Democracy shows not only its power in reforming governments, but
in regenerating a race of men and this is the greatest blessing of free
governments. - Andrew Jackson
COMMENT
When you define your political and social aspirations through a racial
lens or worse conflate them with religious preoccupations, the only way
forward is backward and post-2008 GE, Umno has overtly attempted to
define the changing political landscape as that of a racial or religious
conflict with the fate of the ‘ummah' in peril at the hands of a
non-Muslim/Malay-influenced political alliance - Pakatan Rakyat. Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin's clarion call
for Malaysians, specifically Malay-Muslims, to unite under the BN
banner is problematic for a variety of reasons but he is absolutely
right when he reminds non-Malay Malaysians to be cognisant of the fact
that "future of the nation depended on Malay/Muslim unity". I have, more
or less, put forward a similar argument in my Malay matters in the nation's future piece. The
narrative Umno likes to spin is that BN and the intellectually, not to
mention morally, bankrupt ‘power sharing' formula worked post-Merdeka
and as custodians of the Malay community, Umno's ‘struggle' has always
been to uplift the ‘Malay' race from the inequities of colonialism and
the avarice of the ‘immigrant' races that held sway over the land.
Of course, this bears no resemblance to reality but as propaganda goes
it was fairly decent in forming some kind of cohesive society bound by
fear of the ‘other' and an acceptance by non-Malays of their limited
role in government, which belied their enormous contributions to this
country. This
post-Merdeka Umno ‘myth' and the myopic belief that Umno and Umno alone
should lead the Malay community is something of a doubled-edged sword. This
bears some resemblance to the (neo) conservative Straussian principle
of the creation of ‘myths' as a form of societal cohesiveness and the
political relevance of BN is much like the ANC of South Africa, which
for years was coasting on its own myths but presently riddled with
corruption and is on perilous ground where discriminate voters are
concerned. The tendency to believe their myths is the trap that
Umno has fallen into and the irony here is that for a certain section of
the voting public, these myths no longer hold true. New myths
are desired which is why Pakatan has caught the attention of a certain
segment of the electorate, one which obviously poses a clear and present
danger to Umno dominance. The outsourced Umno thugs
Whatever
ones views on ‘racialist' ideologies are, the cold comfort reality is
that if they work, they will continue to be legitimately endorsed.
Umno's problem is that by whatever credible criteria that is put
forward, they have failed in their self-appointed role as guardians of
the Malay/Muslim ‘ummah'. I would argue that the rejection of a
certain section of the Malay voting public of Umno is not an endorsement
of the egalitarian ethos of Pakatan but rather an admonishment to Umno
for failing in carrying out its responsibilities to the Malay community.
Part of this failure is the dilution of the ‘Malay' community with the
Umno-approved influx of ‘foreign' nationals to bolster the electoral
rolls. But
what exactly is the ‘Malay' community? We could argue till the cows
come home about the specificity of what actually constitutes a ‘Malay'
but the reality is that Umno by its own doing has so mangled the concept
that what we are left with are groups who self identify with the
concept purely because of the economic or social advantages it delivers. There has always been this sense of apartness in the Malay community,
no doubt a relic of our colonial history, that has been used by Umno to
further its own political ends. The most overt examples of this
are the various ‘Malay' institutions that the British created, be it
elite educational facilities or military branches that fostered the
feudal mindset or encouraged a perspective of singular ownership over
the destiny of this nation. Islam. of course, has slowly but
surely over the years been imposed as a unifying force for the
culturally diverse ‘Malay' community and as a reminder to non-Malays
that they are separate from the national polity. Of course, what
we are really talking about here is an Arabisation process that
conveniently rejects some of the more ‘liberal' traditions of Islam
which conveniently seems the mode favoured by most authoritarian
‘Islamic' regimes around the world. Malay nationalism these days
is defined by the ranting's of the outsourced thugs of Umno and the
pious declarations of state-sponsored ulamas who say nothing of the
rampant corruption that permeates the system, but seem obsessed with
concepts such as ‘Ketuanan Melayu', ‘defending Islam' and upholding the
dignity of the sovereign. All this is extremely amusing since it
is Umno who is responsible for all the ills that these groups claim to
be fighting against, not to mention that the said groups are in reality
funded by Umno, with Umno members openly declaring their memberships of
these groups. So what is Umno hawking?
Gone are the days when Malay nationalism was not about maintaining the
status quo but rather about shaking up the establishment and shining a
spotlight on the Malay underclass, which has always been at the mercy
(throughout history) of an entrenched bureaucratic system. I
have some admiration for the political roads taken by Malay nationalist
like Onn Jaafar, who at least for brief periods either were credible
advocates for the Malay community or would be pioneers for a truly
1Malaysia. Of course, in the end they too were held hostage by
racial considerations but it is to Umno's downfall that they fail to
heed the lessons of their own historical personalities and continue to
marginalise the contrarian intellectual voices of their party. Prime Minister Najib Razak's warning to youths not
to be taken in by "those selling idealism" in wanting electoral reforms
is indicative of how out of touch Umno is with reality. What the
regime's propaganda of Bersih 3.0 being an attempted coup or some sort
of war against the police has done is alienate those who were not
sympathetic to the goals of Bersih and hardened the views of those who
think that Umno's time has come. If Pakatan or Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim is peddling ‘idealism', what is Umno hawking? Behind
the gilded cages or the crime-infested Malay settlements, a sense of
anomie has settled in. Islam, or the brand Umno perpetuates, is slowly
losing a hold on a disenfranchised Malay polity. The diversity
that Pakatan offers, be it the so-called moderate Islamic stances of
PAS, the middle ground of PKR or the secularism of DAP, provides choices
the Malay community never had. With Pakatan becoming a credible
ruling alternative post-2008, Umno's malfeasances which for so long were
overlooked because the Malay community had no alternatives suddenly
doesn't seem like such an insurmountable obstacle. The fact that
Umno chose to wield its federal power in such a vindictive manner in
the PTPTN (Higher Education Loan Fund) fiasco is further evidence that
Umno has no problem considering certain segments of the Malay community
as collateral damage in their ongoing war to retain power. Malay
politicians like the late Onn Jaafar (at one time at least) realised
that the burden of a nation's future in a diverse multiracial society
should not rest solely on the shoulders on one community. This is a
lesson Umno has failed to learn or rather it is a lesson they could have
overlooked if they actually carried out their responsibilities towards
the Malay community. At the end of the day, all we need to
understand is that Umno was dealt extremely good racial cards, but
played their hand badly. Malaysiakini
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