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Diversity-worship won’t cure racism but … PDF Print
Monday, 17 November 2008 16:36
It has now become an accepted principle that the way to cure racism is through the promulgation of racial and ethnic diversity within corporations, universities, government agencies and other institutions including political parties. There are many facets for these diversity movements such as NS training, diversity hiring and admissions, diversity promotions, diversity politics and diversity accommodations etc. (e.g., Indian/Chinese/Malay student organizations and facilities at universities.MIC, MCA, UMNO in politics).

The common feature in all these facets is racial preference.

Why this diversity has brought racial division and conflict instead of promoting racial harmony, if diversity was the cure?

The answer is that you cannot cure racism with racism. Accepting this logic of diversity is same as thinking in racial terms rather than in terms of individual character or merit. Taking jobs away from one group in order to compensate a second group to correct injustices/imbalance caused by a third group who mistreated/sidelined a fourth group at an earlier point in history is absurd on the face of it and does not promote justice. It rather does the opposite. Singling out one group for special favors (e.g., through affirmative action/NEP) breeds justified resentment and fuels the prejudices of real racists.

People are individuals”

Let’s take a fictional example in the field of job as a case study. A corporation named ALIBABA since its creation since 1953 refused to hire an Indian due to a quirky bias on the part of its founder. The founder then dies in 1969 and an enlightened Board of Directors decides that something "positive" needs to be done to compensate for past injustices and announces that, henceforth, Indians will be hired on a preferential basis.

Observe that:

·         This does not help the real victims - the previously excluded Indians.

·         The newly favoured Indians have not been victims of discrimination in hiring, yet unfairly benefit from it.

·         The non-Indians are now excluded from jobs due to the Indians preference.

·         These non-Indians did not cause the previous discrimination and are now unfairly made victims of it.

In the job sphere there are only three essential things an employer needs to know about an individual applicant:

> Does the person have the relevant ability and knowledge (or the capacity to learn readily)?

> Is the person willing to exert the needed effort?

> Does the person have good character? e.g., honesty, integrity

Similar concept is applicable in other sectors including education (which is in greater mess) & politics (which is a mockery now).

The proper solution, of course, is simply to stop discriminating based on irrelevant factors. Although Indian bias ( in the above fictional example) is not a social problem, the principle does not change when you replace hair color with skin color or religion.

Color-blindness & religion-blindness is the traditional and essentially correct solution to the problem of racism & religiosity. But this well-intentioned principle comes at the issue negatively.

The correct principle is individuality awareness…………

People often are making judgments of other people based on non-essential attributes such as skin color, gender, religion, nationality, etc. of course, does happen. At the same time, Individuality Awareness might be too "idealistic" too, But the solution is not to abandon the ideal but to implement it consistently. Thus, government and organizational policies should focus not on diversity-worship but to find way on how to objectively assess or measure the ability, motivation and character in other people.

The proper alternative is to focus on the individual and to treat each individual according to his or her own merits. Malaysians have always encouraged the concept of diversity. ONE of which could easily be reflected in your news papers. (just go through politics till vacancies, could see it everywhere)

When one condemns racism, they should practice what they preach. Malaysians should abhor racism, in any form, for the same reason. (Our parliament itself fails in that)

The belief - that you can cure racism with racial quotas - is a hopeless quest with nothing but increased conflict and injustice at the end. Time has reached where political leaders, educationalists and corporate leaders should find the courage to assert and defend the only true antidote to the problem of racism, which is INDIVIDUALISM. Diversity-worship won’t cure racism but individualism will.


- Vineeth Menon

http://malaysia180degree.blogspot.com/

 

Comments (12)Add Comment
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written by ahmadneil, November 17, 2008 16:41:22
The father of racism is Racist mahathir.
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written by ahmadneil, November 17, 2008 16:42:00
The party that promotes racism is umno.
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written by ahmadneil, November 17, 2008 16:43:18
The country that still propagates racism is malaysia.
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written by penangboi, November 17, 2008 16:50:41
ahmadneil, you have missed out MCA and MIC.

