Not sweating over the stress

This is the last two paragraphs taken from an article published by Newsweek International (July 3-10, 2006 issue)

SIGNS OF STRESS
By Joe Cochrane and Lorien Holland

For starters, UMNO counts the Malay business owners to whom it grants sweetheart contracts as its bedrock supporters. That means political patronage is entrenched and calls for greater support for Malays have strong voter appeal. Even today, some UMNO politicians argue that new economic sectors such as biotechnology should be declared Malay only. Others point out that Malays remain the country's poorest ethnic group. "The fear is that when we declare ourselves a developed country by 2020, the Malays will not be part of that," says Khairy Jamaluddin, a senior member of UMNO's youth wing and the prime minister's son-in-law. "We see [the NEP] as a last chance to get there."

That may be wishful thinking. Chinese and Indian professionals have been emigrating to Singapore, Australia and elsewhere to escape discrimination or dead-end careers. Government officials say they're concerned about losing talent, but that maintaining an economic advantage for Malays is more important. "It's policies like NEP that have been able to preserve the peace," says Khairy. Or, some would say, disturb it.

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Tell you what I think.

You can keep the flawed NEP until 2040 and even then, the Malays will still be struggling to keep up with the developed status of Malaysia, IF Malaysia has truly reached the developed state status by then, in the REAL sense of the word, not some self-proclaimed kind of announcement ala Selangor Maju.

If that's what you think is best for the Malays, so be it.

In the meantime, the non-Malay professionals are not going to sweat over such stuff anymore - because they will be busy carrying on with their lives elsewhere, where they are appreciated and where the goalposts are guaranteed to stay put in one place.

We've lived with all kinds of stress in this country, we've survived and somehow adapted to the kind of dirty rules in this unfair game. Hey - no sweat! All the stress just makes us tougher and better prepared for the real jungle out there. We'll always survive by remaining fit and running with the pack. And don't worry. We'll be fine so long as we stay united.