The Malay proletariat

By Raja Petra Kamarudin On Dec 9, 2013

To come back to the present, this is why the recent demonisation of communism and socialism as represented by Parti Sosialis Malaysia is not so much about their basic arguments towards a fairer society, but because of them ignoring the racial angle so dear to the current dispensation.

Kapil Sethi, The Malay Mail

For a country where communism, and socialism to a lesser degree, are pretty much equal to the word terrorism, it is not surprising that the head of police feels compelled to threaten a columnist with seditious tendencies for an article that infers that there are double standards in who gets into trouble for being a follower of communism.

But something strange is at work here. To illustrate, take this as a layman’s definition of why communism or socialism came about. Society is unjust because the rich will never willingly help the poor, therefore we need to find a way to force the rich to help the poor. Or, in the words of Malcolm X: “You show me a capitalist, and I’ll show you a bloodsucker”.

Now substitute “rich” and “capitalist” with Chinese, and “poor” with Malay, and you have the whole rationale of official government policy in Malaysia. So, Society is unjust because the Chinese will never willingly help the Malays, therefore we need to find a way to force the Chinese to help the Malays. Or, “You show me a Chinese, and I’ll show you a bloodsucker”.

In one stroke redistributive justice between economic classes as the cornerstone of socialism is turned into redistributive justice between races as the cornerstone of Malaysian policy. It also justifies affirmative action for the majority by equating the class notion of poor into a racial notion of poor. Poor people are Malays and the rich Chinese, changing what was essentially a definition of economic class into one sweeping racial generalisation.

Half a century ago, there were merits to this argument. By casting the argument in these terms, it allowed the powers that be to disavow the nasty elements of communist dogma such as revolution and the overthrow of religion as a part of the political construct. It also co-opted the basic redistributive aims of socialism into a Malaysianised racial construct under the ambit of official policy allowing for capitalism and a market economy to become the sole preferred option for the country. It allowed the government to go after the communists, appease the capitalist classes and reassure the largely poor Malays to believe that their emancipation would come through a government formulating policy that would be primarily concerned with their uplift.

Especially after the results of the last general election, there is a marked shift away from 1 Malaysia to a Ketuanan Melayu stance. Even the normally inclusive Youth minister was quoted as asking for the private sector to appoint more Malay CEOs, in the wake of Malay Petronas contractors, Malay advertising agency chiefs and the ever willing Perkasa’s calls for all kinds of props for the Malays.

The anachronism is not so much in that these overtly racial preferences are gaining currency among the ruling coalition, but that they are being propagated by and largely for the Malay elites. As always, it is the proletariat or working classes of all races that will have to deal with the post-election round of fuel, electricity and sales tax increases.

In the face of an increasingly complex globalised world, the challenge is not so much as to which race gets what, but whether the economic cake in the future will be big enough for the poor to get any help at all. The current state of the education system and the obsession with quotas of all kinds offers a vision of society that is hell bent on squabbling over the present with scant regard for an increasingly difficult future.

Market Socialism as exemplified by the Chinese experiment in theory offers an elegant combination of redistributive justice in a capitalist context that is worthy of analysis. That going down the path of race-based redistribution has not worked for Malaysia is evident to all but the most ardent Umno supporters. Malays are still the majority of the poor and the least exposed to world-class education, offering an even dimmer picture for their future.

The struggle to becoming an egalitarian developed country living in social harmony can only begin if the focus shifts from racial preferences to breaking down the disparities between economic classes by lowering the GINI co-efficient.

Helping the poor to uplift themselves just because they are poor and not because of their race is not the equivalent of a communist revolution. It is still the majority race that will benefit the most. The greater good needs to be redefined from the Malay good to the good of the economically disadvantaged. A more cohesive society will be the result of an inclusive approach to the welfare of the poor, not because of the formation of a token council on national unity.

Socialism is not the problem defining Malaysia today, official racism is.