Say ‘tak nak’ to all things ciplak
By John Lee (The Malaysian Insider)
We’re a ciplak nation, cobbled together from a melting pot of different ethnic groups, languages, religions, and cultures. There has never ever been a strong, meaningful sense of belonging to one Malaysian nation.
AUG 21 – Recently, over dinner with a good friend, I was asked to write a column about the word “ciplak.” For those not fortunate enough to speak the beautiful language that is Manglish, “ciplak” connotes a cheap, lousy imitation of some original and better product.
Although initially taken aback, I took up the challenge. It turns out it’s easy to write about ciplak, because we are a ciplak nation, with a ciplak government and a ciplak economy.
We’ve been talking about nation-building for over five decades, and we’re still talking about it. Read a book from thirty years ago; regardless of which side the writer is on – establishment or radical – the problems then were exactly the same as they are today.
Whatever they may involve – race, development, education, freedom – we still ask ourselves the same questions today.
We’re a ciplak nation, cobbled together from a melting pot of different ethnic groups, languages, religions, and cultures. There has never ever been a strong, meaningful sense of belonging to one Malaysian nation.
We pretend to be a nation, but we’re still, as the euphemism goes, nation-building.
Likewise, we possess a ciplak government. We adopt the outward show of governance, but we’re a nation of anarcho-feudalists. Good governments administer the nation for the benefit of their people; our ciplak government administers the nation for the benefit of the people in the government.
If you’re somebody, or know someone who knows somebody, you can virtually get away with murder; raw power prevails over the law.
Our economy, too, is ciplak. The government’s policies promote a handful of government-linked corporations over virtually all else. There is little breathing room for genuine enterprise and genuine entrepreneurship; to get AirAsia off the ground, Tony Fernandes had to practically grovel before Dr Mahathir.
We may have the appearance of doing business, but a lot of business is just about cutting illicit deals with those in power. Our only world-class corporation is Petronas, and that’s because it literally collects money oozing out of the ground.
We can go on for quite a long while about the ciplakness of our country. After all, it’s not like we even properly choose our overlords; we have a ciplak democracy as well. You don’t actually get to publicly draw attention to issues which matter to you; often, you don’t even get to hear from the people who are asking for your vote.
And it’s not a genuine democracy if you can’t make an informed decision.
Our education system is pretty ciplak, too. We put teachers and students in classrooms, but it’s not clear how much knowledge is being transferred, nor is it clear how much curiosity or drive for learning is actually instilled in our schools.
We have the appearance of schooling, but as someone wrote over three decades ago, it’s not much different from herding cattle into buildings for seven hours a day.
Our legal system is – you guessed it – ciplak. As one Member of Parliament noted on this very website recently, you can’t even count on the cops to protect you, or him, from petty theft.
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