Aliran Monthly 20(10) Page 1 PP3739/12/2000 ISSN 0127

40 Pages·2012·1.49 MB·English

PP3739/12/2000 ISSN 0127 - 5127 / RM3.00 / 2000:20(10)
Aliran Monthly 20(10) Page 1
COVER STORY
Red Bait, Green Herring
‘Chinese chauvinism’, ‘Islamic extremism’ and other fallacies
by Khoo Boo Teik
orget the self-serving commercial and
FFFFF
political drivel that surrounded last
year’s worldwide, e-driven, greed-
struck and bug-scared Y2K welcoming
of the false dawn.
The real ‘new millennium’, by the western cal-
endar, has just begun, and quietly, too.
We can be relieved at that because we don’t
need to be exhorted to ‘Confront the 21st Cen-
tury’, ‘Grapple with Globalisation’, ‘Face the
FUTURE’, or do whatever it is the gurus of fads 29 October: Anti ISA at Kamunting
and habits demand of us.
What we need is sober reflection on how to
leave behind narrow visions of what political
change is probable in this country.
That’s why, thirteen months after the Novem-
ber 1999 general election, I marvel at recent
political events, four of which I shall briefly
recall.
Anti-ISA At Kamunting
On 29 October, a couple of thousand people
15 November: Kesas Rally
from Barisan Alternatif parties and non-gov-
ernmental organisations, and concerned indi-
viduals, gathered outside the Kamunting de-
tention camp to protest ‘40 years of the Inter-
nal Security Act’.
Of course, many Malays have been ISA detain-
ees before, but past anti-ISA protests hadn’t seen
Malay protestors outnumbering non-Malay
protestors by such a wide, wide margin.
Malays Who Don’t Like Malaysia
Shortly after the Kamunting protest, UMNO
politicians, taking Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s 29 November: The Lunas Eclipse
Aliran Monthly 20(10) Page 2
EDITOR'S NOTE
Farewell To The Politics Of
C O N T E N T S
Race, Religion And Repression
In this edition, we further explore several of the is-
sues that were highlighted in previous months: how CCCCCOOOOOVVVVVEEEEERRRRR SSSSSTTTTTOOOOORRRRRYYYYY
the people are crossing ethnic barriers as was seen ••••• RRRRReeeeeddddd BBBBBaaaaaiiiiittttt,,,,, GGGGGrrrrreeeeeeeeeennnnn HHHHHeeeeerrrrrrrrrriiiiinnnnnggggg 22222
in Lunas, and how they are standing up for their
rights and for justice as was seen in Kesas and
Kamunting.
FFFFFEEEEEAAAAATTTTTUUUUURRRRREEEEESSSSS
As we enter the new millennium, more and more ••••• SSSSStttttiiiiillllllllll TTTTThhhhheeeee PPPPPooooollllliiiiitttttiiiiicccccsssss OOOOOfffff LLLLLaaaaannnnnggggguuuuuaaaaagggggeeeee,,,,,
people are saying farewell to the politics of the 3Rs: CCCCCooooommmmmmmmmmuuuuunnnnnaaaaallllliiiiisssssmmmmm AAAAAnnnnnddddd RRRRReeeeellllliiiiigggggiiiiiooooonnnnn 88888
racial bigotry, religious exclusivism, and repression. ••••• LLLLLuuuuunnnnnaaaaasssss AAAAAnnnnnddddd BBBBBeeeeeyyyyyooooonnnnnddddd 11111 22222
••••• LLLLLeeeeegggggaaaaalllll DDDDDiiiiissssscccccrrrrriiiiimmmmmiiiiinnnnnaaaaatttttiiiiiooooonnnnn CCCCCooooonnnnntttttiiiiinnnnnuuuuueeeeesssss............... 2222244444
In the lead story, KHOO BOO TEIK highlights these
••••• TTTTThhhhheeeee PPPPPeeeeeooooopppppllllleeeee'''''sssss HHHHHeeeeeaaaaalllllttttthhhhh AAAAAsssssssssseeeeemmmmmbbbbblllllyyyyy 22222000000000000000 2222266666
and other issues. CHANDRA MUZAFFAR’s analy-
••••• DDDDDeeeeemmmmmooooocccccrrrrraaaaacccccyyyyy OOOOOnnnnn TTTTThhhhheeeee MMMMMaaaaarrrrrccccchhhhh 3333399999
sis of the Lunas by-election and P RAMA-
••••• SSSSSuuuuuqqqqqiiiiiuuuuu AAAAAnnnnnddddd MMMMMaaaaalllllaaaaayyyyy RRRRRiiiiiggggghhhhhtttttsssss 4444400000
KRISHNAN's back-cover story on the Suqiu contro-
versy reiterates that the people have finally awak-
ened.
