Plan needed to phase out racial, religious, regional parties

 

Sometimes the nation feels like a sick patient whose symptoms get treated from time to time without the root cause ever getting tackled. I certainly have been feeling deja vu in the last few weeks with the same old conversations that should have been put to bed decades ago continuing to crop up.

Can a non-Malay become PM? Should there be quotas for Tamil speakers in cabinet? Can you consider yourself a loyal Malaysian if you are not culturally assimilated with the majority race and language?

Are Malays and Muslims - who form the majority in Malaysia and occupy almost all critical roles - under threat from minorities who are vastly outnumbered and have almost no such positions to speak of?

Honestly, these are foolish questions to be debating as the answers are self-evident and yet here we are, nearly seven decades after independence, going around in circles while others are forging ahead.

I had to stifle a sigh when Community Communication Department (J-Kom) deputy director-general Ismail Yusop urged the federal government to launch a national movement aimed at promoting the Malaysia Madani concept and agenda.

He proposed that the initiative be implemented through a comprehensive national education and training programme to enhance public understanding of the Madani concept and said that instead of viewing Malaysia Madani through a narrow political lens, it should be seen as an idea for the future direction of the nation that belongs to all parties.

I’m tired of this façade. Let’s be honest about the fault lines in our society. The key issue is that we allowed our political and education systems to divide us in terms of race, religion, region, and language.

This is something I wrote about in my first political column back in 1998 and even though for the first time, the prime minister is now from a multiracial party rather than a race-based one, change is occurring far too slowly.

As long as the narrative and discourse are determined by ethnic champions, we are doomed. Look at the main opposition coalition of PAS and Bersatu plugging away at our unity by harping on the rights and privileges of one group.

And instead of firmly rebutting this repugnant line, the ruling government seems to want to pander and placate backwards thinking as well.

I’ve argued and questioned over the years, with such leaders as Lim Kit Siang, Karpal Singh, Syed Husin Ali, Azalina Othman Said, and the current prime minister himself, that what is needed is to force Malaysian political parties to reorganise around ideology and not race, religion, or region.

For example, if the Pakatan Harapan parties DAP, PKR, and Amanah were to merge into a single entity, that would give them a chance to re-brand for the future instead of being weighed down by the baggage of the past.

The fear is that you will lose some ground during such a transition and that is why no one wants to budge an inch. But ultimately, it is what is needed when it comes to the dream of a united Malaysia. At the moment, it’s more like… dream on.

I honestly believe that what we need is legislation, on the advice of the Council of Rulers, that a deadline (for example 2027 or 2030) should be set, following which such divisive political parties will no longer be allowed to operate.

The formula of Umno+MCA+MIC+Sabah and Sarawak parties is woefully outdated and yet persists in lengthy dying throes.

Similarly, our education system needs to be brought closer and eventually integrated in such a way as to build on the strengths of the individual linguistic systems. I believe that as long as the current system persists, Malaysians will continue to be raised in opposition to one other.

Diverse leaders

Going back to the early niggling debates that I mentioned. Of course, a non-Malay should be allowed to lead the country.

The fact that some are trying to reserve these positions based on race speaks volumes to their extraordinary insecurity and just how mainstreamed racism and religious chauvinism have become.

Look at South and Central America where leaders of Asian and Middle-Eastern descent climbed to the top office in Peru (Alberto Fujimori), Guyana (Cheddi Jagan), Argentina (Carlos Menem), and El Salvador (Nayib Bukele). How about Barrack Obama in the US?

Right now in the UK, Rishi Sunak is the prime minister, Humza Yousaf is the first minister of Scotland, and Sadiq Khan is the mayor of London, while over in neighbouring Ireland, Leo Varadkar is leader. It hasn’t destroyed those countries to have leaders of South Asian descent, so why such protectionism on our shores?

This cuts both ways too. Why must there be strict minority quotas such as the number of Tamil speakers in cabinet? Surely the push should be for meritocracy instead of each charlatan banging their own drum and singing a different tune?

Right now, quotas, cronyism, and glass ceilings are winning the day in Malaysia. Do we have to wait until the whole nation crumbles before changing this?

As for Malays and Islam being under threat… that’s an untenable narrative when the group is so numerically dominant and the direction of our demographics indicates it is getting larger all the time.

I don’t understand a group that demands the right to dominate, secures that right, and yet is scared of its own shadow.

A federation with Islam as the official religion is where we are at, and that’s fine. The imposition of an Islamic state modelled after Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, or other such nations, is imposed on all Malaysians regardless of religious faith… that’s not fine. Not with me.

And you know who is actually under threat? The 13 Orang Asli groups in Semanjung Malaysia with tiny populations numbering in the hundreds or a few thousand. Their beliefs and cultures are on the verge of extinction under our apartheid system.

There are many questions and issues we need to tackle, and those are not the ones raised by redundant old racists like the former prime minister who did more than anyone else to shape the nation in its current form. - Mkini

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MARTIN VENGADESAN is an associate editor at Malaysiakini.