Last week’s juicy story was the apparent shunning of the Gerakan party by PAS, the senior partner of the Perikatan Nasional coalition they’re both members of. This happened at a PAS ceramah in Penang. The president of Gerakan was kicked out from the event by a PAS official, an incident captured on video and shared widely.
I was struck by a sudden realisation – Gerakan still exists? I thought it had been put out of its misery and disappeared along with the VHS videotapes and SMS messages long ago.
Gerakan was a big name in Penang for decades and had a few long-serving chief ministers. They had always been the junior partner of the other coalition – Barisan Nasional – but at least they had a state all to themselves.
What a turn of events indeed – to be kicked out while in your home state. How the mighty have fallen.
Tokenism at the top
Chinese entities, mostly businesses, often place a Malay person as a figurehead or a token to show the spirit of muhibbah, or Malaysia Boleh or the New Economic Policy, or whatever was politically-correct at the time.
Now it’s a Malay entity, PAS, and presumably its kindred spirit Bersatu, that has a Chinese person as a figurehead, or token, so they can shout about their own inclusiveness and Malaysianness.
The difference is that when a Malay comes in as a chairman or board member or some fancy figurehead position, he’s paid well, given lots of face and unctuously respected as if he’s the best thing since roti telur.
Every other Malay would look at him (it’s mostly him) with envy and aspire to work hard and grow up to be a token Malay too, one day, to be feted and rewarded and envied by all across the land.
But in politics, there’s no such cushy job though. The poor Gerakan president, who’s also supposedly a big guy in the PN coalition, was unceremoniously kicked out by a guy who, probably like me, had thought Gerakan doesn’t exist any more.
I doubt the Gerakan president is envied and admired by the Chinese community either. But at least his humiliation reminded a few people, myself included, that the Gerakan party still exists, albeit on the fringe and at the margins of our politics.
In respect of the 3R’s
Meanwhile, Ismail Sabri Yaakob, apparently an ex-prime minister of Malaysia (now who remembers all of our prime ministers? There are so many of them, including repeats) resurfaced recently.
He spoke to defend the freedom of speech, which he felt would be jeopardised by the passing of laws to protect the 3R’s of sensitive issues – race, religion and royalty, or in his case, the 3BUR – Bangsa, Ugama dan Raja.
I had hoped he was standing up for the original set of 3Rs – ‘Reading, ‘Riting and ‘Rithmatics, skills which appear to be disappearing from our schools, to be replaced by 3Rs of a different kind – Rote learning, Religious curriculums and Racial segregation. Definitely not an improvement.
I agree with ex-PM (or so they say) Ismail Sabri on this. We have enough laws in the country. Seditious speeches or actions can be controlled by any of the old favourites – the Penal Code, Sosma and assorted Emergency Ordinances.
Race has always been a core issue with Malaysians. It shouldn’t be, but since it is, maybe the trick is to get people to talk about it until they’re blue in the face after which everybody will move on to some more useful discussions.
Religion also has enough laws to protect it, from the Constitution down to, apparently, the copyrights and trademark laws to protect sensitive words as well as to determine in which parts of the country such words can or cannot be used.
Majestic power play
As for the royalty, nobody loves their royalty like the Brits, who pay them hundreds of millions of pounds every year so their royals don’t have to dirty their hands by working like us common people.
Yet this love is also tempered by a willingness to subject the royals to scrutiny, criticism and even ridicule. If politicians can withstand these, I think the royals can too.
I’m not surprised this proposal comes from the Pakatan Harapan government, especially the part about protecting the royals. They often make the silly case that their government was appointed by the king, and implies going against the government is going against the king.
The reality is all governments came about through the usual political machinations and horse trading. The king did his part to break the last political impasse, and while officially it is “his” government, he didn’t do anything extra-constitutional to cause them to exist.
I see this more about suppressing criticisms about the current government by turning it into a lese majeste offence. It shouldn’t be allowed to happen, and if it takes an ex PM (or so they say) to say so, so be it.
A true Malaysian
Finally, there’s a name much bandied about nowadays – Tun Dr Ismail Abdul Rahman, a deputy prime minister who died in office long ago, hence never making it to the top job.
In all recounting he comes across as a true Malaysian, one of high integrity and decency, who lived the ideals upon which Malaysia was founded. Many rue the lost opportunities due to his untimely demise.
It warms the heart to hear about such a person, but it also makes one sad to know how things have changed. Tun Dr Ismail certainly didn’t look like somebody who’d allow himself to be a token, or allow himself to be kicked around. - FMT
The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of MMKtT.
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