Between substance and formality: Slippers, the dock, and Icerd

In the hustle and bustle of the news cycle, it’s sometimes easy to start missing the difference between small things that don’t matter, and big things that do.

I was quite tickled to read S Arutchelvan’s call for slipper users to unite. I personally am all for it. I rather dislike wearing shoes, and if I had my little way, I’d wear slippers (and eat peaches) every day.

That said, I fully agree with Transport Minister Anthony Loke (who, like Arutchelvan, I admire), who said that the issue of footwear was not what was important.

In the incident involving Dewan Negara President SA Vigneswaran, the part that bothered me personally the most was this: 

“Also present at the press conference was KLIA customer experience personnel Norafiza Mohd Nasir, who had been on duty at the VIP lounge that night.

"She claimed Vigneswaran had raised his voice at her when she showed him a government circular stating the dress code.

“He arrived (at the lounge) and argued why he was not allowed inside. I told him he could use the VIP lounge, but was not allowed to the (departure) gate because he was not wearing shoes.

“...He was not satisfied and became angry, he asked ‘where does it say in the circular that you can’t wear slippers’.

“...When he held the circular, he threw it and walked off while mouthing some other comments'."

Double standards

This loutish behaviour called to mind similar actions by former prime minister Najib Razak, who recently refused to take his proper place as the accused in the court dock, despite being asked repeatedly by court police to do so.

These acts of arrogant privilege and double standards are an affront.

My personal experience somewhat combines elements of these two incidents. 

When I was brought to my remand hearing many years ago, I was allowed neither shoes nor slippers, and faced the magistrate barefoot, in my orange lockup t-shirt.

I was far from the only one, and I wonder just how much Najib would have enjoyed the type of treatment normal Malaysian detainees get when they disobey the police.

If such men still truly think they are above the law, and that different standards should apply to them, then I think esteemed fellow columnist Mariam Mokhtar put it best when she said they are in for a "rude awakening."

I feel quite strongly that we should not persecute some sort of unbridled agenda of vengeance against the previous administration.

Reform and revenge are two very different things, and the new government would hardly be better than its predecessor if it set off on a frolic of political retribution.

Any persecution should be done strictly according to the letter of the law, and backed meticulously by solid evidence.

Saying that members of the previous administration deserve all their due rights under the law means that and only that. There is obviously no universe in which they should be given a pass to treat every road like it belonged to their grandfathers.

If the testimony of the KLIA officer is true, then Vigneswaran’s behaviour is particularly odious.

There is nothing more despicable than some big-headed politician throwing his weight around like a gangster and bullying those he deems ‘beneath him’.

Those days are over my friend, wake up and smell the thosai.

An education of substance

What one wears on one’s feet is a question of form. How one treats others is a question of substance.

We can only hope that future Malaysians place more emphasis on substance than form.

The Education Ministry recently announced that Civics and Citizenship Education (CCE)will be introduced as a subject.

Such a subject does indeed have a lot of potential to fill in a lot of important knowledge gaps and create a sense of Malaysianness among young students.

Reading about plans to have sections of a 'good values manual' read out every two weeks at a school assembly, however, raises some concerns that the emphasis will again be on form rather than substance.

Anyone who has had sufficient experience with students and school assemblies should know that most young minds will turn off within two sentences of being forced to listen to a ‘manual’ being read out.

That does not seem to be the most effective way to truly inculcate integrity in young Malaysians – a little too on the nose, as it were.

National unity post-Icerd

The debate surrounding the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (Icerd) may also be a question of substance over form.

Firstly, the writing seems to be on the wall that plans to accede to the Icerd are dead in the water, especially with latest comments from Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamadand PKR president Anwar Ibrahim.

I think the reasons for their statements are obvious, and are informed by political considerations.

Simply put, politically, there is too little to gain, and too much to lose, by pursuing ratification of Icerd.

It would be one thing if accession to the Icerd automatically meant instantaneously improved race relations.

Ultimately, not only does it not achieve that, it may achieve the exact opposite – especially in the short term.

Some aspirations are more symbolic in nature, or open the door towards more symbolic process (activist Yu Ren Chung, who may not agree with me, wrote a very good piecedetailing some of these processes).

Accession would seem to be slightly more of a formality, and the substance of the Icerd appears to be one centred around discourse, international reviews and so on.

These things are not bad, but to some extent, accession might even be vaguely considered to be the equivalent of reading out a ‘good values manual’ at a school assembly.

As I’ve argued previously, even if we don’t accede to the Icerd anytime soon, there are many other ways to pursue more substantive bridge building in search of true national unity.

Naive though it may be, I personally hope that proponents of the Icerd will take the same energy they have used in pursuit of accession, and pour it into other more substantive ways to improve race relations in Malaysia.

In the meantime, I for one will stand with Arutchelvan in his call to unite slipper wearers.

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NATHANIEL TAN wonders if anyone will get the peachy reference. Along with his wife, he owns a pair of matching cat themed slippers. -Mkini