Call a white American nigger, and you'd probably get a blank stare.

Toss the phrase at an African American, and you help recall suffering in the deep South-- from slavery to Jim Crow. Nigger cuts with blade sharpened by thousands of prior blows.

Racism of any sort is wrong. It is a prejudgement that diminishes the individual character or mistreatment motivated from incorrect assumptions. Our history of slavery, institutionalized discrimination, and police profiling, however, contextualize discrimination as to render the effects of racism asymmetrically.

If you're white and you wonder why racism doesn't hurt as badly tossed your direction, don't bitch about it-- take your relative absence of social and historical scarring as a privilege.

As a fellow Asian, the Malaysians have always had a special place in my heart,

 

         

 

 

I never let a Xanga bug or two stand in the way of thoughtful and inspiring comments!

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

Uplifting stuff.

I was about to go about my merry way until I noted the entry's conclusion:

 

 

I certainly didn't want to look stupid. After some research, I arrived to a central conclusion:
Malaysia is a shitty country.

 

Let me share my reasons:

 

 

(1) Religious Discrimination in Malaysia.

 

America was founded by immigrants searching for religious liberty. Acknowledging the historical religious strife of Europe, our founding fathers saw it fit to found a nation dedicated to religious liberty.

It was to some shock for me to discover that there is comparatively little such freedoms in Malaysia.

 

Islam is the official state religion.

The Malaysian constitution lends to Islam official state sanction and state support. This elevates the religion, unfairly, over the minority religions of Christianity, Buddhism, and Hinduism.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religion_in_Malaysia

 

Even worse, this policy had led to flagrant violations of religious liberty. In 2009, Malaysian authorities raided and seized over 20,000 Christian bibles.

http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/asiapcf/10/29/malaysia.bibles.seized/

 

But even more atrociously, the Islamic state religion severely curtails the religious liberties of the Muslim. It is actually illegal for the Muslim to change his religion or even to practice anything but Sunni Islam. And all of this is enforced by a state-sanctioned, state-funded Shariah courts.

 

 

(2) Racism in Malaysia

 

Remember affirmative action? The misguided American policies design to aid underprivileged minorities. Even though they were racist and unfair, we can kind of see at the social good it tried to achieve.

In Malaysia, affirmative action is written in their fucking national constitution.

 

 

And what more, the affirmative action is aimed at empowering the Malay majority at the cost of their Chinese, Indian, and other ethnic minorities:

 

Article 153 of the Constitution of Malaysia grants... “safeguard[ing] the special position of the ‘Malays’(see note) and natives of any of the States.. the legitimate interests of other communities” and goes on to specify ways to do this, such as establishing quotas for entry into the civil service, public scholarships and public education...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Article_153_of_the_Constitution_of_Malaysia

 

The Malaysian racial majority, not content with merely out-voting the minorities, wrote into the constitution that they're racially superior and entitled to unfair advantages from their federal government.

 

 

(3) Malaysians will Slap your Ass

 

And not in a good way! ♥

While the United State Constitution protects against "cruel and unusual punishment," canning in Malaysia flies as regular punishment.

 

Doing this,

 

With this,

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caning_in_Malaysia

 

Here's a BBC news article covering the objection of human rights group to this practice

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-11911998

 

Here, a new article covering the canning of women for adultery:

http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Asia-Pacific/2010/0218/Malaysia-begins-caning-women-for-adultery

 

 

(4) Malaysian Censorship

 

Here, in America, freedom of the press actually means something. In contrast, Malaysia ranks 121st in the press freedom index. There are 120 fucking countries with greater press freedoms than Malaysia.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Press_Freedom_Index

Until reading this figure, I wasn't even sure there were more than 120 countries in the world.

 

Illustrative of Malaysian tyranny, this BBC News article covered how a journalist was deported for a religiously insensitive tweet:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-17001900

 

Not only newspaper, consider the

movies the official Malaysian Censorship Board had banned:

 

Bruno

 

 

Clint Eastwood's Gran Torino

 

 

 

The 40-Year-Old Virgin

 

 

Final Destination 3

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_banned_films_in_Malaysia

Do you think even the most uptight American religious fundamentalist would move to ban any of those film?

 

 

 

 

In fact, it was so shitty that early in its history, Singapore broke away from being a part of Malaysia to establish a free democracy cultivating the liberties and freedom that Malaysia shunned.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Singapore

 

All the charms of Malaysia without the

- Religious Discrimination
- Racism
- Butt smacking
- Censorship

And with

- Five times the per capita GDP