RRRRREEEEEGGGGGUUUUULLLLLAAAAARRRRRSSSSS
However, “Still the politics of Language, Commu- ••••• TTTTThhhhhiiiiinnnnnkkkkkiiiiinnnnnggggg AAAAAllllllllllooooowwwwweeeeeddddd 1111199999
nalism and Religion”, a translated story from ••••• CCCCCuuuuurrrrrrrrrreeeeennnnnttttt CCCCCooooonnnnnccccceeeeerrrrrnnnnnsssss 2222288888
Harakahdaily.com, adopts a critical stance towards
••••• LLLLLeeeeetttttttttteeeeerrrrrsssss 3333300000
the current scenario. The writer suggests that it was
not so much the BA that won Lunas; rather, it was
the BN that lost it. He believes that the old politics of
OOOOOTTTTTHHHHHEEEEERRRRRSSSSS
race and religion is still around but this time it led to
the BN’s defeat. ••••• MMMMMaaaaalllllaaaaayyyyysssssiiiiiaaaaa SSSSStttttiiiiiccccckkkkksssss OOOOOuuuuuttttt LLLLLiiiiikkkkkeeeee
AAAAA SSSSSooooorrrrreeeee TTTTThhhhhuuuuummmmmbbbbb 1111177777
The old politics may still be around but its days are ••••• SSSSSuuuuubbbbbssssscccccrrrrriiiiippppptttttiiiiiooooonnnnn FFFFFooooorrrrrmmmmm 1111188888
numbered and it is undeniably on its way out. More
••••• RRRRRiiiiiggggghhhhhttttt TTTTTooooo DDDDDuuuuueeeee PPPPPrrrrroooooccccceeeeessssssssss 2222233333
effort is needed before we can hammer the final nail
••••• SSSSSaaaaarrrrraaaaawwwwwaaaaakkkkk NNNNNaaaaatttttiiiiivvvvveeeeesssss BBBBBllllloooooccccckkkkkaaaaadddddeeeee
into its coffin and say good riddance to it.
PPPPPuuuuulllllpppppmmmmmiiiiillllllllll PPPPPrrrrrooooojjjjjeeeeecccccttttt 3333333333
Finally belated (better late than never!) seasons greet- ••••• AAAAAnnnnnooooottttthhhhheeeeerrrrr BBBBBaaaaaiiiiilllllooooouuuuuttttt 3333377777
ings to everyone and best wishes for the new mil-
lennium…
AAAAALLLLLIIIIIRRRRRAAAAANNNNN iiiiisssss aaaaa RRRRReeeeefffffooooorrrrrmmmmm MMMMMooooovvvvveeeeemmmmmeeeeennnnnttttt dddddeeeeedddddiiiiicccccaaaaattttteeeeeddddd tttttooooo
JJJJJuuuuussssstttttiiiiiccccceeeee,,,,, FFFFFrrrrreeeeeeeeeedddddooooommmmm &&&&& SSSSSooooollllliiiiidddddaaaaarrrrriiiiitttttyyyyy aaaaannnnnddddd llllliiiiisssssttttteeeeeddddd ooooonnnnn ttttthhhhheeeee
rrrrrooooosssssttttteeeeerrrrr ooooofffff ttttthhhhheeeee EEEEEcccccooooonnnnnooooommmmmiiiiiccccc aaaaannnnnddddd SSSSSoooooccccciiiiiaaaaalllll CCCCCooooouuuuunnnnnccccciiiiilllll ooooofffff ttttthhhhheeeee
PPPPPuuuuubbbbbllllliiiiissssshhhhheeeeeddddd bbbbbyyyyy
UUUUUnnnnniiiiittttteeeeeddddd NNNNNaaaaatttttiiiiiooooonnnnnsssss..... GGGGGuuuuuiiiiidddddeeeeeddddd bbbbbyyyyy uuuuunnnnniiiiivvvvveeeeerrrrrsssssaaaaalllll ssssspppppiiiiirrrrriiiiitttttuuuuuaaaaalllll
vvvvvaaaaallllluuuuueeeeesssss,,,,, AAAAAllllliiiiirrrrraaaaannnnn hhhhhaaaaasssss bbbbbeeeeeeeeeennnnn ssssstttttrrrrriiiiivvvvviiiiinnnnnggggg fffffooooorrrrr gggggeeeeennnnnuuuuuiiiiinnnnneeeee uuuuunnnnniiiiitttttyyyyy AAAAAllllliiiiirrrrraaaaannnnn KKKKKeeeeessssseeeeedddddaaaaarrrrraaaaannnnn NNNNNeeeeegggggaaaaarrrrraaaaa (((((AAAAALLLLLIIIIIRRRRRAAAAANNNNN)))))
bbbbbyyyyy ppppprrrrrooooommmmmoooootttttiiiiinnnnnggggg sssssoooooccccciiiiiaaaaalllll jjjjjuuuuussssstttttiiiiiccccceeeee aaaaannnnnddddd hhhhhuuuuummmmmaaaaannnnn dddddiiiiigggggnnnnniiiiitttttyyyyy sssssiiiiinnnnnccccceeeee
111110000033333,,,,, MMMMMeeeeedddddaaaaannnnn PPPPPeeeeennnnnaaaaagggggaaaaa,,,,, 1111111111666660000000000 JJJJJeeeeellllluuuuutttttooooonnnnnggggg,,,,,
11111999997777777777..... MMMMMeeeeemmmmmbbbbbeeeeerrrrrssssshhhhhiiiiippppp iiiiisssss ooooopppppeeeeennnnn tttttooooo aaaaallllllllll MMMMMaaaaalllllaaaaayyyyysssssiiiiiaaaaannnnnsssss aaaaabbbbbooooovvvvveeeee
2222211111..... IIIIIfffff yyyyyooooouuuuu aaaaarrrrreeeee iiiiinnnnnttttteeeeerrrrreeeeesssssttttteeeeeddddd iiiiinnnnn jjjjjoooooiiiiinnnnniiiiinnnnnggggg AAAAAllllliiiiirrrrraaaaannnnn,,,,, pppppllllleeeeeaaaaassssseeeee PPPPPeeeeennnnnaaaaannnnnggggg,,,,, MMMMMaaaaalllllaaaaayyyyysssssiiiiiaaaaa.....
