Merdeka - for who and from what exactly?

“A [national] flag has no real significance for peaceful uses.”

- HG Wells, ‘The World of William Clissold Vol 2’

Around this time, I usually write an article – obligatory in nature – about the upcoming Merdeka festivities. Let us be honest. At the best of times, our sense of community - “community” mind you, not “patriotism” - was superficial at best. The Rukunegara is a sham. The social contract a long con and the 1Malaysia and Bangsa Malaysia propaganda has done more damage to any sense of belonging in this country.

Last year I wrote of how those two minutes to midnight has stretched on and on – “For many people in Malaysia, those two minutes have stretched to decades and they are still standing in the darkness while those who formed the government stepped into the light. The brutal fact is that Umno cannot be blamed for all of it. The reality is that we contributed to the darkness. Maybe being Malaysian means coming to terms with the fact that we created this country.”

I read about that veteran Tamil Malar journalist who was assaulted for allegedly writing “pro-opposition” pieces and maligning BN and MIC leaders. I thought about how it would make a perfect ad for the upcoming Merdeka sham. We really need a Merdeka ad that highlights, among others, the political violence carried out by minorities in this country against their own and how far minorities have come in defending trespasses by the Umno/BN state.

I saw this ad for an upcoming television special where a Malay doctor admonishes those around him that there is no “Malay”, “Chinese” or “Indian” blood and thought that propaganda such as these merely adds salt to the racial and religious wounds of this country. We are constitutionally separated by blood.

Why are there meetings between an Islamic political party like PAS and state-level Catholic leaders to discuss legal issues that disenfranchise the non-Muslim communities? Muslim leaders like to say that everyone is “ignorant” about their religion and their religious agendas but the reality is that every time misguided religious people meet, all they are doing is giving legitimacy to extremist ideologies and presenting a facade of religious and cultural harmony in a country where the state religion has been weaponised against minorities.

Can anyone seriously make the claim that “religion leads to harmony” like the PAS political operative claimed? This kind of statement would not stand up to any kind of scrutiny. In this country, you can make such an illogical claim and if you argue against it, you would not receive any backing from the rational vanguard because there is no rational vanguard.

These days the opposition has to defend “Malay” supremacy – even if it is by omission – because it has aligned itself with the former prime minister and his time-tested populist strategies of securing the Malay vote. Establishment propagandists tell me that there has been more collateral damage in this “Malay” war because opposition Malay politicians have a wealth of experience to draw from and the real fear amongst Umno potentates is that more money would be needed upfront to assure sympathy from the needed bases in the upcoming election.

War of perception

This, and the fear of sabotage from the “enemies” within, has resulted in an extremely disjointed propaganda offensive against Bersatu and the opposition. This is why there have been calls by the top brass to unite not only as a race but also as a political party facing a possible reckoning. 

This “war of perception” as the current Umno grand poohbah has called it, has not reached its real potential, which is an actual war of class, race and religious schisms which is the logical outcome of the twisted immigration policies and racial engineering programmes that the Umno regime has been carrying out for decades.

Hence, the only way change will happen in this country is if the Malay establishment vote is destabilised in the Peninsular and the main problem is that conventional political wisdom advocates that only money politics can destabilise the Malay vote.

This is why Malay oppositional political operatives are telling folks to take the Umno money and vote Bersatu and that there is no way the state can discover how you vote. Mainstream Malaysian politics is either about radicalisation or sustaining racial and religious hegemony.

“The terrain has changed for Umno. If they win this election, they would have done it by radicalising the Malay community. If they lose this election, it would be a sign that the majority of the Malay community rejects the Islam that Umno advocates and whoever is in charge would have to redefine Muslim rule in Malaysia.”

Some folks have asked me why I did not write about the latest comments by PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang. The reason is simple. Everything he said was true. Hadi merely articulated a reality that nobody wants to acknowledge.

Why would anyone get upset over Hadi’s statement that only Muslims can lead? This is already the reality. Non-Muslim appointment in public service is tokenism - a fig leaf to hide the fact that the Islamists and “Ketuanan” cabals are leading this country and the dominant ideology is one of racial and religious supremacy.

All this rhetoric about Merdeka and about how wonderful our country could be if only we all got along is pointless. The non-Malays in this country are only enablers or co-conspirators to a greater national narrative because there has never been any serious attempt to create a counter-narrative.

Perhaps there is no point celebrating Merdeka or wondering why people have no desire to hoist the national flag. It is not that we have not achieved independence. The sad fact is that we have not earned it.

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