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Date: Wed, 12 Jun 2002 11:10:06 -0000
To: agathiyar@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: Malaysia: Chinese Favour For Tamil Schools
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--- In agathiyar@y..., "Bala Pillai"
> Dear Viji,
>
> > The unabashedly racist policies of the Malayian State for the
last 4
> > decades has resulted in the deprivation of Tamils and hence a
change
> > must come from there
>
> I went through many of your postings in the Classical Tamil group
archives
> on the "Dravidian Substatrum" thread. You and I see eye-to-eye on
the sound
> premises you cite.
>
> [However, I believe you are missing out an even bigger picture.
What made
> the Tamils/Indians who were so strong once, so weak, such that a
little
> island called Britain, was able to colonize them starting about
1604 in
> Chennai?]
>
> You and I very well know that the odds of the Malaysian state
changing its
> policies significantly, given:-
>
> (a) the institutionalised racism in the political apparatus of
state,
> (b) the fear and eyewash that is perpetuated amongst our working
class
> brethren
> (c) the dropping political power of Tamil/Indian-Malaysians given
their
> dropping population percentage and
> (d) the decreasing power of governments given globalisation, is
very very
> low, if any. That is, if the government, has not done it by now
when we were
> relatively stronger, it is not going to improve, as the position
weakens.
>
> What do we do knowing these? I think you would agree with me, that
we have a
> duty of care, *not* to ignore these ground realities.
>
> How about a strategy of negotiating from a position of strength
instead of
> appeasing from a position of weakness, for a change instead? Since
100 years
> is more than enough for the appeasement strategy.
>
> You may ask, "So Bala, how do we get to a position of strength?". My
> proposal, "Solutions from Ecosystems Thinking" and the transnational
> solution I outlined in "Bill Gates & Tamil Society". I have sent
essays on
> these out and they are in the archives. Would be more than pleased
to send
> them to you, if you have trouble finding them, Viji -- you are a
kindred
> spirit.
>
> anpudan../bala
Dear Bala
I agree about your prognostications about the Malaysian ground
realities except the last one about Govt getting weaker due to
globalization.
Every civilized govt has to treat it's citizens equally, whatever may
be their 'origins' or background. We cannot leave it to impersonal
forces and abstractions such as 'globalization'. When people like
World Bank or IMF or Bush talk of globalization, they only mean free
movement of capital and profits across border; this is their
definition of globalization because it suits them. Obviously all
governments have border guards, police, visa, passport, judges, army
and others to prevent globalization of people viz people cannot move
from country to country for pleasure or business as they choose,
because it does not suit them
When the proponents of globalization say that Malayasian Tamils can
freely move into any country and settle down in any country without
any passport or visa, then we can take globalization seriously, till
then it's meaning and application is very restricted useful only for
some vested interests.
This idea of governments getting weaker through 'globalization' is
nothing new, but the results have been opposite. Karl Marx thought
that governments will wither away due to socialism and there will be
international workers paradise. Exactly the opposite thing happened
in socialistic countries, governments became very despotic. According
to Islam, all the Muslims come under one Ummah and man-made national
governments don't matter; this is the islamic version
of 'globalization'; but what is the reality? it is easier for Muslim
to move into non-Muslim countries than to other Muslim countries.
Argentina signed up for globalization of IMF/WB enthusiastically 10
years back. What happened? It went bust 6 months back with most
people going poor and the government is frantically to do something
to revive the economy.
So, let us not sing praises of globalization. Each version of
globalization has it's vested interests and the IMF/WB version is not
designed for the benefit of Tamils.
Malaysian govt is strong today as it was anytime in the last 40
years. Few years back, when lot of foreign exchange was about to go
out of the country, Malaysian govt stopped all currency transactions
and saved the national currency. So if the govt is willing to help
Tamils, it can do so.
