A powerful racial majority but still running scared

 

PART 2

I don’t wish to write a history book. History books in Malaysia are mostly fictional propaganda rubbish, anyway. But we are where we are, we know what we know, and we now know a lot.

All the reasonable ones among us want to lead a peaceful and productive life. We want our families to be happy and successful, and we want our country to be run reasonably cleanly and competently, and be left in a better shape for our children.

We’ll accept a certain amount of injustice and messiness in our lives: Malaysians are very pragmatic by nature. But many of us are getting very distressed with the increasing bigotry, hypocrisy and corruption of those who insist on telling, and increasingly forcing, us to do things their way.

These zealots have never had to answer the obvious question – why is it that they who have been “fighting” this battle to save the race and religion for decades and have taken upon themselves enormous power and wealth, still haven’t won this “battle” yet?

With such poor results, and assuming we accept their argument that their “enemies” are incredibly smart and cunning, shouldn’t we kick them out and look for others smarter and more capable, and more honest and less corrupt, to fight the battle?

Still running scared

Why is it today, where we Malays outnumber our “enemies” by at least two to one, control every single lever of power whether political, administrative, educational or military (and indirectly, business too), why are we still running scared of being “conquered”?

Why are we, the powerful majority, desperately fighting for the privileges and protection usually accorded to an endangered minority?

The current fad of describing political enemies as communists (a code word for “Chinese”) or stooges of the Jews (a code word for…Jews, and I guess Chinese too) is cynical, but also surprisingly effective, helping to push their Malay audience further into insecurity.

There are many Malays who are still poor, not well educated, unhealthy and fearful of the future. The answer of why this is so lies in the failure of the Malays for putting their faith in politicians who have no vision, apart from treating politics as a game where the winners take all.

But having many Malays poor and scared also makes them easily exploited for the only thing of value they have – their votes. For that the 3 Ds have to happen – the Malays must be kept Dumb, Docile and Delirious with fears of being overcomed. This is what the Malay politicians of late have focused on.

But what can we do?

In spite of all the powerful forces arrayed against us Malaysians, and given that the success of our future depends on us living and working together harmoniously, or at least not at each other’s throats all the time, is there anything we can do?

Let’s focus on what we can do ourselves and at our own volition and intensity, rather than just hoping somebody else would pick up the cudgel and miraculously win our battles for us. There’s absolutely no guarantee of success, but do something we must.

We absolutely must get to know each other better across the racial divides. We’ve lived together for decades, even centuries, and yet barely know each other, happy instead with convenient caricatures invented and propagated by the worst amongst us.

I’ll be happy to achieve the Malay saying “Tak kenal maka tak cinta” – you can’t love what you don’t know. And if love is too big a word, I’ll settle for respect and living and letting live.

It takes two hands to clap

With the focus so much on systemic political racism, we forget racism is not a Malay disease alone. Many Chinese and Indians see things through racial lenses too, even if they don’t have the megaphones of political power that magnify and amplify such racism.

At best there’s a wary acceptance of each other among the non-Malays, something easily overshadowed by the more overt racism against them. But having a common enemy – in this case the in-power Malays – works for them too. The enemy of my enemy is my friend.

We must accept that racism is more widespread than just among Malay politicians. Even in many countries that have tried hard to banish racism, success has often been incremental and at times reversed. What about us who never really had the will to truly tackle it?

Is it a forgone conclusion then that we’re on a path towards being a failed nation driven by racial conflict? - FMT

TO BE CONTINUED

Part 1 : A new political era, or another false dawn?

The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of FMT.