MALAYSIA NOW OPENLY RACIST: 'Toilet canteen' episode shows up long simmering issues

We can put aside all race and religious sentiments, we can look at the issue from a management perspective with rationality prevailing. We can even dismiss the police threat of imposing more of the Sedition Act as a publicity stunt to suck up to the powers-that-be.

But all this forgiveness will not take Malaysia anywhere into the realm of developed nations for sure. Neither would we be dealing with the reality in Malaysia because the actual day-to day situation is bad and getting worse.

What we need to do is to confront the issue of RACISM point black. It has always been there and it is now so bad, everyone in the country can feel it. It is worse than the haze.

Something has gone very wrong

The siege mentality or feelings of inferiority amongst the Malays especially when they face up to the Chinese and Indians - some of whom even without the 'handicaps' are in many ways still smarter and more capable - is huger than before. And this despite the Malays having already carved out so much economic, education and social advantages.

So what is going on? Somewhere in the race 're-engineering' scheme designed by some of the top Umno politicians, something has gone badly wrong. It would be in the interests of the Malays to take stock and find out what and why before they plunge beyond the current pivotal point of no return.

As for the Chinese, they are still banging their heads against a brick wall that refuses to crumble. More than before, many feel like leaving this 'sickening' country. The Indians...well, the Indians ... that's another sad story that needs a chapter all to itself.

Malay RACISM

So what are we going to do about all this RACISM? And to be precise, what we are talking about is MALAY RACISM against the non-Malays. It is not that racial prejudice doesn't exist vice-versa but the problem for the current moment in this country is the unbridled feelings of Malay supremacy going more than a little bit out of control.

Many Malays now not only feel but openly SHOW they have the right to bully, as well as mentally and physically impinge on the space of the other communities.

And to make it worse, they do so with impunity, with the knowledge the government won't go after them. Are we exaggerating? Do a private survey among the non-Malays with confidentiality assured and see if the results do not bear out our views then.

Make no mistake, with so much of the country's wealth on the table and with so many of these so-called champions of the Malay-Muslim agenda competing to control it, what we face is a long and dangerous journey ahead.

But courage we must have, for the surgeon's scalpel has to be used to dig and explore without mercy if we are to expunge the cancer that is killing this country and us all.

Dithering Education Minister

Let's look at the toilet-canteen case. To begin with, it reveals there is much to be desired in so far as the Education Ministry goes. What we need is the courage to admit where we have failed if we are serious about the ‘transformation’ that is being preached by the leaders and be seen to take appropriate action.

To begin with, the Honorable Deputy Education Minister could have tackled the issue in a more informed manner using the strategic science of public relations. Instead he fouled it and created more reason for the race and religion sentiments to be exploited by various quarters.

In fact the deputy minister’s efforts have even drawn out more unfair criticism on the school’s head leading to the head lodging a police report.

And beneath this unfolding drama in distaste is a revealing problem that we must address if we want to stop all such bucket brigade fighting and knee jerk reactions each time ignored issues escalate into a crisis into the public domain through the unstoppable netscape.

Why was the canteen so badly designed? Was it another BN corruption thingy?

Foremost, the questions that have risen out of this toilet-canteen episode is how could we have design-built a fairly new school to cater for a 600 population when the enrolment is a staggering 1,300 pupils?

And if there was a huge constrain and gnawing problem in providing a humanly decent place to eat for 23 students, how did the school manage all these years for a 1,300 population?

If oversight in planning or absolute lack of planning was the reason, then the next question that begs an answer is why did the Head of the school not address this lack of basic amenity to the ministry all this while?

And why only 23 students - all non-Malays - pushed to this toilet canteen

Let us suppose that the head had filled in the reports to the relevant desks. And if that be the case – in all probability going by the head’s efforts to provide make-shift arrangements, then who in the ministry is guilty of not expediting the matter and ensuring that basic amenities are improvised with speed?

To answer these questions, it will take a mountain of courage and determination from all those citizens employed in schools across the country. How many heads and PTAs across the length and breadth of the country will have the courage and the protection granted to speak the honest reality that is plaguing schools – from basic amenities to safety to teaching and learning comfort.

This is an important matter because we are not talking about a nation that earned independence five years ago. We had enjoyed independence for over half a century. The voting citizens of this country had placed their trust in one single political party for decades and hence BN is solely responsible for the problems faced by the toilet-canteen school. Period.

BN has to be accountable

BN is accountable for our progress and failures. The political masters and policy guardians must stand up to be held accountable.

If we can under the Mahathir Mohamad leadership successfully build mega structures ranging from from world-known Twin-Towers to creation of a whole new picture-perfect capitals like Putrajaya, what is so difficult to plan and build schools that meet desired goals and growing needs?

Let us now examine the public relations flop here.

With due respect to the office of the deputy minister, YB Kamalanathan failed to understand the importance of issues management here. The first step in a brewing crisis is to know and identify accurately your target publics.

Next, you should put in place a multiple public relations strategy to address each of the affected target publics including stratums of stakeholders involved or implicated in this toilet-canteen breakout. Each target deserves different strokes.

Kow-towing will only help Kamalanathan's personal agenda

Instead the deputy education minister chose to go full throttle, arriving at the school premises with a bent will to bulldoze through with his version of the facts or ‘truth’ as he wanted the public to subscribe to. That is suicidal public relations.

To make it worse he announced an immediate funding of RM10,000 hoping it will earn goodwill. Again this is a miserably failure because at the heights of frayed feelings and intense suspicion where facts do not matter especially when information has gone viral, the act of handouts cuts deeper into the open wound and not serve as a healing balm.

A strategic approach would have been to give public importance to the complaining party/parties and take ownership of the problem as the deputy minister represents the very body that guides, determines and manages education in all schools.

But unfortunately the deputy minister chose to play the role of ‘mandor-mediator’ telling everyone in short to shut up and get on with life – which again is tantamount to shooting yourself in both the feet.

YB should have instead have played the role of facilitator, bringing all parties to the table to put their heads and hearts together to arrive at an understanding that speaks well to the nationwide audience especially netizens.

At least, have the courage to stop lying

What we need to understand is that strategic public relations is very different from technician public relations. The ‘technician’ approach is a handyman fix-it-solution mindset approach to a given issue that has far-reaching consequences; whereas strategic thinking in public relations demands the ability to navigate the involved publics out of a precipitating crisis or what we term in public relations as the ‘red zone’.

Hence, let us not keep shouting at the netizens for their all kinds of taking offence with the toilet-canteen. Let us also not hold the head of the school as the culprit or the scapegoat. Such easy-way-out approaches cannot take the nation forward. And for the police, they too must not fall into that blinkered trap of warning of more arrests with the hope it will solve the problem.

If in the final analysis the ministry does conclusively prove that there was misplaced fanaticism on the part of the school’s head, then appropriate action taken must be a warning across the nation too.

Most importantly we need courage. If we have failed, we must admit where we have failed and resolve with acceptable solutions. And for starters, will the education ministry give the protection and the blessing to all schools to produce a blueprint without fear or favor or political allegiance and patronage on what is working and what is not right in their schools?

Will we rise from such toilet-canteen episodes or will we sink deeper in the murky waters of power, greed and misplaced justice? Patriotism demands that we address the problems truthfully and not safeguard vested interests.

Malaysia Chronicle