The author of an article titled Malay political dominance versus Chinese economic dominance stands by his opinions despite protests from certain quarters over the accuracy of the article.

Instead, Prof Dr Shamsul Amri Baharuddin of Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) dismissed his critics as not having read the piece at all.

"I am getting used to all this neuroticism - politicians who jump up and down every time something is said that is the least bit critical," Shamsul said when contacted.

"They claimed my article raised 'sensitive' issues. Just because some MCA leaders disagree with something does not mean that it is sensitive. What is said to be sensitive should be judged against the Sedition Act 1970 as to whether it really is sensitive or not," he added.

He said the points raised in the article clearly indicates that it was based on a forum held on March 31 on Malay political dominance of which one of the speakers was Dr Thock Ker Pong.

"The data in my article was derived from the work of Dr Thock, who himself had written his PhD thesis Malay Political Dominance: The Views of the Chinese Community," said Shamsul.

This includes the contentious paragraph which implied that the Chinese community controlled 60 percent of the economy. Both MCA and DAP has publicly disputed this.

An intellectual pursuit

Shamsul was one of several writers who had contributed to the August special issue of Dewan Masyarakat, published by Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka (DBP), which focused on Malay political dominance.

(DBP is a government body tasked with coordinating the use of Bahasa Melayu).

He warned that over-reaction from community leaders does not bode well for academic indepedence and intellectual vitality.

In his article, he juxtaposed Malay political dominance based on their numbers against Chinese economic dominance based on their shares of the nation's wealth and compared it to the economic predominance of the Chinese in Indonesia despite making up on five percent of the country's population.

He lamented in the article that there was a lack of empirical studies being done on Chinese economic dominance as compared to the plethora of reading material on the subject of Malay politics.

Among the problems of discussing Chinese economic dominance is the failure to recognise the heterogenity of economic conditions within the community, said Shamsul in his article, just as there are differences between the Malay community in terms of political influence.