Don’t let the extremists silence us

Moderates must seize the centre stage and speak up against fanatics from among both the liberals and conservatives.

COMMENT

There was a report in the media last week that quoted several analysts as saying that political fanaticism could undermine the spirit of sharing that has defined the Malaysian consciousness from time immemorial. It is our great shared pride to have three distinct main heritages, and many minor  ones besides. We as a people are more than willing to share our cuisines, our homes, our cultures and whatever else amongst ourselves.

Now all that comity is in danger of evaporating. We all know this to be true. Neighbours have become less cordial to each other. We rarely invite our friends of other races to our houses to partake in our cultural celebrations for fear of offence, we are far more prudish with our values than ever before, and we no longer accept or even tolerate our differences any more. Our heritage of being one people with different cultural backgrounds is being stolen from us by those who would have no other way than their own.

Liberalism and conservatism are two equally extreme ends of a spectrum, and those who cleave to either side will always believe that they are more right than those on the other side, or more equal than those on the other side, to borrow a phrase from George Orwell. The truth is that neither conservatism or liberalism is a Malaysian heritage. The true Malaysia lies somewhere in between, and a failure to recognize that humans, for the most part, will approve or reject in equal measure based on individual values is what has brought Malaysian society to a point where everyone is openly racist online, in comment boxes and Facebook updates, where politicians can write off an entire race as borderline criminals trying to rip off the public without even a hint of an apology.

It is a sad, sad state we find ourselves in.

We have to ask ourselves who exactly are these people and, more important, do they outnumber us, the moderates? Common sense would dictate that the moderates would be the most populous demographic. We can reason that for the most part the average Malaysian stands transfixed between conservative and liberal values.

We have heard over and over again that the voice of the moderates is silent, and thus it is bulldozed by the extremists and fanatics, who are driven by the obsession to complete a goal, to implement their vision of a perfect Malaysia according to their standards and their standards alone. After all, in the words of philosopher Edmund Burke, “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”

This is not to say that extremism is inherently evil. Evil comes from methodology and intent and is a direct extension of the individual and not the ideology, unless the ideology itself was conceived by one who is evil. Thus, it is when the extremists, the fanatics, act on their impulse to force change that we see evil.

Dear moderates, we can no longer afford to be silent while we are robbed of our shared cultural heritage. For too long we have sat silent, shaking our heads and talking at coffeeshops without taking action. They will attempt to brand us as extremist. Former prime minister Mahathir Mohamad did say recently that should a moderate speak out and take action, he will be labelled as an extremist. But speak we must for the prolonged harmony of Malaysian society.

The narrative of this country is being seized by both sides of the political divide. They are surrounded by fanatics who would see their cause fulfilled or to hell with it all. This is nothing more than a road to mutually assured destruction. So let them call us extremists. We will be now be extreme for the moderation that has defined generations of Malaysians because there cannot be any way forward other than this.