cccccooooonnnnntttttaaaaacccccttttt ttttthhhhheeeee HHHHHooooonnnnn SSSSSeeeeecccccrrrrreeeeetttttaaaaarrrrryyyyy aaaaattttt ttttthhhhheeeee aaaaaddddddddddrrrrreeeeessssssssss ssssshhhhhooooowwwwwnnnnn iiiiinnnnn
TTTTTeeeeelllll ::::: (((((0000044444))))) 666665555588888 55555222225555511111 FFFFFaaaaaxxxxx ::::: (((((0000044444))))) 666665555588888 55555111119999977777
ttttthhhhhiiiiisssss pppppaaaaagggggeeeee.....
HHHHHooooommmmmeeeeepppppaaaaagggggeeeee ::::: hhhhhttttttttttppppp::::://////////wwwwwwwwwwwwwww.....mmmmmaaaaalllllaaaaayyyyysssssiiiiiaaaaa.....nnnnneeeeettttt/////aaaaallllliiiiirrrrraaaaannnnn
Printed by Angkatan Edaran Enterprise Sdn. Bhd. Lot 6, Jalan Tukang 16/4, Seksyen 16, 40000 Shah Alam, Selangor Darul Ehsan.
Aliran Monthly 20(10) Page 3
lead, told ‘certain Malays’ – majority in the legislative as- first time in twenty years, he
reportedly BA and the ‘Free sembly. doesn’t have a satisfactory re-
Anwar Campaign’ types – that sponse to political change and
‘if they didn’t like Malaysia, Grave intra-coalition disputes many-sided opposition.
they should leave’! attended BA’s choice of a
Fishing In
keADILan (instead of a widely
Troubled Waters
Naturally, we’ve heard before expected DAP) candidate – and
that the Chinese could ‘return Saifuddin Nasution, the
to China’ and the Indians could wrecker of the 1996 Asia-Pa- In pre-‘Anwar affair’ and pre-
‘return to India’ – but the cific Conference on East Timor Reformasi days, the standard
Malays had nowhere else to go. (APCET II), at that. Mahathirist response to
How perversely refreshing it oppositionist challenges was to
was to hear Malay politicians The battle for Lunas featured cast out two lines of fishy ar-
saying ‘good riddance’ to such rancorous ethnic issues as guments.
Malay recalcitrants. Malay special rights and Chi-
nese education that would The first type of argument – call
Kesas Rally have cleanly pitted pro-gov- it ‘red baiting’ – pinpointed
ernment ‘Malay votes’ against Chinese ‘communism’, ‘chau-
Next, keADILan called for pro-opposition ‘Chinese votes’ vinism’, ‘disloyalty’, or what-
‘100,000 persons’ to rally in were this an election of the ever was usefully provocative,
Shah Alam, on 5 November, for 1980s, say. to keep the Malays in a ‘Malay
civil liberties and the right to unity’ fold to preserve ‘Malay
peaceful assembly. Amazingly an ethnically mixed supremacy’.
electoral revolt against BN
The police predictably wouldn’t handed Lunas to BA exactly The second kind of argument
issue a permit. On the eve of the one year after the 1999 general – can we name it ‘green her-
rally, they arrested several of its election. ring’? – was to scare all pork-
suspected organisers. Everyone consuming, alcohol-loving and
knew the police would meet the In Flux And Fix congenitally-gaming non-Mus-
rally with force. lims with PAS and ‘Islamic ex-
By now it’d be trite to say that tremism’.
