The China flag waving kerfuffle: A case of confusion between the Overseas Chinese, Mainland Chinese

 

I THINK the Keluar Sekejap podcast’s co-host Shahril Hamdan’s view about the waving of the Chinese flag incident during a parade in Perak recently is the most accurate description of what this storm in the teacup is all about.

When Khairy Jamaluddin, Shahril’s co-host, expressed his bewilderment at how big a fuss the incident whereby a group of Chinese citizens waved China’s national  flag during a parade in Teluk Intan last week has become, the former UMNO information chief opined that the fuss might have nothing to do with China at all.

“This is a sensitive topic but it may be because Malaysian Chinese are seen by some Malays as being a political and economic threat,” observed the former UMNO Youth deputy chief.

“So even if China is not the target (of animosity), these internal worries (by Malays) are being projected onto China.”

I 100% percent agree with Shahril’s view for I have always wonder why there is problem with the waving of the Chinese flag but not the Thai or Vietnamese  flags which were also waved during the cultural parade.

To put int in another perspective, why the police have taken no action against the tens of thousands of Malaysians for waving the Palestinian flag for but have swiftly called in to record the statements from 17 Chinese nationals involved in the Chinese flag waving incident.

Display of pride

For me, this entire kerfuffle is just another episode in the never-ending passive aggressive squabbles that the local Malays and the local non-Malays have been having for longer than I have been alive.

Overly praising a person from another race for doing something ordinary like visiting their place of worship or wearing their clothes or learning to speak their language or criticising their own race is one example.

Complaining excessively about such things like child grooming or alcohol availability – more with the aim of putting down another race than because they are truly concerned about the problem – is another example.

In this long list of ways to piss off another race with the aim of making them “makan dalam” or die on the inside, the waving of the Chinese flag in Teluk Intan is likely just another entry.

Like Shahril said, this kerfuffle might simply be happening because the local Chinese and the local Malays might be conflating the identity of a mainland Chinese and local Chinese.

As China flexes its muscle in the South China Seas, some local Chinese who identify with China on the basis of a common cultural and racial background, might take pride in China’s show of strength.

On the contrary, the local Malays might be re-acting negatively towards the display of pride by the mainland Chinese simply because they are equating it with the display of pride by the local Chinese.

Now these exhibits of passive aggressive micro-aggression that the local Chinese and the local Malays are displaying against each other might not be new to us but the problem is that it might be new to China.

We don’t know how China is going to interpret the problem of micro-aggression between local Malays and local Chinese having been dragged into the fray.

Let’s not annoy China further

No matter how much we quarrel with each other, we cannot be so careless as to drag a superpower like China into it. When two mousedeer from the same herd are quarrelling with each other, they might get so absorbed with their quarrel that they might not realise that they are annoying a dragon.

China is likely already in an irritable mood these days. It has a looming problem with the West which is giving it a major military and economic headache.

This is a time for us to be extra careful about our gestures and expressions towards China. The last thing we need at the moment is to upset the already edgy China with our carelessness.

The leadership of China, by the way, is famous for having a long memory. Until today, every time there is a new ambassador from China posted to Malaysia, he will pay a visit to the family of Tun Razak who was the first Malaysian prime minister to normalise diplomatic relationship with China some 50 years ago.

The way I see it, if Iran and Israel take the warpath, the Americans will commit to join the war in the Middle East, and if the Americans are bogged down in the Middle East, China will take the opportunity to establish itself as the hegemon of the South China Sea.

Taking that into consideration, why should we behave in a way that will likely cause China to take umbrage against us – just because we want to lash out against each other.

After all, the Overseas Chinese which is the category that our local Chinese belong to, and the Communist Chinese or the Mainland Chinese are not only different from each other but they might also be antagonistic towards each other. – Focus Malaysia

Nehru Sathiamoorthy is a roving tutor who loves politics, philosophy and psychology.

The views expressed are solely of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of  MMKtT.

- Focus Malaysia.