A Malay Dilemma: Just Who is Threatening Whom?
Just when, if at all, were the Malays under threat? Did they once assume a precarious posture?
Raggie Jessy
I’m not sure if anyone can shake hands with me on the mood prevalent at the just concluded UMNO General Assembly. It seemed antagonistic, with speakers seeking retribution almost with a vengeance. That is to say, there seemed to be an undercurrent of despair that gripped speakers. To them, the Malays were precarious. They were under threat.
But the eloquence evinced by some was obscured by a lack of substance. While many an orator turned hypnotist, the source of the threat was never addressed in a manner that could do justice to a battered Chinese. Yet, the apparent threat seemed serious enough to warrant concern by every other speaker who appeared to troll along like lines. It seemed more of a conjured paranoia than it was a legitimate suspicion. And the road from legitimate suspicion to rampant paranoia is a short one indeed.
As Najib spoke, his shoe got onto the other foot. He made an about turn on a pledge, much to the chagrin of moderates and leftist extremists who were banking on the abrogation of a law they deemed draconian. Najib should have known better than to change horses in the middle of the stream.
But then, it isn’t the Chinese that concerns UMNO these days. At least, I do not think so. From where I stand, UMNO ceded supremacy not by design, but as a consequence to years of complacency and preponderance that has it paying the price through its nose. But UMNO wants to stop the buck right here, right now. They’ve decided that it wouldn’t make political sense to fawn upon a race that goes balmy over anything UMNO to it. It’s survival we’re talking about, and UMNO sees red over an apparent Chinese revolt.
Yes. The opposition made headway with high-flown agendas since before GE12. They struck a chord or two with a sizeable Malay and Chinese representation, comprising those purportedly willing to go fifty-fifty on the pretext of solidarity. And to survive, UMNO couldn’t afford to play pucks on thin ice with a race they haven’t a glimmer of a hope of being contingent to for votes. No. But they would need Malay moderates and leftists to reassess their fidelity to a supremacy that once was.
This is precisely why delegates seemed anxiously susceptible to more repressive measures in dealing with an apparent threat to the Malays and privileges accorded to them. In essence, delegates were amenable to radical propositions by hardliner politicians. To them, the Malays were under attack.
So, were the Malays ever under threat? Were special privileges accorded to them ever challenged? Are they being threatened as we speak?
But the bigger question is really one that concerns timelines. Just when, if at all, were the Malays under threat? Did they once assume a precarious posture?
To properly adduce elements to these threats is to deliberate on controversial frames of reference without fear or favour. So let us comb through select pages in history while making sense of political causality within racial paradigms. We have to be careful not to stumble at a straw, and in the process, leap a block.
1. Early Challenges – Mahathir and Lee Kwan Yew
Much of what I’m about to say has been addressed periodically in past articles. But first, let us travel back to the time Singapore and Malaysia conformed to a federacy that crumbled almost as fast as it was constituted.
Formed almost a decade apart, both the PAP (People’s Action Party, Singapore) and UMNO (United Malays National Organization) convened on a rather indeterminate and equivocal platform against British dominion and communist insurgencies. This gradually advanced into an alliance, when Singapore was accommodated as a territory within the Federation of Malaysia in 1963. Back then, both Tengku Abdul Rahman and Lee Kwan Yew met halfway on Bahasa Malaysia, which saw to its unimpeachable position above the salt.
But Lee Kwan Yew was never considered member to the Four Hundred. No. At any rate, Kwan Yew and PAP were perceived to be double-dealing schemers, who weren’t the least bit bothered with the order of eminence accorded to the Malays and the national language. The notion was accentuated on the May 25, 1965, by none other than Dr. Mahathir himself.
In his address to the August House, Mahathir was known to have said, “When it is examined carefully, it will be found that the PAP has retained a hold mainly over matters which will affect the Chinese and their chauvinist ideas. National language is one of those things which tend to create disaffection among China-orientated Chinese. Playing to chauvinist ideas, the PAP retained multi-lingualism, while paying lip-service to the national language. The target date for accepting the National language is ignored by the PAP.”
Now, though Mahathir was right, he did draw a bead on the Chinese as well, rather than zeroing in on Kwan Yew. Thus, UMNO’s younger echelon was critical of the Chinese, who merely resonated with a leadership (Kwan Yew and the PAP) that dialled Malaysia for chauvinism. And ironically, it was a Federal dominated Peninsula that had accommodated Singapore, and not the other way around.
Mahathir went further by saying, “In some police stations (in Singapore), Chinese is the official language, and statements are taken in Chinese. The impression this creates among non-Singapore Malaysians is that they are in China rather than in Malaysia.” Frankly, Mahathir was spot on. But that’s far from my point.
Mahathir, then a Member of Parliament representing Kota Setar, further remarked in his Parliamentary address that the PAP was a discerning and sophisticated communal based party which was positively anti-Malay, despite using the non-communal label.
Mahathir is known to have attacked Lee Kwan Yew in parliament by saying, “They have never known Malay rule and cannot bear the idea that the people they have kept so long under their heels should now be in a position to rule them.”
