When one speaks of social order, it is usually because one is concerned about social issues, and what the characteristics of a “good” society are.
Most importantly, any conversation about a just social order cannot be divorced from the responsible role of politics, government, public intellectuals and other leaders in society.
In Malaysia, there have been evil individuals who cannot stop stirring up divisive racial sentiments to disrupt social order. Worse still, some of the very consistent vocal individuals are advanced in age (old), very experienced and supposedly “mature”.
Yet they insist on spreading false, exaggerated and illogical ideas. They are dishonest people because it is obvious how they have manipulated facts and history for personal reasons.
What is even worse, they strive to influence narrow-minded bigots who do not read widely. The latter live to flatter others for their own selfish reasons, so they are a willing audience.
Many Malaysians are fed up. Out of respect though, we who are fed up choose not to embarrass these individuals too much, mainly due to their advanced age, but also because it would be useless.
We want to move forward
They will not change. We just give them the token media attention. Some of us have also decided to “just ignore, because the rash will eventually disappear.”
More seriously though, many of us want to move forward with reforms and give the current government a chance to do so. After all, reforming a country which has taken a brutal battering, economically and politically, needs patience and encouragement.
And the people have decided to give Anwar Ibrahim and his government that chance.
The people also chose to reject the rubbish deliberately spewed to divide our otherwise, harmonious society. We want to focus on rebuilding our lives which were disrupted during the pandemic.
We want to focus on our jobs and families, growing our savings again, and just plain living.
When racist individuals decide to create social unrest, they often have nothing to lose. For one, they are already quite wealthy, they have a comfy financial cushion. They probably do not care much about the economic or financial repercussions of their unkind words.
Second, they have all the time in the world to think up ways to manipulate the people’s minds, using their silly logic, to provoke simple-minded Malaysians into believing them.
Third (and this is the most important point), despite May 13 1969, these irresponsible racists choose to ignore history.
Furthermore, it is common knowledge that violent religious and ethnic-related events in Malaysia’s history have oftentimes been manipulated by leaders themselves.
Official records of a few “sensitive incidents” in the nation’s past have also been classified and not open to public scrutiny.
Whenever the issues of racial harmony, ethnic diversity and living in peaceful co-existence come up, the narrative is always one-sided. The tendency is to depict “society” or the people as the yelling, irresponsible, hot-headed, keris-waving, chest-beating instigators of racial and religious disharmony.
Below is a quote taken from one of Syed Hussein Alatas’s articles. It is about the phenomenon of “flattery”. The article is a critique of Asian social science research, and although the article’s theme is different from my piece, it applies:
“Several years ago, in New Delhi, during a conference, I suggested to a good friend, a leading Indian sociologist, that we start a new branch of inquiry urgently needed in Asia.
“In an outwardly hilarious mood but inwardly serious, over a cup of coffee at the cafeteria, I suggested calling this sub-discipline creepology - that is from creeping and crawling, the abject phenomenon of flattery.
“I had started drawing up a classification of concepts around the core phenomenon such as creepoactive, creepogenic, creepant, creepomania and creepophobia. The creepo syndrome can be further analysed and classified into types, such as the feline type or the canine type.
“The feline type is the quiet soothing flatterer (creepant) while the canine type is the noisy, obtrusive, highly active, tail wagging, jumping and ticking, and last but not least, drooling.
“When the creepo syndrome became pervasive amongst those in power, it has significant effects on the well-being of government and the nation.”
I guess the racists in our society have unknowingly been contributing to this fictitious academic discipline, creepology. All the racist nonsense falsely spread by political opportunists, describes the “Creepo Syndrome” so entrenched in our society.
Before every election cycle, there is creepomania. One individual starts spewing hate speech and others will follow. They flatter the “top creep” for political expedience.
The “Malays are threatened by foreigners” chant reflects the tiresome creepomania that every patriotic, compassionate and hardworking Malaysian is disgusted by.
How long must we tolerate this?
Our political and social order is full of creepants, both of the feline and canine type. These creepants deliberately alter the consciousness of the masses, for their own ambitions.
There are opportunists everywhere who aspire to do Creepology. They would do anything to flatter and be flattered - for power, fame and wealth.
All Malaysians should develop creepophobia if we are truly committed to nation-building.
Creepants are dangerous for the country, not to mention, evil and destructive to social order. They should be banished. - Mkini
SHARIFAH MUNIRAH ALATAS is a retired academician with zero tolerance for corrupt, arrogant, and frivolous leadership.
The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of MMKtT.
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