Most nations around the world today are members of the United Nations

Organisation and therefore subscribe to universal human rights treaties.

However, some countries, some of the time, practise certain policies of
wholesale discrimination that clearly are in violation of such treaties.

Worse, there are one or two states that practise such discrimination and
other similar violations, not some of the time, but, all of the time.
And Malaysia is one of them.

This state of affairs can be traced to events that took place just after
the end of the Japanese occupation. After Japan was defeated, independence
became an urgent issue. In Malaysia (Malaya, then) the Muslim Malays were
waking up and finding themselves (almost) surrounded by non-Muslim people.

Malay nationalism began to grow and at the same time, race awareness began
to grip the soul of the populace. There were isolated racial incidents in
the country even before independence in 1957, but after independence, such
incidents began to take on a more serious and sinister tone as a direct
result of government policies.

Political power was firmly held by the Malays who formed the majority in
the country with the non-Malay communities( the minorities) acting as the
minor players. During the sixties, the world political climate was rather
very topsy-turvy and Malaysia was not spared either. All very much thanks
to "freedom and democracy". 1969 was to prove to be a very fateful year
for Malaysia, when the ruling class nearly got thrown out of power. Some
Malay UMNO leaders in Selangor executed a very well-planned operation just
hours after the fateful 1969 elections were concluded and the result was
nationwide racial riots.

When the dust had settled, there was a change in the political landscape
of the country, and along with it, there was also a clear change in the
national policies of the government. The majority in the country were to
be given special favours and active help by the government supposedly to
redress "imbalances". As far as I am aware, most people in the sixties
in the country were very, very accurately living from hand-to-mouth most
of the time. True, there were some people who were well-off, but they
were just a very, very small segment of society.

(Despite very strong discriminatory measures this very small segment was
later to grow very appreciably in size during the eighties and nineties.
Perhaps it is a testament to either resourcefulness, courage, integrity,
a will to survive despite the tough odds, industriousness or fate or a
combination of some or all of it. Whatever it is, their advancement was
to prove to be a bone of contention between the majority and the others
in the country).

When Mahathir became the leader of Malaysia in 1981, the national policy
of "redressing imbalances" was intensified. More importantly, the policy
began to veer off course and its implementation began to benefit certain
groups of people, many of them already very rich and very politically
powerful. Corruption began to seep into every creak and gap of society
and anyone or any organisation or any minority group that was not favoured
by the ruling class was to be regarded as legitimate targets or as enemies
of the country or its policies.

Many measures and efforts were carried out to hinder or block progress by
the minorities. Some of these measures would have been patently illegal in
other countries but they were regarded as alright here. In fact, some over
seas leaders at the time described Malaysia as having done the practice of
fostering institutionalised racism.

Worse, these measures were carried out together with regular campaigns to
label minorities or minority politicians or leaders as the peole who stood
in the way of the majority's progress and thus discriminatory measures
against them were fair and fully justified.

Such acts and measures are still in place today and Malaysia is thoroughly
and wholly guilty of continuing and practising selective persecution.

Not only does selective persecution exists in Malaysia, the practice of

selective prosecution is also available here.

The police in Malaysia are actively acting in concert with the government
even today in ensuring that such selective persecution and selective
prosecution remain alive and well in the country. Pro-government majority
people seem to be invincible to any kind of sanction or consequence for
whatever wrong or misdeed that they do.

The world body must take a firm view of such practices and make concerted
efforts to act against countries practising selective persecution.