Let’s talk about the ‘3Rs’

 

The framing of the “3R” (race, religion, royalty) debate is interesting from a semantics perspective. There has been no crackdown on “hate speech”, which is easy to identify and define. Instead, the headline message from those at the top has been to avoid “sensitive” and “provocative” comments about the topics. Which? What?

Who decides what “provocative” speech is? Are not healthy debates about difficult issues what we want from politics? It does seem as though, in its noble attempt to stamp out the divisive rhetoric that has come to define Malaysian politics, the government has merely made the lines blurrier.

As the opposition, Pakatan Harapan (PH) was a fierce proponent of freedom of speech, regularly calling out attempts by Muhyiddin Yassin’s and Ismail Sabri Yaakob’s administrations to suppress it. But now, a lack of clarity around what can and cannot be discussed may unintentionally (or deliberately, depending on your level of scepticism) silence people in the same way.

And that is a shame, because productive discourse about race and religion is exactly what this country needs. They are important issues that have divided the rakyat for decades and will continue to do so unless tackled in a measured and open-minded way.

Is it “provocative” to argue that while I have personally benefitted from Malaysia’s heavy-handed Bumiputera policies, they are categorically unfair and only perpetuate a cycle of mediocrity? Are political parties’ tribalist mentality towards religion too “sensitive” to be talked about?

The problem is not with the “3Rs” themselves, but the way we talk about them. Politicians need to shoulder much of the blame for this. Poverty and income inequality, for example, are issues that affect communities of all races.

There are poor Chinese, Malay and Indian families all over the country, but as soon as politicians start bickering about which race is the poorest and which race is at fault, all useful conversation ends. The “us versus them” argument begins, and that is exactly what some of our political leaders want.

Ever since GE15, parties have fought over Malay voters like children who haven’t yet learned how to share their toys. Rather than focus on issues affecting the country at large, it appears there is a preoccupation with who gets to call the Malays “theirs”. Whether Umno’s newfound kinship with DAP has scared Malays away is so far from the point. What’s far more important, but less spoken about, is what they have done to uplift their constituencies, which just so happen to largely be majority Malay.

And yet our politicians are stuck in a thought loop like somebody who has eaten one too many psychedelic mushrooms. Both sides talk about who gets to claim a race as their own, while each complains that the other is being culturally divisive, rinse and repeat.

No party can claim to be innocent here. While they may claim to be based on core principles, one doesn’t have to look too closely to see how much race and religion have impacted their makeups. It’s a troubling sign when parties explicitly put their favourite race in their names. As critical as people are of the radical factions of the Republicans or Tories, at least neither call themselves the “National White Association”.

Things will only get nastier as the state elections approach. Unfortunately, identity politics is effective in winning elections, even if it is unproductive. I for one do not fancy living in a country where my race and religion – factors I had and have no say in – are more important to parties than the problems my community and I face.

We need to keep talking about the “3Rs” and their place in our country if we’re ever to move forward.

Nobody likes hate speech, but for as long as the two are conflated, we run the risk of getting sucked into culture wars that only distract from real issues. Malaysians are getting poorer, regional neighbours are quickly leapfrogging us, and young talent do not want to stay to fix a mess they had no part creating.

These problems affect the Malays, Indians and Chinese in equal measure. We’re all Malaysian after all. And yet, those in power would rather squabble about whether the term “green wave” is racist and who gets to call themselves the “bestest” Malay party. - FMT

The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of MMKtT/