Still thousands upon thousands these happenings resulted
of people – ‘too many to from Reformasi. If neither method worked, eve-
count’, some Chinese dailies ryone could be warned not to
diplomatically reported – Even UMNO’s brooding mal- ‘politicise race or religion’ while
showed up. The once again contents, who aren’t ready to the government prescribed a
predominantly Malay marchers be open dissidents, accept that healthy dose of repression: re-
were diverted by the police to these events indicate the depth member 27 October 1987?
the Kesas Highway where they of disaffection with … ‘Call me
were met by water cannon, Pharaoh if you’d like’ … and No Grounds
tear gas, mace sprays, arrests, portend disaster for UMNO if For Red Baiting
and beatings. the party can’t reinvent itself.
These days these three meth-
The Lunas Eclipse Well, don’t call me a heretic, ods have become somewhat
but I consider these events to stale.
Then, on 29 November, came form a flux in Malaysian poli-
the by-election in Lunas, a tics which requires all parties The red baiting doesn’t quite
forty-year Barisan Nasional to reinvent themselves. work, not because desperate
stronghold in Kedah, Dr politicians and their servants
Mahathir’s home state, where Above all, it’s a flux that has Dr aren’t trying. They try every
BN held exactly a two-thirds Mahathir in a fix: perhaps for the time they need to divert atten-
Aliran Monthly 20(10) Page 4
tion from their failings, distort Hence, the Chinese Election ‘PAS, keADILan and PRM
public criticism, or provoke Appeal Committee (Suqiu) con- Malays’ have refused to rise to
quarrels which they then offer troversy has persisted, despite the red-baiting.
to settle ‘behind closed doors’. calls issued by various quar-
ters, including Deputy Prime For that matter, which Chinese,
Their difficulty is, times, social Minister Abdullah Ahmad especially a ‘pragmatic’ one, be-
conditions and political atti- Badawi, and even Pemuda lieves that the ‘special position’
tudes have changed consider- UMNO, for the controversy to of the Malays is an issue that can
ably. Just look at the difference be ended. Suqiu is relatively be resolved by non-Malay de-
between interethnic senti- unknown and sounds alien (by mands? Even the DAP has
ments after the 1986 and 1999 the way it’s pronounced ‘soo dropped its old ‘Malaysian Ma-
elections respectively. chiu’) and is therefore useful as laysia’ in favour of Dr Maha-
a ‘Chinese chauvinistic’ bogey thir’s new Bangsa Malaysia.
In August 1986 UMNO thrashed for a well-worn attempt to con-
PAS, while DAP canned MCA vert ‘Malay disloyalty’ into Malay Language And
and Gerakan. At the September ‘Malay unity’. Chinese Education
UMNO general assembly, Dr
Mahathir praised the ‘rural After Lunas, the tactical di- For three decades after 1957,
Malay voters’ for their ‘loyalty’ lemma for UMNO and BN is the social contradictions of co-
and attacked the ‘urban Chinese how to avoid doing political lonial capitalism, experience of
voters’ for being ‘chauvinistic’ battle on more than one front decolonization, and hangovers
and ‘unreliable’. at a time. from separate Malay, Chinese
and Indian nationalisms easily
After November 1999 Hence, the once autonomous inflamed interethnic passions.
UMNO’s problem is the ‘dis- but now UMNO-directed Most of us, however, sense
loyalty’ of rural and urban Gabungan Pelajar-pelajar that those passions have
Malay voters. Melayu Semenanjung (Federa- largely burned themselves out.
tion of Peninsular Malay Stu-
As for the Chinese voters, dents) has converted Suqiu’s ‘17- Consider the history of Malay-
whose ‘pragmatism’ Dr Point Appeal’ into ‘83 Chinese Chinese disputes over the New
Mahathir praised, Zunar bril- demands’ against which GPMS Economic Policy, language,
liantly captured the prevailing threatens to counterpose ‘100 education and culture. Almost
Malay joke in a cartoon a year Malay demands’. intractable once, those disputes
ago: the difference between a have been generally resolved
Malay and a Chinese was, the Obviously someone wants to by the post-1969 education
Chinese supported UMNO. dampen Chinese recalcitrance policy, NEP’s redistribution,
by threatening ‘Malay extrem- Dr Mahathir’s privatization,
Storm Over Suqiu ism’ while UMNO tackles PAS and the high economic growth
and keADILan over the prob- and liberalization of education
Malaysian political life is sel- lem of ‘Malay disunity’. in the 1990s.
dom so simple and even car-
toonists sometimes get it Are We ‘One Family’? In the process, more than one
wrong. generation of non-Malays has
Yet, which Malay can long be- grown up fluently using the
After Lunas, the strategic dan- lieve that Suqiu is a latter-day Malay language as Bahasa Ma-
ger for Dr Mahathir and Chinese-dominated Commu- laysia. How many of them to-
UMNO is a combined Malay- nist Party of Malaya, or a Chi- day know or care about the
Chinese ‘disloyalty’, just ‘col- nese version of ‘Al Maunah’, bitter fights over the National
our blind’ enough to threaten no matter that Dr Mahathir Language Act in the 1960s?
