Deconstructing the Perfect Man
KTEMOC KONSIDERS
Dr Azly Rahman, an academician who holds all sorts of mind-boggling degrees and sometimes writes for Malaysiakini, once propounded that the wayang kulit display of the Ramayana epic or the makyong is a form of neo-feudalistic indoctrination, the type that Hang Tuah suffered from and which Jebat gave two fingers to.
In his article for Malaysiakini Neo-feudalism of the cybernetic Malays he wrote:
In many an analysis of the transformation of the Malay society from the times of the Melaka Sultanate to the emergence of the Malay nationalism we find the conclusion of the idea of a good Malay subject is one who surrenders total obedience to his or her Ruler (the sultan or the Raja). The king is said to be ‘(Allah’s) representative on this earth’ and is thus bestowed with the Divine Rights.
Modernizing it even further, can we say “the idea of a good Malaysian subject is one who surrenders total obedience to his or her political leader (the PM, MB or party leader)”?
Blogger Sakmongkol (Dato’ Mohd Ariff Sabri bin Hj Abdul Aziz) alluded to the modernized ‘expectations’ in a certain way in his post hutang UMNO pada budi orang Melayu.
Azly Rahman proceeded on to say:
But the problem lies not in the here and now but in the past; one that needs to be de-constructed and reconstructed. It lies in the Malay psyche. It lies in the notion of hegemony as it relates to political-economy of totalitarianism and controlling interests that continue to cement the master-slave narrative/relationship of the ruler and the ruled.
That master-slave narrative has become a technology of psycholinguistic control and institutionalised as ‘culture’. The Portuguese, Dutch, Japanese, and British colonialists succeeded because the fertile ground of the slave mentality is already prepared historical- materialistically.
We can see this mentality in the idea that Malay political leader must not be challenged (such as in case of the presidency of the Umno) and this is a manifestation of this neo- feudalism hypermodern inner construct of the Malay in the Age of Cybernetics.
Wakakaka, I know I know, good olde Azly Rahman has been notable for using frightening words in his essays that makes you wonder whether your education has been an utter failure, or you’re an intellectual pygmy, or you’re suffering from ataxaphasia, or perhaps you have just overeaten more than your share of pulut-nasi-lemak-cum-banana-santan-curry-ish literature. You suffer hours or even days of slow literary digestion.
Anyway, 500 years of such historical indoctrination have shown that Azly Rahman has been correct, in that Malays in general (& not excluding many other Malaysians) have inherited such a slave mentality or, in its modern and extreme form, slavish adoration of political leaders.
Substitute the word ‘UMNO’ with ‘PKR’ and we have the same stuff, that to PKR members, Anwar Ibrahim must not be challenged, because (to paraphrase Azly’s finding) “the idea of a good PKR member is one who surrenders total obedience to the Great One”.
Thus, except for many of those former members who left in utter disgust or were expelled for bucking the ‘inner coterie’, PKR members never ever question Anwar on, for example:
