COMMENT |
Former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad is right when he says that
Malaysia is not a multi-racial country. Forget about his assertions
about the Federal Constitution. This is not about the Constitution but
rather about the ketuanan ideology.
It would be pointless
to point out the fact that the old maverick has numerous times
contradicted himself or how he acknowledged that his political survival
was dependent numerous times on non-Malay support. All that is irrelevant especially since the very people who supported
him used him to gain access to power all in the service of a “New
Malaysia”, which itself was a crock of manure.
No, Mahathir is
right because no matter how much we talk about the history of this
country how the non-Malays helped build this country, how the non-Malays
helped sustain the economy of this country, how the non-Malays
sustained the entitlements programmes that the majority enjoys, the
reality is that the political and social system has always
disenfranchised the non-Malays.
It is pretty sick when you think about it. The
old maverick has demonised the Malays as lazy and always seeking a
quick buck. He has said that without the Chinese, there would be no
towns and cities. He has admitted, admitted mind you, that even though
the Chinese are discriminated against in this country they have
persevered and are successful. But mostly he has lamented that he tried his best to change the “Malays” but they did not change.
“If we take out the Chinese and all that they have built and own, there will be no small or big towns in Malaysia, there will be no business and industry, there will be no funds for the subsidies, support, and facilities for the Malays. Learn from the Chinese.” Around the same time, in an interview, Mahathir acknowledged: “The Chinese in Malaysia have no special rights, they experience discrimination. But they are more successful than us.”
Multicultural narrative. Malaysia’s multicultural narrative is a big lie. Good for tourism where you can point to the great food (Malaysia has great food) and variety of life in urban centres but means absolutely nothing when it comes to the political and social lives of the citizens of this country.
Was there a democratic era in Malaysia where people no matter their ethnicity shared power? Folks who harken to some ideal where we lived harmoniously most probably mean that the racism of mainstream politics was not overt. The mechanism of power was always in the hands of Malay power brokers who always waged war amongst themselves and needed the non-Malay vote to sustain power.
Post-1969, non-Malay participation in power meant varying degrees of appeasement and enrichment. Mahathir and acolytes like Anwar Ibrahim made sure that the bureaucracy and the levers of power were free from non-Malay involvement.
Power not only consolidated in Parliament through gerrymandering and
unequal vote weightage but also seeped into the private sector through
various government-linked companies, which in turn created a bourgeois
class Malays who further divided the community into class lines, with
only religion holding the house of cards together. And we know what people like Mahathir think of poor people, right?
“There
are those among us who feel envious that they are wealthy, particularly
if we have contributed to their wealth. But this envy must be
suppressed and not allowed to influence us. “Why are they poor? Because they are unproductive and do not contribute to society in a way where society would repay them.”
Power sharing
Think about it. I mean really think about this whole power-sharing baloney. Sharing
political power in a multiracial society is tricky, especially when it
comes to the majority, but it can be done. Folks like to dismiss the
American experience with all its flaws but at its best, what the people
have demonstrated is that they are willing to consider leaders who
embrace that path to a more perfect union.
However, in Malaysia,
in this supposed multi-racial paradise, the non-Malays have never had a
leader from the majority who embraced them as equal participants. Who
even believed they were equal participants in this Malaysian project. To
be fair, non-Malays have never pressed a majority leader to treat them
as equals. As Malaysians.
Remember how the Pakatan Harapan
government under Mahathir was giving more to the Malays but they could
not speak about it because it would upset the non-Malays. Also remember
what the old maverick said about Lim Guan Eng, who Harapan supporters thought meant something when Lim was named finance minister. “So, how come he is said to be the one with the power? He had no power.”
Mahathir
has acknowledged that the Malays “… are so afraid of other communities.
Without the experience of competing with others if the protection (new
economic policy) is suddenly withdrawn, they will not be able to
survive”.
And yet who made them afraid? Well, his son Mukhriz
has the answer. He admitted that whenever they could not deal with
issues facing the country or the Malay community, Umno (meaning the
entire Malay establishment) demonised the DAP and the Chinese community.
Keeping silent
Now,
of course in Madaniville, the Malays are getting more and of course,
the non-Malays are going to keep silent because what other choice do
they have? PAS-led Perikatan Nasional has made it very clear what they
think of the non-Malays. Notice how the DAP has completely dropped the Bangsa Malaysia Kool-Aid.
What
do you think it means when Anwar said this: “They keep criticising DAP.
We’ve increased allocations for Muslims, and there was no objection
(from DAP). They cooperated. “Even when I presented it (the
allocations) to the cabinet, Umno president (Ahmad Zahid Hamidi) agreed,
and even (DAP secretary-general) Anthony Loke supported it.”
It
merely means that the DAP is doing what it did when Mahathir was in
power and what the MCA did when Mahathir, Najib Abdul Razak, and
Abdullah Ahmad Badawi were in power. That is all it is. The central theme of ketuanasim
is that the non-Malays are only here to serve the interests of the
Malays. Mahathir is not as ballsy as PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang who
just says that non-Malays need to be Pak Turuts.
Multi-racial as defined by demographics only is probably the only argument non-Malays can make.
