Obama, Palestinians, Mao, Chinese, PAS, My Grandfather.
I am going to take a few of my usual leaps of logic here.
The Malaysian Chinese enthusiasm for Obama is a new phenomenon in the sense of enthusiasm for a Negro. Not too long ago, most of our Chinese never looked at Negros with anything more than disdain. This is despite the fact that there are many similarities with the struggles of our Malaysian Chinese with the struggles of the Negros.
The Negros were discriminated against and oppressed. The white press constantly misrepresented them as undesirable elements and both the police and the justice system abused them. Underneath it all, there was the seldom mentioned thinking (except by white supremacists) that everyone was better off if they returned to Africa. Here the similarities ended. The Negros are mostly poor with the exception of a few filthy rich ones while most of the Chinese are rich with the exception of a few filthy poor ones. The Chinese looked at the Negros with the coloured lenses of the rich looking at the poor, hence the disdain. At any rate the Chinese could always afford to pay a few ringgit in bribes to get off small offences or a few hundreds of millions in under table money for lucrative contracts.
Everything changed with Obama. Not only was Obama rich, he is going to be the next president of the US. But despite it all, underneath it all, it is not so much enthusiasm for Obama but enthusiasm for the whites who could act bravely and decisively to elect a black president. Underneath it all, it was support and vindication for the whites who could pull off this coup, a leap of logic of electing a black president for the US.
It is the same with the Palestinian struggle. In spite of many similarities of the Palestinian struggle with the struggle of the Malaysian Chinese against daylight robbery, abuse and marginalization, our Malaysian Chinese cannot bring themselves to look at the Palestinians with anything more than disdain. This is because the Palestinians are dirt poor and they have no Palestinian Obama. More than that, the Palestinians look as if they are prone to violence, which make ALL rich people scared stiff.
It is not as if Chinese in general cannot overcome this rich – poor divide. Mao and Chou Enlai both came from rich families, yet they were able to form alliances with the poor Chinese peasants to create great history together. Together, they changed the fate of China and maybe even the fate of the world.
Malaysian Chinese however have not learnt to overcome this rich – poor divide. The last GE showed great promise, but will it last? From past record, it looks unpromising. During the Emergency, the Malaysian Chinese communists trumpeted Mao’s strategy of “surrounding the cities from the countryside”, but were unable to forge alliances with the rural poor of Malaya.
Today, it looks like Malaysian history is going to repeat itself. Malaysian Chinese are looking down with disdain at PAS which mainly represents the rural poor. Chauvinism, culture and religion are insurmountable obstacles to any meaningful alliance. Will the Malaysian Chinese have the guts and the wisdom to change Malaysian history or will the obstacles be too great? That in the end, it is back to being kiasu and kiasi? Back into the embrace of UMNO?
Will the Chinese keep calling upon the Malays to do an “Obama” by electing a Chinese to be PM? Or will the Chinese take their own fate into their own hands and forge a strong and exciting if “dangerous” alliance with PAS? Will the Chinese keep constantly grumbling and let people like RPK and DSAI take all the beating, battering, law suits and ISA detentions? Or will they be brave and decisive in kicking out UMNO by allying with PAS and PKR?
I must end with an apology for making the above leaps of logic. I think it is usual for old people to view things conventional, boring and “stick in the mud” conservative as real logic while anything new and exciting is viewed with disdain as leaps of logic or twisted logic. I learnt this much from long, pleasant, but somewhat boring childhood talks with my dear grandfather a long time ago.
By batsman
