“Tolerance of intolerance is cowardice.”
- Ayaan Hirsi Ali
Here is my message to Gerakan Pembela Ummah leader Ismail Mina Ahmad and the rest of his chicken hawk coterie. You leave this country. We do not want extremists who are ignorant of history. We do not need extremists who probably have not read the constitution but who would support those who would amend it, who distort it or disregard it because they share the same “race” and “religion” as Ismail and his racist, bigoted hatemongers.
Ismail makes it sound as if the Malays carried out all the hard work of defending this country. However, as former prime minister and now opposition PM-designate claims – “We find that we are not so committed, not so hardworking and sometimes we are not so trustworthy.”
No doubt, there are going to be many articles disputing the claims made by Ismail. There will be articles highlighting the contributions of non-Malays, to the defence, culture and economy of this country. However, all this is missing the point. Non-Malays will never be treated as equals in this country. When Malay bigots make this claim, they know they are making claims which are racist and bigoted but make them anyway because it is always incumbent on the non-Malays to defend their existence in this country.
It is always the non-Malays who have to prove that they are patriotic. Non-Malays have to demonstrate how much they love this country. Malays, meanwhile, have leaders who have engaged in massive corruption, destroyed the rule of law, enacted bills that would curtail the power of the sultans – the most damning of which is the National Security Council (NSC) bill – and made racist and bigoted speeches calling for the spilling of non-Malay blood and yet the Malay community assumes ab initio that they are the true patriots who built this country.
And really, what is it the non-Malays have to defend? We have to defend our “success” in Tanah Melayu. We have to defend the fact that we have to work hard because we are not beholden to a system of privilege – ideological, religious and constitutional – that enables us to think for ourselves and realise that the world does not owe us anything.
We have to defend how we spend our wealth – too expressive in the luxuries the fruits of our labour affords us, and we are deemed un-Islamic, corrupt in our excesses, and of course, corrosive to the Malay/Muslim community.
What did those real Malay patriots say in response to some corrupt establishment politician who claimed that non-Malays do not join the security apparatus because we were not patriotic enough? What they left out is how non-Malays have to polish the cajones of their Malay superiors to get ahead, to be part of the corruption. To benefit like their Malay contemporaries in a rigged game. This “bodek” culture amongst certain non-Malays working in “Malay” institutions is part survival mechanism, part instinct for the benefits that comes with kowtowing to Malay supremacy.
These people have no use for facts, figures or evidence. Being non-Malay in this country means that you are always on the defensive. You have to prove a negative. You have to swallow your pride and like the kid in Carol Reed’s ‘Oliver!’, who asks, “Please sir, can I have some more?” Non-Malays do this because to do otherwise would invite charges of sedition or worse.
Overreacting?
Non-Malays have been here for generations but yet have trouble getting the documentation that proves that they are citizens of this country. Non-Malay politicians from the establishment make excuses as to why they are displaced, marginalised members of their community when ‘fresh off the boat’ constitutionally-created Malays assume the mantle of “Malay” and lurk in the corridors of power.
Remember when the Terengganu top cop made that racially insensitive remark about race and crime, this was what I said - “It also points to the mindset of the state security apparatus. This belief that the Malay community is peaceful and that crimes are what ‘others’ do, reflects the operating procedures that have resulted in deaths in custody, the refusal to carry out the orders from civil courts, and an unwillingness to submit to independent bodies when it comes to the way how they operate.”
That is really the mainstream Malay narrative of this country. That non-Malays are the aggressors. The non-Malay communities are interlopers. Never mind our contributions to this country. That does not matter. When it comes to mainstream Malay politics, we are fair game.
About the only kind of fairness we can get in this country, because no matter how much we contribute, no matter how much we desire to be “Malaysians”, the reality is that mainstream Malay power structures, a majority of the Malay population - which include Malays who support the opposition - and the dogma of “ketuanan Melayu” mean that we will be always viewed with suspicion.
People talk about national unity. Don’t make me laugh. How can there be national unity when the system invites Malay powerbrokers to demonise non-Malay communities for political gain. The system is racist but the average citizen is not, we are constantly reminded. Yes, that helps a lot in that there is no blood on the streets, but all it does is fester in the Malay community that they are bound by laws that make them subservient to god and political party, and wish the same upon their non-Malay countrymen.
You think I am lying, overreacting? Step outside your urban bubble and discover the various polls that demonstrate that Muslim conservatism involves imposing Muslim law on non-Muslims. Non-Malays have to be respectful in a country we helped build. Non-Malays have to be tolerant when mainstream Malay politics demonises us to appeal to their bases.
Which begs the question, if their bases keep voting for them, and the opposition has to play the same game to get the same votes, what does this tell you about the majority?
Tomorrow, I will review a book about ‘ketuanan Melayu’.
Timely? No, it is just the way it is.
S THAYAPARAN is Commander (Rtd) of the Royal Malaysian Navy.- Mkini
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