Malaysian activist in exile says govt plays 'race card'

If Najib wants to propagate One Malaysia, he has to make it very clear what One Malaysia stands for. Just to have it as a slogan, One Malaysia, but the implementation and all those other issues are opposed to One Malaysia. Even Dr Mahathir, ex-prime minister, said he does not understand what is One Malaysia, and of course he was being cheeky. But if you ask any Malaysian on the street what is One Malaysia, they can't define it.

NO HOLDS BARRED

Sem Lam, Radio Australia

He is known as Malaysia's Julian Assange, a whistle-blower seen by the establishment as a trouble-maker.

Raja Petra Kamarudin has long been an advocate of accountable government through his online news blog, Malaysia Today.

He's been detained under Malaysia's controversial and feared Internal Security Act - the I.S.A.

Indeed, he has so many police reports filed against him that these days, Raja Petra lives in exile in Britain.

Raja Petra is also chairman of the Malaysian Civil Liberties Movement.

He'll speak next week at the Australian National University in Canberra.

Raja Petra says that both sides of Malaysian politics are still playing the sensitive race card.

Presenter: Sen Lam
Speaker: Raja Petra Kamarudin, activist and founder of news blog, Malaysia Today

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KAMARUDIN: Race or rather racism and the use of religion for political reasons. I think this is the two most dangerous issues, if I would describe it as that. And it appears that both sides of the political divide, whether it's pro-government, anti-government, they're both playing race and religion in their politics. Race and religion even each by itself is very potent, when you combine both I think we have got ingredients of a very explosive situation. And it appears the situation is getting worse.

LAM: Do you include in this your former party Keadilan, the party that's currently led by Anwar Ibrahim, the Keadilan also plays the race card?

KAMARUDIN: Well look at what happened in East Malaysia, North Borneo, Sabah and Sarawak, where they wanted to put Muslims as the head of the state, and the Muslims are the minority and the Christians or the non-Muslims are the majority there, but yet they wanted to put a Muslim as head of the state because they do not want to open themselves to criticism from UMNO, which claims to be the largest Muslim party in the world. And again PAS, which is a Muslim party in alliance with PKR. So everyone is trying to outdo each other to show that they're more Muslim or more Islam than the other guy.

LAM: And of course the key components in the ruling Barisan Nasional, the BN coalition that currently rules Malaysia federally, that is also divided very much along racial lines. Why do Malaysians accept that?

KAMARUDIN: Well UMNO has made it very clear that Malaysia is a country that belong to the Malays, so only the Malays can rule. But the non-Malays are welcome to rule in coalition with the Malays, but it's the Malays who have to lead the government. That has been challenged many years ago and the result was race riots. So UMNO is constantly reminding the non-Malays, in particular the Chinese, what happened in 1969.

LAM: But isn't 1969 also caused by the fact that the Malays felt that they did not have a fair share of the economic pie? After over four decades of pro-Bumiputra affirmative new economic policies favouring the Malays, why is this still currently an issue in Malaysia?

KAMARUDIN: I suppose it's convenient boogey man. The non-Malays, the Chinese in particular have never forgotten what happened in 1969, and they still fear it. And every time the Chinese get out of line or appear to be more slanted towards opposition, they're reminded about what happened the last time you tried this in 1969. And it appears to work in many by-elections, whenever there's a Chinese majority, the Chinese are threatened with the possibility of another race riot if the ruling party was to lose power.

LAM: Well many people are referring to the organisation that you're heading, the Malaysian Civil Liberties Movement, the MCLM, they're referring to it as a possible third force. Do you see MCLM entering Malaysian politics?

KAMARUDIN: We have said it many times that we are not a political party and we do not wish to contest the elections. What we wish to do is to offer candidates to contest under their party. If you remember the opposition lost one state, Perak, not long after the elections, and the reason they lost this state was because the elected representatives from the opposition jumped ship. Pakatan won it, UMNO pulled it back by buying off some of their representatives. And they've lost I think all in all about seven representatives who have jumped ship, joined the ruling party. And we say why does this happen? I mean here we are fighting so hard to campaign in the elections and to ensure that these people get elected, and when they get elected they just move, cross over to the other side. So we say, why don't we give you fresh candidates, candidates who are not tainted, who do not have any attachments with UMNO, I will offer you these candidates in the event you have a problem finding good candidates, so we'll assist you by finding candidates. So what we are doing is just responding to the complaints or to the excuses that the opposition, in particular PKR has been giving us. It's not that we want to contest the elections.

LAM: What do you think it will take for Malaysia to move beyond race-based politics?

KAMARUDIN: I was asked that by the mainstream media, the Straits Times, which is a government-owned newspaper in Malaysia. What would you do if you were the prime minister to end racism in Malaysia? Well I said the first thing I would do if I become prime minister will be I will probably ban same race marriages, you can't marry within your same race. It was tongue in cheek actually, but the point is when people in Malaysia, when Malaysians still think of them as Indians and Chinese and Malays first, and as Malaysians second, we'll never end this racism problem. Now why does the government perpetuate this? For instance if you fill in a form, you're supposed to fill in your race. And they insist that you fill in your race. So either you're a Malay, or a Chinese, or an Indian, or you're one of the other minorities. And you're supposed to also fill in your religion. So we are compartmentalised and we are labelled according to our race and religion. Everybody, especially of our generation, those in their 50s and 60s, we always talk about the Malaysia of maybe the 1950s and the 1960s before 1969, Malaysia then was so different. But somehow today we've evolved into a nation that's very conscious about what race and what religion you are. It's good to have cultures and customs and language, but when that becomes your political fight, that becomes the issue, your cause, certainly everyone will withdraw into their own community and say yes, I will fight for my own community. If Najib wants to propagate One Malaysia, he has to make it very clear what One Malaysia stands for. Just to have it as a slogan, One Malaysia, but the implementation and all those other issues are opposed to One Malaysia. Even Dr Mahathir, ex-prime minister, said he does not understand what is One Malaysia, and of course he was being cheeky. But if you ask any Malaysian on the street what is One Malaysia, they can't define it.