the BN’s hold over the so- floated those comparisons on
called ‘mixed constituencies’. 31 August, of all days? The On the other hand, an esti-
Aliran Monthly 20(10) Page 5
mated 65,000 non-Chinese, or alarm over an imminent defunct S46) able to recapture
mostly Malay, students attend PAS-led ‘Islamic state’ – a ter- Kelantan. And only last year did
Chinese schools without con- ribly marketable fish these PAS regain Trengganu.
troversy. How many of these days. This is not for want of
students know or share the trying by those who tried to Consequently, PAS’s results
emotions that ran high from scare us about an Islamic threat mark the party’s unexpected
the 1950s to the 1980s in de- to secular government before recovery from almost forty-
fence of the ‘character of Chi- and after the 1999 election. years of steady slump, much of
nese schools’? PAS’s performance owing to
PAS’s net gain of 20 parliamen- Malay anger over the Anwar
There’s no call to be compla- tary seats and control of the affair. The results don’t mark
cent. Malaysians aren’t more Trengganu state government the beginning of PAS’s inexo-
virtuous than ordinary folk was achieved at UMNO’s ex- rable ascent to power on the
who live in multiethnic socie- pense. PAS now has 27 seats in back of a clamour for a theo-
ties. Most Malaysians harbour parliament compared to the cratic state.
some pet ethnic grouses and seven seats it held after the
Islamization And
prejudices which they express 1995 election.
in the exclusive company of Constitutional
‘their own people’. These results thrill PAS mem- Government
bers and supporters and unset-
Despite Anwar Ibrahim’s slo- tle anti-PAS forces. Ironically One can expect PAS’s challenge
gan, wo men dou shi yi jia ren, so both sides often find it useful to UMNO to bring a stricter
beloved of some BN politicians to talk of PAS’s fourfold in- observance of religiosity in the
before Anwar’s fall, we aren’t crease in representation, and, personal lives of Muslims and
quite one family. who knows, extrapolate from public life in general. In and of
it to imagine PAS’s taking over itself, much of what happens
Issues arise intermittently the country, perhaps by the along this line will not be scary
which lend themselves to eth- next election. to Malaysians – not after the
nic interpretation and misunder- Islamic resurgence of the 1970s
standing: the Vision Schools, But simple arithmetic shows and Dr Mahathir’s Islamization
lack of Malay students in pri- that PAS’s 27 seats constitute programme of the 1980s.
vate colleges, patriotism and the only 14 per cent of parliament.
use of English, and so on. The party isn’t any nearer to However, what disconcerts
governing the country than many ‘modern’, ‘liberal
But few Malaysians today have DAP was when the latter won minded’ or ‘non-doctrinaire’
the stomach for stoking 24 seats in the 1986 election. Muslims’, not to say most non-
interethnic fury, especially of Muslims, is the moral conserva-
the Malay-Chinese variety. And a dash of political history tism of the PAS state govern-
reveals that PAS won control ments. They fear that that con-
Conditions are such that only of Trengganu and Kelantan in servatism diminishes the op-
the most narrow-minded the very first post-Merdeka tions of living one’s private life
‘Malay nationalist’ or ‘Chinese general election of 1959. according to one’s convictions
educationist’ would not con- and preferences, within reason
sider the present state of Three years later, defections and a sensible framework of
interethnic relations to resem- from PAS handed Trengganu to decent social conduct.
ble a ‘win-win’ situation, to use UMNO. Sixteen years after that
a cliché which I actually detest. PAS lost Kelantan following a For example, even people who
split in the party and its depar- don’t frequent karaoke lounges
The Rise And
ture from BN. Only after an- or go to unisex hair salons with
Rise Of PAS?
other twelve years, in 1990, was extra-hairdressing motives ob-
Neither is the green herring – PAS (in alliance with the now ject to such establishments be-
Aliran Monthly 20(10) Page 6
ing closed by administrative fiat. has been undermined by its Farewell To
They also can’t see why certain supposed defenders. The Old Millennium
PAS quarters should give undue
weight to such matters as the No one is obliged to support Knowing the severity of BN-
mere mingling of the sexes in PAS’s programme. By demo- imposed restrictions, would
public places. cratic principles and practice, one expect either of the PAS
however, one is obliged to up- state governments to demon-
One can go further. Some PAS hold the rights of the voters of strate their commitment to ‘Is-
stalwarts may support ulama Kelantan and Trengganu who lamic government’ other than
rule that enforces hudud laws, freely chose PAS to govern by stressing religious piety,
proscribes apostasy, and re- their states. moral fervour, and exemplary
stricts rather than extends the conduct?
social freedom available to These voters have suffered for
women, to mention some oft- preferring political opposition Dr Mahathir, UMNO and BN
debated issues. But for many to BN’s rule. For over a dec- would. That’s because they’ve
other people, any thought of ade, Kelantan has been de- always considered themselves
such rule quickly raises visions prived of development alloca- to hold all the solutions to the
of harsh rule in the name of tions (like Sabah under PBS problems of Malaysian society.
