Malaysian Insider]:

Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad has told non-Malays that they should stop questioning the special rights of the Malays and count themselves privileged, having been given citizenship and other rights in this country.

He urged them to understand history and realise that an agreement was reached before independence in 1957 when the Malays were willing to accept other races as people who could “share the wealth of this land”. Part of the formula saw Umno allow MCA and MIC to administer the country.

“Finally, with the agreement of all parties, immigrants were accepted as citizens of Tanah Melayu and people of other races accepted the reality that Malays had special rights as indigenous people of this land. Tunku Abdul Rahman Putra willingly gave one million citizenships to Chinese and Indians. Which country in the world has given immigrants equal rights?

I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry at the word “immigrants” either. Hey Dr. M, have you heard that Obama is poised to become the next President of the United States? I shudder to think of the days I when I had to wear a uniform, when the only things I knew about Malaysia were from the textbooks and the People’s Paper, when we all actually looked up to this man.

On one hand his plight is understandable. It’s safe to say, one month on, that his much publicized resignation from UMNO has barely made ripples. Melayu mudah lupa dude! The only thing he has to turn to now, as Insider observes, is to go back to fanning the racial sentiment.

But it’s 2008 buddy. We voted out racial politics three months ago. And sure as hell no Malay, Muslim, or Mamak is going to buy that if they somehow had a larger share of the economy, petrol and food prices would go down! Perhaps the M feels he needs to distract us from the larger issue everyone is thinking about: If we are an oil exporter, why the heck aren’t we doing better with the current oil prices? Petronas - or rather, how Petronas’ money is spent - has much more to do with our economic situation than whether or not Malays corner 30% of a shrinking pie. And whatever we say about Pak Lah, he has only been in term for a few years, his budgets have been relatively conservative, and hasn’t shown the penchant for mega projects that Dr. M did. Yes, we’re not stupid - all this happened on your watch, Dr. M.

If Pak Lah were you, you would have been thrown into the clapper ages ago. As it is, at least try to salvage what’s left of your dignity. Your gambit didn’t work, it’s time to fade into obscurity and let us sort out the mess you left us with.

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