Raging battle for Malaysia’s heart and soul

 

I’m exactly the same age as the old Malaya. We’re both products of 1957, which everybody agrees was a very good year indeed. That entitles me to be critical of Malaya, just as I’m critical of myself. We’re bros of the same vintage after all.

I’m of course older than Malaysia, which is a mere child of 61 years, still wet behind the ears, still stumbling along as children often do while growing up. I certainly feel even more entitled to be critical of this young upstart!

In the life of nation states, 61 years does not amount to a lot. The USA has existed for 248 years. Japan and the UK are even older. Even Thailand, too.

There are younger countries, of course. Russia, in its current incarnation, is merely decades old, as with its adversary Ukraine, and many countries in eastern Europe, Central Asia and the Balkans.

Nation states are more than just a matter of geography, but the culmination of a state of mind that results in the formation of a political entity, usually accompanied by some form of paperwork by way of constitutions, declarations, agreements, etc.

MA63 and all that

We certainly have such paperwork, especially the famous Malaysia Agreement 1963, or MA63, behind the creation of Malaysia.

I don’t remember learning about MA63 in school. It’s ironic that while many of us oldies are proud of the old school syllabus being very international, we ignore the fact that it failed to educate us much about our own nation.

The pendulum has swung wildly to the opposite side since. Our schools now are focused almost solely on Malaysia and peddle any tale or invention that idle minds can concoct to score political points and salve insecure egos. But that’s a story for another day.

Malaysia certainly had a contested beginning, with its neighbours being disagreeable – in Indonesia’s case, violently so during the 

Konfrontasi

 period – about the right of the new federation to exist.

But the disagreements were sorted out over time. Most of us have never known of any other political entity covering this expanse of geography other than Malaysia, such that we can even be accused perhaps of taking things for granted.

East vs West

There’s a battle raging for the heart and soul of Malaysia.

Even from the very beginning, East and West Malaysia were not a natural fit, hence the reason some of our neighbours felt they had a better claim on the Bornean side of Malaysia then 

us

 on the peninsula side.

Much of this lack of fit was glossed over in the early days, mostly by a strong Kuala Lumpur that forced Sabah and Sarawak to meekly accept their lot as mere states of the federation, and not as the intended equal partners.

That obviously couldn’t last. I find it ironic to read recently about Dr Mahathir Mohamad, our two-time ex-prime minister, arguing about the need of his latest set of friends – states run by the federal opposition – to fight against overreaching federal powers on economic matters.

If there’s an architect, contractor, inspector and cheerleader to such federal overreach, it’s the good doctor himself.

Art of the possible

Economics will always be an issue. Here, it’s taken on a bigger dimension because of the bountiful harvest of oil and gas off the coasts of East Malaysia, with the bulk of the proceeds going – unfairly perhaps – into the federal coffers.

Similar progress has been made on the peninsula side, but certainly not enough to appease the people of Sabah and Sarawak. Meeting all their demands will have a huge impact on federal powers, though, and right now Putrajaya isn’t ready to countenance that.

I’m sure that, Malaysians being Malaysians, we’ll reach some level of (un)happy compromises we all can live with. That’s what politics is all about after all – the art of the possible according to the famous Bismarckian dictum.

Malaysian leaders have always taken things close to the brink then pulling back before going over the precipice. We’ve lived with a potentially explosive situation of multi-ethnic communities and numerous faiths coexisting uneasily, with occasional flare-ups, but we’ve never gone over the edge – so far, anyway.

Toxic politics

But present-day national politics has, unfortunately, descended to a new level of toxicity, driven by racial issues increasingly being cloaked by religion. This trend, if unchecked, will take us into scary uncharted territory.

Our old politics of live and let live has now become a politics of absolutes. We are less concerned, perhaps even unconcerned, about the paperwork (constitutions, agreements, etc) than about what we claim to be absolute certainties of what God wants.

Politicians, especially those from right-wing Malay politics, have seized on Islam as a supreme political tool. But don’t be misled by their rhetoric. This is all about temporal political power to control a populace by keeping them scared and cowed through religion.

Many nations have been down this road before – from the god-kings of Egypt to the Holy Roman Empire to the mullah-run Iran and, I would argue, the pseudo-democracy of Israel today – where religions and politics have co-mingled.

There was a time when this arrangement worked, when people were willing to accept their lot in life according to the diktat of some powerful figures such as monarchs, clergy, or even prime ministers.

But it’s strange to see us in Malaysia in such a state, especially when we see many other Muslim-majority nations, such as our cousins, the Indonesian,s and even the Middle-Eastern absolute monarchies, becoming a little bit more liberal over time.

Tolerance vs conservatism

Certainly, we know that what works in the conservative states in Peninsular Malaysia will not work in the more diverse East Malaysian states, whose people, including Muslims, are much more tolerant of each other’s rights and beliefs.

Being tolerant also means they aren’t easily cowed into thinking they must take sides based on ethnicity and religion. This makes East Malaysians both very inconvenient and very problematic to much of peninsula politics.

The people of East Malaysia themselves know this, and are getting to be quite resentful, arising from the unfair economic sharing of wealth as well as the encroachment of 

Semenanjung

 politics and culture.

Where will this take us? Certainly, down uncharted paths. I have a feeling the East Malaysians will push back hard against whatever they perceive as violations of their rights.

I also have a feeling the religious right in West Malaysia will also at some point accept that East Malaysia is too big to swallow, and that they’d just rather focus on consolidating their powers in the peninsula.

Take nothing for granted

Will this lead to a breakup of the federation? I don’t know, and I certainly don’t want that, as I love being in a Malaysia that encompasses so much variety and diversity, especially the kind that an ocean’s worth of separation can create.

And I’ve always believed the pragmatic nature of Malaysians means we’ll stop at the brink of the abyss and pull back.

But you can’t take anything for granted. To be 61 can be viewed as being very young compared to the centuries-long existence of other nations, but also as being almost decrepit and senile, in other terms.

I don’t expect those who feel they’re only accountable to God to care about this.

But for the rest of us, let’s remember that we’re citizens in one of the most beautiful and lucky countries on earth. It’s not perfect by any means, and its current trajectory is worrying, but we’ve shown we can sort things out in our own uniquely Malaysian way.

Let’s celebrate this birthday. Let’s remember our rights and responsibilities, and let’s rededicate ourselves to making sure our future isn’t dictated by others for whom the notion of Malaysia is very different from what the paperwork says.

Happy Birthday, Malaysia.

 - FMT

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