November 3, 2008 | Sern-Li Lim
Race is still a white hot issue in Malaysia
KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA — Circa 1987, the flavour of the month for ethnic Malays was the soaking of traditional daggers with the blood of fellow countrymen (Chinese, sweet and sour). The idea of the “Kris drinking Chinese blood” was plastered across placards in a particular rally as the speaker poured gasoline upon a crowd burning with racist hate. As the country hovered on the brink of another racial crisis, a kris was unsheathed, lifted and waved around with gusto — for an Oscar-worthy effect — by the speaker on the podium.
The desecration of this traditional blade was repeated yet again in 2005 by a certain high profile youth leader to thunderous applause at his party’s general assembly. No Chinese blood was called for this time. In its absence, the tradition of declaring Malay hegemony through the use of aggressive language and actions over at least 25% of the population was reaffirmed and institutionalised further.
Both individuals who perpetrated the acts were sons of former prime ministers and leaders within the ruling UMNO party — Najib Razak and Hishamuddin Hussien, sons of Tunku Abdul Razak (the second Prime Minister) and Tun Hussien Onn (the third Prime Minister), respectively. Unsurprisingly, both are cousins and the former is in transit to the premiership.
Perpetrators claimed these acts were done merely to “play to the gallery” — crowds in assemblies. However, they have had a much more symbolic effect on the psyche of UMNO believers. For example, racism today is rampant in the Malay majority civil service. Unfortunately, but inevitably, these gestures have been met by the non-Malay dominated private sector with an equally deconstructive force of simian behaviour, reflected most starkly in recruitment processes. As this tit-for-tat phenomenon permeates through society, a whole generation of Malaysians have known only suspicion for that “other race.”
The continued fragmentation and compartmentalisation of Malaysian society guarantees UMNO’s longevity. This is a practice not unlike its predecessor, the British colonial office. The result has been policies creating a dangerously communal Malaysia: societies within societies, suspicion between communities and a hatred that constantly puts the country on the brink. While leaders flare their noses and thump wooden podiums when making loud one way speeches, Rome burns. The world is kept amused at the oh-so-1900s politics of race, made even more redundant by the vogue imagery of a stencilled Barack Obama, leader of the free world in D.C. comic superhero colours.
Many unfortunate dead horses have been flogged into unrecognisable lumps regarding these issues of race. However, the March 8 general election, where the ruling front was delightfully devastated beyond the opposition’s wildest dreams, showed that a new breed of Malaysian capable of looking beyond race has emerged from their own haze and denial. But after 51 years, UMNO is still in power and corruption within it is rampant and resistant to the formation of institutional checks and balances.
To an outsider, one can only understand the pattern of Malaysian politics to be a result of the society in which these systems birthed from. The high degree of rent seeking, crony enrichment, bad decision making and the outright vilification of segments of society sourced from UMNO did not bring upon the punishment it deserved for 51 years since independence. This obviously brings to bear questions regarding society’s interest in the ability and credentials of the people that they elect.
I surmise that the existence and endorsement of behaviour such as the above is attributed to the feudalistic nature of society at large. And within this, the historical central division of roles between the ruler and the ruled, which was (as with many other Asian countries) not dismantled by revolutionary thinking, such as the French Revolution. Instead, democracy was prematurely and hastily transplanted upon its under-aged political landscape during the quick disintegration of the British Empire, post World War II.
As with Sultanates and royal dynasties, where a ruler’s mandate is given unquestioned by birthright rather than election, UMNO has managed to craft a dynasty of sorts and groomed an awesome collection of personalities, while modern Malaysia came to know no other governing power. Over time, it became harder to remember that elected officials serve the people, rather than demand servitude.
The idea of the “nobleman” dispensing his grace upon ordinary folk resonates heavily within the local community. As in a feudal society, it seems only proper to have the nobleman’s wealth far exceeding that of his subjects — like a lavish medieval castle surrounded by crumbling peasant houses — even if such wealth is built upon the backs of the people and hoarded for personal gain. This was the case with a particular town councillor whose distasteful Romanesque mansion’s size bore a stark contrast to the surrounding zinc-roofed and wooden-walled houses. Unsurprisingly, Malaysia has one of the most unequal distributions of wealth in Asia with its Gini coefficient breaching the 0.40 mark.
These individuals see themselves as shepherds bearing down upon their flock they assume is so immature and irrational that anarchy would break loose in the absence of their (patronising) oversight. Said inheritor to the Prime Minister’s throne is what weasel newspapers call — “groomed for leadership,” “has politics in his blood,” and “a leader, like his father.” A very medieval example contradictory to a country bearing the status of South East Asia’s second most “advanced.”
As a whole, personality seems to carry more weight than the party. Individuals are often elevated to cult status, much like movie stars. The lives of these men are as dramatic as traditional shadow puppetry — dark, with a generous dose of twists.
In recent years, Malaysian politics has made non-fiction sections of bookstores more popular than ever. While the very idea of playing to galleries is itself feudalistic, there is no denying that it is the instinct of a political animal to indulge in such behaviour and any part of the world. However, it is the degree to which it is practised in Malaysia vis-a-vis the world which is the issue. Unfortunately, the UMNO dynasty was spared of the mechanisms espousing meritocracy during its formation — an irreplaceable element in democracy, and has thus allowed lesser than able individuals access to the nation’s helm for decades.
At present, the vast proportion of Malaysians who voted against UMNO and Barisan Nasional have to endure its embarrassing shenanigans for a while longer as the Opposition matures. The Opposition Alliance is a loose conglomeration of strange bedfellows personified by Islamists, Socialists and a party birthed from the incarceration of one man. Its effectiveness in using the limited power it was so daringly given has yet to be proven.
As recently conceded by the very clever Anwar Ibrahim, taking power away from the current government has become more difficult. This has proved to many that the UMNO dynasty would not so easily self-destruct as hoped. Perhaps, for many progressive Malaysians, unfazed by the empty threats against the move away from race based politics by UMNO and its more sedated minions, this day is not too far. That Malaysia will have a political system to which the leader the country deserves is introduced, also very stylishly, in D.C. comic superhero style.
Sern-Li is based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Article posted
on Monday, November 3, 2008 at 3:09 pm in Culture & Media, Politics