At this juncture, I’ll just say that Kwan Yew was indeed somewhat of a thick-skulled Machiavellian. Blaming him would have been right on the money. But instead, blame was allotted to both Kwan Yew and the Chinese just six years post-independence. And while the Government censured the Chinese, very little was done to underscore requisites towards nation building, which goes beyond a fairer partake of the economic pie by the races.
You see, the acclimatization of any race one may regard to be alien, in any country, involves piecemeal changes that may span generations. And where there is no patience, there will be no virtue. By hurling insults at Singaporean Chinese, UMNO may have heedlessly sparked dissent among post-independence Chinese liberalists and communalists who, largely uneducated, could have ratiocinated repressive circumstances looming in the horizon.
2. Enter Lim Kit Siang
PAP staunchly opposed the concept of Malay special rights and deemed attempts to help Malays as racist, advocating only to economics of merit. A reluctant MCA feared PAP to comprise of radicals, and sought to hamper attempts of a PAP inclusion.
Tengku was the least pleased with PAP, which persisted on racial overtones. Tensions mounted as Singapore’s PAP encroached issues deemed sensitive to the native Peninsula Malays, particularly with its ‘Malaysian Malaysia’ slogan. By terms of an implicit confederacy between Parti Perikatan (now BN) and PAP, neither one party was to contest in each other’s territory. But relations went to pot with PAP’s contest of federal parliamentary seats and UMNO’s determination to contest seats in Singapore.
The crisis matured, with Kwan Yew and Tengku fending off on irreconcilable stances. But not many from within and abroad had a glimmer of an idea to an impending split within the Federation on August 9, 1965. A writer and reporter, young Kit Siang was to do a routine coverage (on behalf of the Ministry of Culture’s Press Section, Singapore) of proceedings at the Malaysian Parliament on the fateful day, when Tengku showed Singapore the exit door. Judging from an apparent predisposition in favour of alternatives, the bitter episode could have sparked the dissenting rebel in him.
The outcome of the UMNO-PAP episode served as a report card of sorts to the aspiring politician who would emerge with a brand of politics that paralleled Lee Kwan Yew’s. That is to say, Kit Siang was to take the bite off UMNO’s chain of command in due time. Well, that’s how I see it.
3. The Rise of a Cancer – Kit Siang
Back in 1965, Kit Siang had attended the Afro Asian Peoples Solidarity Organization (AAPSO) which convened in Ghana from the 9th to the 16th of May, wherein Malaysia was a participant in addressing Jakarta’s international campaign against herself. It was there that the later encountered Devan Nair (again), who went on to become Singapore’s third president. Devan led the Singaporean delegation, despite having won the Bangsar constituency seat in 1964 on a PAP ticket.
Devan later invited Kit Siang to be his political secretary, recognizing his Malaysian heritage and inclination to hold his own. Devan had stayed on to form the Democratic Action Party (DAP) following Singapore’s exit from Malaysia in 1965. It was on Lee Kwan Yew’s persistence that Devan returned to Singapore.
In 1981, Lee Kwan Yew was quoted to have said, “the (Singaporean) Cabinet decided that Singapore-Malaysia relations would always be bedevilled if Devan Nair remained a DAP leader. I persuaded him to come back.” This in and by itself underscores a surreptitious collusion between PAP and DAP.
DAP was formally registered on the 18th of March, 1966. Lim Kit Siang served as its National Organizing Secretary from 1966 to 1969, before taking over the reins as Secretary General in 1969.
Kit Siang arguably established a standing in public eye following a DAP-Gerakan cultural debate that was held at the MARA Auditorium on the November 24, 1968. With Syed Naquib Alatas representing Gerakan, Kit Siang set off to defend his position against the exclusive use of the Malay language in Malaysian literature.
Put differently, the Malay language was under attack once more by proxy. Kit Siang had circuitously questioned the need for a sovereign nation to develop its cultural identity by enforcing the use of its national language (and heritage) for literary purposes. The way I see it, it was Kwan Yew’s shadow cast all the way from Singapore that did the talking, 11 years post-independence.
4. The Real Attack on the Malays
Kit Siang had publicly contested the eminence accorded to Bahasa Kebangsaan. By doing this, he invigorated a generation of post-independence Chinese with the fear and resentment once triggered off by Kwan Yew. He was rewriting Chinese articles of faith, so to speak.
The 1968 Serdang state by-election marked Kit Siang’s second rendezvous with rival Gerakan; its president, Lim Chong Eu, seemed to have an across-the-board base among heavyweights and the electorate; Gerakan had MTUC president Yeoh Teck Chye, Syet Hussein Alatas, and Tan Chee Khoon (Labour Party) as staunch loyalists. Kit Siang and his accomplices were neither established nor seasoned in the political arena.
Following is an excerpt of Kit Siang’s statement on the November 28, 1968:
“The Serdang State by-election is a test for the cause of multi-racialism and a Malaysian Malaysia. Since independence, the forces of racialism and cultural and language chauvinism, as represented by the Alliance, and lately by the Gerakan as enunciated by its cultural expert, Dr. Syed Naguib Alatas, have dominated Malaysian political life.”