Islamic government elsewhere. before it was toppled in 1994).
Now Trengganu’s petroleum- The Kamunting, Kesas and
No one in PAS who associates based revenues have been uni- Lunas episodes are the latest
its struggles with BA’s defence laterally turned into a matter reminders that enough Malay-
of democracy, civil liberties, of ‘federal government good- sians now think otherwise.
human rights and constitu- will’.
tional procedures can lightly Those who grew up or grew
dismiss these concerns as the More than that, Malaysian so- old(er) in the twenty years of
unexamined fears of non-Mus- ciety – if not the world – has Dr Mahathir’s administration
lims who don’t understand Is- been robbed of an opportunity have seen how things have
lam or Muslims who don’t fully to evaluate what ‘Islamic gov- been continually turned over,
practise the religion. ernment, development and upside down and upon their
governance’ could mean in heads. Their experience should
A Lost Opportunity practice, for a multiethnic so- make them suspicious of any-
ciety, and within a national one who claims to have a mo-
Judging by present conditions, economy linked to global capi- nopoly of solutions, formulas
however, whether something talism. and blueprints for Malaysian
like a theocratic state comes to society.
pass may depend less upon Under the circumstances,
PAS’s ideological intent than should one hold the govern- Malaysian society doesn’t need
on BN’s continuing conduct. ment of Kelantan responsible a blueprint for the new millen-
The events of 1998-99 have if it doesn’t do more than carry nium. What it needs, in princi-
made clear that prominent out remedial projects to help ple, is a commitment to live in
among those who cry ‘Islamic the poor, disadvantaged and peace, under democracy and
wolf’ loudest and longest are handicapped? with social justice, and, in prac-
those who have least respect tice, to find ways of doing so
for civil liberties and human Should one blame the govern- as conditions change.
rights. ment of Trengganu for not de-
veloping ‘pragmatic’, ‘invest- However imperfectly Malay-
For the foreseeable future, it ment-friendly’, or ‘growth-fa- sian society carries out that task,
has not secular government cilitating’ policies in areas im- it can’t do better than to discard
that is being threatened. It's portant to everyone’s daily an outmoded politics of ‘race,
constitutional government that life? religion and repression’.q
Aliran Monthly 20(10) Page 7
POLITICS
Lunas: Still The Politics Of
Language, Communalism
And Religion
are still not free of these problems
(of language, communalism and
NNNNNooooowwwww ttttthhhhhaaaaattttt ttttthhhhheeeee ddddduuuuusssssttttt hhhhhaaaaasssss ssssseeeeettttttttttllllleeeeeddddd aaaaafffffttttteeeeerrrrr ttttthhhhheeeee LLLLLuuuuunnnnnaaaaasssss bbbbbyyyyy----- religion). For instance, in
eeeeellllleeeeeccccctttttiiiiiooooonnnnn,,,,, iiiiinnnnn wwwwwhhhhhiiiiiccccchhhhh ttttthhhhheeeee oooooppppppppppooooosssssiiiiitttttiiiiiooooonnnnn eeeeemmmmmeeeeerrrrrgggggeeeeeddddd vvvvviiiiiccccctttttooooorrrrriiiii----- Sanggang, PAS was tagged as re-
ooooouuuuusssss,,,,, iiiiittttt iiiiisssss pppppeeeeerrrrrhhhhhaaaaapppppsssss tttttiiiiimmmmmeeeee tttttooooo cccccooooonnnnnttttteeeeemmmmmppppplllllaaaaattttteeeee ooooonnnnn ttttthhhhheeeee iiiiisssss----- ligious fanatics fighting for an Is-
sssssuuuuueeeeesssss rrrrraaaaaiiiiissssseeeeeddddd ddddduuuuurrrrriiiiinnnnnggggg ttttthhhhheeeee cccccaaaaammmmmpppppaaaaaiiiiigggggnnnnn..... TTTTThhhhhiiiiisssss rrrrreeeeefffffllllleeeeeccccctttttiiiiiooooonnnnn,,,,, lamic state; this frightened the
Chinese and succeeded in dis-
aaaaa tttttrrrrraaaaannnnnssssslllllaaaaatttttiiiiiooooonnnnn fffffrrrrrooooommmmm aaaaa HHHHHaaaaarrrrraaaaakkkkkaaaaahhhhhdddddaaaaaiiiiilllllyyyyy.....cccccooooommmmm aaaaarrrrrtttttiiiiicccccllllleeeee,,,,, lllllooooooooookkkkksssss
suading them from supporting the
aaaaattttt wwwwwhhhhhyyyyy iiiiittttt iiiiisssss sssssooooo iiiiimmmmmpppppooooorrrrrtttttaaaaannnnnttttt tttttooooo hhhhhaaaaavvvvveeeee iiiiinnnnnttttteeeeerrrrr-----rrrrreeeeellllliiiiigggggiiiiiooooouuuuusssss dddddiiiiiaaaaa-----
PAS candidate who was a profes-
llllloooooggggguuuuueeeee iiiiifffff wwwwweeeee aaaaarrrrreeeee tttttooooo ooooovvvvveeeeerrrrrcccccooooommmmmeeeee ttttthhhhheeeee bbbbbaaaaarrrrrrrrrriiiiieeeeerrrrrsssss aaaaannnnnddddd ppppprrrrreeeeejjjjjuuuuu-----
sional.
dddddiiiiiccccceeeeesssss ooooofffff ttttthhhhheeeee pppppaaaaasssssttttt.....