It's not only UMNO that is racist. Chinese-only MCA and Indian-only MIC are equally racists.

And I go further in saying that all other BN component parties are equally guilty of the crime by supporting BN's racist stand and by their non-action in denouncing racism practised by BN.

In short the whole Malaysian government is RACIST!!!!
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written by budakindia, November 17, 2008 16:59:09
Malaysia a "good testing ground" for extreme racist policies! Their people are expandable! smilies/angry.gif How about trying human slaughtering, cannibalism altogether too! You crazy Nazis are very close to it! smilies/angry.gif It takes one crazy people like you in the UMNO to start it! smilies/angry.gif
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written by Dogboy, November 17, 2008 17:26:29
In one international organization I know overseas, if you say something like "that old man has sent in his tender" can be construed as age bias as age has got nothing to do with a decision on the tender. Compare this with what we go through in 19th century Malaysia.
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written by Dogboy, November 17, 2008 17:29:38
If MCA and MIC (like UMNO) take in membership based on race, then they are indeed racist parties. They are also propagating racism by their support or lack of opposition to the extreme racist policies of UMNO.
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written by Hirakey, November 17, 2008 17:39:52
Dear Everyone @ Malaysia Today,

Lets not waste time writing some personal comments just as a mean to ventilate your inner frustrations.

All of you are wasting too much of your energy responding to such articles.

Your learned attention should be directed at more important issues which can reshape the future for Malaysia.

Everyone should contribute or brainstorm in a MT Forum focusing just on "How we can create further awareness amongst more Malaysians to Propel CHANGES in Malaysia in Relation to Discrimination, Racism and Politics."

If every reader just focus on this goal, it will snow ball to an enormous energy that will radiate across spectrum to all Malaysians that CHANGE MUST HAPPEN!!

The very same people that post many comments on various articles, it's time you start focusing your energy towards the right direction.

This is not a criticism but a constructive suggestion if we so desire CHANGE to take place!!

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has!

We hope that this will be the start of the new frontier. Lets work together on this!

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written by truthbespoken, November 17, 2008 17:58:52
Malaysia's racial problems increasingly got worse after the seventies. It was caused by the so-called affirmative actions which in fact were the source for UMNO's continued implementation and expansion of racist policies and actions on the people over the years. The Constitution was high-jacked many times to justify those inept policies which actually benefited UMNOputras the most.

Outwardly promoting harmony amongst the people is one thing but doing the opposite was the norm. UMNO’s mouths and their hearts do not match. They do not care much about the national interest that is the balanced interest of all races. Vision schools, national services and a whole lot of other seemingly positive actions to enhance racial relations are all hogwash. They are half-baked measures undertaken by UMNO to buy time to expand on their numbers game under their Ketuanan Melayu Agenda! UMNO is not sincere to Malaysians!

UMNO is UMNO. UMNO wants to remain a Malay party forever benefiting the UMNOputras! They have not shown any sign of turning Malaysian any time soon. In the Malaysian context, I would say UMNO is not a patriotic party. UMNO will never provide the fair leadership that all true Malaysians crave for! Hence, UMNO should be voted out in the next elections if not earlier!
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written by rakyatmalaysia, November 17, 2008 18:01:29
i wonder what will take malaysia to be like united states of america. when do we proudly called as malaysian, isnt it weird that other southeast country around us have no racial tag on their name. like indonesian , singaporean or even thais. why we ? are we malaysian or simply known as malay, chinese and indian ?

i feel sad for my nation, a country truly blessed with natural resource yet it was cursed with racisme..
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written by cylee, November 17, 2008 18:56:10
All those racist party must totally ban!! smilies/angry.gif smilies/angry.gif smilies/angry.gif
==> MCA must ban.
==> MIC must ban.
==> UMNO must ban.
Period. smilies/cool.gif smilies/cool.gif smilies/cool.gif
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written by michael chick, November 17, 2008 23:20:34


Peace be with you all...
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