The race face changing

This past week, we have seen what was previously unimaginable: a Minister in the Cabinet calling former Prime Minister Tun Mahathir Mohamad a “bloody racist,” and denouncing ketuanan Melayu as ridiculous.

By John Lee, The Malaysian Insider

Virtually overnight, ketuanan Melayu has become a dirty word in Malaysian politics. It was not so long ago that — as mad as the idea of racial supremacy may be — a politician could get away with denouncing the rights of other Malaysians.

And I think it is clear that March 8 is responsible.

Let’s review what things were like before March 8. We had the annual spectacle of politicians lining up at the Umno general assembly, ready to call for the blood of other races and proclaim the supremacy of their own. Members of Parliament casually told fellow MPs “kalau you tak suka, you boleh keluar dari Malaysia!”

A funny thing happened on the way to Barisan Nasional’s next election victory: the rakyat rejected their oft-stated policies of discrimination and division.

For all this talk about Pakatan Rakyat being a marriage of convenience, it is worth recalling still that they have more in common with one another than Barisan did at its inception. Each and every Pakatan component party denounced ketuanan Melayu and denounced racism in the run-up to the 2008 election — that is really at the heart of what Pakatan is about.

Defenders of ketuanan Melayu love to cite the Malay rulers as the embodiment of this belief in racial supremacy. But curiously, last year the Sultan of Selangor, Sultan Sharafuddin Idris Shah, told the press that “Malaysia belongs to all races, not just the Malays.”

Our previous Yang di-Pertuan Agong, the Raja of Perlis Tuanku Syed Sirajuddin Putra Syed Jamalullail told a seminar organised by the infamous Biro Tata Negara (BTN) earlier this year: “In Malaysia, every race is tuan.” It appears that the only option left open for ketuanan Melayu cheerleaders like Utusan Malaysia is to brand these rulers as traitors to their own race.

After he rejoined politics, Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim announced to the world that Parti Keadilan Rakyat stands for ketuanan rakyat, not ketuanan Melayu.

His is the first Malay-dominated party to have adopted such an open and liberal stand — even Datuk Onn Ja’afar was quick to spurn non-racial politics once he realised that he had no chance against Umno and the Alliance.

And PKR is not alone; since even before the general election, PAS was denouncing ketuanan Melayu as unjust and unIslamic.

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