A reply to TK Chua

“The smart way to keep people passive and obedient is to strictly limit the spectrum of acceptable opinion, but allow very lively debate within that spectrum...”

- Noam Chomsky, The Common Good

I would like to thank TK Chua for commenting or maybe that should be alluding to my comment piece ‘Do non-Muslims never want to be PM’. I say, ‘Alluding’ because Chua alludes to a “writer has taken Guan Eng to task” and not specifically named me as said writer. When someone takes the time to write a letter, the least I could do is take the time to respond and the thing with me is that I never “allude”. I am write what I mean and always mean what I write.

I have to clear up a couple of points. For the record, I am familiar with Chua’s work in the letters section of Malaysiakini and specifically referenced one of his pieces in a piece of my own. In no particular order, here are some misconceptions that need clearing up from Chua’s letter.

(1) “...arguing that to accept such a proposition from PAS is to accept the ‘inferior’ position of non-Malays/Muslims, i.e. they will never truly be citizens in this country.”

This is incorrect. What I wrote was that we would never truly be citizens in this country if we accept the premise that numerous polls (which I think is voodoo) tell us that Malay community will never accept a Non Malay prime minster.

(2) “I think it is convenient to disagree with Guan Eng if one is idealistic and the ‘ivory tower’ type. After all, the notion of equality, fairness and meritocracy are always lurking in the minds of many.”

This again is incorrect. The notion of equality, fairness and meritocracy are not only lurking in the minds of many (including ‘ivory tower types’) but is supposedly the ideological foundation of the opposition and something which the opposition claims separates them from Umno/BN.

(3) “We know Guan Eng is not capitulating on behalf of the non-Muslims in general and the non-Muslims natives in Sabah and Sarawak in particular.”

I have no idea what “we know” but I never claimed that Guan Eng was capitulating on behalf of anyone. I claimed that any strategy that reinforces systemic inequalities, which may seem pragmatic in the short term, has disastrous long-term consequences.

(4) “Should we fight fire with fire or should we take the wind out of their sails by playing cool and innocent?”

This is not a question of fighting fire with fire. We live in a time when the hegemon determines what is sensitive and verboten. When I write defending the Christian community against the excesses of the state, am I fighting fire with fire? When I write about defending a Muslim in defining her own faith, am I fighting fire with fire?

(5) “Malay privileges and now a Muslim PM do not really guarantee anything.”

Malay privilege (which I have argued is futile) and a Muslim PM guarantees everything to a specific political base. This base is what the Malay establishment and the Malay opposition is fighting for. The fly in the ointment are the non-Muslim ‘bumiputra’ in Sabah and Sarawak and how they need to be assimilated in the hegemon.

Direct threat to racial and religious supremacy

The reality is that the constitution does state that only a ‘Muslim’ can be the prime minister. The proposal by PAS is an overt agenda by Islamic/Malay supremacist who would like to ensure that there will never be a non-Muslim prime minister because such a proposition is a direct threat to racial and religious supremacy. I do not think that non-Muslim power brokers should help them in this endeavour.

(6) The race or the religion of a PM can’t assure us he will do things favourable to his race or religion. It is his character and the governance standard he upholds.

Who is being an “idealist” now? If character and upholding standards were the criteria of a good leader, than the opposition and the establishment have nothing much to offer. What the opposition has to offer is the possibility of change and halting our slide into failed state status.

(7) “How then should non-Muslims, in particular the DAP, react to PAS’ proposition - by asserting that a non-Muslim has every right to become the PM of Malaysia?”

Yes. You do this by rightly claiming that PAS is anti-Malaysian, anti- constitution and by reaffirming the democratic process without continuing the narratives of Umno and every other supremacist group by claiming that non-Muslims do not want the privilege of serving the people of this country by leading it.

(8) “The issue really is not any Muslim becoming PM, but a ‘right’ Muslim”.

Do you realise how damaging this sounds? Who defines who a ‘right’ Muslim is? You do realise that this is exactly the propaganda that Umno and its outsourced thugs use against the opposition? This is exactly the narrative of the DAP using a Malay proxy to subvert Malay hegemony.

(9) “While PAS can demand that only a Muslim can become PM, others should not react negatively, but instead just focus on promoting and supporting a right Muslim to assume the highest post of the land.”

Who is this ‘right’ Muslim? Someone who believes in the separation of mosque and state? Or do you mean any Muslim in the opposition? How would we identify this ‘right’ Muslim? By his or her words? Deeds? Would a ‘right’ Muslim with power and influence in the opposition reject or support Abdul Hadi Awang’s bill, for example?

I do not think that you are defeatist, Chua, I think you speak for more people than I do. I think more Malaysians - Muslim and non-Muslim - are leaving this country because they do not want to make the choices that we have to make here. It is easier reconciling certain issues when you live in other countries where you enjoy greater rights and have access to more opportunities but you may never fit in as you would your place of birth.

What I hope to do in my articles is present the minority view in a cogent manner. What I want to do is offer alternative viewpoints in the echo chamber which unfortunately is the alternative press. In my own way I want to remind the opposition not to make the same mistakes that the hegemon has and to support principles and polices which I think will be good for this country.

We both want what is best for this country. We have different ideas as to how to achieve this. This does not make us idealists or defeatists. This makes us citizens of this country.

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