National unity, tribalism and proxy wars

Penang Deputy Chief Minister II P Ramasamy is now reportedly being investigated for alleged links to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

I’ve disagreed with many of Ramasamy’s positions over the years, and as previously mentioned, I feel that both the LTTE and the Sri Lankan government committed very comparable levels of deplorable atrocities and severe human rights violations in the course of the civil war.

Certainly, I am not a big fan of any of the above.

That said, the timing of this investigation into Ramasamy is odd, to say the very least.

For almost all means and purposes, the formal civil war in Sri Lanka has long ended, and the LTTE is gone.

Thus, what would the rationale be of investigating Ramasamy now?

If Ramasamy was hypothetically an avid supporter of the LTTE back in its heyday, there may be the slightest inkling of a reason to investigate him; but even on that basis, the argument by Ramasamy and his supporters that every avid supporter of Hamas in Malaysia should be similarly investigated would be valid.

The circumstances of the situation make it all too clear that these sudden reports against Ramasamy were made as a response to his virulent calls for preacher Zakir Naik to be extradited back to India.

I have already written two articles essentially saying that most of the arguments for deporting Zakir (photo) do not necessarily withstand close scrutiny, especially if we take the time to go through Zakir’s videos at length.

All in all, it might even be true that Ramasamy was a bigger fan of the now defunct LTTE than Zakir is of any actual Islamic terrorist group. (Any debate on this view is most welcome, as long as it is backed by video evidence with sufficient context).

Ultimately though, what does any of this have to do with anything?

Just because some of us may disagree with Ramasamy and/or dislike his methods or approaches, there’s no justification whatsoever for pulling semi-imaginary skeletons out of the closet that have little or no present relevance as a means to persecute him.

Proxy wars

This is symptomatic of the manner in which international conflicts often seem to ‘intrude’ into local communal relations.

Many Malaysians have some sort of pet international cause. Some Tamils have (or had) the LTTE, some Muslims have Palestine, some Christians have Israel, and so on and so on.

I’d be surprised if any of us have never been forwarded one of those ridiculously Islamophobic messages on WhatsApp, or something equally ridiculously anti-Christian, and so on.

We obviously all have every right to have our sympathies for those with whom we share some identity in common who live abroad, but sometimes it’s a little sad that we ‘care’ more about people so far away, than we do for our neighbours who are every bit as human as anyone else.

Organisations like LTTE and Hamas are very similar in the manner in which they were or are funded by international sources.

Raising money for these organisations, like any other fundraising, often relies on creating a certain emotional connection and appeal.

To do so, these organisations create and sell a one-sided narrative of a brutally oppressed minority fighting against a mighty state, and flood us with images of children burnt to death by the ‘enemy’ and such.

These manipulate and exacerbate black and white, us versus them thinking, and generate vast amounts of anger while obscuring the fact that in war, almost no combatant is completely innocent.

It’s true that some organisations are, well, slightly more terrorist than others, but this whole business divides us and stokes tribalist thinking, all while ignoring the nuanced horrors of war on every side.

All the while, we shouldn’t be surprised if a big chunk of the money that is raised for these conflicts end up lining certain pockets - in a similar way, say, as how 1MDB money has lined the pockets of so many.

The horse’s mouth

As we transition from the old to the celebrated new Malaysia and consider our newfound place in the world, we ourselves should look to throw out the practice of tribalism by proxy.

It is fair for various quarters to debate the status of Zakir Naik, as it is a relevant and open question.

In doing so, we benefit by focusing on the matter at hand, and lose by starting to bring in all sorts of issues or attacks that are less than relevant.

In doing the latter, we are merely replicating the larger Hindu vs Muslim conflict of the Indian subcontinent, some of us perhaps revelling, imaging themselves as self-made generals entering that big battlefield - all the while poisoning our own well of national unity, here in our actual homeland.

If we want to know whether Zakir deserves to be extradited, or whether he supports terrorism and such, we could very well start by asking him.

Of course, I don’t mean this in the same way US President Donald Trump asked Russian President Vladimir Putin whether he meddled in the last US elections or not - that’s some Manchurian level surrealism at play there.

What I mean is that we should hear from the horse’s mouth - both in the present and in doing a detailed examination of Zakir’s past speeches.

Both those who support and object to Zakir would do better to take this approach - assuming language is not a barrier, and they are basing their defence on actually having listened to what he has said, rather than blindly supporting or attacking him on a tribalist basis, fuelled by headlines and soundbites.

Real human connections

That’s the way forward in a mature democracy, not flooding the police with spurious police reports that are barely relevant to the present day and age.

The police, for their part, should strive towards a much higher standard of objectivity and neutrality (they should certainly be expected to surpass the previous standard, at the very least, which can’t possibly be hard to do), and not waste time and resources on nonsense when there are real crimes being committed out there.

It’s more than fair to care about what’s going on in the world out there, but it’s much better to care and form opinions based on facts, and the understanding that there are always at least two sides to every story.

For anyone who has bothered to read this far, I’m probably preaching to the choir, but let’s try to do our part in encouraging people not to fall for every single forwarded message we see, hook, line and sinker.

Our Malaysia won’t be truly new until we stop being manipulated by those exploiting far away conflicts for their own gain, and start trusting in the basic human goodness that we can see with our own eyes in the very people who live right next to us, whatever their creed or colour.

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NATHANIEL TAN is curious about the portfolio of National Unity and Social Wellbeing. He can be reached at nat@renyi.net - Mkini