YOURSAY | Unlike M’sia, Australia celebrates diversity as source of strength

YOURSAY | 'Australia has improved, while Malaysia is losing its way.'

Ex-M'sian cop turned dolphin trainer elected as Aussie MP

Hmmmmmmmm: There are still a lot of Penny Wongs and Sam Lims here in Malaysia.

The man frying your kway teow could have been a heart surgeon or cured of cancer had he been given a chance to continue his education 20 years ago.

The Indian guy you see cycling around selling putu mayam could have launched something like Facebook if only he did not have to end his education while still in primary school due to poverty.

Some of our local university students might have gone on to achieve worldwide acclaim for some inventions had they been taught by a competent lecturer who could not get the job because of the colour of his skin.

There could be somebody here at present who has very brilliant ideas but cannot implement them because of a lack of financial capital.

And they are sceptical of approaching the government for help because they are unsure about the chance of success and the possibility that their ideas could be plagiarised.

BusinessFirst: I thought Malaysia has the ‘bestest’, world classiest universities in ”the 500 countries” of the world. Why go to Australia for an education?

Didn’t Lim get the memo that Bahasa Melayu is going to be the language of Asean soon? And why stop at Asean, make it the world too!

From all the newspapers I read, we are always top here or top there in "international" university rankings. After all, what university, except in Malaysia, can award hundreds of PhDs in a year. We must be the best. Because we are winners.

As for Wong, she was finance minister before and now getting another plump post as the face of Australia as foreign minister. What are the Australians thinking?

How come someone from the minority community can rise so high in Australia. The white supremacists will surely be protesting this. When will we see one million men marching to protest the loss of white power?

Heaven forbid. Did those silly people in Australia really ratify Icerd (the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination) and the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court?

Public Transit Is Better Than Highways: These stories of Malaysians being successful, while great, are under the backdrop of a wider issue that the country faces - that we have economically unfair policies introduced to discriminate between races.

It further raises the question - how many more Malaysians will be police officers or foreign ministers in distant lands until the government and leadership in Putrajaya wake up to the significant brain drain they are contributing to?

StramKurs_Wallace: Australians don’t complain about Wong because she is a competent, first-class human being. Her sexuality, race or religion is not an attribute required to do a good job.

Malaysia still hasn’t signed Icerd, and the majority still believe they are racially supreme. It is still a backward, corrupt Third World country, and things are getting worse.

Maya: One thing is that one cannot get rich as a politician in Australia. It is really about the passion to serve, unlike in Malaysia, where it seems the other way around.

Simply put, it is all about the mindset and culture, and in these, we are worlds apart.

BluePanther4725: The non-Malay Malaysians have much better opportunities to succeed and thrive overseas.

Meanwhile, Malaysia keeps losing its talents to other countries. This is all due to continuous institutionalised racism and discrimination practised by the Malaysian government.

Does this make the Malays look better by taking away their competition? This is such a stupid and short-sighted policy that is ruining Malaysia and detrimental to the Malays as well.

Doc: With so many “pendatang” (immigrants) in the Australian Parliament and in the Labor government, I hope the new Australian PM knows that Malaysia has a small population of smart, educated and hardworking people that Australia can pinch from.

Malaysia’s ‘ketuanan’ politicians do not want these “troublemakers” who keep highlighting their incompetence and corruption, so it would be in their best interest to ship them to Australia

Anonymous_4030: So funny. Some folks here were commenting like Malaysia has zero non-Malay Members of Parliament.

Just a matter of fact: we have had non-native, non-Malay MPs and cabinet ministers since 1955. During the same period, Australia’s racist White Australia policy, which banned non-White immigrants, was still in place.

Durian_lazat: Agreed, Anonymous_4030, but the times have changed. Australia has improved, while Malaysia is losing its way.

NoobMaster69: Our greatest achievement? An ex-PM who stole a record amount of money and we are among the most corrupt countries in the world.

Last I checked, Malaysia is a Third World country, while Australia is a fully developed nation.

If Malaysia was so good, we would have seen Australians coming to work in Malaysia and not Malaysians sneaking into Australia to pluck apples.

GreenImpala2197: I know of many who have done the same. It is not easy at all. Going to a foreign land with so much unknown and the lack of support system from family and friends as well as know-how.

It goes without saying that if Malaysia was the land that it should have been, many would want to remain in their country of birth. Kudos to all who have found greater joy in other countries.

JBond: Others cherish diversity because they truly believe that diversity is strength. But in Bolehland, the majority race feels threatened by diversity due to their own insecurity.

The minorities became their punching bag when things didn’t turn up the way they expected.

The blame game is magnified by religious bigots and political extremists; hence, forever we fight each other instead of fighting our economic competitors.

The above is a selection of comments posted by Malaysiakini subscribers. Only paying subscribers can post comments. In the past year, Malaysiakinians have posted over 100,000 comments. Join the Malaysiakini community and help set the news agenda. Subscribe now.

These comments are compiled to reflect the views of Malaysiakini subscribers on matters of public interest. Malaysiakini does not intend to represent these views as fact.