‘Crude nationalism’ no longer appealing

Malay nationalism is no longer what it used to be. It now finds expression in universal causes.

COMMENT

The new generation of Malay voters adopt different values and have different expectations from the sledgehammer variety so enthusiastically expounded by organisations like Perkasa.

That variety of base and crude nationalism is dying. A clear indication was the Bersih 2.0 march.

The crude nationalism propounded by the Perkasa-type variety made out that the Bersih march, for example, was masterminded by Malaysian Indians out to topple the Malay government.

They thought that this would turn the Malay ground xenophobic until they discovered the majority of the marchers were Malays.

You get disappointed that you can no longer reduce the issue to a simple clash between the Malays and the non-Malays.

So, what’s the other important thing to the Malays? Their religion!

So Umno leaders came out accusing homely Bersih 2.0 coalition chairman S Ambiga as a threat to Islam.

Unfortunately, no one buys that argument because that allegation would assume the Malays’ faith in their religion is so fragile that even the appearance of Ambiga, who is probably remotely interested in another person’s religious denomination, is sufficient to shake the religious fibre of the Malay ground.

New nationalism

Let’s try communism, that godless creed.

The Malay’s hatred for communism seemed to be a possible source to limit empathy from the Malay ground.

So pictures of Shamsiah Fakeh, a member of the Malay communist regiment of the 1940s, were resurrected and given prominence.

The idea was to say that Bersih marchers were communism-inspired.

The feeble attempt was not impactful because the attempted association with communism goes against mainstream logic.

Even China has gone free market. Why would a band of marchers rally in the cause of communism?

Let’s face the facts. Umno cannot appeal any longer to the cruder form of xenophobic nationalism or group pride.

Malay nationalism is no longer what it was. It has mutated into the finer form of nationalism, which finds expression in variegated forms of universal causes.

The abhorrence for corruption is one reconstituted form of the previously crude form of nationalism.

Why? Because corruption cuts across and affects the interest of the whole country and undermines the moral fibre of the whole nation.

Umno must reformat

Another example of mutated nationalism is the revulsion towards economic thievery and corporate pillaging.

Nowdays the Malays despise their own kind for doing a sting on the country with equal vehemence as if economic con jobs are inflicted on them.

Of course, I have in mind the lightning fast deal between Malaysia Airlines (MAS) and AirAsia.

I am left with the bitter after-thought that all these so-called Malay corporate chieftains should be sent to re-education schools to be taught the meaning of nationalism.

Where is that sense of overriding concern to put things right as a matter of probity and correctness without doing corporate shenanigans to profit from the man-made miseries of MAS?

MAS belongs to the nation as a whole, the pride of Malaysians.

Appreciation of that alone is sufficient to preclude it being treated as a pawn in an elaborate corporate board game.

More disturbing and unsettling is the more malignant inference that the government is playing along with the game that the business elite plays.

Therefore, if Umno continues to peddle the cruder form of nationalism, while the Malay ground has shifted forward, it will be rendered irrelevant.

Umno needs to reformat or even reboot its raison d’être.

The writer is a former Umno state assemblyman and a FMT columnist. This is an excerpt from his blog sakmongkolak47.