Fighting our own worst enemy

 

American forces fought alongside the Russians to vanquish the Nazis in the Second World War. Today, the Western world is united against Russia. And, Ukrainians have rallied behind a former TV comedian to repel the Russians.

Modern history has ample accounts of shifting alliances that fought a common enemy. Similar dynamics were at play on our homefront during the past week. The question is: who is our common enemy?

A ‘unity government’ is indeed historic. Perhaps oxymoronic, given our history of populist politicians manipulating race and religion to stay in power.

Celebrate, we will. Change has been a long time coming. But there are niggling questions. How governable is a coalition of former foes? Can a team of rivals willingly put aside their ideological and personality differences to govern for the greater good?

The knives will be drawn, eventually. We will see more of the same backstabbing… unless? Yes, unless we can defeat the enemy that lurks within our racialised mindset of resisting change.

Unless a ‘unity government’ raises true visionary leadership, somewhat akin to Abdurrahman Wahid - aka Gus Dur’s - reformasi aspirations, or Nelson Mandela’s and Martin Luther King Jr’s sacrifice for the greater good, we will be condemned by our own worst enemy.

Thanks to Google, a quote about leadership from Gus Dur is relevant here. On becoming Indonesia’s fourth president amid the political dealings in his cabinet in October 1999, he reportedly said: “There is no question of payback. We looked for the best people… (and) this is the best we could come up with.”

From Mandela, in an interview with Oprah in 2001: “A good leader can engage in a debate frankly and thoroughly, knowing that at the end, he and the other side must be closer, and thus emerge stronger. You don’t have that idea when you are arrogant, superficial and uninformed.”

Former South African president and anti-apartheid activist Nelson Mandela

From Martin Luther King Jr: “The ultimate measure of a man (leader) is not where he stands in moments of comfort, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.”

From Singapore’s late prime minister, Lee Kuan Yew: “To get good government, you must have good people in charge of government. I have observed in the last 40 years that even with a poor system of government, but with good strong people in charge, people get passable government with decent progress.”

“On the other hand, I have seen many ideal systems of government fail. Britain and France between them wrote over 80 Constitutions for their different colonies. Nothing wrong with the Constitution, with the institutions and the checks and the balances… but the leaders who inherited these Constitutions were not equal to the job, and their countries failed.” (Nov 1, 1994)

And this is from our 10th prime minister, who once noted in his book “Asian Renaissance” (1996) that the cultural and intellectual reawakening of Asians - and Malaysians - will begin to evolve only when the mind and intellect are free of internal insecurity and independent of external constraints.

Yes, as Anwar alluded, a capacity to convene, a conviction in change for the common good and a willingness to transcend race and religion are needed to govern effectively in the Malaysian environment.

Transcending race and religion

Who qualifies then as a reformist leader who can transcend race and religion? What new faces do we see in our unity government, fragile as it is?

It comes down to this: our leaders’ capacity to defeat the enemy that lurks deep in our racialised mindset. For instance, Umno’s racist remarks on Robert Kuok, after a blogger made unsubstantiated allegations against the Hong Kong-based Malaysian sugar tycoon in 2018.

Muhyiddin Yassin, Hishamuddin Hussein, and their ilk exposed their demons during the past week of challenges. We each have our own demons.

Unless Malaysians – and self-serving small-minded politicians – are willing to work alongside one another, and relegate the racist and religious zealots to irrelevance, we will fall apart within the next five years. This time into deep disrepair.

The ascendancy of PAS, now re-aligned with Perikatan Nasional in the opposition bench, has been a cause of consternation.

But in my understanding of scripture, one ought to live in peace and love one’s neighbour as oneself - Matthew 22:39.

Divine principles aside, what is more down to earth is this: we are screwed if deviant members of a ‘unity government’ start to renege and stealthily stoke the racial and religious insecurity of their base to regain their ‘past glory’.

If a ‘unity government’ cannot shake off the choking dust of the past, we will merely be shuffling a new deck of cards but dealing in the same old politics of privilege and special rights.

Instead, let this be our salute to unity: “Reformasi Forever.” - Mkini

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ERIC LOO is a former journalist and educator in Australia, and a journalism trainer in parts of Asia.

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of MMKtT.