Who are the true enemies of the Malays, Dr M?

 

Many Malaysians were angered and disgusted after a royal commission of inquiry (RCI) report revealed the sordid truth that Dr Mahathir Mohamad had acted unilaterally in giving up Batu Puteh to Singapore.

Mahathir, of course, deflected the issue by saying it was a unanimous and collective decision of the Cabinet, but the RCI report does not support his fairy tale. We Malaysians know what you did in your last premiership, dear Mahathir.

But true to form, even though he is now 99 years old, Mahathir fought back by gathering a force of Malay opposition leaders and declaring that the Malays will soon lose political power unless they deal with their “common enemy”.

Though he did not mention any specifics, I assume he was referring to Anwar Ibrahim and the non-Malays. To add more spice to his dish of good storytelling, he said the proof is that many Malay leaders will be charged in court.

This is a classic Mahathir attack.

In all my years of reading Mahathir, I have found that he does not defend. Instead, he goes on counter attacks. That’s why he is still the undisputed political master of the universe.

The late Raja Petra Kamarudin was right when he said that Mahathir is not only a tactician but also a street-fighter who never stays in a corner.

Mahathir would weave around the boxing ring and throw punch after punch until his enemy wears out or collapses in a daze; hence the usual nonsense of Malays losing political power, having a common enemy and, of course, the threat of Malay disunity.

In this article, I wish to elaborate that I agree with Mahathir that, yes, the Malays do have a common enemy.

Their first common enemy is likely the Malay political leaders like Mahathir and many other Umno Baru bigwigs, who often refer to the Malays as a weak race which can only be strong if they stand united.

For me, this is a tribal model of defence and an animal herding concept. I agree that the Malays were once weak in terms of the economy, education and political understanding, but that is not the case at present.

The Malays have shown themselves to be on par with any other race, and I am living proof of that, as are many others.

The Malay leaders who sell this Malays-are-weak narrative simply want to pool Malay votes to win elections. They have no interest in making the Malays strong.

Why would these Malay leaders do that? Weak Malays are the ones that keep the likes of Umno, PAS and Bersatu in Parliament, perhaps in perpetuity.

The second enemy of the Malays is blind loyalty. The Malays are not encouraged to think outside the box because, in terms of religion, we would be called “sesat” (lost); and, in terms of our ethnicity, we would be called treacherous.

We have leaders like Siti Mastura Muhammad and Razman Zakaria, both of PAS, making false accusations to create the narrative that the DAP and the Malaysian Chinese people are disloyal to the country and are also supporters of communism.

And we have leaders in Umno Baru like Dr Akmal Saleh who always talk in an aggressive, rude and disrespectful manner to the leaders of other races.

And yet these Malay figures have many followers.

The third enemy of the Malays is the blind teaching of religion. Anwar and I are Muslims, but we can see the great value of inclusiveness, humility and compassion across faith and cultures, and possess a critical view of knowledge inherited.

However, the Malays are taught by the likes of muftis and independent clerics who would discourage them to read on their own, think outside their classroom religious education, and simply embrace “taklid”, or belief, without question.

This is the worst enemy of the Malays. This enemy will forever dump the Malays in the pits of undeveloped civilisation. By becoming more and more stupid, the Malays will eventually cease to exist.

Finally, the fourth enemy is corruption. Malays seem to be taught by political leaders and political parties that corruption is okay and even “halal”.

What is the narrative among the Malays concerning corruption? Firstly, Malays think that it is always the fault of the bribe givers, who are mostly non-Malays.

The second narrative posits that when the Malays have a lot of money, then they can help many more Malays, donate to mosques and send the imams or village leaders to perform the umrah.

The Malays also think they deserve the money obtained from corruption because some of them died defending Malaysia, while the non-Malays apparently only reap the fruit of the labour of the Malays. It’s apparently okay that these non-Malays pay their “dues” to the civil service or security force, who are mostly Malays.

So, I agree with Mahathir that the Malays have a common enemy. - FMT

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