Why we haven’t thrown that slipper
By Helen Ang, CPI
Ordinary people whose paths may never have crossed that of our political ruling class are surprisingly resilient. Their preoccupation is with putting food on the table, not politics or patriotism. Making a living for their family keeps them thoroughly absorbed, and in any case, their orbits do not intersect with the bottom band of the heap – the hopeless and helpless who are sadly unable to cope.
Last December, an Iraqi TV reporter threw his shoes at then American president George Bush with the message: “This is for the widows and orphans and all those killed in Iraq.”
Muntadhar al-Zaidi said his anger at Bush was “because of the unjust condition that we [were] living in”. The man showed the courage of his conviction. After all, he didn’t know if the President’s bodyguards would not have pulled their gun on him, Muntadhar later revealed when he was released after serving nine months in prison.
On Monday, Malaysian police shot dead five Indian youths. Pro-tem secretary-general of the Human Rights Party Malaysia, P. Uthayakumar has characterized the shooting as “summary executions”.
One of the young men who died in the hail of police bullets was R. Surendran. The deceased’s sister Seetha drank poison in grief as she was very close to her brother. She wanted to die.
The Befrienders, an NGO counselling the depressed and suicidal have outreach programmes specifically targeted at the isolated communities living in oil palm and rubber plantations. Poor Indian estate workers have a high risk to suicide.
Four underlying factors are identified as driving a person to suicide – a sense of hopelessness, a feeling of helplessness, unbearable emotional pain, and alienation. These affect the Tamil underclass the most.
This is the segment of Malaysian society in such despair that they do not even find life worth living, and compared with other Malaysians are more susceptible to taking their own lives.
Wither our national aspirations
One part of the American the Declaration of Independence says: “We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
In Malaysia, some dark-skinned men are deliberately made to be less equal than others. Malaysian authorities who shoot to kill do not believe that ‘suspected criminals’ possess any unalienable right to life, never mind the too hopeful “pursuit of happiness”.
Successive BN governments have not addressed the root problem of the Indian community’s chronic socio-economic ills – why the gangsterism and involvement in criminal activities. It’s not just Indians who are neglected with no opportunity for social mobility; the itinerant pirated DVD seller – almost always Chinese – is also on the wrong side of the law.
Then there are those described by the phrase ‘tiao feiji’ which literally translates into “jump from aeroplane”, referring to Chinese that parachute into a Western country and disappear underground to work without permit.
Despite the risk and insecurity as illegals, this blue-collar group still bails out of Malaysia. White-collar skilled workers take the safer route of following proper emigration procedures.
Nonetheless, for some professionals capitalizing on a quirky loophole, the emigration process nonetheless went awry. A month ago, the wire agency AFP reported on a little-known legal clause that allowed Malaysians, born before 1983 in former crown colonies Penang and Malacca to invoke British Overseas Citizenship (BOC).
A few hundred BOC aspirants obtained British nationality in 1980s and 1990s before the tightening of UK immigration laws left about a thousand applicants post-2002 stranded and stateless. Some Malays reacted to the ‘in limbo’ predicament of these ex-Malaysians (who have cut up their passports) with no uncertain ‘padan muka dia orang’ schadenfreude.
Condition of our own making
“I’m not a hero,” Muntadhar had explained, “but when I saw the war criminal Bush, I wanted to show my resentment – after six years of occupation, this killer came to my country smiling and bragging about victory.”
Recently in September, an MIC member wanted a garland of slippers to be placed on the smiling portrait of former Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad at the PWTC.
The unrepentant Muntadhar gave the reason for his action: “I am a person with a stance. I saw my country burning.”
The MIC member M.Sukumaran decided after his suspension from the party to tender a personal apology for the slippers suggestion. “I regret having uttered those words, I regret it very much. I sincerely hope Tun Dr Mahathir will accept my apology,” he stated.
Hindraf chairman P. Waythamoorthy, who is brother to Uthayakumar, shared his thoughts on why Mahathir appeared to merely shrug off the incident. He said the ex-PM was accused of doing nothing for Indians during his 22-year premiership, and being a realist, Mahathir does not expect Indians to be grateful to him.
“So, if any Indian insults him, he knows that he has to just grin and take it,” commented Waythamoorthy. “In fact, he’s probably surprised deep down that he has not been insulted at all so far …”
Mahathir has unerringly kept himself on top of the game. He similarly knows that the leaders of the minority communities have always kissed his feet. And they lick his toes too.
Ordinary people whose paths may never have crossed that of our political ruling class are surprisingly resilient. Their preoccupation is with putting food on the table, not politics or patriotism. Making a living for their family keeps them thoroughly absorbed, and in any case, their orbits do not intersect with the bottom band of the heap – the hopeless and helpless who are sadly unable to cope.
Racial reality on the ground
I believe Hindraf’s Uthayakumar is genuine in the outrage that he feels for Indians suffering “the most serious violation of human rights”. Below are some notes that I took when he and I had a casual chat back in late August.
Uthayakumar said that even as a young boy, he had observed how police abused their powers. He believes underlying the Malaysian malaise of indifference is that “people want to be politically correct”.
Guilty of the sin of political incorrectness Malaysian-style, Uthayakumar is blamed by his detractors for championing only the cause of the Indians. His rebuttal is that Indians gunned down in cold blood is not “a majoritarian” cause that the usually passive Malaysians have any passion for. Furthermore, Indians are deemed “unpressworthy”.
“I wouldn’t waste time on them, convincing the non-Indians and the Indian elites. I’ve given up (trying to do so)”.
He elaborated: “I don’t want to mince my words. I don’t want to be hypocritical. (I don’t deny) I focus on Indian issues.”
Uthayakumar is not of the view that there is “people-to-people racism”. But he is of the belief that “Umno, they are the main propeller of racist policies in this country.”
He brought up the sorry state of Tamil schools that “look like cowsheds” where the “PTAs must buy their own chairs and tables”. He compared them with the Maktab Rendah Sains Mara which he said was “99 percent Malays”. I could add that a single chair in one of those MRSMs had cost RM1,050.
“What’s wrong with Malaysia?!” Uthayakumar asked. “State-orchestrated racism must come to an end.”
The destitute in our midst will not go away any time soon. Unfortunately, those who are better off are unable to get into the frame of mind of the ones really badly off. Thus they fail to understand why marginalized Malaysians are incapable of pulling themselves up by the bootstraps unless given a helping hand.
For this to happen, like Uthayakumar has postulated, racist policies must go. They may one day when Malaysians in the burning country feel the flames of injustice creeping closer to home.
Then more men might be willing to walk in Muntadhar’s size 10 shoes and follow in his striding footsteps.
