Malaysian Chinese Population Declines to 25%

In a census just beyond 2000, I heard that there were approximately 32% ethnic Chinese in Malaysia. This, at the time was alarming enough as we were closer to 40% in the earlier days. Today, it is reported at as of 2005, there are only 25% and the number continues to reduce.

Why is this? I think everyone knows the answer why. Non Malays in Malaysia are being systematically marginalised to make way for fellow Malays who need not get things like scholarships by merit. It is practically presented to them on a silver platter, regardless if they are deserving or not.

For this, non-Malays who are affluent or can afford to, either immigrate their entire families to mainly Australia or New Zealand or they go West. Many send their children abroad and encourage them to take up the PR/Green Card and they eventually end up settling there. Country's like Australia and even Singapore have repatriation immigration laws to make it easy for one to bring their families over.

Why do people do this? It's mainly because they all feel that they are increasingly becoming third class citizens in their own country. A country they helped build to what it is today, and they are very slighted. Furthermore with the increasingly unbending malay majority government, racial and religious issues are increasing. And since certain leaders in government have been telling the Non-Malays who are unhappy that they can leave, so they have.

Frankly, the Chinese have contributed significantly to the country's economy. However, the government has long forgotten the value of the Chinese hardworkingness and efficiency.

For this, people are leaving and they will continue to leave. Those who leave, really hate Malaysia and leave with a bad taste in their mouths. They would be least likely to ever return or even want to assist or contribute to any part of the Malaysian economy.

But perhaps this is good for Malaysia as a whole. Eventually the chinese population will shrink so much, that to get competant workers, they will need to import them from other countries on an expatriate basis. But to do this and to get the calibre of workers that a country like Singapore can get, you'll need to pay well and the system would definately need to be changed from one that feeds the Malay patronage, to one that rewards based on merit.

This will either have an impact on the Malays in the sense that they will either step up to the challenge and improve themselves or they will be crushed and pushed out by the foreigners.

The Malays should stop thinking that the country owes them a living and that they are going to enjoy these benefits forever. Malaysia is hardly world class, even though we have tall buildings and a national car (that is 3rd rate). Malaysia will never be world class so long as they protect their own agaist competition, either with other races or other nations/nationalities.

As they say, Malaysia - First Class facilities, Third Class mentality...

Sooner or later the Malays will need to wake up and step up to the challenge. There is a reason why all the world's biggest multinationals park their regional offices in Singapore and not Malaysia, it's simply because they will not be forced to take in some lame bumiputra employee who cannot perform and fulfill that quota. So, again, it's Malaysia's loss.

My Singaporean Malay friends say, "Malaysia has so much potential, and so many natural resources - and land. But it is really wasted because the Melayus are so bodoh and slow, that they never move fast to act on things. But it is good for us, because Singapore will benefit on those opportunities that Malaysia is slow to take up."

Extracted from the Straits Times of Singapore:

Make more babies, Chinese in Malaysia told

Malaysia's chinese population should make more babies to arrest the community's falling birth rate, politicians say.

State Urban Development and Tourism Minister Wong Soon Koh said the community's lower birth rate had resulted in the country's Chinese population plunging from 37% in 1957 to 25% in 2005.

"This will slip further to 24% by 2010 and to 19% by 2030," he warned at the United Chinese Association's 30th Anniversary dinner on Saturday.

He did not say what the birth rate was, but there are currently less than 7 million ethnic Chinese amoung the country's 27 million population.

Datuk Wong also voiced concern at the high migration rate of the Chinese to other countries.

He urged the community to boost the birth rate and to enrol their children for tertiary education in Malaysia instead of sending them abroad. "There are good colleges and universities in the country to cater for the local population. There is no need to send our children abroad for further education," he said.

Federation of Chinese Associations in Malaysia president Lim Yuk Tong said that a committee had been set up to study the decline in the country's ethnic Chinese population. He said it was headed by the Federation of Sarawak Chinese Associations, which had raised the matter at the federation's recent delegate's conference.

Tan Sri Lim also urged Chinese organisations to forge greater unity to safeguard and work for the community's interest.