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Maklumbalas
I am at the risk of being accused of being an alarmist if I say
that I am seeing disquieting similarities in the situation of
ethnic relations in our society today with that of the period
just before the race riots of May 13, 1969.
The broad patterns of the two periods appear to me to be too
painfully similar. Both periods began with heightened rivalries
and conflicts among Malay political leaders (more accurately
among the leaders of Umno, sometimes with the leaders of Pas
nudging from the sidelines to complicate matters further). The
immediate effect of such a conflict is the staging of the
“holier-than-thou” game among the various factions of Malay
political leaders.
I could detect the early rumbles of the game to the time when
everyone of the leaders were involved in the act of reminding
Malays that their situation is far from “secure” – such as
reminding them that the aims of the NEP is yet to be realized
and they are in imminent danger of being derailed by the efforts
of other communities. In the recent case, this reminder was
necessitated by challenges coming from Anwar’s reformasi and
Pas’ revival as evidenced by the outcome of the 1999 general
elections.
In the conduct of the game, it is usually economic issues – such
as business opportunities and corporate ownership of the Malays
– that take center stage, mainly because of their immediate
appeal to ordinary citizens. When that normal political gestures
are not adequate any more, and leaders have to draw out the kris
or sob shamelessly at political podiums, then you can almost be
certain that the political struggle has come to an almost
desperate stage.
When the game being played on the economic stage appears
insufficient, than some “sideshows” would also be staged –
generally dealing with some “cultural” or “nationalistic”
issues. In “normal” situations, Malay political leaders are
quite unconcerned with issues such as the Malay language – or
are even contemptuous of the “negative” role the language can
play in serving the needs of the industrial job market.
But under such desperate situations as we are in today, these
very same leaders would be claiming credits for their respective
roles in “empowering” the Malay language by enhancing, for
example, legal capabilities of organizations such as the Dewan
Bahasa dan Pustaka to enforce the usage of the language. The
most potent tool of this “holier-than-thou” game, however, is
still religion itself.
The claim to be the defender of the “pure” tenets of the
religion appears to be still the most powerful ideological basis
for political discourse in this country – in fact it has been
the “gist” of the struggle between Umno and Pas all along. In
recent years, however, the Abdullah Badawi formulation of “Islam
hadhari” has been stealing the wind away from Pas’ claim of
being the vanguard of “pure” Islam – thus causing the Islamic
party to warm up to Mahathir, offering to help him in these
desperate times, despite Mahathir’s treatment of both Anwar dan
Pas itself in the recent past.
Much have been said by Umno leaders in denying the existence of
such conflict and disunity among leaders of the party these
days. The progress of the Abdullah-Mahathir conflict and the
difficulty to bring the conflict to any form of finality,
however, make it very difficult to believe the claims.
All the factions involved in the conflict, be they open or
concealed, seem to have adopted the very same issues we have
mentioned above, claiming that their rivals have committed sins
such as: selling away the national dignity, not helping Malay
businessmen enough, not respecting the national language enough,
not helping the Palestinians enough, not defending the rights of
Muslims in Malaysia enough – and so on and for forth.
Extreme positions have been taken and extreme words have been
uttered by players of the game. As to be expected, the
atmosphere has caused non-Malay sectors of the society to be
alarmed. As the disunity among the Malay leadership is
interpreted as sign of weakness it has encouraged the non-Malay
sectors to react in defense of their own positions.
The progress and exchange of actions and reactions on both sides
have simply heightened the sense of alarm among different
sections of the society even further. Remember, most reactions
from the non-Malay section itself are sometimes no less steep in
their racial postures and overtones, for given the dominant
racialist nature of Malaysian politics, the tendency towards
racialist articulations and perspectives is hardly the monopoly
of just the Malays.
This is exactly the “disquieting” political atmosphere that I
have alluded to. The intra-ethnic group conflicts have now
overflowed to involve the other ethnic groups as well – and has
transformed the conflicts to be inter-ethnic in nature. This is
what I meant by “the pre-May 13 situation” as I remembered it.
Soon the confusion would be participated by even bigger spread
of groups – university students, cultural groups, trade unions,
professional groups, etc.
After that it would only take the adventurism of one group or
one leader – for example, one draw of the kris or one “victory
march” of any kind – to turn the already strained atmosphere
into a flagrant one. And, presto, there you have it: May 13. Is
there any way that the disquieting development of this strained
political atmosphere can be arrested (no pun intended here!)
from progressing to its “logical” conclusions? Perhaps another
“Operasi Lalang” could just do it – to the pleasure of the power
that be!
Both ways, however, they are not going to be pleasant for those
of us who still have some hope for justice and democracy to
flourish in this country.
The more logical and lasting solution, I believe, would be to
eradicate the racialist nature of Malaysia politics itself. But
this is easier said than done – and would there be any takers?
The very experienced politician Tengku Razaleigh (Ku Li), for
example, has recently advised Anwar Ibrahim that his choice of
political party (Parti Keadilan Rakyat) is wrong because it
would not win him the support of any particular ethnic group.
More recently the last glimmer of hope to register an
ideological (as opposed to racial) political party (Parti
Sosialis Malaysia) has been dashed by the decision of the
highest court of the land.
Maklumbalas
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