Merdeka after May 9

“Men fear thought as they fear nothing else on earth – more than ruin, more even than death. Thought is subversive and revolutionary, destructive and terrible, thought is merciless to privilege, established institutions, and comfortable habits; thought is anarchic and lawless, indifferent to authority, careless of the well-tried wisdom of the ages. Thought looks into the pit of hell and is not afraid... Thought is great and swift and free, the light of the world, and the chief glory of man.”
― Bertrand Russell, Why Men Fight

For the record, when Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad wonders if the Malays can compete with Chinese nationals, it is complete horse manure. The Chinese community, foreign or domestic, is always portrayed as the existential threat to the Malay community.

The reality is that the threat to the Malay community has always been the foreign nationals from the Indian subcontinent and the purveyors of Arab culture from the Middle East, who have distorted whatever culture the community had.

If anything, the local Chinese have to recalibrate themselves if they wish to compete with their brethren from the motherland. If it is anything like how local Indians have to compete with their countrymen, then it is us ‘pendatang’ are the ones who have cause to worry.

This bumiputera ecosystem has made us feeble. The cultures that sustained us all those years, when we built the foundation of this country, were slowly lost in the delirium of perceived political emancipation within a rigged game with shifty players.

This year, anecdotally speaking, many people – friends, strangers, those who like what I write, and those who despise what I write – are telling me that this is the first time they are happily hoisting the flag for Merdeka.

I understand why some folks would be excited about this year’s Merdeka celebrations. A new government and the fact that democracy works in this country is something to be excited about.

The younger generation is especially enthusiastic because they had regime change in their lifetime and it seemed so easy. It is not a perfect new government, but I understand the sentiment.

Writing about Merdeka during the Umno regime was more often than not an act of defiance. Before Najib Abdul Razak sent BN to the can and rejected the old maverick Mahathir’s hand of friendship, when people supported the old regime and proudly celebrated Merdeka every year, there was this sense that we were living in a great country.

People may think that strange, but when BN was winning big and folks were disparaging the opposition, I remember talking to this old DAP hand – who has since left the political game – and he was wondering, sadly, if people really cared about this country. I told him that they do, it’s just that life is good. But sooner or later, things will change. Things always change.

I remember how he and his wife talked about the day when BN would be denied their two-thirds majority. In those days, that was all the opposition could hope for. This was way before I started writing. Then Reformasi happened.

I am not one to buy into the whole revisionist thing going on now. When Anwar Ibrahim was cast out of the Umno paradise and took to the streets, something changed. Maybe some readers are too young to understand this, but there was this sense that something had to give. Whatever you may think of Anwar now, back in the early days, he was the first to galvanise the Malay polity, and then the non-Malay community.

It was not because Anwar said the right things and made the requisite mea culpas that bothered my friends from the Special Branch; it was that his narrative did not change. They were always trying to trap him – prove that he was a charlatan; a fake messiah before the idea of fake news made it impossible to hold a constructive discussion.

I remember when my PAS comrades invited me to their rallies. At first, I demurred, because back in the day I had written a position paper that said the next faultline in mainstream Malay politics was the sundering of the Umno base, which would make May 13 look like a Christmas party. Never have I been so happy to be so wrong.

I relented, and was soon walking with the rest of the malcontents who thought that Umno’s time was up. Mind you, in those days, it was a largely Malay affair. So this idea that the Malays do not understand what Umno was doing is a sort of politically correct fairy tale that only took root much later on.

Then the opposition formalised its alliance a couple of times. And then, of course, Mahathir happened. Bersih took place in the meantime, and as usual, I found myself walking the streets, collecting anecdotes and publishing them in Malaysiakini.

Earning independence

As the years dragged on, some of the old-timers were beginning to wonder if change was even possible.

My long-time DAP friend, a Chinese educationist by trade and a patriot by inclination, decided that he had enough, and chose to be just an ordinary voter. “Do not like the politics, Thaya, but will vote because there is no choice,” he said, giving in to that terrible, perhaps false notion of there being no choice.

Sadly, he did not get the chance cast his vote that would see his beloved, if compromised, opposition take Putrajaya. He passed away a few months before the crucial vote, still believing that the Malaysia he loved was worth saving.

Neither would my great friend and moral compass, Bernard Khoo. He spent his life fighting the right fight – even if he sometimes vehemently disagreed with my positions – but also passed away before the polls, still believing that Malaysia was worth saving.

Last year, when I wrote about the forthcoming Merdeka celebrations, I said this – “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.”

If we do not speak truth to power, if we make excuses for the political elite out of partisan fervour, it would have all been for nothing. If anything, this year’s Merdeka reminds me that we have still not earned independence.

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