Saturday, June 06, 2009
New America, One Malaysia
I did a very simple and short 5 minutes opener for the "New America, One Malaysia" forum organised by Asia Society on Wednesday evening. I wanted the "miracle" of Obama, a black man, first generation American, capturing the White House which represents the "New America" to one day be possible in Malaysia. Only then, can we truly believe that we have achieved "One Malaysia".
The other panel speakers of the evening were Khairy Jamaluddin, Premesh Chandran, Jacqueline Ann Surin, and our guest from the United Stattes, Jamie Metzl, the Senior Vice-President of the Asia Society. Videos courtesy of Malaysiakini.com.
The fairly interesting 26 minutes edited Q&A session is also available to Malaysiakini subscribers here.
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8 comments:
YB.
Malaysiakini marginalized your video :)
Great to find it here.
Obama is the benefeciary of his predecasors and their policies that created the right thinking American public. Untill Malaysia accept the word of "ketuanan" is a curse to this land only then we have Malaysian Obama.
Try to give the Ketuanan policy to the White in US, i think probably another 50years, US competitiveness will be dominated by non-white, do you agree?. If you do, then why this ketuanan curse is still treated as a gift here?
When Bush came into power, the politicians talked about free economy, more trade, more opportunities etc. which turned out to be more a bubble than anything else. No one talked about the neo-cons, Al-Qaeda and Iraq.
Now Obama message is being hijacked by the same group of people to mean different things. America is different and that is why its the world leader. But anyone with half a brain will tell you that countries like Malaysia is NOT going to follow in America footstep just because it makes sense. We are NOT Americans and shamefully cannot match their liberal ideals. We will be what is MOST Practical. Our politicians don't fight for ideals, they fight for practical things and if the situation is NOT practical, they don't change it.
We will never match the ideals of the founding of USA because its NOT our founding. We have even gone too far away from our the intention of our original founding and it would be a blessing to just to go back to it. I seriously doubt we can even go back to our original founding ever given the complexity of race and religion that are thousands of years old that was never suppose to play such prominent roles in our lives by the original intent of our founders.
Agree v Anon 9:08.
To democracize Malaysia the American Way is not practical. I would go a bit far to label it as dangerous. And would back supporting One Malaysia if our implementation can match Singapore.
We are in urgent need to go back to our original founding, where we need to sit down together with ppl from different mother tongue, different culture, different educational background, and to blueprint a practical way forward for our next generations.
May be Lee Kuan Yew's lecture can share some ideas next week when he drop by 3 PR states. So do Thailand's PM.
God bless Malaysia.
in america, everyone (at least the majority) accepts themselves as pendatang. including the whites. to simplify, the whites mainly from europe & the rest are from asia, africa & the native red indians. there are laws in america that protect the minority & are given equal opportunities. inlcuding employment, etc. they are anti racist laws too. moreover, there is no such thing as white-supremacy law. only those 'out-laws' like the ku-klux-klan or kkk, or neo-nazis in europe. however, here is the reverse. the laws promote racism such as 'bumi-status', 'bumi-land', all else with the 'bumi' title. on top of that, ketuanan melayu. if that is not racism, i don't what is. this is equivalent to declaring white-supremacy over the blacks of america. so as long as there are these issues being drilled into the future generations of malaysians, i say "new america, one malaysia" is never a topic for discussion. on top of that, it is bn-law that states that only the president of umno become pm. so? ...enough said.
On LKY visit. I believe LKY main interest is the Water Agreement between Malaysia and Singapore. Najib and Muhiyiddin represents the best opportunity for Singapore to resolve the Water Agreement. If Najib should not succeed administratively, its likely that UMNO will turn right and the chances of a Water Agreement will be remote for decades. But if Najib and Muhiyiddin succeed administratively, its the best chance for a Water Agreeement that Najib and Muhiyiddin can absorb politically...
So LKY interest is to support Najib administration and the price will be a Water Agreement at reasonable price that will last 100 years beyond the current ones.
It's all talk.....by Mr. Talk and those in power.... The results of their intended change is yet to be seen effectively !!!!
Disgusted !!
YB EN. KHAIRY !
IT IS NOT TRUE THAT USA IS THE SINGLE MOST STRONGEST MILITARY POWER IN THE WORLD !!!! DON'T LEAVE RUSSIA OUT !! CHECK OUT RUSSIA'S MILITARY POWER (REAL & TRUE) IN THE YOUTUBE !!! U WILL BE SHOCKED !!!! THEY HAVE THE MOTHER OF ALL BOMBS EVEN MORE LETHAL AND MORE EFFECTIVE THAN THE CONVENTIONAL NUCLEAR BOMB !!! AND LOOK AT RUSSIA'S CONVENTIONAL MILITARY POWER I.E. MISSILES, TANKS, ARMY, JETS,SUBMARINES, GUNS, ...
WATCH OUT FOR IRAN AND NORTH KOREA AS WELL !!!!
PLS CHECK YR FACTS !!!!
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