In the Teluk Kemang parliamen-
tary contest, Indian voters rejected
keADILan’s Malay candidate due
TTTTT he Barisan Alternatif’s Malay BA candidate was appar- to concerns that he would not be
(BA) victory in the Lunas ently one factor which influenced able to protect Indian interests,
by-election proves once Indian voters, particularly those compared with the BN’s Indian
again that issues of lan- with less education. About 70% candidate.
guage, communalism and reli- of them voted BN, although the BN
gion are the most powerful politi- has time and again reneged on Thus, BA members should not feel
cal issues to win the hearts of the their promises to the Indian com- too elated with the Lunas result.
multi-ethnic, multi-religious elec- munity. This was because they As long as problems of language,
torate, or,conversely, to blind them. perceived the alleged unwilling- race and religion are not seriously
ness of BA to field an Indian can- investigated and reflected upon in
In Lunas, the inclinations of Chi- didate as a marginalisation of In- order to arrive at a solution, they
nese voters were significantly in- dian political representation. are going to continually haunt us.
fluenced by the issue of Vision
Schools - believed to be a covert According to oral transmission, Furthermore, it is far from certain
move to erode Chinese education the death of the former ADUN of that these problems will benefit the
- as well as the attempt by UMNO Lunas, Dr Joseph Fernandez, was BA, as they did in Lunas, in the
Youth to destroy Suqiu by delib- said to be linked to a case of apos- 2004 General Elections, in the
erately raising the issue of a threat tasy (murtad). Coincidentally, the Sarawak state elections or in other
to Malay privileges. BN candidate, S Anthony, was of by-elections that may be held in
the same religion as Dr the near future.
Chinese voters delivered an ex- Fernandez, and this aroused the
tremely clear message to the unease of a part of the Malay elec- The dissension between the DAP
Barisan Nasional (BN) govern- torate. and KeADILan over the selection
ment regarding these two matters. of the BA candidate is a good ex-
In fact, previous by-elections this ample. It not only festered to be-
On the other hand, the issue of a year had already shown that we come a communal issue, it almost
Aliran Monthly 20(10) Page 8
undermined the chances of the BA Malay archipelago, the rise of the love for it. But non-Malays are still
candidate, Saifuddin Nasution western powers, such as Britain, not quite willing to cooperate with
Ismail. Vision Schools, Suqiu, almost destroyed the standing of Malays to uplift the status of the
Malay privileges, the the language in the eyes of the national language in the eyes of
marginalisation of the Indians, world. As a consequence of Brit- the world. They see themselves as
the Islamic state and apostasy ish rule, English came to replace victims of communalism; the sta-
clearly show that language, com- Malay. tus of their mother tongues are of-
munalism and religion are the ten seen or misunderstood as on
driving forces behind voter incli- With the extension of the British the verge of extinction or in de-
nations. Empire over almost the whole cline.
globe, English became one of the
They failed to uphold their re- most important of international They believe that the UMNO gov-
sponsibilities as citizens because languages. As a consequence of ernment is resolved - and is only
they did not really use their ration- the ascendancy of the United awaiting the appropriate moment
ality and their conscience in States (an English-speaking coun- - to weaken their languages for the
choosing a representative. Hence, try) over science, communications survival or continuity of the na-
the BA’s victory in Lunas is not a and information technology, the tional language. In an atmosphere
matter of pride because the BA hope of a Malay language renais- fraught with tension and suspi-
failed to invite the voters at Lunas sance is a receding one. cion, each sees the language of the
and the people, generally, to base other as a threat to its own lan-
themselves on the principled Although the situation of Manda- guage.
teachings of religion and the de- rin, compared
mands of the reformasi movement with Malay, is
in carrying out their political re- more comfortable
sponsibility. because of the in-
ternational com-
Just as the BN used the issue of mercial network
the Islamic state to pull Chinese of Chinese busi-
votes in the 1999 General Elec- nessmen, its fate
tions, the BA, too, was not free of in Malaysia is al-
such rabble-rousing. The BA was ways under
only able to draw Chinese votes threat due to the
by riding on Chinese voter senti- communal poli-
ments against the BN government tics and narrow
over Suqiu and Vision Schools. We nationalism sponsored by
should take the Lunas result not UMNO. The fate of Tamil and Thus, it is hardly surprising the
as a cause for celebration, but as a other mother tongues is less for- champions of the national lan-
lesson of the extent to which our tunate because their speakers guage often take harsh action, via
political culture still depends have neither the political clout of legislation and implementation,
upon sentiments of language, Malay-language speakers nor the to force non-Malays to use the
communalism and narrow reli- financial resources of Mandarin national language in their daily
gious thinking. This has to be speakers. lives or in official business.
