Najib’s real message to Trump – bigotry works in Malaysia

“In a March 9, 2016, interview on CNN, Trump said ‘Islam hates us.’ When pressed a day later if he meant all Muslims, Trump said ‘I mean a lot of them.’”

– Politifact

One of the questions I am asked (with a zeal that says more about the person asking the question than any answer I could give) these days, is why have I not written anything on the run-up to the Trump/Najib summit? The boring answer is that I have no real interest in the meeting between these two scions who continue their family tradition of hoodwinking a gullible public.

Claiming that this really isn't an "official" visit sounds rather petty considering the fact that as far as official protocols go, this particular Potus (President of the United States) has demonstrated as much disdain for them as he has conventionality and rule of law. No, this is as official as it gets - a meeting between two charlatans mired in scandals.

I mean really, the “we have always been a seafaring, trading nation, going back centuries” is the kind of horse manure that would fool only the most egotistical not to mention ignorant of individuals, which I suppose the current occupant of the White House is. By “we”, does the current Umno grand poohbah mean “Bugis” or the “real” Malays I keep reading about?

Detractors of this meeting (in the US and Malaysia) are deluding themselves if they think that this meeting embarrasses either Najib or the Potus. The reality is that Najib is exactly the kind of moderate Muslim head of state that the Langley establishment props up because the alternative; the freewheeling, stoning, hand and head chopping Luddites (when it suits their agenda) are difficult to work with although they still prop them up. Just ask Saudi Arabia.

Moreover, while everyone has weighed in on the similarities between the two, Najib is in fact the embodiment of everything the Potus wishes he could do. Most times, the Potus is savaged in the so-called liberal elite media for coddling white nationalists, Christian extremists and the rest of the fringe right that unfortunately is his base. Please make the distinction between people who thought that he would honestly drain the swamp and those cretins who behave as if they should be left in a swamp.

Najib, of course, has no such impediments. The “ketuanan” ideology is mainstream in Malaysia. The state and the institutions of the state is testament to that fact. The opposition political strategy and agenda is testament to this reality. In other words, Najib’s real message to Trump is that racism and religious bigotry works.

It works so well that the opposition dares not come up with a counter narrative or ideology, fearing they would lose the majority Malay/bumiputera vote. It works so well that opposition supporters demonise personalities who advocate a fair and just society as “idealists” or worse, sub rosa rabble-rousers for the Umno establishment.

It works so well that Umno establishment personalities or proxies get to demonise entire communities and they suffer no sanction from the state. It works so well that there are numerous examples of the state security apparatus abstaining from carrying out the edicts of civil courts because it contravenes syariah rulings.

It works so well that the state refuses to acknowledge that there are thousands of stateless citizens in this country but hands out citizenship like confetti to Muslims, those pretending to be “Muslims” and other “immigrants” to bolster the Malay/Muslim demographic that apparently holds the keys to power.

It works so well that the hopes of some people who claim that Malaysia is an apartheid state lay in the hands of a race-based political party led by the man who these same folks claim is the architect of this state of apartheid. It works so well that non-Malays/Muslims dare not advocate and censure any non-Malays who advocates that a non-Malay/Muslim can aspire to the highest office in the land.

Trumpspeak

Most importantly, it works so well, that no less than the Pennsylvania State University’s Wharton School (apparently Trump is an alumnus, although in Trumpspeak, he was their “top student”) claims that Malaysia is "one of the best countries to invest in”. Since there has never been a counter narrative to latch onto, the US has historically found it difficult to throw their support to oppositional voices in this country with any serious conviction without having the need to explain to the people exactly how the opposition differs from the ruling establishment.

When Najib claim’s this - “We have fought Daesh through the promotion of moderation, and through a deradicalisation programme that has had a 90 percent success rate”, my response can be read here – “With all the propaganda spewed against non-Muslims, we have been lucky that external forces have far more insidious designs that merely slaughtering non-Muslims in this region. These designs target Muslims and are about a specific Islamic ideology and a war against Islamic plurality.”

This issue goes deeper than taking potshots at the Umno establishment and the opposition, although both have played a part in why it works so well. Consider that “some Muslims take great pride in those acts of barbarity. Some Muslims I have talked to - not necessarily politicians - approve of how Islam is promulgated in this country and are supportive of those they claim to know what is best for Islam and Muslims in this country.”

While Najib says “we are a mix of ethnicities and faiths who celebrate our cultures while being united as proud Malaysians, just as every American is stirred by the sight of the stars and stripes”, the reality is that the kind of Islam practiced in Malaysia is the kind of Islam that Americans stirred by the stars and stripes would find anathema.

They may find it anathema but they sure would not mind visiting. This, after all, is not Saudi Arabia or at least for the time being not the kind of “Islamic” state that PAS and the Islamists in Putrajaya envision. This is still the functional Islamic state where one set of rules apply to the Muslim political elites, while the rest of the Muslim polity is subjected to a harsher mandate and the non-Muslim population is the fig leaf for democracy. More importantly, they do not have to worry about witnessing stonings, chopping of limbs or the occasional beheadings.

I mean what are the regional issues (economic or security) that these two politically and intellectual unsavoury characters can talk about which has not already been determined by the real powerbrokers in Washington and the machinations of the boys from Langley?

This meet-up is merely window dressing for Trump to demonstrate that with all his anti-Muslim policies there will always be willing Muslim potentates who would seek an audience because they understand that his hypocrisy reflects their own.

In other words, nothing to see here.

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