Going in circles - who can save us from ourselves?

 

It was with some amusement and much gratitude that I attended the Malaysian Press Institute awards last week and walked away with the top prize in the ‘Best Columnist/Feature Writing’ category.

For a start, I actually feel like I have been going through a period of prolonged writer’s block as a columnist. I try to avoid repeating myself too often and yet it does feel like I have said it all before.

The win was for such columns as ‘When your friends don’t know they’re racists’ and ‘Marhaen, kayangan and the infuriating minimum wage debate’.

As proud as I am of them, it is tough to deny the notion that I am flogging a dead horse as I have been writing about these very same issues since my earliest days as a columnist.

Indeed, while I started off writing about music and the arts for The Star in 1996, I couldn’t resist speaking up during Reformasi and penned two hard-hitting pieces.

One was a plea to end the dominance (and legality) of race-based, religion-based, and regional political parties and to evaluate whether vernacular schools were dividing the country.

The former included a call to end the first-past-the-post system which was then so favourable to the authoritarian BN leadership and didn’t give much room for emerging movements to take hold.

While my articles in 1998 made tiny ripples, the primary effect was to trigger a response from the group chief editor.

“Tell Martin to stick to music,” came the order from on high.

I wasn’t too surprised really. After all, that media was owned by a political party with interests contrary to the views I had expressed.

I was 25 then, and 50 now, but even though the Reformasi icon is occupying the position then held by the race-baiting dictator, we are still stuck facing many of the same issues.

What’s dividing us

Ultimately, our political and education structures divide us. When you have ethnic champions and religious zealots shaping the narrative, a narrow view develops.

Each group of people is told that their god, their mother tongue, their skin tone, and/or their geographical region somehow make them greater than the rest.

Despite very little evidence, it becomes an important part of the identity of many.

That’s why some friends, who have enjoyed special privileges through Umno’s race-baiting, habitually take potshots at a multi-racial party like PKR. That’s why a few vernacular school buddies are so threatened by something as innocuous as the Sekolah Wawasan concept.

It seems like most of us recognise there is a problem and want some sort of change but everyone is scared to surrender an inch, and that’s why the country goes around in circles.

The political leaders who need to stand up and show leadership are mostly those who have gained their position through the short-sighted championing of one community at the expense of others.

So is there an end to this quagmire?

Well, we have seen the benefits, for example, of anti-hopping law giving us stability.

Is it even possible that we could target a certain date - say 2027 - following which all parties cannot be formed on the basis of race, religion, or region?

Maybe 2037 to have an integrated education system?

That would not provide an immediate end to generations of toxic divide but it would be a start.

Yes. I know the obvious impediment is that you can’t expect these leaders to act against their interests - but who can we turn to if the rakyat won’t sweep these leaders aside?

Who is going to see the bigger picture and drag us kicking and screaming into the future?

I know it’s a pipe dream, but surely a better tomorrow begins with yesterday’s dream? - Mkini

---

Martin Vengadesan is an associate editor at Malaysiakini.