Buried inside this BBC News story about the problems associated with illegal immigration in Malaysia is the story of the effects of Malaysia’s affirmative action program. Like in all East Asian countries except for Japan and Korea, Malaysia’s business community is dominated by ethnic Chinese. In the purported intention to lessen ethnic tension and jealousy from Malaysia’s ethnic Malay majority population and avoid the kind of anti-Chinese pogroms frequently occuring in neighboring Indonesia, the government there has instituted a extensive affirmative action program for the Malays (including forcing businesses to hire Malays for top jobs).The policy has been successfull in avoiding outbursts of violence , but it has not been successfull in terms of getting the Malays to be successfull on their own. As BBC News correspondet Jonathan Kent puts it:
“For 30 years or more, Malaysia has given economic privileges to the Malay community to help it win a more proportionate share of the economy.
But even former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, the great champion of Malay rights, ended his 22 years as premier frustrated that, rather than develop a work ethic, many Malays had simply developed a sense of entitlement.”
How astonishing! If people get something for nothing, they get less willing to do work to achieve it. Who could have thought that ?
This is of course something which has been happening everywhere government priviliges, not only affirmative action but also outright welfare programs. In Sweden for example, the previously strong Lutheran work ethics has been destroyed by the welfare state, with more than 20% unemployment (including those who have been statistically removed from the work force through early retirement and similar measures) and a steady fall in employment and hours work. Similar development has been noted in the other European welfare states.
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Entitlements generate immigration (the original BBC report), too, and not just because immigrants hope to gain entitlements. They immigrate to take opportunities (fill needs) created by the refusal of the entitled to do the work taken up by the immigrants – or, in all too many cases, any work at all.
Two things:
1. Part of the reason the Lutheran work ethic is gone is that no one is a Lutheran anymore.
2. A culture of entitlement is lousy, but I’m not sure if it’s worse than uncontrollable mob violence against ethnic Chinese.
- Josh
An interesting point to note is that Chinese first came to dominate business in Malaya is due to indigenous cultural prejudice against such occupations. One would not expect those from a culture that has long despised such occupations would not take to them very well.
“A culture of entitlement is lousy, but I’m not sure if it’s worse than uncontrollable mob violence against ethnic Chinese.”
But it’s the entitlement mindset that will incite non-Chinese to violence against more the successful Chinese business class. Before, it was taken for granted that the Chinese were prosperous businessmen. If the Malays now start thinking they’re entitled to what the Chinese have – because the government says they’re entitled – then they are more likely to resort to violence.
Hans-Herman Hoppe argues that democracy inevitably leads to affirmative-action laws and forced integration. The natural inhibitions that good people have against theft and violence in a free society get eroded and replaced with the notion that coercion, theft and plunder are fine (so long as a majority votes for it).
It’s remarkable the “Christians” I know who would call you a sinner for stealing five bucks, but blithely support the theft of billions by bureaucrats and politicians.
The problem with the claim that “…it’s the entitlement mindset that will incite non-Chinese to violence against more the successful Chinese business class. ” is that even if true it is irrelevent. How so? Well, the non-Chinese violence against the more successful Chinese predates the entitelements. Entitlements may increase resentment, and may increase the number of resenters, but entitlements in the strict sense of entitlement programs are hardly the only cause of resentment.
regards,
Shirley Knott
Stefan – I’m interested in how you got the information about unemployment in Sweden. The government quotes about 5%, but I haven’t been able to source a breakdown of unemployment statistics.
Nathan- It is true that the official unemployment rate in Sweden is only 5.3% roughly the same as in America. But this number is widely misleading as it do not include most people who are payed not to work. It does not include people who are in so-called labormarket-political activities ( various forms of education and trainee positions 100% subsidized by the government). Including those would alone be sufficient to raise the unemployment rate to 8%. And it does not include people living full-time on various other transfer payments including sickness benefits and early retirement.
The total number of Swedes in the working age population who are payed full-time not to work is more than a million. Those who have been given early retirement are over half a million. With the number of employed in regular jobs being slightly above 4 million, this implies a true unemployment rate of 20%.
On another note, looking at the UK’s employment statistics reveals 3 million “Economically Inactive” people who “Don’t want a job”. I’m still trying to figure out how these people aren’t unemployed.
Ethnic Chinese in SE Asia have done a remarkable job of wealth creation and I don’t want to belittle it, but we should consider that part of their success was due to the corrupt governments which the Chinese used to further themselves economically. I’m not blaming the Chinese; they simply played the cards they were dealt better than anyone else. In a world without the rule of law and protection of property, the Chinese had to resort to connections and bribes in order to protect themselves. But it does tend to make the non-Chinese bitter. On top of that, the poor in Asia have been indoctrinated with Marxism for decades. The conflict is really about corruption in high places and the old Marxism/Capitalism debate. I don’t think the Chinese will be able to buy their way out of that one.
Get ready, I ain’t going to pay one,1, dime in taxes
to the Federal Government, quit about 10 years
ago, they have my address, just keep on doing it.
only a suggestion. Liberalism, it is wonderful, not
to mention enlightening,
We always mean to take the action that we take – and only in retrospect may we discern whether we acted in our best interest.
I’m not blaming the Chinese; they simply played the cards they were dealt better than anyone else.
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