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The sharp reduction of Chinese as a population ratio is contrary to natural growth patterns and an anomaly due to
institutionalized discrimination. The present Chinese condition requires them to speak better BM to fit in. No greater love hath
man and moms than they lay down their life savings for their children to study overseas and emigrate. Between March 2008 and
August 2009, some 50,000 students sailed from our shores, Deputy Foreign Minister A. Kohilan Pillay told Parliament last
week. The Star speculates that many will not return. Star editor Wong Sai Wan wrote: “… some even admitted that they had
already applied for their PR visas”. They are among 304,358 persons registered with Malaysia ’s representative offices abroad
over the past 18 months. A review of statistics will help us to interpret this unique Made-in-Malaysia export of roughly 17,000
units of human capital on average a month. Among the ethnic groups in Malaysia , the Chinese are the largest outflow and also
experiencing the biggest change in demography.
In the 80s decade, the Chinese had a negative net migration rate of -10.6 percent. “Between 1980 and 1991, the [Chinese]
migration deficit was estimated at 391,801 persons as against a national increase of 777,339 persons,” statistician Tey Nai Peng
found in his study. Chinese annual growth rate also showed a consistent drop, recording only 53 percent between 1990 and
2000 during a period when the national population grew 123 percent. Tey said in his paper ‘Causes and consequences of
demographic change in the Chinese community in Malaysia ’ that “the fertility of the Chinese declined from 4.6 children to 2.5
children between 1970 and 1997”. Comparatively, total fertility rate for Malays in 1987 remained a high 4.51.
It is conspicuous that among the younger age cohorts, Chinese are an even smaller proportion of the national average. On the
other hand, among the elderly [60 years and above], Chinese constitute 5.4 percent of the population, as against the national
average of 5 percent. Among the ethnic groups in Malaysia , Chinese have the highest proportion of the elderly. “It is found that
most of the ‘clients’ in nursing homes are the Chinese,” observes researcher Philip Poi Jun Hua in his essay 'Ageing among the
Chinese in Malaysia : Some trends and issues'. This situation affecting the Chinese community, with parents either in nursing
homes or ‘home alone’ in Malaysia whilst the children are abroad has ironically come about due to education as a main
contributory factor. “The Chinese community places great emphasis on education but the escalation in the cost of acquiring an
education might have compelled young couples to limit their family size,” surmises Tey. Because educated Chinese women are in
the workforce as well as limiting themselves to only one or two children, Chinese couples have more money to spend on each
child’s education. This is in a way a lose-lose scenario because the couple would then tend to over-protect the single offspring –
do recall China’s one-child policy outcome of producing Little Emperors – and the well-educated child is more likely to emigrate.
Self-interest versus community concerns
“All my friends plan to leave Malaysia ,” a private student in the offshore campus of a premier Australian university in KL
declared to me just a couple of months ago. These youths have cogently articulated why they intend to vote with their feet. Aside
from the various reasons we’re all familiar with, I’d like to introduce here the theory of ‘placelessness’ which Lee Boon Thong
links to the Chinese condition. In his paper ‘Placelessness: A study of residential neighborhood quality among Chinese
communities in Malaysia ’, Lee observes that Chinese in cities have subordinated neighborliness and personal ties to the pursuit
of personal advancement.
The move to new urban and suburban residential neighborhoods – where availability of Chinese food and access to shopping
malls are often major considerations – is accompanied by other shifts, among them the increasing “technopolistic grip”
[orientation towards digital entertainment] and losing some of their traditions [e.g. ancestral worship], especially if they convert
to Christianity or Islam. These shifts have the effect of loosening bonds to an old hometown – witness Chin Peng’s strong
attachment for Sitiawan as a contrary example – because the young generation has become city born and bred.
Lee describes the new society resulting from intense urbanization as one breeding individuals who are more self-centered, more
covetous, less considerate and kiasu to boot. “Self-interest overrides almost everything else that concerns the welfare of the
community.” He also says that if the trend persists of residents in emerging neighborhoods failing to develop ties that bind and
a sufficient sense of commonness in community life, then “urban Chinese are at risk in producing a pseudo-progressive society
that appears to be outwardly prosperous through its middle-class façade but in effect lacking social coherence and a sense of
shared ‘placeness’ for the neighborhood”.
Concomitant to this development is the fact that in the mainstream of all spheres of life and particularly official domains, the
predominant speech community will be Malay. This fait accompli of demography dictates that the minorities have to be adept in
the Malay/national language for any meaningful integration to occur. Otherwise, to borrow a turn of phrase from Lee, they will
be living in “proximity without propinquity” or in other words, have trouble relating to the majority. It is thus necessary that
next generation Chinese be effectively multilingual and able to ‘code switch’, i.e. use different varieties of language in different
social settings. If Chinese are unable create a connectedness especially across ethnic lines, this shortcoming would just be adding
another factor to the myriad push factors driving young Chinese away.
The statistics tell a very sobering story. In another short 25 years, Chinese will only be a mere 18.6 percent of the population.
They will soon fall below the sustainable threshold for propagating their culture, and their diminishing numbers will only
increase the pressure for assimilation – something Chinese are reluctant to do. Let us recall Lee’s description how “[i]n a sense,
‘placeness’ may be defined in terms of ‘belonging to a residential neighborhood that demands a reciprocity of identity in terms of
behavioral or interactive response. The lack of such may be termed as ‘placelessness’.” Neighborhoods today are increasingly
Malay, and one of the largest is Shah Alam where the authorities have disallowed the building of a Catholic church, tried to
restrict the sale of beer, made it very difficult to own a dog, and residents protested against a proposed Hindu temple. To
extrapolate Lee’s allusion of ‘placeness’ to a wider national context, we can infer that having a poor facility in Bahasa Melayu
would only compound the Chinese placelessness in a country that has purpose-built for one race such a locality as Shah Alam,
and one that will in future be dotted with more mini Shah Alams.
This list is a common knowledge to a lot of Malaysians, especially those non-Malays (Chinese, Ibans, Kadazans, Orang Asli,
Tamils, etc.) who have been racially discriminated against. Figures in this list are merely estimates, so please take it as a guide
only. The government of Malaysia has the most correct figures. This list covers a period of about 48 years since independence
(1957).
There are hundreds more examples of racial discrimination in Malaysia to add to this list. It is hoped that the victims of racism
will write in to help expose this situation.
The Malaysian government should publish statistics showing how much Malays had benefited from the 'special rights' of Malays
and at the same time release the statistics which show how minority races are being discriminated against. If the Malaysia
government hides the statistics above, then there must be something unnatural going on with the non-Malays of Malaysia .
Civilized nations openly publish statistics to show its treatment of its minority races.