The Rukunegara is nothing more than a placebo

“When people get used to preferential treatment, equal treatment seems like discrimination.”

- Thomas Sowell

What if you had no belief in God?

What if you never met the Agong and only had a myopic class-based view of what your country is?

What if you have never read the constitution but knew that our elected representatives, judiciary and security apparatus only upheld the constitution when it suited their interests?

What if the rule of law meant only the rule of a political party?

What if good behaviour and morality was merely a code for hypocrisy?

How does the Rukunegara awaken us from our slumber? In addition, have Malaysians really been sleepwalking all these years? I do not think so. I think we made a conscious decision to allow our democracy to decay and our rights to be subsumed beneath whatever racial or religious preoccupation we thought needed tending to.

At this point, is there anyone I have not publicly disagreed with? Perhaps this is a failing on my part. I will say this, although I found myself disagreeing more often than not with Dr Chandra Muzaffar, this time I honestly believe that he and the Constitutional Preamble (Rukunegara Muqaddimah Perlembagaan or RMP) initiative are sincere in their beliefs and efforts. Unfortunately, they are promulgating a placebo.

Having said that, the real issue here is not about the non-Muslims/Malays but rather the process in which Islam has become a hegemonic tool to control a polity that in the end determines electoral victory.

A couple of months ago, when discussing how “tolerant” Malaysians are, I wrote - “This has never been about a government of equals. This has always been about creating a monolithic community under the yoke of Umno. Always remember what the Pahang mufti said after he backtracked from his ‘genocide’ comment - ‘We are not forcing but I urge non-Muslims to convert to Islam to be safe in the afterlife and for unity in Malaysia. There will be no more chaos and we can focus on development’ - which is the canard that Muslims shove down one another’s throats in attempt at solidarity.”

The key here is Chandra’s contention that there were attempts to redefine Islam. I would go further. Any attempt to redefine Islam is part of the agenda to redefine culture. Another Malaysiakini columnist, Mariam Mokhtar, states it plainly when she writes - “Students returning from the Middle East have introduced aspects of the Arabic way of life which have seemingly corrupted the Malay culture. Gone are our wayang kulits, our jogets, our bajus, our ‘pagan’ rituals, which were allegedly steeped in Hinduism, which the Malays practised long before they embraced Islam. A woman who speaks her mind is deemed a liberal, a feminist, and someone who ‘does not know her religion’.”

Add to this the agenda of the Umno hegemon over the decades to redefine culture and religion. What we are left with is a community defined by a Saudi religious cult which the Saudi regime has admitted they supported as part of a cold war stratagem and now are attempting to rectify the disastrous effects this pernicious dogma has on their society.

Living harmoniously under unequal laws

I really wish that the Rukuegara compromised the interests of the Malays and the bumiputera because as I have written many times, the hegemonic interests of Umno and the apathy of the non-Malay community compromised the diversity of the Malay community a long time ago.

When former chief justice Abdul Hamid Mohamad worries that the Rukunegara would compromise the sanctity of “Universiti Teknologi Mara's policy of admitting bumiputera students only...”, we are witness to the explicit forms of discrimination that are camouflaged under the compromises which are the social contract and Rukunegara.

I have publicly mocked Islamists and Malay nationalists - is there a difference? -  who look with disdain at “Western” values, liberalism, feminism and the host of other Western “diseases” that infect their pure Malay/Muslim body politic, but how do you think a rational person would respond to University Teknology Mara’s bumiputera-only policy.

What if a Western institution of higher learning admitted students from only a specific race or religion? What if Muslims were exempted because of their religion from certain publicly-funded institutions? Can you imagine the outrage this would generate? Can you imagine the cries of hypocrisy by Muslims the world over?

Apropos everything, I really despise it when the term “bumiputera” is thrown about by establishment personalities and hanger-ons because the horrendous treatment meted out to the indigenous peoples of Malaysia is exhibit no 1 - that “Malay” trumps any other rights guaranteed in the constitution.

Of course, nobody wants to discuss the real issues. I lamented this sad fact in another piece - “Except for certain obscure academic discussion, mainstream political pundits have no desire to confront the issue of race in a meaningful way. Part of this is because of the Manichaean nature of identity politics.”

When former cabinet minister Rais Yatim claims, “It sounds nice, but it will not necessarily be the best for us", no prizes as to who he means by “us”. As far as politics in Malaysia is concerned, it is all about the “us” versus “them”. This of course is normal in partisan politics but when it comes to official policy and ideology, this is where the ship sinks.

Arguing over the efficacy of the Rukunegara is pointless because ultimately it is meaningless. The post-1969 Malaysian political landscape was forever altered through a regime of social engineering and deliberate governmental policy. 

Chandra believes that “all rational thinking Malaysians would appreciate the imperative need for a platform that could bring all Malaysians together.” However, the Rukunegara is not that platform. What those platforms are supposed to be are institutions like the judiciary, an independent security apparatus and democratic principles such as free speech and assembly.

The most important platform that is supposed to bring us all together is the constitution of the country. The major caveat is that we must all be equal under the constitution. If we were all equal under the law, then the government has no need to meddle in how we define ourselves as a nation.

There would be no need for governmental propaganda initiatives that claim we should live harmoniously under unequal laws. There will be no need for Malaysians to be constantly reminded of the supremacy of one community and that that gratitude should be an essential component of non-Malay identity.

Since this is not the case in Malaysia and we are always attempting to cure the symptoms instead of the disease, it is pointless handing out placebos because ultimately they do nothing to even alleviate the symptoms.

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S THAYAPARAN is Commander (Rtd) of the Royal Malaysian Navy.- Mkini