主张一个大马却纵容种族主义
前美国驻马大使狠批纳吉虚伪
2011年2月8日
下午 3点00分
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前美国驻马来西亚大使约翰马洛特（John Malott）今天在《亚洲华尔街日报》撰文狠批大马首相纳吉虚伪，因纳吉根本没有认真落实本身提出的“一个大马”理念，反而纵容大马种族主义恶化，造成大马在短短3年流失50万名人才。
约翰马洛特从上世纪90年代中便出任美驻马大使，于1998年卸任后不时对大马政府提出批评。
他在一篇题为“大马种族主义的代价”的评论中强调，大马的种族主义现象已令国家经济成长放缓，甚至对外流失人才。
纳吉上任族群宗教事件恶化
约翰马洛特指出，纳吉应该照镜自我检讨，是否认真想要落实“一个大马”的目标。
“纳吉2009年上台后，尽管提出了一个亮丽的辞汇，但族群间及宗教间的关系仍紧绷。”
“事实上，这比1969年的情况还严重，当时最少有200名巫、华裔因族群纠纷而丧生。”
约翰马洛特把这种日益紧张的族群及宗教系列事件，归咎于政府“容忍并在一些事件中透过言行举止来煽动，令族群间出现分化”。
提牛头爱国课十字架风波
他也提出一些案例，包括纳吉助理哈德柯尔（Hardev Kaur）被指曾在纳吉出席圣诞节开放门户活动时，抗议主办单位的吉隆坡天主教大主教住家不应展示十字架。
“柯尔之后澄清她仅是要求，而非指示；这好像任何大马人可拒绝由首相署办公室发出的要求。”
他再举例，因抗议兴都庙迁往本身住宅区而引发的牛头示威风波，内政部长希山慕丁却捍卫这批肇事的居民，另外，国防部长也曾质疑华印裔不愿从军，因缺乏爱国精神。
约翰马洛特也抨击巫统所拥有的《马来西亚前锋报》攻击华裔从政者，并煽动对华裔从政者的憎恨情绪，甚至曾建议应杀掉行动党雪州高级行政议员郭素沁。
3年内共有50万人离马
约翰马洛特总结，这种逐渐恶化的种族主义现象，导致2007年至2009年期间约有50万名国人离马，这比移居海外的专业大马人才数目还多出一倍。
他也指出，纳吉向强烈反对经济改革的右翼组织土著权威组织低头，殊不知停止改革将进一步影响大马竞争力及经济成长放缓，同时意味着更多工程在未竞标下发配给朋党。
约翰马洛特认为，纳吉甚至可能不可相信其政党和官员释放出的这套论述，惟为了捞取更多巫裔选票的支持而放任不理。
“当他（纳吉）的政党面对反对党来势汹汹挑战，尤其碰触及种族政策及在经济领域招致的后果时，这无疑成为一项政治便利。”
警告种族主义将会影响经济
约翰马洛特也警告，当大马拥有的包容逐渐被磨蚀掉，经济也会出现问题，大马若要在2020年发展为先进国，其经济成长每年便须达8%。
“要达致这种程度的成长，须有大量的国内外私人界投资及外国资源来支撑，并配合人力技巧的提升及重大的经济转型。不过，恶化的种族及宗教事件将形成阻力。”
约翰马洛特认为，当政府为了政治上的权宜之计而煽动宗教及种族问题，然而这种机会主义的代价便是大马的经济。
“这国家的人民将会继续出走，一并带走的是金钱及人才。至于外资，担忧的是族群关系不稳固及缺乏经济改革，也会转投其他国家。”
The Price of Malaysia's Racism
Slower growth and a drain of talented citizens are only the beginning.
By JOHN R. MALOTT
Malaysia's national tourism agency promotes the country as "a bubbling, bustling melting pot of races and religions where Malays, Indians, Chinese and many other ethnic groups live together in peace and harmony." Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak echoed this view when he announced his government's theme, One Malaysia. "What makes Malaysia unique," Mr. Najib said, "is the diversity of our peoples. One Malaysia's goal is to preserve and enhance this unity in diversity, which has always been our strength and remains our best hope for the future."
If Mr. Najib is serious about achieving that goal, a long look in the mirror might be in order first. Despite the government's new catchphrase, racial and religious tensions are higher today than when Mr. Najib took office in 2009. Indeed, they are worse than at any time since 1969, when at least 200 people died in racial clashes between the majority Malay and minority Chinese communities. The recent deterioration is due to the troubling fact that the country's leadership is tolerating, and in some cases provoking, ethnic factionalism through words and actions.
