"Of course there are Chinese millionaires in big cars and big houses. Is it the answer to make a few Malay millionaires with big cars and big houses? How does telling a Malay bus driver that he should support the party of his Malay director (UMNO) and the Chinese bus conductor to join another party of his Chinese director (MCA) - how does that improve the standards of the Malay bus driver and the Chinese bus conductor who are both workers in the same company? If we delude people into believing that they are poor because there are no Malay rights or because opposition members oppose Malay rights, where are we going to end up? You let people in the kampongs believe that they are poor because we don't speak Malay, because the government does not write in Malay, so he expects a miracle to take place in 1967 (the year Malay would become the national and sole official language in Malaysia). The moment we all start speaking Malay, he is going to have an uplift in the standard of living, and if doesn't happen, what happens then? Meanwhile, whenever there is a failure of economic, social and educational policies, you come back and say, oh, these wicked Chinese, Indian and others opposing Malay rights. They don't oppose Malay rights. They, the Malay, have the right as Malaysian citizens to go up to the level of training and education that the more competitive societies, the non-Malay society, has produced. That is what must be done, isn't it? Not to feed them with this obscurantist doctrine that all they have got to do is to get Malay rights for the few special Malays and their problem has been resolved."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
Lee Kuan Yew speaking in the Parliament of Malaysia (1965)
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Lee_Kuan_Yew
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Related Quotes
"Certain basics about human nature do not change. Man needs a certain moral sense of right and wrong. There is such a …"
"But we either believe in democracy or we don't. If we do, then, we must say categorically, without qualification, tha…"
"If I were in authority in Singapore indefinitely without having to ask those who are governed whether they like what …"
"Repression, Sir is a habit that grows. I am told it is like making love-it is always easier the second time! The firs…"
"If we say that we believe in democracy, if we say that the fabric of a democratic society is one which allows for the…"
"Repression can only go up to a point. When it becomes too acute, the instruments of repression, namely the army and t…"
"If it is not totalitarian to arrest a man and detain him, when you cannot charge him with any offence against any wri…"
"Let us get down to fundamentals. Is this an open, or is this a closed society? Is it a society where men can preach i…"
"How does the Malay in the kampong find his way out into this modernised civil society? By becoming servants of the 0.…"
"They (the Malay extremists) have triggered off something basic and fundamental. Malaysia — to whom does it belo…"