He went further by saying, “This is why with every passing year, there is growing national division – because of the various races, cultures and languages do not feel that they have a equal stake in Malaysian nation, where there is no economic and political equality, cultural and language liberty, and social justice.”
Kit Siang began accusing Parti Perikatan (and UMNO) of pre-election collusions in striking DAP off the radar. He left no stone unturned when it came to slander and bewitcheries, having his audience believe that it was Gandhi who first discovered dinosaurs. And he resorted to public incrimination of adversaries by serving the Chinese dishes seasoned with applesauce.
It does not really matter if Kit Siang was right or otherwise. What matters, is that he got the Chinese high up on a pedestal that obfuscated the truth beneath. To the Chinese, Malaysia was bereft of economic, political, cultural and language equality and liberty. Read between the lines, and one will comprehend exactly how and why Kit Siang got the Chinese vexed. That is to say, Kit Siang got the Chinese to fathom an apparent attack on their liberties by attacking the Malays and the national language.
Be that as it may, UMNO hardly took time off to elucidate credos that governed nation building from a Malaysian perspective. They failed in that department, because they were too complacent to prognosticate a revolt that was to come. Instead, inter-racial discourses on the subject matter was deemed taboo and out of bounds. This led panic-stricken Malays to believe that their rights would be usurped by a growing menace to their heritage, their birthright. The Chinese were blamed for their chauvinist ideas, while the perpetrator kept hammering in communalism with every breath it took to estrange the Chinese from the Malays.
You see, the government never did sink their teeth into the cause back then. They merely addressed the symptoms. That is to say, they blamed the Chinese as a race, instead of zeroing in on the big fish, who had a pivotal role in estranging the Chinese from the Malays. In the process, racial riots erupted, with both factions accusing each other of treachery.
5. Are the Malays as yet Precarious?
There just are that many pages in history for us to deal with, so we’ll get back to the here and now to compare circumstances. But first, let us dwell on the subject of sedition.
When Najib made an about turn on his pledge at the UMNO General Assembly, he seemed to be at sea, while his rostrum was in the puddle. As far as I understand it, promulgations pertaining to Parliamentary Acts should reflect a consensus by the Cabinet, and be made in Parliament. Thus far, I’ve admired Najib for arbitrating on an all-inclusive and representative platform. Apparently, things have changed.
By making the declaration on a party podium, Najib had sounded the drumhead and reciprocated on a wager Kit Siang had placed in 1968. This isn’t a persecution complex or paranoia we’re talking about, but a stark reality. With Chinese bashing setting the tone even in the commonplace prose, UMNO set the cat among the pigeons. They took a risk that needed to be taken. It’s a game of survival, and UMNO needed to remind moderates and extremists over the fence of a time that once was, where they reigned supreme among a cluster of sectarian cliques.
So, were the Malays under threat in recent times? Was the status of the national language being challenged once more?
Not that I know of.
Granted, DAP has been raving on Islamic issues for a while now. But they’ve been in cahoots with PAS and PKR, who see eye to eye with Kit Siang on the Allah issue. Now, we can’t pigeonhole the Chinese over that bone of contention, can we? If anything, the Malays have been a threat to themselves. That is to say, UMNO Malays are being threatened by the moderation and liberalism personified by PKR Malays and the extremism salient among PAS advocates.
Anwar was right on the dot when he questioned UMNO over the proclaimed threat against the Malays. But what he failed to say was that persons like him were the real threat to the Malays.
PKR is over the hill. They’re done for. And yet, they’re playing pucks with the government on thin ice. Najib needed to capitalize on the uncertainty by tugging on moderates and extremists who had once ditched UMNO in frustration, hoping that they’d reciprocate the gesture by pointing daggers at Anwar and Hadi. That is to say, UMNO needs to remain relevant. And to remain relevant, UMNO needs a Malay dominated legion in its favour.
To do this, UMNO appears to have drawn a bead on the Chinese once again, the way they did in 1968. Ironically, the Chinese under MCA and Gerakan were hardly a legion worthy to be considered provocative. Though inherently communalistic, they never did question the Malays in any manner one could deem to be seditious. Not until Kit Siang swooshed by in 2008 and yanked the rug right from under their feet, showing them just how green the grass could get beyond the yonder.
This time around, it wasn’t just complacency, but preponderance on UMNO’s part that led to the 2008 debacle. And just as in 1968, very little is being done to underscore requisites towards nation building, which goes beyond a fairer partake of the economic pie by the races. UMNO never made an attempt to address these concerns then, and they aren’t doing so now.
Effectively, UMNO is punishing the Chinese for making a democratic choice of representation. That is to say, the Chinese are paying the price for ditching MCA and Gerakan due to negligence on the part of BN. Withal, UMNO now seeks to close ranks with Malay moderates and leftists, groups that are being led to believe that they’re under attack. But the Chinese aren’t attacking the Malays any more than the Malay moderates and leftists are. And the Malay moderates and leftists are a legion within the opposition front.
And yet again, Kit Siang gets scot free. He does, because UMNO is working on the symptom rather than the cause. As much as I hate to admit all of this to be plausible, it is. And like reality, plausibility is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn’t go away.
