Two themes have collided in my brain today.

I returned from Malaysia just a few weeks ago. One of the observations I made while there is how little involved the Malay population (indigenous people to Malaysia) and the immigrant Chinese and Indian population (their ancestors mostly immigrated there many hundred years ago) are. I stayed with mostly Chinese company and I noticed a slight prejudice against Malays in terms of their culture, intelligence and other aspects. This being said, the Malays are in power and noticing the disparity in quality of life, academic achievement and wealth, the Malaysian government has positive discrimination in favour of themselves. This is an interesting contrast to New Zealand, which also has some policies that favour the Maori, but whose government is mostly controlled by the "immigrants". I might do some research on the extent to this positive discrimination in Malaysia just for comparison sake.

Anyway, the one aspect I am focussing on is intelligence. We just had two lectures on Gifted Children and discussed intelligence and now we are talking about behavioural problems and then Maori academic achievement. A Malaysian Chinese girl in my class commented that Malays' intelligence is lower for genetic reasons, and that it was observable that Maoris also had dark skinned and were in a similar situation. I mentioned to her, that in NZ most people would consider this racist. I didn't think it being genetic was the case, or at least didn't think that it could be proven.

Instinctively, most liberal minded people in the western world freeze up at the implication that intelligence or achievement is decided by genetic factors. Of course, it is conceivable that it is this way. This mixes with the fate issue and self-determination issue of course. ("If your achievement doesn't come from your genes, where does it come from? If it comes from your environment, then you are just fortunate that external factors beyond you have made you be successful and intelligent etc.") But let's not get sidetracked.

I mentioned to her about the situation with the Maori people, that with their lower achievement and discipline problems (in comparison to other ethnic groups), it could be said by some that they "had lower intelligence". But this could be due to the effects of colonisation, being subjected to a few cycles of poverty, and a foreign education system that they had to adapt. It is hard to put a reason to the phenomenon.

However, Malays (in English that does have a horrible homophonic ring) did not suffer as much the brunt of colonial life like the Maori did. They would have experienced the same oppression from the Dutch and British that the Indians (often taken from their homeland as slaves) and the Chinese (who were used as manual workers) yet still they are quite behind their ethnically different compatriots.

The only thing I could really think for this is that there are cultural differences in terms of their attitude to education (which could be said for Maori too). Chinese have long put emphasis on education and I think Indians do too (although I am not as familiar with them as I am Chinese people). It is easy to consider that some cultures are more inclined toward education and working in professions. Some cultures could be more hardworking too (although the corollary of saying this is that perhaps some cultures are lazy, which is something I find hard to say). But then, soon as I emerge at this end of the discussion I thought that that assertion ("of other cultures being more education-minded or industrious") could be viewed as "racist" too.

I am a liberal-apologist at the best and worst of times. This is another issue that I think will crystalise better in my mind when I have more exposure to the lives of Maori and Pacific Islanders and maybe Malays too. It is too easy to think for a long time without actually having direct experience.

Passing view: What do you call an Indian living in the US? (you can answer that). Also, we saw a dated tape on aquatic education (swimming) where one game was "Cowboys and Indians". Our teacher-teacher commented that you have to call this something else now, of course.