delved into and a solution must
be sought in order to build a Every community naturally loves Heart-to-heart dialogue and inter-
healthy Malaysian political cul- its own language. Each will fight action regarding the language
ture. unceasingly for the status and question has never been a part of
preservation of its mother tongue. the BN’s political agenda. In turn,
Language
From a political perspective, all non-Malays react irrationally and
Although Malay was once the lin- Malaysians have accepted Malay oppose without following the
gua franca and the language of as the national language, never- warnings of the inner voices/con-
learning for the multi-ethnic and theless from a socio-cultural per- science. In this spontaneous reac-
multi-religious residents of the spective, we have failed to foster a tion, the study of Malay is solely
Aliran Monthly 20(10) Page 9
for the purpose of satisfying gov- The failure of the BN to fulfil their urgent demands on matters such
ernment wishes. election promises to increase the as defending human rights, up-
number of Chinese primary holding justice, ending corrup-
The philosophical principle of di schools also caused a loss of faith tion, and building an impartial
mana bumi dipijak, di situlah langit by Chinese voters in the BN. But media. Thankfully, the solid sup-
dijunjung is not observed. In turn, can the BA be proud of a success port of the Malays behind the BA,
the best indicator of the BN gov- that rode on the Vision Schools, and Tuan Guru Nik Aziz’s “revo-
ernment’s attitude can be seen in but failed to inspire confidence in lutionary” statement that in Islam
Dr Mahathir’s charge that Dong the voters that the BA represents there are no special rights for any
Jiao Zong, a Chinese organisation the best choice? race, saved us from being dragged
which fights for Chinese educa- into a racial conflict as happened
tion, is an extremist organisation Hence, a sound language educa- in 1969 and 1987, and as plotted
which practices “China’s Educa- tion policy has to be formulated by certain interested parties.
by the BA, and
quickly, to be pre- In Lunas and Teluk Kemang, the
sented as a better issue of the BA’s alleged
alternative to the marginalisation of Indians al-
BN concept of Vi- lowed communal politics to be
sion Schools. The fanned. Most opposition politi-
BA’s education cians of Indian descent appar-
policy in its 1999 ently deny the new political cul-
General Elec- ture that is being promoted by the
tions manifesto - BA, that is, a political culture in
‘Towards a Just which leaders fight for justice for
Malaysia’ - is too all, even if one has to sacrifice the
tion System”, because it rejected conservative, in the style of the BN unfounded interests of one’s own
the proposed Vision Schools. and fails to address the challenges community. In turn, the regard of
of the information technology age. the people for a leader should not
The BN government refuses to be based on race or religion, but
dialogue with Dong Jiao Zong; in- Communalism on the ability and authority
stead, it aggressively pushes (kewibawaan) of a leader.
ahead with its proposed Vision Suqiu drafted 17 political de-
Schools, and condemns oppo- mands that received the support It was once suggested that inter-
nents to that proposal as disloyal of about 2,000 Chinese associa- racial marriage be made a means
citizens. Dong Jiao Zong, too, tions. The greater part of those to solving our communal prob-
refuses to face reality and has thus demands are similar to the BA’s lems. However, this is easier said
far failed to provide explanations struggle, specifically PAS’. But than done because it involves
to the non-Chinese community re- PAS, as a Malay-based party, may questions of culture, of descent
garding their education policy. be reluctant to accept Suqiu’s de- and of religious faith.
They adopt the attitude of “un- mand that the classification into
ease” with the BN government’s Bumiputra and non-Bumiputra For example, Malays are sceptical
national language policy. But they be dropped and the communally- of the Islamic faith of non-Malays
fail to be conscious of the fact that based quota system be terminated, who marry Malays; in turn, non-
they, too, have a joint responsibil- even though Suqiu did not ques- Malays are suspicious that such
ity to foster a love for the national tion Malay special rights as stated marriages have the purpose of
language in the Chinese schools. in the Federal Constitution. “Malayising” their culture.
Perhaps the BN government’s Sadly, the politically bankrupt Descent is even more complicated.
haste in implementing the Vision Pemuda UMNO attempted to Will the child of a Malay woman
Schools without prior discussion arouse emotions over that de- who married a non-Malay man
with Dong Jiao Zong provided po- mand, while keeping absolutely lose her Bumiputra/Malay status?
litical capital to the BA in Lunas. silent on Suqiu’s other even more The case of Tan Hoon @ Abu
Aliran Monthly 20(10) Page 10