For instance, when the Catholic archbishop of Kuala Lumpur invited the prime minister for a Christmas Day open house last December, Hardev Kaur, an aide to Mr. Najib, said Christian crosses would have to be removed. There could be no carols or prayers, so as not to offend the prime minister, who is Muslim. Ms. Kaur later insisted that she "had made it clear that it was a request and not an instruction," as if any Malaysian could say no to a request from the prime minister's office.
Similar examples of insensitivity abound. In September 2009, Minister of Home Affairs Hishammuddin Onn met with protesters who had carried the decapitated head of a cow, a sacred animal in the Hindu religion, to an Indian temple. Mr. Hishammuddin then held a press conference defending their actions. Two months later, Defense Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi told Parliament that one reason Malaysia's armed forces are overwhelmingly Malay is that other ethnic groups have a "low spirit of patriotism." Under public pressure, he later apologized.
The leading Malay language newspaper, Utusan Melayu, prints what opposition leader Lim Kit Siang calls a daily staple of falsehoods that stoke racial hatred. Utusan, which is owned by Mr. Najib's political party, has claimed that the opposition would make Malaysia a colony of China and abolish the Malay monarchy. It regularly attacks Chinese Malaysian politicians, and even suggested that one of them, parliamentarian Teresa Kok, should be killed.
This steady erosion of tolerance is more than a political challenge. It's an economic problem as well.
Once one of the developing world's stars, Malaysia's economy has underperformed for the past decade. To meet its much-vaunted goal of becoming a developed nation by 2020, Malaysia needs to grow by 8% per year during this decade. That level of growth will require major private investment from both domestic and foreign sources, upgraded human skills, and significant economic reform. Worsening racial and religious tensions stand in the way.
Almost 500,000 Malaysians left the country between 2007 and 2009, more than doubling the number of Malaysian professionals who live overseas.
It appears that most were skilled ethnic Chinese and Indian Malaysians, tired of being treated as second-class citizens in their own country and denied the opportunity to compete on a level playing field, whether in education, business, or government. Many of these emigrants, as well as the many Malaysian students who study overseas and never return (again, most of whom are ethnic Chinese and Indian), have the business, engineering, and scientific skills that Malaysia needs for its future. They also have the cultural and linguistic savvy to enhance Malaysia's economic ties with Asia's two biggest growing markets, China and India.
Of course, one could argue that discrimination isn't new for these Chinese and Indians. Malaysia's affirmative action policies for its Malay majority—which give them preference in everything from stock allocation to housing discounts—have been in place for decades. So what is driving the ethnic minorities away now?
First, these minorities increasingly feel that they have lost a voice in their own government. The Chinese and Indian political parties in the ruling coalition are supposed to protect the interests of their communities, but over the past few years, they have been neutered. They stand largely silent in the face of the growing racial insults hurled by their Malay political partners. Today over 90% of the civil service, police, military, university lecturers, and overseas diplomatic staff are Malay. Even TalentCorp, the government agency created in 2010 that is supposed to encourage overseas Malaysians to return home, is headed by a Malay, with an all-Malay Board of Trustees.
Second, economic reform and adjustments to the government's affirmative action policies are on hold. Although Mr. Najib held out the hope of change a year ago with his New Economic Model, which promised an "inclusive" affirmative action policy that would be, in Mr. Najib's words, "market friendly, merit-based, transparent and needs-based," he has failed to follow through. This is because of opposition from right-wing militant Malay groups such as Perkasa, which believe that a move towards meritocracy and transparency threatens what they call "Malay rights."
But stalling reform will mean a further loss in competitiveness and slower growth. It also means that the cronyism and no-bid contracts that favor the well-connected will continue. All this sends a discouraging signal to many young Malaysians that no matter how hard they study or work, they will have a hard time getting ahead.
Mr. Najib may not actually believe much of the rhetoric emanating from his party and his government's officers, but he tolerates it because he needs to shore up his Malay base. It's politically convenient at a time when his party faces its most serious opposition challenge in recent memory—and especially when the opposition is challenging the government on ethnic policy and its economic consequences.
One young opposition leader, parliamentarian Nurul Izzah Anwar, the daughter of former deputy prime minister Anwar Ibrahim, has proposed a national debate on what she called the alternative visions of Malaysia's future—whether it should be a Malay nation or a Malaysian nation. For that, she earned the wrath of Perkasa; the government suggested her remark was "seditious."
Malaysia's government might find it politically expedient to stir the racial and religious pot, but its opportunism comes with an economic price tag.
Its citizens will continue to vote with their feet and take their money and talents with them. And foreign investors, concerned about racial instability and the absence of meaningful economic reform, will continue to look elsewhere to do business.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704422204576129663620557634.html
Mr. Malott was the U.S. Ambassador to Malaysia, 1995-1998.
