Awang Selamat Broaches The Subject Of Betrayal

There is a trash bag in town and he goes by the monicker of Awang Selamat.

Now I've heard people whinge, but no one comes close to this rabid mouthpiece of UMNO who regularly churns out a staple diet of racism, self-pity and a sense of entitlement.

If you're wondering "who?", he's a columnist for our favourite Malaysian daily, Utusan Melayu. If you're wondering "what?", here's the piece.

If you're a foreigner who doesn't speak or read Malay, it looks like I'll have to translate - though what a despicable task it is to dissect such drivel.

But here goes the melodrama-punctuated snivelling:

Awang's heart is perpetually being gouged by the overly racist demands of the non-Malays post GE12 (on March '08). The reason can be interpreted. But Awang will not go into length on that, merely to bring up an excerpt from Tun Tan Siew Sin, an MCA leader, on 30th April 1969 for our consideration.

"The Malays, through UMNO, generously loosened the requirements within the law to the extent that in the 12 months after independence, 90% of non-Malays were granted citizenship. In contrast, pre-independence, 90% of them were not recognised as citizens even though they lived for over a hundred years under the imperialists. To repay the Malay generosity, MCA and MIC agreed to protect and respect the special rights of the Malays while defending the basic rights of other races."

It's almost amusing to observe how shamelessly he glorifies UMNO when every other Malaysian with half a brain knows that it was a coalition of people - not only UMNO - who had a say in national policy.

The British really didn't care who was a native or a foreigner. The Malays, Chinese and Indians were all equal in their eyes, which is why the whole concept of citizenship never mattered in the first place.

Galadriel rightfully takes offence at the insinuation that her life here is at the behest of the kind people of Umno.

There is some irrelevant reference to Tun Sambanthan, but after that, there's more rabble rousing in the next paragraph:

What did they decide about citizenship? If we look at Asia and East Asia, we will find that Indians were not accepted in Ceylon and Burma. Similarly, the Chinese were not accepted in Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia and other countries. What assistance in relation to citizenship did they receive in those regions?

My 2 Cents slaps Awang The Moron right in the face with his response to this ridiculous comparison. "I could point out a country, that not only gave foreigners CITIZENSHIP, they even elected a dual-citizenship 'foreigner' as President," he says.

My resolve to translate the entire piece has weakened. Like any other piece with no merit, the writer chooses to repeat himself. But he ends with this:

The question is, has the Malays' sacrifice been betrayed by the other races?

Someone by the name of Ruyom has given a very good response to that particular question:

When Awang Selamat writes the malays have been betrayed, then he is keeping very good company indeed. Adolf Hitler repeatedly wrote the Germans have been betrayed by the minority Jews. Karadzan Milosevic repeatedly said the Serbians have been betrayed by the minority Bosnians.

Robert Mugabe repeatedly said the Zimbabweans have been betrayed by the foreign West. The BJP regularly say that the Hindus have been betrayed by the minority Muslims.

All the while their leaders shouted – traitor this and traitor that – as if the louder they shouted the more easily their lies could be believed.

Luckily there are a lot of Malay-Muslims in Malaysia who think for themselves, and not swallow everything Utusan tells them to. How stupid do Umno spin doctors think the rakyat have become?

It's really good stuff. Go and read it here.