Black or white* - Michael Jackson

Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Article 1
All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.

Article 2
Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race...

Article 7
All are equal before the law and are entitled without any discrimination to equal protection of the law.

Make no mistake about it - the New Economic Policy in Malaysia (NEP) is in blatant violation of basic human rights of all Malaysians. It singles out a group of people based on their race and gives them benefits not available to others. This has been happening for more than 50 years.

Repetition of something does not make it right. Just because it has been enforced in this country for more than half a centiry does not make it any right than when it first started.

So when the new Chief Minister of Penang announced that "...he would run the state administration free of the New Economic Policy...", one would expect any reasonable person to stand up and applaud him.

Instead, he is accused of the very thing that he has set out to put away. The Prime Minister insinuated that he is going to marginalise the Malays. How does running the state free from the NEP marginalise the Malays?

Another lawyer lodged a police report against the CM accusing him of being racist.

It would take a whole lot of mental gymnastics for these people to justify their complaints.

Is it any surprise that those who are complaining are the beneficiaries of the NEP? Obviously there is a lot of self-interest in it. It is bad enough to be those who benefit from violations of human rights, but to actually lodge complaints when these benefits are taken away? Do these people have no shame?

If it is wrong, it is wrong. Let us right these wrongs and support those who are willing to do the same. Let us not be afraid of stepping on people's toes if we seek to respect the basic human rights of everyone. Let us not threaten those who seek to do what is right.

*His first single from his album, Dangerous. We will never forget it as the law school performed a dance to it and we won the best performance way back in the early 90s.